2012 Northern Lights Power League

The following notices have been emailed to Team Reps and Coaches. You are responsible for this information. If you have not received these emails, then please check your team roster and your personal account. Each team must have AT LEAST two adult contacts with valid phone numbers and email addresses.

1/16/2012 - 12's/16's Seeding Chart
1/15/2012 - 12's/16's Schedule
1/13/2012 - 14's/18's Seeding Chart
1/11/2012 - 14's/18's Schedule & Changes
12/20/2011 - Team Contact Information

Greetings from Northern Lights Juniors!

We hope that you will join us in 2012 for the 24th Northern Lights Power League!

Held in the state-of-the-art Midwest Volleyball Warehouse facility!

• 8 Courts - each in 50' bays. More space than any other facility in the Midwest!
• Full Floating Sport Court floor. Built on Neo-Shok performance pads, this floor has a high degree of rebound and cushion. Players will see reduced injury from repetitive jumping and training on this floor.
• A 5000 sq ft Strength and Conditioning room.
• Separate Athletic Training room.
• 30' wide Mezzanine, the most viewing area of any facility in the Midwest.
• Large concession area with dual serving windows for faster service.
• Largest Volleyball Retail store in the Midwest.
• Easy access, Located at the intersection of County 42 & Judicial Road.
• 450+ parking spaces.

5 League Dates included in cost ($470)
Two Optional Seeding Dates ($85 Each)

The league will again be sanctioned USAV. Further information about USAV membership can be found on the North Country Region website ncrusav.org.

The Northern Lights Power League is a female player only event. Boys playing on 12's, 13's, or 14's teams are not eligible to participate in the league.

12's Division:  For 11 / 12 and Under Teams
14's Division:  For 13 / 14 and Under Teams
16's Division:  For 15 / 16 and Under Teams
18's Division:  For 17 / 18 and Under Teams

All regular dates will operate on both Saturdays and Sundays with each day
being split into two waves or shifts:  

For example, the first regular league date for the 14's / 18's Division is scheduled for January 14 & 15. On the 14th &15th the 13's/14's and 17's/18's will play.  Teams will play one shift on either Saturday or Sunday.  The shift will either start at 8:00 am or at 2:30 pm.

At this point it is not possible to determine if you will play on either Saturday or Sunday but you can expect to alternate between Saturday and Sunday for each of the different league dates. Your actual play date will be determined by your position in the pools.

Before registering your team for the Power League you should be sure that your team would be able to attend all league dates regardless of AM or PM, Saturday or Sunday shift.

We are not able to accept any special requests for specific shifts due to the nature of the schedule. You MUST be able to field a team for either a morning or afternoon shift on either Saturday or Sunday for the date that you play. See below for cancellation policy.

This year's format is very similar to the popular format we have used the last few years. The difference is that we are allowing more teams to move up or down each date!  This will allow teams to more quickly find the level of play that best suits the team.

Initial Seeding: For the first Power League date, teams will be seeded according to their overall power league, regional finishes last year and input from the coaches. That first round of play will then be used to "confirm" or adjust the seeding for the second playday. If your team is seeded in the bottom half it does not mean that you cannot get into the top half during the season.

Team Movement: Each week, teams will move depending on their finish. For the dates showing "2 teams move", two teams from the pool or bracket will move up and two teams will move down. This will allow teams to move from pool to pool more quickly. For the dates showing "1 team moves", only one team will move up and one team will move down. Teams will not be moved after their final play date - where they finish in their pool will determine their final finish in the league.

Snake Seed: On date 1 the pools will be snake seeded from top to bottom split into an upper division and lower division. This seeding process will spread out all of the teams based on rank. i.e.- Team ranked #1 will team #1 in pool #1, Team ranked #2 will be team #1 in pool # 2 and so on. Each team will play 3 matches. Each match will consist of two 25 point rally games and one 15 point rally game. All three games will be played regardless of the outcome of the first two games.

Power Pools: On Dates 3 and 5, the pools will be set up as power pools, i.e. - the top 4 teams will be in pool #1, teams ranked 5-8 will be in pool #2, and so on. Power pools allow teams of similar ability to compete against each other. Each team will play 3 matches. Each match will consist of two 25 point rally games and one 15 point rally game. All three games will be played regardless of the outcome of the first two games.

Tournament Play: On dates 2 and 4 teams will be set up in an eight team bracket format. This will allow a team the opportunity to move as many as 8 positions in one day. This will be done by placing two pools together, seeding them 1-8, and then playing a special tournament format which will rank all teams 1-8 and give each team 3 matches (best 2 of 3 on these dates) during their 6 hour shift. On these dates we will play with games 1 & 2 being 25 point rally games and the third game if needed to decide a match winner will be one 15 point rally game.

Libero Serving: In the Northern Lights Power League the Libero is permitted to serve in all age divisions of the Power League except the Open Division.

Teams that participate in the optional dates will have this added opportunity to demonstrate their level of play. This will help us more correctly seed these teams.  A minimum number of 4 teams in an age division is required for a pool. Participation in the optional pre-seeding date is on a first come first serve basis.  Registration for these dates is separate from the Power League registration.  Cost is $85 per date.  Registration instructions can be found below. 

Teams will be assigned officiating and scorekeeping tasks in the same manner as in a normal tournament. All teams must have an adult that supervises the officials by doing either the up or down officiating. We would like to encourage the players to be the up referee and the adult be the down referee.

Please note: North Country Region officiating policy requires the following:

• All 11's - 12's teams must have an adult as the up referee.
• All 13's - 18's teams must have an adult as either the up or down referee.

Note to all coaches, per North Country Region Rules:

The head coach, assistant coach or a registered adult must be either the FIRST or SECOND referee who is registered with North Country Region USA Volleyball and has been to an official's clinic.

Standing next to the referee stand does not count as being a first or second official.

Each year one of the biggest issues we face while running the Northern Lights Power League is when teams ask to miss league dates or simply do not show up for their competition. Teams frequently inform us they will be missing after the schedule for the league date has already been posted. Changing the schedule is difficult and ends up impacting all of the other teams in the pool or bracket. The coaches, players, and parents on the receiving end complain to Northern Lights to do something about it.

Because of this, we have adopted a new policy for requests to miss league dates, late notification, and simply not showing up. We attempted to write a policy that covered all situations - with penalties - to help ensure teams give plenty of notification. Click here to view the detailed policy.

If you are missing players, you should still come to your league date. You will be allowed to play with 5, however, your matches are officially forfeits. If you show up and play, the other teams do not miss out on one of their matches.

Legal USAV uniforms are required to play. Please check USAV Rules and Regulations. Due to the large number of people trying to get uniforms at the start of the season we will allow non matching uniforms during the first three weekends of January.

We will be posting the schedule for each weekend on the internet at Midwest Volleyball Warehouse's Real Time Results website.  Go to www.midwestvolleyball.com, then click on the "Real Time Results" link in the upper right hand corner.  Schedules will generally be posted on the internet by the Wednesday preceeding your playing dates. There will be no postal mailings made.

Winter Weather

Power Leagues will run as scheduled regardless of winter weather. It is extremely unlikely that we would ever cancel a Power League. If we were to cancel Power League due to 12+ inches of snow, we would post the information on the website in place of that day's schedule. In the unlikely event of a weather cancellation there will be no rescheduled dates and no refunds, teams will simply advance to the next date in their same respective positions.

The cost to participate in the league is $470 per team.
The cost to enter Optional Seeding Play Dates is an additional $85 per date.

This year there is space for 256 teams! But don't delay getting your entry ASAP - entry is based on a first come first serve basis. Every year we turn teams away because the league fills before they get registered. Teams who were in the league previously do not have an automatic place. Get your registration in EARLY!

All entry fees are non-refundable, non-transferable. Do not enter a team unless you plan to fill that place or lose your entry fee.

Northern Lights is proud to continue its tradition of providing Sports and Orthopaedic Specialists athletic trainers at it's power league dates. The trainers will be able to provide taping services, ice, and emergency injury evaluation. This has always been great benefit to the players and one which is becoming more important as the athletes play at higher levels.

All matches will be played in the state-of-the-art Midwest Volleyball Warehouse Facility. This facility is the finest 8 court facility in the Midwest!

• 8 Courts - each in 50' bays. More space than any other facility in the Midwest!
• Full Floating Sport Court floor. Built on Neo-Shok performance pads, this floor has a high degree of rebound and cushion. Players will see reduced injury from repetitive jumping and training on this floor.
• A 5000 sq ft Strength and Conditioning room.
• Separate Athletic Training room.
• 30' wide Mezzanine, the most viewing area of any facility in the Midwest.
• Large concession area with dual serving windows for faster service.
• Largest Volleyball Retail store in the Midwest.
• Easy access, Located at the intersection of County 42 & Judicial Road.
• 450+ parking spaces.

The facility is located in Burnsville 1.3 miles west of Burnsville Center at the intersection of County Rd 42 and Judicial Road.

All registration for the Northern Lights Power League and Optional Dates must be done on www.Signuptoplay.com.   Registering for the Power League does not automatically include you in the Optional Dates.  You must register for both if you wish to do both.

Click here for simple registration instructions.

If you have difficulties, more detailed instructions can be found on the SignUpToPlay.com website by clicking the " ? " button when registering teams.

NEW THIS YEAR:  Each team must have two contact people.  One can be the Club Director / Team Rep, and the other must be a coach.  This will ensure we have valid contacts to which we can send important information, schedule changes, etc.

Both the Club Director and Head Coach MUST HAVE a valid email address and a valid phone number.  Most communication will be done through email.  We want phone numbers in case of critical situations when we need to get a hold of somebody on your team.  Your entry will not be considered complete until we have two contacts on each roster.

Click here for instructions on how to add staff to your team roster.

After you have submitted a team on line, print out the entry form and send a check for the entry fee to Northern Lights Junior Volleyball. Please include the name of your club on your check. The address is:

Northern Lights Junior Volleyball
14050 Judicial Road
Burnsville MN 55337

We must receive your check within 5 days of you submitting a team in the "on-line" registration. If we do not receive your check within 5 days of your submission, your team will be deleted from the database and you will no longer be registered in the league. Please send one check all teams in your club, not one check per team.

Please do not send us any payments until after you have registered on  Signuptoplay.com.

All teams must be USAV registered by the first day they play (contact Judy at North Country Region 952-831-9150 ext 10 for further information).