2009 / 2010 Northern Lights Power League

New Rules for 12's Division, Pool 1 Effective immediately:

for any team in Pool 1 of the 12's division, there will be no short service line. All servers must serve from behind the normal end line. Also for teams in Pool 1, the rule limiting one server to a maximum of 3 serves and then rotate is being removed. These changes are only for teams in Pool 1.   All teams from other pools still have the original power league rules. For bracket play days, the top bracket will use the new rules for the first round and for all matches involving teams that win their first match of the day. All matches involving teams in the top bracket that lose their first match of the day, and all other matches in all the other brackets, will use the old rules.

2011 Registration Opening Soon

Information for the 2011 Northern Lights Power League will be posted shortly.  All teams are welcome to participate in the 23rd year of the "original" Power League!  The information below is from the 2009 / 2010 league and will be very similar to the 2011 information.

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.

Greetings from Northern Lights Juniors!

We hope that you will join us for the 22nd Northern Lights Power League!

The Power League will again be 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.

This year there will be four optional seeding dates. Two dates will be for 12's & 16's and two dates will be for 14's & 18's.   Each division will also include five regular match dates that will begin in January and conclude in April.

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.

All regular dates will operate on both Saturdays and Sundays. Each Saturday and Sunday is split into two shifts:

The Power League is structured such that teams registered as either 11's or 12's are placed into the 12's division, teams registered as either 13's or 14's are placed in the 14's division, teams registered as either 15's or 16's are placed in the 16's division, and teams registered as either 17's or 18's are placed in the 18's division.

The age divisions will be grouped such that the 11's/12's, 15's/16's all play on one weekend and 13's/14's, 17's/18's will all play on another.

For example, the first regular league date is scheduled for January 16 & 17 and January 23 & 24. On the 16th & 17th the 13's/14's and 17's/18's will play. On the 23rd & 24th the 11's/12's, 15's/16's will play.

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. 

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.

Teams will be excused from a league date for attending one of the 10 USAV National Qualifiers. These teams will be placed back into the league at the same position they were when they left, however the other teams may have moved in relation to them.

Other than these "approved" absences, teams are not permitted to "miss" a league date. If your team misses a league date or does not show up for their scheduled play time due to conflict, their team will be removed from the Power League.

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 www.midwestvolleyball.com. League 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 $440 per team. If you wish to play also in an optional seeding date the cost is an additional $70 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. Last year we had 230 so 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 an athletic trainer at it's power league dates. The trainer 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.

Northern Lights is proud to announce that we will once again be using the Signuptoplay.com web based registration system. This is the best volleyball registration system available on the web..

You can now have your players log into Signuptoplay.com individually, create or update their own personal information, and assign themselves to your club! All the club director has to do is assign them to one of the club teams and enter that team into the Power League. For more information on this check out the Signuptoplay.com website.

Once your players have entered their data and you have put together your teams in the Signuptoplay.com registration database, you will be able to enter any other tournament which uses the system with just a simple click of the mouse!

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

Remember the entry fee is $440 per team for the league and $70 for optional playdays. 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.

The registration website is located at http://www.signuptoplay.com. When registering for the power league you will need to input your club information and your team information, you do not need to input a team roster. You will start by creating a log-in or by using your login from last year to create your club. The online registration program will allow you to enter the Power League without a team roster,

If you are entering in the optional play date be sure to submit your teams to that "on-line" also.

Please do not send us any checks until after you have registered in the Signuptoplay.com system.

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).