Europe, here we come!

     

Maggie Rivers (17 Black) and new member Amber Kraaz (17 Black) arrived yesterday (local date/time) in Venice, Italy
with the Junior Regional Team.  As I write this (7/21 10:23 PM), they are on the train from Pordenone to Venice for
some sightseeing.  After couple of days there, they will head up to Slovenia and gear up for the tournament.
The Olympic style opening ceremony will be on July 25th and competition against international teams and few from
U.S. will begin on July 26th and end on the 29th.

They will then depart for Vienna, Austria, the next day they will return to Slovenia.  Few more sightseeing
opportunities and time to spend with athletes participating in the Junior Global Challenge.  They will head down to
Venice on August 1st in preparation for departure back to the States.

The coaches and kids write daily notes.  You can find them at:
http://columbiaempirevb.com/hp_06jrt_journal_photos.htm

This awesome tournament was created and founded by Kim Norman of IVA Region (Salt Lake City, T).  Go to their region's website and have some great information there.  http://iva-volleyball.org/

Other related articles
Keizer Times article on Maggie:  http://www.keizertimes.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=7235

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Regional Select Team is in Ft. Lauderdale!

Our Regional Select Team is competing in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  Katie Bashaw (16 Black) was a member of this team last
year, that traveled to Austin, TX.  She has some teammates from last season on this team and you can read their notes
by going to: http://columbiaempirevb.com/hp_06select_journal_photos.htm.

There has been teams from Brazil, Italy, Canada and our own US National Teams competing in this event.
A USAV staff will be walking around scouting for potential national team players.

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