Resources
New To Club?
Everyone has been where you are at somewhere along the way. Even our lifelong club members started out in their first year once upon a time. Though it may seem complex read through this page for an in depth explanation on everything regarding club volleyball!
For any common questions about EVA policies, philosophy, and guidelines please visit our FAQ page.
What is Club Volleyball?
Club volleyball at Empowered is an experience that last roughly from December through May. The team you are on will determine just how long your team plays and practices, but the bulk of the season starts after the New Year.
In our club program you will be placed on a team after tryouts and this team will have its assigned practice times and will be signed up for certain tournaments. You will have anywhere from 2-4 practices per week and will have tournaments every other weekend or so throughout the spring.
PRACTICES
General
Depending on what team you are on, you will have 2-4 practices per week. Your team will have its assigned practice times and those will be listed on our practice schedule page.
Practices run in two-hour blocks (typically either 5-7pm or 7-9pm). On some days, 30 minutes of this time will consist of performance training with the Parkview Sports Medicine staff. The kids will go upstairs to the weight room and work on strength and conditioning. The rest of that time will be on court. During this time they will be working on things with their team, playing through situational drills, or scrimmaging with other teams. They could also be split into positional groups.
Positional
We will occasionally run positional segments where the kids will practice in groups based on their position. This allows them to work on position-specific skills guided by our master coaches.
Beach
Once a week your team will have practice on the sand instead of being indoors. They will go through more beach-specific drills with our coaches and get beneficial exposure to the game in a broader sense. For more information on why we train on the beach too, please look at our beach section of the website.
TOURNAMENTS
Waves - when you will be playing
There are typically two different waves of play for tournaments. Sometimes there could be just one depending on the number of teams competing, but generally there is a morning wave and an afternoon wave. This means that you matches will all be, or at least primarily be, in either the morning or the afternoon. Typical start times for the morning waves are around 8am or 9am and the afternoon waves typically start around 2pm or 3pm.
Play Schedule - play, sit, ref, challenge matches, etc.
During tournaments you will always be doing one of three things: playing, reffing, or sitting. Here's a quick overview of each:
Playing - you will typically play 3 matches a day at all tournaments. The last day of the tournament you are guaranteed 2 matches but because of the usual bracket style of play you may not get more than that.
Reffing - while you are not playing you may be required to ref another match. This is one of the responsibilities all teams have during tournaments. A portion of the team will be required to fill the reffing duties and will be supervised by the coach.
Sitting - you may not have to play or ref for a short period of time too. In this case, you are free to rest, refuel, and prepare for the rest of the tournament. You may have a little time to go watch another team play too! The most important thing is that you are aware of when you next play or ref and that you are back on your court when you need to be.
Challenge Matches - one common misunderstanding and forgotten about events are these challenge matches. They usually occur at the end of your wave or even after it finishes. Sometimes they could be a few hours after your last match. Be sure you know if you are playing in a challenge match so you don't miss it. These matches serve as further filters for who makes the top brackets.
Overall, you MUST make sure you know what your schedule is each day. You need to be aware of when you play and when you ref. You cannot leave until your team has completed all of it's responsibilities, especially reffing. Your coach should be on top of this and you can communicate with them about any scheduling questions.
Finding your schedule
Every tournament Empowered plays in, will have their schedule hosted on Advanced Event Systems (AES) online! You can go to their website www.advancedeventsystems.com to find yours for the upcoming weekend.
Step by step instructions:
1) Go to www.advancedeventsystems.com
2) In the filter bar search for your upcoming event name (i.e. "2020 Adidas Bluegrass Tournament" or even just a partial name)
3) Make sure you select the proper age group and/or division from the list of events
4) Once at your selected event's page, if the schedules have been posted you will see a link near the top left saying "Schedules & Results". This link will open up all possible schedules for every age and division at the tournament.
NOTE: if the "Schedules & Results" link is not there it is very likely the schedules have not been posted yet.
5) From here you will be able to find your team either by selecting their division or by find your team under the "Clubs" tab. If you click this tab a list will populate and you can select Empowered Volleyball Academy. This will show all of our teams that will be present at this event and if you select yours you will find your schedule.
**AES also has an app you get on your mobile devices. The process is nearly identical on it as well.
Travel - where you will be playing
Where you will end up traveling to is dependent on what age, team, and level you play at. But generally, you will have some tournaments here in Fort Wayne and the rest will be located within a few hours of Fort Wayne. All tournament schedules are located here.
Some big Fort Wayne tournaments include the MLK Challenge and the President's Day Smackfest. All of our teams will be in these two tournaments. For those teams we put in the Smack Power Series (usually Red, White, Navy), some weekends you will be in town and won't have to travel.
When you travel outside of Fort Wayne for tournaments you could end up going to places like Muncie, Angola, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, Detroit, and more! It's always fun to see some new places during club season!
Hotels - stay the night
Because tournaments are almost always multiple day events you will have the option to get a hotel close by to limit the back and forth travel. We do our best to get room blocks at certain hotels for tournaments. You are free to utilize these room blocks or find your own arrangements.
Be aware, there are a few tournaments that may require all participants to stay in certain hotels. These tournaments have made deals with the local hotels usually due to the massive size of the tournaments and thus require you to stay in the designated hotels. In these situations we will make sure you are aware of and knowledgeable of all relevant details.
Divisions - Open, Club, Patriot, Classic, and more
We register our teams for tournaments based on level of play. There are certain divisions that designate higher levels of play, with Open Level universally being the top division. Whether it's for Power Leagues, bigger tournaments, or Nationals, we will place your team in a level that should allow them to succeed!