We will once again host both Open and Club Divisions. Open is the higher level and will be played in the AM wave (8am-2pm). Club will be played in the PM wave (3pm-9pm). Please select the division you would like to play.

All current assignment of teams into Club or Open Divisions is Tentative until 2 weeks prior to the tournament. The Competition Committee is responsible for seeding the field of teams and will assign teams to Open or Club based on their results through the first week of May. If you are placed into one division and would prefer to play in the other division, please contact us and we will try to accommodate your preference.

This year we will again offer the following divisions:
18 Open - 32 teams (AM)
16 Open - 40 teams (AM)
14 Open - 24 teams (AM)
18 Club - 32 teams (PM)
16 Club - 40 teams (PM)
14 Club - 24 teams (PM)

Every year we receive more entries than we have capacity to accept. This year has been the same. We held registration open until Jan. 15, 2010, when it was closed for all divisions that were full (which was every division). We then selected teams to accept based on the following criteria:

Strength of Field
Geographic Diversity
History of Attendance
Number of Teams per club

Mini-Volleyball Division
For the first time ever we hosted a demonstration tournament of Mini-Volleyball in 2009. This variation of volleyball was played on a court measuring 20' x 20' with the net height set at 5'-6". There were four players on at a time and the players rotated as soon as they sent the ball across the net. If there were players off the court, they rotated onto the court as their team sent the ball across the net. Play was initiated by the coaches alternating free balls to each side.

The biggest change to full-sized volleyball rules was to allow the players to catch the first two of three contacts in order to emphasize hitting and blocking, which there was plenty of. We played the first two sets to 15 with a deciding set to 7. Matches were scheduled every 20 minutes.

We ran two 3-team pools and then a single elimination bracket. We crowned a champion and had the entire tournament complete within 4 hours using just one court.

Congratulations to the winners of the mini-volleyball division, Team 1! This team consisted of Hannah Rehnfeldt, Krista Titus, Kayla Self, Samantha Drechsel, and Mikaela Mitchell.

2010 Accepted Teams
The process of selecting which teams to accept is getting extremely difficult as our tournament's demand by teams for slots far outreaches our supply. We will make some changes to our event next year to try to mitigate the anxiety and difficulty for all parties with this process. We may go to an invitation only process, or we may drop the youngest age group to allow us to accept more teams into the older age groups. If you have an opinion or suggestion for us, please let us know.

The signuptoplay.com website will be updated late on Sunday to reflect the status of the teams accepted that are listed below. We are still awaiting PS Region 14 Power League results so the 14s teams will be announced on Monday, Feb. 1st.

To view the teams that have been accepted into the 2010 Emerald City Classic, click the age division below:

• 18U Teams


• 16U Teams


• 14U Teams

The 14U division was particularly difficult this year because there are a lot of very strong teams that were placed on the wait list. We had 67 teams registered for the 48 slots as of the registration deadline of Jan. 15th. We are considering dropping the 14U age divisions altogether next year to allow for more capacity in the older age groups. Please let us know your thoughts on the subject as we have to find a way to lower the number of teams that are not accepted in the future as we forsee the demand increasing without the ability to add more courts.

No registration fees (checks or credit cards) will be processed until after a team has been accepted.

Hotel Sponsors
Please contact our hotel sponsors to arrange for your stay. We have negotiated great rates at several hotels that help sponsor our tournament. Please visit the hotel page for more details and a link to each of our sponsor hotels.

Rental Car Discount
The Emerald City Classic has negotiated special discounts for rental cars and vans with Enterprise. Use Customer number 45c1113 and PIN# EME when you reserve online.

If you have any questions regarding the Emerald City Classic tournament, please contact our the tournament director by email at ecc@wvba.org.