AAU Wave 2 Schedule Released

[GrowingTheGame14]

results.advancedeventsystems.com/event/PTAwMDAwMzY0NDU90/home

They remained consistent with the 8 team pools in 15 & 17 open, even though 15 open had only 48 teams. The slight difference in their schedule is top four advance from pools. Seeding does play a big part in that division because some 2 seeds will get a bye into the crossover brackets where other 2 seeds not only have to play in, but will play in with a 1 seed.

[Deleted]

Seeding this year (just like last year, pretty immaculate)

There’s really only ever 3 or 4 teams TRULY capable of winning that national championship, and 1-4 in the open divisions are all spot on

Best of luck to those teams!

[azvb]

I’m trying to remember the specifics, but my son said clubs, coaches, parents are ticked off. AAU promised one wave, no July 4 dates when clubs were looking to leave USA tourney. AAU kept their promise until this year. So Southern Cal will start hosting a National tourney next year.

Do I have those facts correct?

[wilbur]

Jun 27, 2024 19:52:55 GMT -5 azvb said:

I’m trying to remember the specifics, but my son said clubs, coaches, parents are ticked off. AAU promised one wave, no July 4 dates when clubs were looking to leave USA tourney. AAU kept their promise until this year. So Southern Cal will start hosting a National tourney next year.

Do I have those facts correct?

semi correct... I am not sure that "promised" is correct... but they did mention those 2 things as selling points among other things when they rolled out Orlando AAUs in 2022.


Last year they finished the last day on July 4th. That is un avoidable with the model they run which sets dates based on school years ending and stacking 2 full weeks with multiple waves of girls before the boys. in 2022 the calendar worked out but some years it won't, and it never will if they run 2 waves.

The second wave is necessary because the club sport has grown so much and the participation has more or less doubled since 2022. So unless they turn away teams (not gonna happen for many good reasons) we are stuck with 2 waves. I suppose they could try to pull it off in one wave but it would be nuts to do that many teams, they currently seem to run around 800 max per wave for girls and last years boys was ~1000 teams but it was very dense.

I have not heard the rumor of a national tourney in Socal or hosted by Socal but maybe that is the plan. It would be a huge undertaking and I don't think they would get all of the teams to come out west, maybe if they have it somewhere else like Vegas or one of the traditional USAV cities.


I do recall hearing a rumor that the AAU agreement/contract drafted in 2021/22 with Socal teams was for a 3 year Orlando location so maybe they will adjust it if Socal Cup organization is ready to really go big and play a big role helping AAU. They seem to be improving on the big events they are running, the last showcase was 600+ teams. that would be nice if they could move it up and overlap with the girls in Orlando and avoid July 4th.

[GrowingTheGame14]

Jun 27, 2024 20:25:27 GMT -5 wilbur said:

Jun 27, 2024 19:52:55 GMT -5 azvb said:

I’m trying to remember the specifics, but my son said clubs, coaches, parents are ticked off. AAU promised one wave, no July 4 dates when clubs were looking to leave USA tourney. AAU kept their promise until this year. So Southern Cal will start hosting a National tourney next year.

Do I have those facts correct?

semi correct... I am not sure that "promised" is correct... but they did mention those 2 things as selling points among other things when they rolled out Orlando AAUs in 2022.


Last year they finished the last day on July 4th. That is un avoidable with the model they run which sets dates based on school years ending and stacking 2 full weeks with multiple waves of girls before the boys. in 2022 the calendar worked out but some years it won't, and it never will if they run 2 waves.

The second wave is necessary because the club sport has grown so much and the participation has more or less doubled since 2022. So unless they turn away teams (not gonna happen for many good reasons) we are stuck with 2 waves. I suppose they could try to pull it off in one wave but it would be nuts to do that many teams, they currently seem to run around 800 max per wave for girls and last years boys was ~1000 teams but it was very dense.

I have not heard the rumor of a national tourney in Socal or hosted by Socal but maybe that is the plan. It would be a huge undertaking and I don't think they would get all of the teams to come out west, maybe if they have it somewhere else like Vegas or one of the traditional USAV cities.


I do recall hearing a rumor that the AAU agreement/contract drafted in 2021/22 with Socal teams was for a 3 year Orlando location so maybe they will adjust it if Socal Cup organization is ready to really go big and play a big role helping AAU. They seem to be improving on the big events they are running, the last showcase was 600+ teams. that would be nice if they could move it up and overlap with the girls in Orlando and avoid July 4th.

I think schedule is what it is. A national tournament for boys club any earlier than it is would not be the most beneficial. I mean 90% of these teams are playing high school. The showcase is two weeks after many HS seasons conclude. For all teams to be able to have a national experience the only time most clubs could get in for at least two weeks of training would have been this previous weekend (6/22-23). A lot state championships are in June.

You either have to keep nationals where it is or hot take, boys club goes mid fall to Presidents’ Day and it’s done. Nationals over Presidents’ Day.

The SoCal cup rumor was discredited by a very respected director out in the west coast when I asked them a few weeks ago. I trust him that the SoCal Cup doesn’t really have a plan.

I believe there is frustration in the club world from everywhere, but it’s a good frustration. A lot of parties are trying to be pleased and at least the AAU, JVA, and other people involved are listening to the clubs to try to make the best experience for all. Something the USAV didn’t really do. But to your point, the sport and talent of the sport has skyrocketed especially after COVID and for anyone managing that growth for a national event is difficult. WHO would have predicted nationals has doubled since the Kansas City nationals?

I would be shocked if the AAU agrees to moving the event. All of their resources are there. Being someone who has worked on the internal side of the AAU during nationals, them separating the largest event and their national staff would be something they would not want to do. A lot of things go into play in that event. The AAU runs the largest event for nearly every sport out there in Orlando. Only events they relocate each year are the JOs for Track and Field and a couple of basketball events.

Plus Orlando is easy to travel to. I get the weather isn’t ideal in Orlando when you live in perfect weather (because let’s be real SoCal has incredible summer weather) but MCO is easy to travel to. Come to the Midwest during the summer, it’s just as hot and not nearly as much to do.

I am an advocate that sometime in the fall all the clubs meet in person, or at least next year plan something at nationals so directors can talk. Easier said than done, but I think everyone getting on the same page is a positive move.

[rcski77]

Jun 27, 2024 20:25:27 GMT -5 wilbur said:

The second wave is necessary because the club sport has grown so much and the participation has more or less doubled since 2022. So unless they turn away teams (not gonna happen for many good reasons) we are stuck with 2 waves. I suppose they could try to pull it off in one wave but it would be nuts to do that many teams, they currently seem to run around 800 max per wave for girls and last years boys was ~1000 teams but it was very dense.

Max for the girls was just over 1700 teams in wave 1, but that's dependent on the West building being available. There were 252 courts in wave 1 and 152 in waves 2-4, less for boys because some of the courts get reconfigured and made bigger (longer serving area) for the older age groups.

The West building's availability seems to shuffle around, sometimes they have it for wave 1 and other years it's available for the final waves instead.

[gofaster88]

I think the West building is where they run a dance convention (National) so that is probably why it isn't always available.

[weakfreakaleak]

We all talk about the inability to shift further up in the summer to accommodate the growth of boys volleyball and avoiding the 4th. But why haven't we considered shifting back 2 weeks into mid July. This would also open our sport up for more multi sport athletes because we could have a legitimate summer season. The clubs with initiative could play in 2 quality tournaments before nationals at the least. This would also make the commitment prior to nationals not as much of a gauntlet for all the states sponsoring boys volleyball.

[couchanalyst]

I'm not certain pushing it back further into July is a great idea. We have HS volleyball, and wave 2 ends on 7/7 now, the top club in our region is holding tryouts already on 7/15 with some others trying to do tryouts immediately after wave 2! The practices for the fall club season will pick up full steam around 3rd of 4th week in August and most likely the coach will give some workouts for their teams after that 7/15.

We keep talking about the pro-players getting abused with busy schedules from VNL/FIVB, but the kids barely get 4 weeks off during the whole year with maybe few weeks off during Christmas. I think keeping the tournament over the 4th is worth it, if that's required to keep some semblance of time off.

[GrowingTheGame14]

Jun 28, 2024 9:30:37 GMT -5 couchanalyst said:

I'm not certain pushing it back further into July is a great idea. We have HS volleyball, and wave 2 ends on 7/7 now, the top club in our region is holding tryouts already on 7/15 with some others trying to do tryouts immediately after wave 2! The practices for the fall club season will pick up full steam around 3rd of 4th week in August and most likely the coach will give some workouts for their teams after that 7/15.

We keep talking about the pro-players getting abused with busy schedules from VNL/FIVB, but the kids barely get 4 weeks off during the whole year with maybe few weeks off during Christmas. I think keeping the tournament over the 4th is worth it, if that's required to keep some semblance of time off.

This is spot on. About 3 years ago we switched to summer tryouts for a few reasons. We started growing significantly (Academy of Indy) and our competitors kept moving tryouts up and up.. This was when tryouts were in the middle of september. To counter them, we would have open gyms in August. So not only did I feel we weren't giving any break for these guys away from volleyball but they could not compete in fall sports or be active contributors in tryouts. 

So now we run tryouts the last week of July every year and we shut down any training until October. These guys get a full two months away from volleyball, still some what of a summer break, and allows us as an administration to have a plan for over 30 teams on the boys side. 

The only way to get off the fourth is if they move the tournament out of Orlando. Which if they do, limits the amount of quality events teams can go to prior to nationals. Our teams played in two events this year and it worked out great. Some went to SoCal, others went to Chicago, and then we hosted a relatively competitive power pool tournament the following weekend. Gave most teams at least a week off from competition and others nearly two before Nationals. 

[gofaster88]

School starts 7/22 in parts of AZ, if moved to middle of July these kids would have no shot of getting a break. As tryouts for clubs is second weekend of August. There is no family time as it is since they have to be around for practices.

[gtrich]

Couple of other things that haven't been mentioned. Historically, mid to late July was when USAV did High Performance and Beach Nationals. So USAV had to get Indoor done around the 4th, so the indoor boys could move to HP/NTDP and Beach.
The other thing is cost. The longer you extend the season, the higher the fees are going to be for the boys for practice gyms and coaches times. The way things are today, most clubs are done by the 1st week of July. If you move this to the end of July, you just added another month of club fees.

[theinsider4545]

I would love to see nationals over president’s day weekend in February or move just 18U to those dates so the future college kids can enjoy their last summer before college.

[couchanalyst]

I guess the format for next year has been confirmed for 15-18 with a limited field of 48 teams in Open and a list of qualification criteria.

[azvb]

Is there seeding or ranking of these teams somewhere?