Welcome to the first edition of the ZIAp-date, our volleyball club's e-newsletter. This is an informational tool for both athletes and Parents that will come out once every month.
We hope you enjoy issue #1.

Lisa Doremus from Cactus High School has been with Zia for the past 4 seasons and will play next season for Coach Pat Mooney at Phoenix College. Lisa is an outside hitter and middle who is an excellent passer and blocker.

Joining Lisa will be Michelle Burolla from Ironwood High School. Michelle is not only a terrific outside hitter, but she'll be used as a defensive player for Mooney's PC Bears. Both Lisa and Michelle are playing for Zia's 18-Garra team this season.

Joining those two will be Nicki Wanninger who signed a letter of intent to play at Yavapai College in Prescott for Coach Traci Corey. Nicki is an outside hitter from Sunrise Mountain High School. She has chosen to coach this season with the 15-Later team.

Zia congratulates these three scholarship athletes and will continue to help provide assistance to our athletes wanting to continue their playing careers in college. Congratulations to all three from all of us!

As a whole, club volleyball does a poor job of working with female athletes on the importance and information on proper athletic nutrition. Here at Zia, we recognize this and will work toward making this one of priorities in the coming season.

On Saturday, January 21st, noted nutritionist Amanda Carlson from Athletes Performance will hold a 90 minute seminar on Athletic Nutrition at the FitLife center located at 16140 N. Arrowhead Fountains Center Dr., Suite 109. For cost and/or to reserve your spot in this important seminar, contact Justin at 623-776-8838.

In the meantime, this is an article that recently came out talking about nutrition in female athletes.

Female athletes' poor nutrition shows in poor performances
Jon Sarche
Nov. 30, 2005 12:00 AM

DENVER - After collapsing at the end of two marathons and struggling to swim a single length of the pool, Olympic hopeful Jacqueline Mariash knew she needed help.

She got it from an unexpected source: a registered dietitian.

Mariash, 25, has been a runner for nearly as long as she can remember and began competing in triathlons in 1998.

Like many female athletes, she strictly limited her food, dipping as low as 800 calories a day, to improve her performance by losing weight.

But her results were just the opposite.

"I used to wake up really tired," she said. "I used to take a lot of time off training because I was so exhausted."

Last summer, Mariash tried nutritional counseling. After about a month of sessions with dietitian Nancy Pudwill, the athlete said her energy levels soared and her performance improved. Weight loss was no longer her primary goal.

"In high school track, we all starved. That's not how you get to the Olympics," she said. "Now I can train harder, farther. Things I was afraid of, like a four-hour bike ride, are easy now."

If discipline is required for training, she said, why not for nutrition, too?

For Mariash, the solution was to eat a lot more calories in three balanced meals plus several healthful snacks.

Before she began working with Pudwill, Mariash usually had cereal for breakfast and would then "basically nibble" all day with one balanced meal at night.

Now she has a full breakfast with eggs or other protein, a decent lunch, healthful snacks and an energy drink, plus a complete, balanced dinner.

Mariash is one of many athletes who have learned that thinner doesn't always mean faster or stronger and that fitness and conditioning don't work well without proper nutrition. Athletes and coaches have increasingly turned to dietitians and nutrition counselors for such help, said Philip Haberstro of the National Association for Health and Fitness in Buffalo, N.Y.

About a year ago, Pudwill and several sports medicine doctors and therapists at the University of Colorado opened the Active Women's Health program after realizing many female athletes didn't understand how to meet their body's nutritional needs. Adding to the challenge is society's pressure to lose weight, Pudwill says.

"What happens with females is they don't realize how much it takes to fuel their body to do the kind of activity they're doing," she said. "Sometimes, typical of females, they're not eating enough."

Some problems don't always clearly point to nutrition: stress fractures, low energy, and anemia. But all can be signs of too few calories and a shortage of minerals such as calcium and iron, said Suzanne Farrell, a Denver-based spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Unlike men, female athletes often resist advice to eat more, Farrell said.

"I had to stop reading magazines like Shape and InStyle," said Mariash, who agreed it was hard to gain weight. "All the magazines talk about is losing 10 pounds or shaving inches from your waist. For me, it's 'How do I get fast?' "

Simple changes in diet, including a different ratio of protein, carbohydrates and fat, can bring rapid results, Pudwill said.

She said she usually steers clients clear of supplements.

We, as are you, are very excited to be going into tournament play in the coming weeks. Every team will be playing tournaments in the next two weeks. While we never anticipate problems with out of control Parents, we ask that you adhere to Zia's Zero Tolerance Policy when it comes to Adult behavior at tournaments. We have a stellar reputation for knowledgeable and cooperative Parents, and we look to continue that tradition for years to come.

The Region looks like it will be adopting a new policy that will prohibit any Parent coming out of the stands to address an official, coach or scorekeeper. That Parent will be asked to leave the facility and not come back for that tournament, and the Parent's name will be put forward to the Region office for review of like or similar incidents.

Again, we anticipate no problems like this, but we want to upfront with out policy on this. Thanks.

While all of our girls might not get a scholarship to play volleyball in college, there are other reasons for playing Club sports. This was an article that came out the week before Christmas.

Many in U.S. out of shape, physical fitness study says
Increasing tendency to be sedentary is taking a toll on Americans' health
Rob Stein
Washington Post
Dec. 21, 2005 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - A large proportion of Americans are out of shape, with teenagers in particular being surprisingly likely to be unfit, according to the first assessment of physical fitness nationwide.

Treadmill tests on a representative sample of more than 5,300 Americans ages 12 to 49 found about one out of every five had poor cardiovascular fitness, including about one-third of teenagers and 14 percent of young adults. Based on the findings, an estimated 7.5 million adolescents and at least 8.5 million adults are out of condition, the researchers found.

The findings for the first time confirm what public health authorities had been fearing: that the increasing tendency to be sedentary may be taking a toll on Americans' fitness, putting them at risk for a host of health problems.

Although many previous studies have found that Americans have been getting less and less exercise in recent years and are becoming increasingly overweight, the study marks the first time researchers have directly measured fitness nationwide.

"This is something that we thought was happening and that we have been concerned about. But no one had ever documented before how poor fitness actually is across the population in the United States," said Mercedes Carnethon of Northwestern University, who led the study being published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "What we found is pretty worrisome."

Physical fitness is one of the best ways to protect health, with people who are not fit facing increased risk for virtually every major health problem, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. The study indicates that a significant proportion of U.S. teenagers and young adults may be destined for heart disease and other ailments unless they start exercising more.

"Individuals with poor fitness are at markedly higher rate of dying," Carnethon said. "We should be very concerned about this."

In fact, the researchers found that the people in the study who scored lowest on the fitness test were likely to already have the major risk factors for the nation's No. 1 killer, heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar levels and being overweight.

"That was one of the most striking findings," Carnethon said. "We were surprised how many people already have significant risk factors."

Most concerning, she said, was that these risk factors were already showing up among a significant proportion of teenagers who were out of shape.

"I'm surprised, in particular, about how high the numbers are among adolescents," Carnethon said. "This is setting the stage for major health problems later in life."

A HUGE thanks to Bob Levardo, our 16's coach who organizes and runs the Zia Fundraising Golf Tournament. The girls that participated earned $4,400.00 from sponsorships, Vegas holes, mulligans and Raffles. Congratulations to all those who participated and thanks again to Bob for all of his efforts. They are greatly appreciated...

The Zia Dozen are on their way. Coach Dale Jones reports, "Well another year has started and we have elected our captains Kelsey & McKenzie. Along with ten other players: Jasmine, Kody, Hailey, Hillary, Shira, Natalie, Madison, Sara, McCall & Carly which form our team that we call The Dozen. Although we haven't scrimmaged yet, we are seeing improvement with every practice. Where we lack in experience we make up for in intensity and hard work. We are looking forward to the Cactus Classic and will see you all there."

If you aren't familiar with the Region website at www.azregionvolleyball.org it's where most or ALL of your questions can be answered regarding upcoming tournaments. For info, go to the title page, put your cursor over the Juniors link at the top of the page, move your cursor down to girls, and then on Tournament info as it pops up. From there, go to your division. You will see where the tournament is being played and if you click on the site, directions should pop up as well. Who is in your pool, what time you play or officiate, they are all in this link.

For information on the Cactus Classic, go to www.clubcactusvolleyball.com

Pools and times should be up by Thursday morning before the tournament.

For information on the Las Vegas Invitational and the Southern California Qualifier, go to www.scvavolleyball.org and pull down the events link, then girls. Vegas and the National Qualifier are both listed.

We want to wish some speedy recoveries to the 15-Later's Brieanne Chrisman who is coming back from a broken arm suffered at her first practice and the 18-Garra's Kelly McDonald coming back from a severe ankle sprain suffered at her first practice. Let’s hope these girls are back on the court soon.