Dear Volleyball Parents and Players:

The girls' high school volleyball regular season has come to a conclusion.  Quite a few teams qualified for Central Coast Section playoffs and these teams should represent Santa Cruz County girls' volleyball well.  Again, the high school teams on all levels, varsity, junior varsity and frosh were well represented by Bay Club players.
The conclusion of the high school season signals the onset of club volleyball.  Every year, club volleyball seems to get started earlier. I am a firm believer in not starting club activities for the girls until the regular high school season has been completed.  The role of high school athletics and, volleyball in particular, is incredibly important in the overall development of these young adults.  I feel they should be allowed to enjoy their high school seasons without distraction.

Improving Communications
I am looking forward to the Bay Club 2000 season.  Following the 1999 season, the Board and I had significant feedback from players, coaches, and parents.  As in any organizations, there are things that we did well, and there are things that need improvement.  The Board had significant discussions, and we have concluded that there are three areas we need to improve.
First we must improve communication.  This includes parent and coaches, coaches and administration, and parents and administration.  To enhance communication, we have developed a website and will use a new phone message system.  The website will have the practice times and locations and will be current and updated as needed by the coaches.  The phone system will also have the practice times and the tournament locations as soon as they are announced. These new tools should greatly increase communication. An important part of team communication is the team parent.  There will be a parent meeting at the beginning of the season at which each team will choose a team parent.  We will then conduct mandatory monthly meetings with all the team parents and board members. This will serve as the main conduit for communication from the parents to the administration.

Team Selection
The second area we have decided to change is the number of Bay Club teams.  When I started Bay Club, my goals were to develop a program that would train elite level girl volleyball players and support the high school programs in Santa Cruz
County.  By creating two levels of teams, travel and challenger teams, we could pursue both goals.  The travel teams were established to combine more experienced players in the county on one team.  The travel teams would go outside the Northern California Region and attempt to qualify for the US Junior Nationals.  We have had some success with this program; the Bay Club 15's qualified and competed in the 1998 Nationals in Dallas Texas.  The challenger teams were designed to be based around one or two high school programs, coached by the local high school coaching staff, with practice based out of these high school's facilities.   
   
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