Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting Sunday night out at Clay.  I’ve also received more emails than I can count, so we are expecting a great turnout for tryouts!  Below are some excerpts and highlights in case you missed the meeting;

Important Dates (tournaments subject to change but this should give a general idea)

October 30^th: 13’s & 14’s Tryouts – Fetterman Gym 7:00 – 9:00 (registration open @6:15)

November 13^th: 15’s & 16’s Tryouts (specifics TBA)

January 9^th: Performance TRaining Begins

February 27^th: Regular Practice Schedule Begins

March 17^th & 18^th: Dunes Tourney (South Bend, Indiana)

April 21st & 22^nd: Motor City Madness (Warren, Michigan)

April 28^th & 29: Premier Invite (15’s & 16’s)

May 5^th & 6^th: Premier Jumble (13’s & 14’s)

May 26^th -28^th: Memorial Day Tournaments (Chicago or Louisville)

June 19^th – 27^th: 4 days in this block will be Orland Nationals for 15’s & 16’s

Late March / Early April – One more 2 day tourney

Further Explanation of the Cost Increase

- Extra Memorial Day Tourney

- Didn’t Raise Prices for 2 years

- Extra Practices this year ($175 per)

- Positively Fit Increase

- Nationals Included – 15’s & 16’s Don’t Get Sticker Shock

- Still Lowest of National Clubs – In Most Cases Significantly, especially if you compare travel costs!

Number of Tournaments: All teams play 5 tournaments with regular season ending Memorial Day weekend.  15’s & 16’s will continue on to nationals in Orlando.  All tournaments are multiple day, high level tournaments.  We don’t waste your time or ours with po-dunk single day local and regional stuff.

Coaching: TR is coach in a collaborative manner meaning all of our coaches are involved with all of the teams within the OHSAA rules.  We never put a first year coach in charge and all of our coaches always have assistants.  All of our coaches are high level high school coaches or college players. We have purposely kept our growth smaller than it could be because of our standards for who we allow to coach. We have several advisor coaches come in at various times to evaluate and consult with our staff as well as we are seeking constant improvement.

Performance TRaining:  Like how I capitalized the “TR” ?J  One of the hallmarks of TR Volleyball is our outstanding conditioning program.  Maryellen Grogan, owner of Positively Fit will be back with us again this year.  Maryellen is simply the best trainer I’ve ever worked with and her list of teams and athletes speaks for itself.  We follow Olympic and professional models of periodization in our training.  This year our performance conditioning will run 6 weeks.  Players will sign up for two sessions per week at her studio focusing on strength, stability, and explosion.  Saturdays they will come in as a team for an agility, speed, and endurance workout.

Practices: We go 4 times per week, 3 team practice and 1 position training night.  If we play Saturday and Sunday, Monday will be an off day.  All practices are the beautiful Fetterman Gym at the University of Toledo.  There are a total of 40 practices, with 5 more for teams going to nationals.

Other Sports/Activities: TR is built to allow athletes to participate in winter sports.  Spring sports especially at the high school level will NOT work with our program.  We are making this as clear as possible.  Even if your schedule “works out” there will be conflicts and you owe it to YOUR TEAM to bring your best energy and effort every day in addition to your attendance.

Scott’s Role: I’m in North Carolina coaching college ball.  I will not be here on a day to day basis.  I am still the owner and I have a commitment that goes way beyond business interests.  This is a project and a mission that includes master’s degree work, published articles, and a desire to change the sports culture.  I am reachable via email, will be up multiple times throughout the year doing evaluations and guest coaching along with meeting everyone at various tournaments.  The other thing you have in me is recruiting connections literally all over the country…

I trust the people on the ground back here in Toledo completely or I would not put my name on this thing.  Matt has been with me in TR since Day 1 several years back. Tina handled most of the admin last year and grown into a wonderful coach and manager over her 5 years with me.  Kristen Gyori has built a fabulous reputation in a short time at both Clay and TR.  Our college player coaches are high energy and have great expertise.  TR is an idea and it is spreading regardless of where its founder is geographically.

Well we are off and running!  The fund raiser went extremely well with over 100 people in attendance.  $15 of every ticket sold will go back to the family that sold it to help pay for nationals.  If you missed it, you missed a very fun night!

Our 12-1 team kicked off their year going undefeated in the Lake Michigan Championships in Grand Rapids Michigan.  Congrats to coach Carrie and her team for their great performance with only 6 team practices under their belts.  Most important, the girls had fun, the team camaraderie was great, and they improved so much over the course of the weekend as they got more and more comfortable in their positions!

Our 14’s teams both had good showings in their first weekend of play as well.  They played in the final week of the Power League in Maumee and really showed that they will be serious contenders as they grow together.  I saw lots of smiles, and lots of good plays mixed in with the normal early season jitters.  It’s so fun to see them get better right before your eyes!  I had a parent comment to me that it was amazing to see after only two weeks of practice and they can’t wait to see where they will be in another 2 weeks! 

A special public thank you to Stephanie Harms at Premier.  She was extremely accommodating to our club and for that we are very appreciative!

15’s are in in Mason Ohio this weekend for their first tourney and we are happy to welcome our first outside college coach to this week’s position night.  Margot Fredrick from D1 Texas Pan American University will be running the show Wednesday!

Viva!

Greetings Everyone, lots of updates…

Tryouts went VERY well yesterday and we are really excited about the potential in our gym!  We’ve had several ask for a make up night and we are going to do that as we have in every age group.  Our make up tryout will be Wednesday night from 7:00-8:30 at Blessed Sacrament’s old gym. This tryout is open to any player from 15-17 that would like to check us out and/or be considered for a team.

Offers for all age groups will then go out via email with an individualized evaluation Wednesday night.  For 14’s it took me 5 hours and I finally went home at 2:30 in the morning!

For our 12’s team we will host a “meet the team night” at Blessed Sacrament old gym from 8:00-8:30.  Check your email for details! 14’s meet the team night will be early next week.  I will email everyone details!

Finally, we’d like to invite all of our committed 12’s – 14’s to come out to the UT match tomorrow night at Savage Hall as the Rockets take on Kent State in the first round of the MAC Tournament.  Meet Tina in the lobby at 6:30 and she’ll have tickets for just $2!!!!

Hope to see a bunch of you there!

We will host a make up tryout for the 12’s, 13’s, and 14’s age groups monday November 8th from 7:00pm – 9:00pm at the Fetterman gym attached to Savage Hall on the UT campus.   Park in the Savage Lot directly off of Douglas and enter Fettermen from that lot.

You do not need to pre register for this at all, but an email that you are planning on coming would be helpful.

coachmattera@gmail.com

12’s Tryouts will be Sunday October 31st from 12:00 - 2:00 At Savage Hall – UT

13’s Tryouts will be Sunday October 31st from 2:00 – 4:00 At Savage Hall – UT

14’s Tryouts will be Sunday November 7th from 2:00 – 4:00 at Notre Dame Academy

15’s Tryouts will be Sunday November 14th from 5:00 – 8:00 at NotreDame Academy (this one is 3 hours so that players can come a bit late or leave a bit early as we try to be flexible with other things going on that Sunday)

16’s Tryouts will be Sunday November 14th From 2:30 – 4:30 at Notre Dame Academy (17’s&18’s may come to this one if they have a conflict with their time)

17’s-18’s Tryouts will be Sunday November 14th from 12:00 – 2:00 at Notre Dame Academy (16’s may come to this one if they have a conflict with their time) 

The Cost to tryout will be $20 and we’ll have sign in and waiver forms on site the day of tryouts.  Please bring your insurance information!   We’ll try to post the forms online but I’m not that “web” savvy so I make no guarantees!

Toledo Revolution will host an informational meeting this Sunday Night, October 24th, at 7:00 at Rossford High School.  Park in the back and follow the signs!

At this meeting we go over the history of the club, why we are different, coaching staffs, costs, schedules, and any other question you may have.

Hope to see you there!

Thank you all for your patience as we finalize deals with our gyms for tryouts.  We’ve had to move from single court gyms to multiple court gyms due to all of the interest!

We have secured court time at UT’s Savage Hall for our first session of tryouts on October 31st.

12’s Tryouts will be from 12:00 - 2:00

13’s Tryouts will be from 2:00 – 4:00

The Cost to tryout will be $20 and we’ll have sign in and waiver forms at Savage the day of tryouts. 

Tryouts for 14’s will be Sunday November 7th and 15’s through 18’s will be Sunday November 14th.  Times and locations will be announced ASAP.

New updates have been added to the FAQ page and coaching staff announcements will also be coming soon.

Stay tuned and keep spreading the word.  The Revolution is on!

Wow! The number of inquiries about TR is off the charts!

TR will be fielding teams in all age groups 12’s-18’s this year.  We will follow the same theory and periodization schedule that has been so successful in our first two seasons.  Our personal trainer Maryelllen is pumped and ready to go for January and February our coaches are ready for March and April, and everyone is looking farward to the May recovery time and JVA nationals in June!

One exciting change for this year will be the position specific training that we are adding.   Players will practice 3 days per week with their teams and one day per week with other players of their position.  We have plans to bring in a variety of college coaches to run these sessions!  

Tryout info for 12’s – 18’s will be posted in the next week or so but you can assume that it will be roughly the same as the other clubs but not conflicting with their times as much as possible.

Coaching staff assignments will be posted soon as well.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about our staff this year!

Feel free to email me for more info; coachmattera@gmail.com

TR will be expanding again in 2011.  We will have tryouts in ages 13-18 with plans to have a team in every age group.  We will be sticking with the JVA schedule and periodization approach to training while adding more individual skills work to the concept.  We have some fantastic coaches coming on board and have fielded inquiries from more families that I could have imagined who want to join the revolution or at least check us out.  I’ve even had discussions with coaching friends around the state about starting “revolution” branches in other cities! 

Stay tuned for more info on tryouts and the coaching staff for 2011…VIVA!!!!

TR Volleyball had a great year number two.  Featuring 2 teams in the 14’s division, the young ladies played hard, got better, and had fun…isn’t that what club ball is supposed to do?

Highlights for the year included 14-1 knocking off a power MAVA 15’s team in Indy and both 14-1 and 14-2 making the gold round of the Dunes April Classic.  14-1 finished 3rd in both the Motor City Madness tourney and the Dunes April Classic, narrowly losing out to the eventual champs each time.  14-2 also had a nice showing going 7-1 but finishing only 5th due to some “interesting” formatting.  The 14-1 Team finished in the middle of the pack at nationals while 14-2 knocked out 4 wins in some very tough pools!  Between Michigan, Louisville, Indy, Dunes, and Orlando we saw some great competition and improved every time out.

I’m so pleased at some of the club development this year; 7 different coaches helped out with the two teams, girls headed to 7 different high schools played on our teams, and we proved again that the periodization format can and does work!  The girls all developed physically through the workouts with Maryellen in January and February, they all improved their skills during the training period, and we saw very little burnout and zero drama within the teams as was the case in year one.   

A big thank you goes out to all of the coaches, parents, and players for another great year at TR.  There are MAJOR plans for the 2011 season including teams in all age groups, adjustments to the training, and some fantastic new coaches coming on board.  Stay tuned!

Viva!!!!!