(1) The biggest change is ONLINE REGISTRATION! We're hoping the majority of our members will take advantage of the ease and price advantage ($5 discount) to register online this season. You can register NOW even if you do not know which team or club you will play with. We can update that info in your record later. This way everyone can be registered well before the season (and juniors can have sanctioned tryouts if everyone is registered ahead of time!). Details of the registration system are elsewhere in this newsletter.
(2) Rules - The main change with the rules is the actual name of the book! The FIVB (the international governing body for volleyball) is the only authorized organization to "write" the rules of volleyball. So, they informed USAV that they could not produce a "rule book" since USAV tends to modify some rules for safety and legal reasons. Federations are allowed to modify the rules for their individual country's situations, so USAV is now calling our book the "Domestic Competition Regulations". We will use the FIVB rule unless their is a section underneath that rule beginning with "USAV:" For a .pdf file with a description of all 2005/2006 Rule Changes, visit this page.
(3) Pool Formats-the adult pools and tournament structure have not changed, so the tournaments should go as they have in previous seasons. Juniors have had some slight changes. All pool play will continue to be 2-out-of-3 sets starting at zero (sets is same thing as games but FIVB calls them sets in rule book so we will too to be consistent). We will continue to use the modified 5-team pool format BUT the 5th seeded team will now play everyone in the pool (instead of the 3rd seeded team). This should allow a better chance for teams to earn their way into the playoffs (since a tie between teams that didn't play each other would be broken with a one game playoff). The argument of whether 3-1 is better than 2-1 shouldn't be as prevalent (if the 5th seeded team goes 3-1, they deserve the playoff spot!)
(4) Adult Club Status - For the 2005/2006 season, all adult teams will be considered part of the same club for Club Player Movement purposes. So, all teams will be able to borrow players using the Club Player Movement policy if they need to pick up players for a tournament (the policy still must be followed strictly and a Club Player Movement Form must be turned in with the roster). This policy does not affect teams from same area affiliating as a club for registration or practice reasons (i.e. teams can still affiliate as Wake County, Piedmont, Toolbox, etc. in the registration system. It just means that they aren't limited to those teams only when using Club Movement). Rosters will still freeze (no additions or moves) two weeks before the Regional Championships. The Unaffiliated Player List and Day of Tournament Pickup policy will also still be implemented this season.