Tryouts & Teams...Check!

By Chris Beerman

It’s been a little longer than usual since my last blog but that’s because this morning I’m literally taking my first breath in about two weeks! All Club Directors are probably feeling the same way, although some are still in the midst of holding tryouts and making offers to players.  Our tryouts were conducted, our players evaluated, and our teams have been formed.  Our two-day tryout brought out 270 enthusiastic, hopeful players attempting to make either an elite team or a regional team. Going into the tryout, I had the ability to house 15 Elite teams and 10 Regional teams as a maximum in Year 1 for our club.  Our experienced friends from Munciana came down to Lexington to help with registration and apparel sizing and legendary Munciana coach, Mike Lingenfelter got our first tryout in Lexington United history off to a rousing start with a motivational speech to the approximately one hundred players trying out for 15s and 16s, which was by far our biggest age group. 

We made all of our players pre-register with a deadline being the Friday prior to the Tuesday tryout day, and for the most part, our players adhered to the deadline, but we did have a number miss that date.  I made the late players email me their tryout form then bring their information and tryout fee to check-in.  We pre-printed 250 tryout t-shirts (so, unfortunately came up about 20 short!) with numbers on the back of the shirt, and assigned them to the players at check-in. The registration process was broke down into two parts.  Part 1: Players reported to the check-in desk, turned in a copy of their birth certificate, made sure their JVA paperwork was up-to-date, paid any fees they still owed, and received their numbered tryout shirt.  Part 2: Apparel sizing.  Our facility, KBA, has a mezzanine which served as a perfect sizing area and also separated the incoming check-in crowd. We sized them for uniforms and shoe sizes and got all the numbers down on paper.  Doing this at tryouts allowed us to get a big head start on getting players their apparel packages accurately and on time. 

After Mike’s rousing kick-off speech, the 15/16s age group went to work for 90 minutes running through position appropriate skill work then competitive team drills.  Knowing that coaches would have two days to evaluate each player, allowed for a very comprehensive tryout format.  Our 15/16s age group coaches evaluated players by giving a 1, 2 or 3 grade which indicated the level of team the evaluator deemed appropriate for each player.  The plan was for the evaluator’s to receive their numbered sheets right at the conclusion of check-in.  Unfortunately the wifi in the building was not working properly and our computers could not get the evaluation lists printed out right away.  Eventually (and thank goodness!) after about a 30 minute delay, we all got our sheets and went to work at indentifying the strengths and weaknesses of each player. 

The next group (the 12-14’s) began checking in while the 15/16’s were still on the court.  We had to obviously set aside separate courts for the 12’s due to their different net height and ball size and weight.  The last tryout group was our 17’s/18’s and like most clubs, this was a much smaller group.  After the last group concluded their tryout, the coaches got together and did some initial groupings, mainly identifying the obvious ends of the spectrum and then working towards making the tough calls on the kids in middle-high or middle-low. 

On Day 2 of tryouts we grouped the players at the beginning based on where they feel at the end of Day 1. The format included much more competitive, game-like drills to maximize looks at each player performing at their position, while also being able to see the other intangibles such as attitude, competitiveness, “want-to”, and effort.  A long coaches meeting followed the second night of tryouts at a local restaurant and we hammered out the rosters for each elite team.  Based on the talent level and depth of each age-group, we formed 13 elite teams, including three teams at the 14’s and 16’s age groups.  The players picked for teams were immediately notified by their coaches with a phone call, and we gave them 24 hours to accept the roster spot. 

Out of 130 elite team players, only a couple declined their spots, so we were able to post the teams and players’ names very quickly on the website.  Following the elite teams’ formation, we had a regional coaches meeting to form those teams.  We ended up having two kinds of regional team members: 1) those who wanted to play at the regional level from the very beginning and 2) those who tried out for elite, but did not make a team.  We had a pool of about 140 players, but only court space and coaches for 10 teams or approximately 110 players.  The regional coaches had done an excellent job of evaluating their players and with the help of the elite team coaches and their opinions of the kids who had not made elite teams, we were able to confidently form our teams.  Those players were notified in the same way the elite players were and were given 24 hours to accept.  Once all coaches received their commitments, we posted those rosters on our website as well.  The last step was to return the tryout deposit to the players who were either not picked for teams or had declined a roster spot. 

Now that teams are formed, coaches have scheduled their team’s parent meeting to go over scheduling, practice, payments, travel guidelines, team expectations, etc.  They also have the opportunity to hold a few practices before the holidays prior to the actual season starting in January.  I am very proud of the effort and professionalism of our coaches in getting these teams formed and how quickly we have moved through the process with incredible diligence.  In year one, Lexington United is able to support 23 teams and that is a strong testament to the excitement, interest and potential for Central Kentucky volleyball.  Next blog I will talk about what I will do differently next year in regards to tryouts and the specific topics of the initial parent meeting.  Don’t forget to ask questions or make comments!

Financing a Facility

By Tim Kuzma
From May 2010 Issue of VolleyBiz

The Munciana Volleyball Club has a long and proud history dating back to 1977 when Steve Shondell formed the first club team comprised of girls from Muncie Northside High School. Presently, the club is comprised of over 300 young ladies ranging in age from 8 to 18. The club is located in Muncie, Indiana, a town of 65,000 located in East Central Indiana between

Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. With such a small population base it is surprising to most people in the volleyball community to learn that Munciana has won seventeen national championships competing in the USAV and, most recently, the JVA national tournaments.

Wes Lyon, who has been the club director for over twenty years, was joined by Michael Lingenfelter as co-director seven years ago when David Shondell left the club to become the head volleyball coach at Purdue University. Lingenfelter's 18-1's team won both the JVA and AAU national championships last year. Since Title IX was enacted, over 300 Munciana graduates have gone on to play volleyball at the collegiate level. The long list of distinguished alumni has performed at the highest levels including on the U.S.A. National teams. Moreover, dozens of coaches have matriculated to head and assistant coaching jobs at every level.

In 2008, local businessman Tim Kuzma joined Wes Lyon and Mike Lingenfelter who, together, began to formulate a business plan that would serve as a roadmap for Munciana as it embarked on it's plans to become a full service club that including an apparel arm, an expanded camp schedule and a new facility that would permit them to hold practices, conduct tournaments and provide a concession service. Upon surveying the community for potential sites, Kuzma learned of a multi-sports park being built in Yorktown, IN., a suburb of Muncie. A meeting was set up with the town officials who were well aware of the tremendous reputation that Munciana enjoyed in the community. They offered that if we would locate our new facility on their site between the baseball and soccer fields that they would lease us the land for $1 a year for 99 years. We would also have access to the vast parking lot that they had planned for the project.

As plans progressed, Yorktown incented us to add 10,000 square feet to our footprint so that a community YMCA could co-occupy our building. This made an eminent amount of sense to us as we had been looking for a partner to provide our girls with a physical workout regimen to supplement their volleyball training. The final product has been a building containing six volleyball courts on 27,500 square feet, a 10,000 square ft. YMCA and a 5,000 square foot common area housing our apparel shop, concession area and rest rooms along with space where people can relax between matches. Plans call for a walking trail through a seven acre woods located on the property and a bike trail connecting the complex to the town park a half mile away.

To finance the project, Munciana applied for a loan through a local bank which partnered with the Small Business Administration 504 Program to provide the necessary funding. Basically, Munciana contributed 10% of the capital, the bank 50% and the SBA 40% at a fixed rate for 20 years. These loans are available on a national basis for credit worthy projects such as ours. Banks are amenable to making these loans because the SBA provides them with a government guaranteed margin of safety. For more information you can google the 'SBA 504 Loan Program', consult your local banker or give me, Tim Kuzma, a call at 765-748-4071.

Junior Volleyball Association

All communities are looking for ways to attract jobs, enhance their quality of life and bring in overnight visitors who stay in their hotels and frequent their establishments. The Munciana Volleyball Club accomplished all three objectives for Yorktown and Delaware County. We are huge advocates of the JVA organization and look forward to rapid growth in partnership with their programs.

About the Author, Tim Kuzma

I read over my email and realized that I was remiss in mentioning anything about myself. have been in the financial services business for nine years and am currently employed as a registered Certified Financial Planner at Raymond James and Associates, Inc. In my former life I owned a manufacturing company which I grew from nine to one hundred and twenty employees and sold to Knape and Vogt Mfg. Co., Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1996 I co-founded the Indiana Basketball Academy in Indianapolis with Tom Abernethy. That was a successful business and afforded me the opportunity to learn the sports business before I sold my interest in 2001. In 2008 I joined Wes Lyon, Mike Lingenfelter and Steve Shondell as part owner of the Munciana Volleyball Club.

We have four children including three girls all of whom were fortunate enough to participate in the Munciana Volleyball Club program. My eldest, Kristi, was the libero at Eastern Kentucky University. Kimberly is currently the starting libero at The University of Wisconsin and previously played on the U.S.A. National team for two years in Puerto Rico and China. Our youngest daughter, Karyn, is a current member of the Munciana 16-1's team. She played libero for Wes Lyon's state champion Muncie Central Bearcat volleyball team last fall as a sophomore. My son, Tim, did not play volleyball, but he played several sports, including basketball through high school. He graduated from Albion College and went on to get his Masters Degree in Accounting at The University of Michigan.

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