Eustis, FL (PRWEB) May 08, 2017
The American Beach Tour (ABT) has become the largest USA Volleyball (USAV) sanctioned beach tour in its first year of operation, with 100 events on the calendar and rumors of more to be added soon. The milestone was reached through a dynamic collaboration between twenty-eight (28) USAV Regions promoting seventy-three (73) junior events and twenty-seven (27) adult events. The 2017 American Beach Tour Schedule can be found at http://www.AmericanBeachTour.com.
The ABT will culminate with a tour championship event for both juniors and adults. The ABT Junior Championships will be held on July 26-28, 2017. Registration is now open for this event and can be found on the ABT website. The ABT Adult Championships will be held on September 9-10, 2017. Both events were voted on by the participating USAV regions, called the ABT Council, and they will be held at Hickory Point Beach in Tavares, FL. Hickory Point Beach is a twenty-one (21) court, state-of-the-art sand volleyball complex that was built in 2014 through a privatization partnership between the local Lake County government and the Florida Region of USA Volleyball. More information on Hickory Point Beach can be found at http://www.HickoryPointBeach.com.
Besides the tour events and the championships, ABT athletes and affiliates alike are taking advantage of the new innovative ranking system, http://www.AmericanBeachRanking.com. The software went live early April and already has 1,300 athletes in the system. This number continues to grow as USAV regions adopt this fully-integrated ranking system. What makes this system unique is the online registration and payment options, online pool and bracket building and direct importing of all final results. This new software allows ALL USAV sanctioned beach events to receive ranking points.
Steve Bishop, Executive Director and President of the Florida Region of USA Volleyball, which has led the ABT initiative, said, “Today is an exciting day as we announce our 100th event on the 2017 American Beach Tour schedule! We originally launched our ABT schedule on December 12, 2016 with 40 events. Approximately 4-1/2 months later we have posted 100 USAV sanctioned beach events across the US and we are expecting many more in the coming weeks as the regions up north get ready for the beach season. Additionally, we have launched a turn-key beach event management system (in partnership with BracketPal.com) and a national-level ranking system that offers auto-seeding of events. This is truly a collaborative grass roots effort by the USAV regions and this milestone demonstrates how we can accomplish great things when we work together to create opportunities for our members.”
The affiliated regions involved in the ABT have had a voice and a vote on all aspects of the tour since its inception and they do not pay any additional fees to participate, keeping costs down for participants. At the beginning, an ABT Workgroup comprised of five (5) regions was formed to carry out the plan and handle daily operations of the tour. Full marketing support has been provided to all affiliated regions, resulting in the availability of ABT branded banner flags, tents, ball stops, print materials, and much more.
About AmericanBeachTour.com
AmericanBeachTour.com is a USA Volleyball (USAV) sanctioned tour produced by the Regional Volleyball Associations (RVA's) in the USA. Their goal is to offer regional and zonal beach events for junior and adult USAV members, culminating with a tour championship event each year. Additional information on the tour can be found at http://www.AmericanBeachTour.com.
About Regional Volleyball Associations of USA Volleyball
The Regional Volleyball Associations (RVA) of USA Volleyball are an unincorporated association of forty (40) regions across the US. The RVAs are responsible for registering all 300,000+ USAV members and for delivering grassroots programming in the USA, for juniors and adults. The RVAs have elected representation to the USAV Board of Directors and meet twice annually to support the missions of the regions. Additional information can be found at http://www.teamusa.org/usa-volleyball/membership/regions.
For general information please contact the American Beach Tour at info@americanbeachtour.com.
For additional information, contact:
The American Beach Tour Workgroup, a committee of the ABT Council
Michelle Goodall, Iowa Region: michelle(at)iavbreg.org
Melissa Walker, Northern California Region: melissa(at)ncva.com
Chris Hamilton, Florida Region: chris(at)floridavolleyball.org
Mati Bishop, Puget Sound Region: mati(at)psrvb.org
Bertil Wamelink, Heart of America Region: bertil(at)hoavb.org
