We are happy to announce the start of sign-ups for the 2024 Fall SVBA Volleyball League. The format will be our normal 6-person indoor, coed optional. The league will consist of 10 regular season games and a single-elimination tournament.
Cost: All teams will pay $500, but SERP teams will have subsidies available.
Divisions: We will again have five skill divisions. The descriptions are as follows:
Level
Division Name
Description
Primary Night
Level 1
Recreational
For newer teams or those working to improve consistency
Monday
Level 2
Lower Intermediate
Consistent controlled passes to setter
Thursday
Level 3
Middle Intermediate
Structured offense (6-2, 5-1, etc.)
Monday
Level 4
Upper Intermediate
Strong outside hitting and effective blocking
Thursday
Level 5
Advanced
Aggressive outside and middle hitting
Thursday
If you have questions on where you fit, please contact Nathanael Brown (njbrown@sandia.gov) or any of the other SVBA board members. Please register for the appropriate skill division, not the most convenient night, since doing so provides the most enjoyable competition for everyone involved.
Schedule: Games will start Monday, August 19th with the tournament occurring sometime in November depending on the number of teams that sign up. Play will primarily occur on Monday and Thursday nights, with games starting promptly at 6, 7, 8, and 9pm. Friday nights will have abbreviated schedules with games starting promptly at 5:30 and 6:30pm. We try to schedule as many of a division’s matches as possible on the primary night. However, we can only schedule eight matches each night, so the nights you actually play is dependent on exactly how many teams sign up within each skill division. We try to load balance the schedule for all the teams within a division to ensure they all have a roughly equal number of off-night games and starting times (i.e., one team won’t end up with all Friday games) but can’t guarantee that even a majority of your games will be on the primary night until we see the final enrollment numbers. All teams will have at least a couple Friday night games during the season.
The schedule will be posted to the SandiaVBA.com website, and captains notified via email, as soon as it has been reviewed by the division reps and SVBA board for fairness. Please be patient and understanding since you may not receive a lot of advance notice for the first week of play as we finalize the scheduling details following the close of registration. Captains: if you will not be around to communicate the schedule, please be sure that someone is assigned to check online and coordinate with your team.
Location: All games will be played at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) located at 5520 Wyoming NE, just south of Academy (map link is here).
Player Eligibility:
All Teams: All players must sign the JCC liability release form prior to play, which will be provided on the first night of play. Captains are responsible for making sure that all of their players meet all player eligibility requirements, including players later added to the roster via serpleagues.sandia.gov or the Roster Add/Delete forms.
SERP Teams: All members of SERP teams must be SERP eligible (Sandia employee or spouse/dependent) with signed SERP liability release forms (online when you register at serpleagues.sandia.gov) before they can be added to your team roster. All subs must also be SERP-eligible and registered on the serpleagues.sandia.gov website with a signed waiver. You can call SERP at 844-8486 to verify player eligibility. Non-SERP eligible players must play on a JCC team.
JCC Teams: A player with affiliation status of JCC, DoE, DoD, NNSA, Active-Duty Military, SNL Contractor, SNL SERP Member, or retired SNL is recommended for rostered players and required for the captain of a JCC team.
Registration: Registration closes COB on Friday, August 9th, or when we reach 44 total teams, whichever comes first. Late registrations will not be accepted.
JCC (Non-SERP) team registration instructions are here.
Note that both SERP and JCC teams have registration steps required through both the SERP and JCC organizations. Please review the provided instructions and ask an SVBA Board member if you have any questions.
SERP Free Agents: Don’t have a team or need to find some extra players to fill out your roster? Contact our free-agent coordinator, Jazmin Phlipot (japedro@sandia.gov). You can sign up as a free agent on the Free Agent team already established at serpleagues.sandia.gov (please don’t sign up as a free agent if you already have a team, unless it is in a different division/level than your primary team). They will work to fit you onto a team with others at your skill level, from beginner to advanced. Please sign up early, though – they can’t form teams if they get all the information at the last minute!
Rules: All players should take the time to review the league rules, which are available here. Each season, conflicts arise from folks not knowing what the rules are, especially with respect to substitute players and kicking the ball. Additionally, all rule conflict should either be resolved by the referee at game time or communicated by the captain to the SVBA board. Players are not allowed to confront each other on the court with regards to rule challenges.
Forfeits: Match forfeits should be avoided, whenever possible, by captains ensuring that they have enough players at least two days before each match. If a team is short of players, the captain request a sub using the SVBA Sub Request form.
Thanks, The SVBA Board Nathanael Brown, President Jazmin Phlipot, Vice President Bryan Arguello, Secretary Todd Ritterbush, Treasurer