2011 GJNC Adds Ball Cart Accommodation

Candice Kasischke
Intern, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: candice.kasischke@usav.org

ATLANTA (June 27, 2011) – The 2011 USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships (GJNC), being played June 25 to July 4 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, is offering a new accommodation to the participating clubs that saves money and hassles.

USA Volleyball is providing a set of 10 Molten balls and a cart for each court to use during team warm ups before each match during the GJNC. While USA Volleyball has done this in the past for the USAV High Performance Championships, supplying teams with this same accommodation at the GJNC requires a greater amount of Molten balls and carts considering the expanded number of courts in use to handle the 808-team tournament field.

USA Volleyball Senior Event Manager Kristy Cox and USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships Competition Director A.J. Joseph both voiced that a primary reason for this new addition is to help teams cut down on travel costs.

“USA Volleyball decided this year that we were going to try to provide balls and ball carts for each court during warm ups to help teams save on travel costs and the hassle of traveling with equipment,” Cox said.

“Having the carts and balls for warm ups is a nice addition to the tournament,” Joseph said. “I am sure it saves teams money on baggage fees with not having to check ball carts and ball bags.”

Joseph sees the addition as being a success overall even though it has not been the easiest service to keep regulated.

“As is common with any new idea, we have had some hiccups on some courts where there have been more or less than the allotted 10 balls,” Joseph said. "We also need everyone’s help in trying to keep 10 balls available on each court for every warm up and to return the equipment after they use it each time.”

Referee Bill Stanger (Ontario, Canada) feels that having the balls provided for the teams also makes his job a little easier.

“I think that it is a great idea,” Stanger said. “So often as an official I deal with teams leaving balls behind at the hotel and I am forced to struggle to figure out what to do about it. This tournament I don’t have to worry about it and its great because there are always balls available to the teams.”

Kara Uhl (Long Beach, Calif.) is head coach of the Mizuno Long Beach 13 club team competing in the 13 National Division. She finds that having balls supplied at warm ups is helpful for an amount of reasons.

“It works out better to have them supplied because we don’t have to worry about other teams taking our balls that usually wouldn’t have brought any,” Kuhl said. “We also don’t have to worry about misplacing our balls and it is just easier overall.”

For USA Volleyball Girls' Junior National Championships results, click here. For more information on the tournament, visit usavolleyball.org/events/4873/page/10331.

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Tags: 2011 Girls' Junior National Championships, junior, Junior Nationals, Juniors, USA Volleyball Girls' Junior National Championships