“USA Volleyball is excited to have the USA Volleyball Indoor High Performance Championships return to Tulsa,” USA Volleyball Senior Director Tom Pingel said. “Tulsa has proven to be a wonderful host for past USA Volleyball events and a growing market for volleyball in the country.”
The HPC is expected to draw in excess of 100 teams and 1,200 athletes to Tulsa filling eight different age and gender championship brackets. The event showcases boys’ and girls’ teams from the USA Volleyball High Performance pipeline, regional High Performance teams and 8-12 teams from foreign countries. In the last few years several youth and junior national teams have attended including those from the United States, Chile, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico.
“The Tulsa tourism and sports community welcomes back USA Volleyball’s High Performance Championship,” Tulsa Sports Commission Executive Director Vince Trinidad said. “We look forward to promoting Tulsa as a preferred sports destination and hosting athletes, coaches and fans in Tulsa next summer.”
The HPC features an international theme with some variations of FIVB rules. Matches are best-of-five sets format with most teams playing eight matches during the event. The tournament has utilized some new FIVB rules such as the primary and secondary libero. In addition, the FIVB experimental rule of six total subs per set but not limiting a player to one entry could be used again.
Prior to the HPC, approximately 400 athletes from the USA Volleyball High Performance pipeline will vie for spots on the top teams in their age groups in a five-day training camp. The coaches for these teams come from the top collegiate and junior programs across the U.S. and are all part of the USA Volleyball High Performance coaching pipeline.
Tryouts for the USA Volleyball High Performance pipeline take place from January to March for boys and February to April for girls.