The 2018 USA National Beach Tour has been announced by USA Volleyball and its 40 Regional Volleyball Associations (RVAs). This tour will serve as “The officially sanctioned beach tour of USA Volleyball” and its RVAs.
The tour will feature more than 200 events around the country that will combine with the Beach Regional Qualifiers and Beach National Qualifiers – which offers players the opportunity to earn bids to the USA Beach National Championships. The Junior Beach National Championships will take place in July and offer three divisions for both genders – National Open (bid), Regional Open (bid) and Patriot (non-bid). The Adult Beach National Championships are expected to be played in September and have six different levels of play for men, women and coed – Open, AAA, AA, A, BB and B.
For the junior levels, there will be no monetary prize for winners of the competitions, as to not affect their NCAA eligibility while it is uncertain at this time the amount to be given for the adult level.
The announcement of the league comes on the same day the AVP announces their 2018 tour dates, which comes as peculiar timing as it was released much sooner than the 2017 schedule. It can perhaps be prompted by USA Volleyball‘s announcement of their new league. To note, the AVP had taken a monopoly over beach volleyball this past season as the NVL announced their cancellation of their 2017 tour. There have been talks about reissuing the league in 2018 but there have been no predetermined dates. With the announcement of the USA National Beach Tour, this could potentially put a drag on that process – even though they are two completely different entities.
On the plus, the new league offers younger players the opportunity to compete in more events where they will be watched and evaluated by USA Volleyball‘s High-Performance program.
“The co-location of USA Volleyball’s Beach National Qualifiers and the Beach High Performance Selection Camps allows juniors athletes the opportunity to compete and qualify for USA’s Beach National Championships as well as be trained and evaluated by top USA Beach coaches within USA Volleyball’s High Performance program,” USA Volleyball Manager of Beach High-Performance Megan Burgdorf said. “This combined programming provides a cost-effective way for players to be identified for National programming and to experience high-level training and elite competition against other top beach athletes from across the country.”
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