Dates: January 18, 19 & 20, 2025

Schedules: Will be posted on AES, about 4-5 days before the event

Playing Site: Matches will be played at Bartle Hall (the Kansas City Convention Center), Municipal Arena and the Exhibition hall (under Municipal arena) and HyVee Arena. Bartle Hall, Municipal Arena and the Exhibition Hall are in the same complex. Courts 1 through 64 are in Bartle, courts 65 through 68 in Municipal and courts 69 through 72 in the X-hall. Courts at HyVee Arena will be numbered 1-12. Click here for the court layout in Bartle hall.

Parking: Barney Ellis Plaza is under construction and the underground parking garage is closed. For information on Parking, check this website: https://barneyallis.org/parking-info/

Admission: As this is a National Qualifier for the 18’s divisions, we are required to check identity of all adults entering the facilities. To offset the cost of ticketing, additional security and installing metal detectors for everybody’s safety, we will charge a nominal admission fee of $10 for a 3-day pass. We will only sell 3-day passes (no single day pass). Spectator Admission 

Live Streaming: All competition will be live streamed by BeTheBeast
Live Stream for Parents and Fans or College Coaches/Recruiters to purchase:

Host: Heart of America Volleyball — 548 S. Coy Street, Kansas City, KS 66105, (913) 233-0445, info@hoavb.org

National Qualifier: This event is a National Qualifier for the 18 Open, USA, Liberty and American divisions.
Click here to download the 18’s Junior National Championships Manual. For the 18 Open divisions up to 2 bids may be available, for the USA division, up to 3 bids may be available (depending on numbers of registered teams in each division). For 18 Liberty, 2 bids may be available. For 18 American there will be one bid available.

Divisions: Girls – 18 Open, 18 USA, 18 Liberty, 18 American, 18 Boys, 17 Club, 16 Club, 16 Boys, 15 Club, 14 Club, 14 Boys, 13 Club, 12 Club, 11 Club and 10 Club.
The boys divisions, 10 Club and 11 Club play 2 days (Saturday and Sunday). All other divisions will play all 3 days.

Waves: AM Wave (8 am till 2:30 pm): TBD
PM Wave (2:30 pm till 10:00 pm): TBD

Recruiting Combine: In conjunction with this tournament, Championship Combines will run a Recruiting Combine for Girls and Boys on Friday, January 17, 7 pm till 8:30 pm. Click here to register for the Combine.

College Coaches: Click here to see colleges that are signed up to attend in 2024 (most colleges tend to sign up in the week before the event).
Click here to see colleges that attended in 2023

Format: All Girl Divisions (except 10’s and 11’s): Pools of 4 teams on Saturday (if numbers allow). Re-pool on Sunday. All teams will advance to single elimination playoffs on Monday.

Officials: We cover all matches with a paid first official. Teams will need to cover the rest of the officiating duties.

Entry Fee: $825 per team for the national qualifier divisions, 18 Open, 18 USA, 18 Liberty and 18 American.
$625 per team for ages 12-17’s, $425 per team for 10’s and 11’s (Must accompany Entry Form) Entry Deadline: Thursday, December 14, 2023, as long as space is available.

How To Enter: There is a 4-step registration process for this event:

1. Enter your registration in AES. Print out the registration form. Mail entry form and entry fee to the HOA office, 548 South Coy Street, Kansas City, KS 66105, or pay directly online in AES. AES will open up registration on September 5 at 9 am.
2. Make hotel reservations through TTS (Click Here, opening up September 5, 11 am CT)
3. Complete your team registration and get approval for competition from your region
4. Update your roster in AES
TEAMS WILL BE ACCEPTED INTO THE EVENT ONCE THEY HAVE DONE THEIR AES REGISTRATION, CONFIRMED THEIR HOTEL ROOMS THROUGH TTS AND PAID THE ENTRY FEE, AS LONG AS SPACE IS AVAILABLE.

TEAMS WHO HAVE NOT COMPLETED THE ROSTER REQUIREMENTS BY JANUARY 1 WILL BE DROPPED FROM THE TEAM LIST AND PUT ON THE WAIT-LIST IF THEIR DIVISION HAS FILLED UP.

Hotel Reservations: All hotel reservations need to be made through Team Travel Source. Hotel reservation will open up on September 5 at 11 AM central.
Click on this link to start your hotel reservation

Tournament Withdrawal: Up till November 15: Accepted teams who submit a withdrawal in writing to the HOA office will receive a refund of $450. Between November 16 and December 31, accepted teams who submit a withdrawal in writing to the HOA office will received a refund of $250. After December 31, no refunds will be given to teams withdrawing from the event.

Teams with Age Waivers: Teams with players that have an age waiver from their region can request special permission and instructions to enter into the Club divisions. Send an email to info@hoavb.org to request to participate with a team with age waived players.

Event Sponsors: ASICS, Molten USA

Tournament Ball: This event will use the Molten Supertouch ball for all girl’s 13 and over competition. The 11’s & 12’s division will play with the Molten VBU12.

Awards: There will be individual awards to champions and second place and both third place teams in each Gold division, Silver brackets will receive 1st and 2nd place awards.

Music: No outside music sources are allowed at this event. Do NOT bring in boom boxes, speakers etc. If everybody plays their own music at the courts, it becomes an incredible amount of noise in the facility, which is a distraction for the teams playing.
Also not allowed in the facilities are hover boards and drones.

Rules & Regulations: USAV playing rules for the 2023-2025 season will be in effect. Most matches will be best two out of 3 sets. Some alternate match formats may be used to accommodate for smaller divisions or for 3 or 5 team pools, if necessary.

Officiating: All competing teams will be assigned to officiate in the tournament. R1’s will be provided. Teams MUST provide certified R2’s, scorers, Libero trackers, scoreboard operators and 2 lines-persons.

Tie-Breaking:
For the 18’s Qualifier divisions, the tie-breaking procedures as outlined in the 2023-24 Girls Championship Manual will be followed. Click here for the flow-chart of tie-breaking for those divisions.
In all other divisions: No tie-breaking sets will be played, unless all tie-breaking criteria are exhausted:
2 teams tied in match record: Head to head match breaks the tie
3 or more teams are tied in match record:
1. Overall Set percentage
2. Overall Point percentage
3. Head to head set percentage between the tied teams
4. Head to head point differential between the tied teams

Failure to fulfill officiating assignments will result in the loss of 1 point per minute in their next match

Sanction: The tournament is hosted and sanctioned by the Heart of America Region – USA Volleyball. All teams and players must be registered with USAV. Team and player registration numbers MUST appear on the Entry Form or the entry will be rejected. Teams using illegal players will forfeit all matches and be disqualified from the tournament and the case turned over to the appropriate Regional Commissioner for further action.