About Travel Teams
SMASH VOLLEYBALL is one of the oldest Juniors Volleyball programs in New England. SMASH has shown serious respect for each athlete, family, team and coach in all areas of training and organization.
In addition, for 20+ years SMASH has constanly maintained a position at the top of age-group performance performance results at the New England level and beyond.
SMASH VOLLEYBALL trains and enters teams in NE Region USAV Juniors competition. Some teams play outside New England. We have competitive tryouts and train the teams once/week (sometimes twice) from January through April/May/June. This season SMASH hopes to again sponsor teams which will practice 4 days/week, according to the successful 'National Model" of the top programs in the US (click here for information about this.) Our Sunday practices are 4-5 hours and this may include mandatory physical training.
SMASH athletes train and compete in their age groups. Players are selected on the basis of performance at the competitive tryouts. In 2010 we had players from 51 schools on our 10 teams. Teams train on Sundays, some on additional days. Competition ranges from the local, eastern Massachusetts area, to the New England, East Coast, and for some teams, national arena. Details of cost and schedule vary according to the exact team's schedule of practice and competition. In 2009-2010 the per/player cost ( all fees except personal expenses , eg food and miscellaneous while travelling) ranged from approximately $1100 to $4500 (our 17's 'National Model' program and our top 18's)
(note1: our 12+Unders were substantially less) (note2: nationally, the cost/player is often $5000-$10,000 because of extensive training and huge travel) (note3: SMASH includes airfare/hotel expenses in our estimate: some clubs add this as a fee on a per/tournament basis)
College: SMASH has players playing on these College Teams: Bryant University, Fairleigh Dickenson, Providence, Penn, Holy Cross (all Div I), NYU, Williams,
Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Trinity, St. Rose, Endicott, St. Michaels, Colby-Sawyer, Connecticut College, Plymouth State, Babson, Rivier,
Assumption, Holy Cross, St. Anselm, Bentley, and Whitman (WA)
SMASH Travel Team Philosophy
SMASH treats all players as serious athletes, and expects committment, respect, effort, reliability, and adherence to all policies. We take our tryout process seriously, and feel every player selected should benefit from competition. Therefore all players receive regular playing time. We have no "bench" players.
Competition
NE Juniors volleyball has two levels of play.
“Open Level”- Teams must qualify for this classification. The Open Level is divided into Gold - Silver - Bronze - (and sometimes Copper.) The Open tournaments have a paid officials and entry fees. “Club Level” – All the teams in New England which are not Open teams.
We do not allow players to drive by themselves long distances to tournaments or practices, and we require seatbelts.
Our 16's and 18's teams have regularly been amongst New England's strongest, and have won many NE Championships.
In 2010:
New England Region Jrs. Volleyball Championships 2010 RESULTS:
18+Unders: Open Gold: 2nd, 10th, 13th, and 5th in AA
This was NE's top club performance
In NE there were 78 18+Under teams from 30 clubs: ALL 4 SMASH teams in top 21!
16+Unders: Open Gold Champions, 16A Champions, 16AA 2nd, and 16A 7th
14+Unders: 3rd 14A (highest level- 3rd in NE) and, Champions of 14 B
#1 Ranked Team in New England !Champion of the Great Nor'Easter ! (Northeast/East US area Tournament)
Champion of the Inaugural Mizuno Winterfest Tournament ! (Northeast US Tournament)
Was the New England Region's representative at the USAV 18's Nationals in Reno, NV (Winner of the New England National Bid Playoffs) !
SMASH 17's Black Ice: Was the New England Region's 17's Representative at the USAV Nationals in Reno, NV !
SMASH 16's is the CHAMPION of 2010 New England Region 16+Unders ! ! !
In 2009:
18+Under's: 2 teams in top 10, 3 in top 20 (in all of New England!)
16+Unders: 2 teams tied for 5th, 3 in top 20 (in all of New England!)
EVERY SMASH team was in New England Open Gold, AA, or A
In 2008: SMASH 18's and SMASH 16's were New England Champions! In 18's, we had 2 teams in the top 5! Every senior is playing in college. In 2007 SMASH 18's was the top Massachusetts team, 2nd in NE; both SMASH 16's and SMASH 18's were Silver Medalists in the New England Regional Championships. Click here for 2009 results
