For those families with players hoping to play/travel as part of FVC competitive teams starting in January 2022, here’s a bit of an update.
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
If you haven’t yet done so, please complete the Expression of Interest form ASAP.
If you are new to competitive club volleyball, reminder that general information and tournament dates (locations coming soon) can be reviewed here: https://fernievolleyball.com/programs/
As of Oct 17th, 2021 here’s where we are with players expressing interest (not all at a ‘Committed’ level). Some players are age eligible for two categories (if they are born in Sep, Oct, Nov or Dec) but so far have been grouped in the defacto age category for their birth year.
- 13U Girls = 15
- 13U Boys = 4
- 14U Girls = 11
- 15U Girls = 14
- 16U Girls = 12
- 16U Boys = 2
- 17/18 Boys = 1
- 17/18U Girls = 10
Tryouts will be run in very early December for all age categories where there is interest enough to form one or more teams. Tryout details and fees will be posted in November.
VACCINATION STATUS
Volleyball Alberta recently posted this information about the mandatory proof of vaccination currently required by all facilities they rely on to run the large “Premier” (and provincials) tournaments. https://www.volleyballalberta.ca/node/956
Volleyball Canada has also indicated that for any of their Nationals competitions they must follow the provincial, regional and facility requirements. And here again if events like the large ‘Super Nationals’ (15U-18U) were to be run with current requirements in place, only fully vaccinated participants could access the facility & play.
The Fernie Volleyball Club continues not to have an independent vaccine mandate for the local programs we offer and this isn’t changing at this time. The club does take seriously the global pandemic and have always been proactive with our Covid-19 safety plan including voluntary mask requirements (even for on-court activities) in late 2020 and early 2021 as well as other best practice measures to do our best to ensure the safety of all participants.
The primary purpose of our competitive team programs is to train for these large competitions (Alberta Premiers, Provincials, VC Nationals). Therefore the FVC (for these programs only) plans to collect proof of vaccination for all athletes wishing to attend tryouts and compete for a spot on one of our teams. We will also collect proof of vaccination for all coaches and parent supporters (Team Managers, etc) who plan to attend competitions with the team. A large portion of the fees we collect for the club season go towards paying for participation in these events and we are not willing to risk the entire team not being allowed to compete (with no refunds offered) if unvaccinated members of the team are denied access to competition facilities.
If organizations such as Volleyball Alberta and Volleyball Canada update their directives based on loosening requirements from the large facilities they rely on for these tournaments, the FVC plans to follow suit.
Please feel free to share this information with other families who may be interested in competitive club volleyball for their players.
Thanks,
FVC