All three Academy teams competed in the Open Division in their respective age groups. The caliber of competition in all age divisions was outstanding. It is this author's belief that the total number of high-caliber teams in the open divisions is already greater than the USAV national championships, and is only going to get better as this tournament grows in size and popularity. The strength in the 18 open and 17 open divisions was certainly stronger overall than the field at this year's USAV nationals in Reno, NV.

WVBA Mizuno 18s came into the tournament seeded 42nd out of 42 teams and held their seed until the final day when a win over IVA 18 Barracudes from Indianapolis pushed them to a 41st place finish.

WVBA 16-Chris came into the tournament seeded 48th overall out of 56 teams. They were competitive with several teams including their opening match when they led #1 overall seed and 3rd place finisher VB Rags of Puerto Rico 20-18 in the first set. They battled through each pool and played some quality volleyball against very strong opponents to finish 43rd overall out of 56 very good teams in the Open Division.

WVBA Mizuno 17s came into the tournament with the 27th seed, about the middle of the 56-team field. They finished 18th overall.

USAV Nationals in Reno
WVBA sent three teams to the 31st USA Volleyball National Championships in Reno. WVBA 16-Shannon and Mizuno 15 both qualified in the open division by finishing 2nd at the Pacific NW Qualifier in Spokane and the Far Western Qualifier in Reno respectively. The third team, WVBA Mizuno 14 qualified at regionals in the 14 Club National Division.

WVBA Mizuno 14 started play on the June 24th and finished on June 27th. They started the tournament as the #21 seed overall and finished 35th overall in the 14 National Division (48 teams total).

WVBA Mizuno 15 started play on June 26th and finished on June 29th. They started the tournament as the #16 seed overall and finished 27th overall in the 15 Open Division (32 teams total)

WVBA 16-Shannon started play on June 30th and finished on July 3rd. They started the tournament as the #21 seed overall and finished tied for 31st in the 16 Open Division.

Summer Soiree
WVBA Mizuno 13 played in Anaheim, CA in the 2nd annual SCVA Summer Soiree tournament July 2-5. The youngest WVBA team started the tournament seeded 34th out of 56 teams and they finished tied for 33rd in the U14 Division.

2011 Season Tryouts
Tryouts for the 2011 club season will be held in mid to late November. As soon as the dates are set we will announce those dates here on our website, hopefully by September 1st.

We want to thank our 2010 players and their families for another fabulous season of fond memories and amazing experiences. We hope that everyone enjoys the remainder of our great summer and has a very successful high school season!

The Minas club has sent teams to Seattle to participate in the Emerald City Classic for the past six years and we enjoy a very close and special relationship with this club.

Each year the Brazilian players stay in the homes of WVBA players during their trip to Seattle in May. In late July or early August WVBA reciprocates by sending a team to Brazil where the WVBA players stay with the Minas families in their homes.

The key aspect of the exchange is the girls are housed with host families from the club rather than staying at hotels. This allows the girls from each country to get to know their host families and enjoy a much deeper understanding of the host nation's culture.

The 2010 WVBA International Team returned on Thursday after 11 amazing days in Brazil.

We started our trip by visiting the picturesque beaches of Northeast Brazil near Recife. After a couple of days of recovery from the long flight the team flew into Belo Horizonte where they met up with their host families and stayed until August 11th.

We left Belo Horizonte early on August 11th and spent the day in Rio de Janeiro where we visited the Corcovado, then off to a great Churrascaria (Brazilian Barbecue), and finally onto the beach at Ipanema until it was time to sit in traffic to return to the airport. We flew all night and made it safely back to the beautiful blue skies of Seattle just before noon on August 12th..

This year's team included the following players:

The team was coached by Dave Weitl and the head of our delegation to Brazil this year was Andrew Ness along with his wife Linda.

We are so pleased to be able to provide this opportunity to both the players and our coaches.

We posted journals by the players on our blog at wvba-brazil2010.blogspot.com. We also posted many fantastic photos from our trip.

As an extra bonus this year we were fortunate to have a celebrity join us for the adventure. Herbie Passport tagged along with us and posted his own photos on his facebook page.

Herbie has traveled extensively around the world including tours to Asia with the USA Women's National Team. We are very honored that Herbie went along and put his special spin our experience. He will now accompany Dave Weitl and his wife to Italy for a Motorcyle tour of Tuscany, Rome and the Amalfi Coast. Look for his Facebook updates on that trip as well.

If you have any questions about WVBA, please contact our Operations Manager, Jill Gunsolus.