2015 Youth Festival Participants:
The 5th Annual Southern Youth Festival is upon us, and we are working hard to ensure
that it is a fun and memorable tournament for everyone who attends.
This summary contains a significant amount of information about the tournament and
takes the place of a coaches meeting, so please review closely. Though there is no
coaches meeting, we request that coaches or team representatives check in with us at
the tournament desk to pick up their rosters and complete a housing form if the team is
traveling from out of town.
A NOTE ABOUT WAVES, POOLS AND INITIAL PAIRINGS:
Since the majority of participating teams are from the Southern Region, seeding
followed the SRVA rankings dated 3/13/15 very closely. Out-of-region teams were
seeded as fairly as we could. We did manipulate some of the pairings to keep teams
from playing other teams from within their own club, sister club or region during pool
play when possible.
Please note that, with few exceptions, all of which are noted, first-round losers will play
a consolation match. Let’s make this the year that 100% of the teams know that their
day is not over just because they lost their first match and completed their reffing
assignment on Sunday.
The schedule will be posted on advancedeventsystems.com (“AES”) the Tuesday or
Wednesday prior to the tournament. Results will be updated on the website in real
time.
VENUES
The tournament has grown, so will be played at three venues this year:
 Southern Volleyball Center, the tournament’s home base (“SVC”)
 SSA/Cobb in Woodstock, GA (“SSA”)
 Peachtree City Volleyball Center (“PCVC”)
MATCH FORMAT
Except where expressly posted to the contrary, matches will be the standard best two
out of three sets, the first two sets being played to 25 points; a tiebreaker, if required,
will be played to 15. All sets must be won by two points with no limitation.
COMPETITION PROTOCOL
14 Power – a.m. wave – SSA courts 1 & 2
There are seven teams entered in the 14 Power division. They will be organized into
one pool of four and one pool of three teams. Matches within the three-team pool will
be three sets to 25 points irrespective of the results of the first two sets.
The results of pool play will be used to seed the Championship Bracket, to which all
teams advance. First-round losers on Sunday will play in a consolation match.
12/13 Power – a.m. wave – SSA courts 3 & 4
There are 3 teams entered in 12 Power and three in 13 power. On Saturday they will be
combined and organized into two pools of three teams each. Upon the conclusion of
pool play, each team will play a cross-over match.
Participating teams will be broken out into the 12 Power and 13 Power divisions for
Championship pool play on Sunday, to which all teams advance. Results of pool play will
be used to determine seeding for Sunday’s play.
The three teams in each division will be organized into one, three-team championship
pool, the winner of which will be crowned Tournament Champion. Please note that in
the event of a three-way tie in matches during the Championship pool, tiebreakers will
NOT be played, since doing so would in essence be a replication of pool play. Rather, in
the event that all teams finish the Championship Pool with a 1 – 1 record, the Champion
will be determined based on set percentage or—if necessary--point percentage.
14 Club – p.m. wave – SSA courts 1 - 4
There are 15 teams entered in this division. They will be organized into three poolsl of
four teams and one pool of three teams. Members of the three-team pool will play
three sets to 25 points irrespective of the results of the first two sets.
Teams finishing first or second in their pools at the completion of Day 1 will advance to
an 8-team Championship Bracket. The remaining seven teams will compete in the Silver
Division on Day 2. First-round losers in both divisions will play consolation matches.
13 Club – p.m. wave – SVC courts 1, 3, 4 & 5
There are 16 teams entered in this division. They will be organized into four pools of
four teams each. Teams finishing first or second in their pools will advance to an 8-team
Championship Bracket; 3rd and 4th-place finishers will compete in the Silver Division.
First-round losers on Sunday will play consolation matches.
12 Club – a.m. wave – SVC courts 1, 3, 4 & 5
There are 16 teams entered in this division. They will be organized into four pools of
four teams each. Teams finishing first or second in their pools will advance to an 8-team
Championship Bracket; 3rd and 4th-place finishers will compete in the Silver Division.
First-round losers on Sunday will play consolation matches.
11 Club – a.m. and p.m. waves – courts 1 & 2
There are 13 teams entered in this division. They will be organized into one pool of four
teams and three pools of three teams. Members of the three-team pools playing in the
a.m. will play cross-over matches Saturday morning. The remaining three-team pool will
play in the p.m. wave and play two matches of three sets each to 25 irrespective of the
results of the first two sets. Note that the four-team pool will commence at 2 p.m.
rather than the normal 3 p.m. start time. This in an effort to get the youngsters to bed.
The top two finishers in each pool will advance to Sunday’s Championship Bracket, while
the remaining five teams will compete in the silver division. All first-round losers will
play a consolation match.
Ties
Ties will be broken per SRVA protocol. When the results of a tie determine whether a
team remains in contention for the tournament championship, one or more tiebreaking
matches (single set to 25) will be played, irrespective of head-to-head results. When
only seeding is involved, SRVA tiebreaking protocol will be invoked and a tiebreaker will
not be played. See the SRVA Handbook for elaboration.
PARKING
All parking is free. Please see location-specific details below.
SVC – There is plenty of parking on site provided that you realize that there’s parking (as
well as an entrance) in the rear of the building as well as the front. In the event that the
parking lot is full–as is possible on Sunday or the change-over between the a.m. and
p.m. waves–simply park across the street in the AT&T lot; they have given us
permission to use their lot as overflow if necessary.
SSA – Please feel free to park in our additional parking in the Canton Promenade
Shopping Center lot adjacent to the gym. You may also park in the Kids'R'Kids parking
lot. NEW LIFE CHURCH PARKING LOT IS OFF LIMITS. PLEASE DO NOT PARK ON THEIR
PROPERTY or your vehicle may be towed. Please also do not park in islands or along
curbs to allow for emergency vehicles.
PCVC -- There is limited on-site parking, but parking is allowed on all of the public
streets around PCVC.
FOOD TABLES
Are fine at SVC and PCVC, but space is limited, so please be judicious about your use of
it. We will provide the tables; spectator-provided tables will not be allowed indoors as
there is insufficient room. Indeed, each team will be entitled to use a half-table inside
the premises, but may spread out as much as they like outside. Tailgating is a very
popular alternative at both SVC and PCVC when the weather is nice.
Food tables are not allowed inside the premises of SSA, but may be set up outside,
weather permitting. No heating or cooking devices–crock pots, etc.–of any kind are
allowed in any of the facilities.
Be prepared for there to be no food tables available inside SVC for several hours on
Sunday morning. Again, you may set up outside, but if you want an indoor location
you’ll have to wait until the teams playing in the morning begin to clear out.
GATE
$5 per adult per day. Children under 10 are free.
FOLDING CHAIRS
Are permitted, but we will provide bleachers and chairs sufficient for spectators.
TRAINERS
A certified trainer will be at SVC only for the duration of the tournament.
TEAM REFEREE OBLIGATIONS
Referee schedules are included in the pool assignments posted on AES. During bracket
play on Sunday, losing teams will ref the next match on that court unless specifically
noted to the contrary. Several teams will be required to ref the 8:00 A.M. Sunday
match before they play, so again, please check the website as well as the pools and
brackets that will be posted at the tournament. Teams with 8 a.m. ref assignments
must be in place on the court no later than 7:45.
Coaches, please remind your players that MP3 players and Cell Phones are not to be
used while working the score table and that snacks and drink bottles should not be on
the table. They should lift the score board and show the score frequently, minimally at
serve changes and time outs.
Please feel free to call or email either of the undersigned with questions.
Emergency/last-minute contacts and phone numbers are included below. We look
forward to seeing you at the 3rd Annual Southern Youth Festival on 3/16.
Michael Fletcher
Tournament Director
[email protected]
404-936-6723
Kurt Matthews
Tournament Co-Director
[email protected]
(404) 895-1155