Zia Captures Region Open Title!!!

The Zia 18-Alliance behind coach Jami Rolfes and Giovanna Melo shook off the loss of two starters and finished what they started by topping the Club Red 18's team in three sets and winning the 18 Open Championship at ASU on May 12th.

Despite playing without All-State performers Sarah Reaves and Brittany Clark who were competing in the State Track championships, the team hunkered together and, as Rolfes commented, "played like a team" and won Zia's first Open Championship.

The 15-Elite team also had cause to celebrate as they took the silver division title in the 16-Open division, a week after winning the 16's Championship division, with a win over Peoria rival Arrowhead 16-Ravens team to become the #1 15's team in all of Arizona.

Congratulations to all of these athletes, and all of the athletes and coaches who helped make this season the best in Zia's history.

FitLife Offering Summer Volleyball Strength and Conditioning Camps

Zia's partners in fitness want to take your athlete into the next level. They are offering summer camps designed specifically for volleyball. For information, contact Andrew at 623-776-8838 or download their summer camp brochure at http://www.azfitlife.com/pdf/Camps_Brochure.pdf

Zia's Influence Felt at the AVP

Zia had quite a presence at the recent Glendale Westgate AVP Open held May 10-13.

Several Zia athletes were volunteers at the event, including Ally Kohlhase who got the honor of being on Stadium Court both Saturday AND Sunday. Katie Rutherford, Dana Gundrum and Jordan Smith were also there to help the players and tournament.

Former Zia athletes including Audie Gonzales, Lauren Stanley and Patrice Erb (left) were on hand as tournament statisticians for the three days. Patrice was chosen to keep stats for both the men's and women's finals on Sunday while Audie and Lauren were asked to assist in the tournament the next week at Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Before the event started on Thursday evening, the AVP and the Arizona Region hosted a free clinic for the first 75 players to sign up. Zia had a few in the crowd at this clinic taught by the likes of AVP standout Elaine Youngs, Liz Masakayen and Chrissy Zartman. Kelsey Shumway (right) enjoyed the instruction.

Coyote Camp More Than Half Full Already !!!

The 8 th annual Zia Coyote Camp, held at Centennial High School will be held July 30-August 1 st, the week before most high school tryouts.

Again, in addition to Zia coaches, players from college programs, including Arizona State University will be the clinicians.

We urge you to get your registration in early. The camp has sold out the past three years. To download a brochure, go to the Zia website and click on the camps link. To date, the Underclassman camp is 51% full and the Upperclassman camp is 48% full. To see if we've gotten your registration, go to the Zia site and click on camps. A list of the accepted registrants are listed by camp.

2007 Arizona Region High Performance Camp

The Arizona Region, in conjunction with Phoenix College, will again support the USA National High Performance Program with their 2007 High Performance Camp. After last year's successful venture, and by popular demand, the Region's HP Camp has been expanded. For complete information including dates, times and registration form, go to http://www.azregionvolleyball.org/juniors/camps/index.html

Congratulations Graduates!

Two of Zia's finest, former Coach Kim Weeks and our 16-SWAT team coach Nicole Morton graduated from ASU in May. Congratulations to both of these exemplary young women on their pursuits on and off the court. Also congratulations to Racheal Ramsey who graduated from Grand Canyon University.

Congratulations also go out to those Zia girls who graduated high school and are moving on to college; Sarah Reaves, Kim Moses, Robin Law, Kelsey Painter and Brittany Clark. Well done ladies.

Also congratulations to all of our 8th graders who have readied themselves for the High School ranks.

All-Zia final in Inaugural Mother/Daughter 16's Tourney

Daryn Serna and Mom Randi outlasted Tayler Bell and Mom Stacy to win the 16's division of the inaugural Mother's Day Mother/Daughter tournament held May 27 th at Victory Lanes.

Daryn and Randi went undefeated in their pool play and held off a furious rally by the Bell's to take the gold medal, 25-21. Congratulations to both teams on a high level final.

The Finer Points volleyball clinics have been announced for the upcoming summer of 2007. All of the camps are 3-3.5 hours in length and are taught by current or former D1 college volleyball players.

The cost of each camp is $40 and they are all held in the air conditioned gymnasium at First Baptist Church, located at 81 st Ave. and Cactus. Only 12 athletes are taken per camp. Some of the skills in this year's camps include setting, ball handling, libero training and outside hitting.

For a list of the clinics, times and clinicians, go to http://www.finerpointsvball.com

Open Gyms Are Open to All

Feel free to attend any of the open gyms listed below. These are open gyms for incoming freshman all the way up to incoming seniors and you DO NOT have to attend only the schools in which you will be attending. You can attend them all. Usually there is a waiver that needs to be filled out by may be different with each school.

Centennial High School Open gyms have already begun and are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. till 11 a.m. through the middle of July.

Cactus High School 's open gyms start June 11 th and are on Mondays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. till 9:30 a.m. and will go through the end of July.

Ironwood High School 's open gyms have already begun and are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will go through the July 12 th.

Peoria High School 's open gyms have also begun already and are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. till 9:30 a.m. through the second week in July, with the week of June 11 th not available due to a camp in the gym.

Zia Making Waves in Summer Beach Program!

Katie Rutherford is spending the summer at the beach!

Well, not the ones you might be thinking of.

She has worn a gold and silver medal in her first two 16's tournaments in the Arizona Region Junior Beach program going on all summer.

She took silver in the first 16's tournament with fellow Zia-Elite team mate Holly Pavoggi and then teamed with Ahwatukee's Betsi Metter to capture the gold medal on May 31 st in the program's second 16's tournament and a field of 31 teams!

Nikki Burke and Daryn Serna have collected a 4th and a 5th place in the first two 16's tournaments and are in the top 5 in points for that division.

Leah Bradley teamed with 14-year old Dana Gundrum to take 3rd at the May 31st 16's tournament in their first tournament together.

Kristy Friesen and Madison Orton took third place in the first 16's scrum held on May 17th. Allison Culley and Tayler Bell took 5th in the May 31 st tourney.

Alee Eaton and Michele Anderson took fifth at the first 18's tournament held May 24th.

Congratulations to all of our athletes.

Summer Camps are Here…

For information on camps and clinics at a national and local level, go to the camp link on the Zia website. Most of the brochures can be printed off these links. While we don't recommend any one camp over another, we encourage you to print out the different brochures to help make the best choices for you.

When looking at camps, some good questions to ask or things to look for would be:

• How many touches on the ball will my athlete be getting? If you are in a camp with 40 kids on a court, figure the touches will be very limited. Players learn the game by playing and getting touches. One touch every three minutes is probably not a good investment.

• What are they teaching? Some camps teach just basics while others, especially college camps, tend to teach the same techniques they do their own players.

• Is the camp drill driven or play driven? Some camps are drill after drill after drill. For some athletes, this is fine. For some, they want to play.

• Does it fit your budget, your timeline, vacation plans, etc?

• Who is the coach, or lead coaches? Because a coach is listed doesn't necessarily mean (s)he is going to be working with your athlete.

• If you are interested in attending a certain college in the future, it is a great idea to go to their camp. It's a great way to get seen by their coach, learn the campus, talk to the athletes, etc.

Thank You All!

We've heard it for 9 years.

You can't be a successful program unless you are an expensive program.

You can't be a successful program unless you recruit hardcore.

You can't be a successful program unless you practice 3-4 days a week.

You can't be a successful program unless you forbid your athletes to play other sports.

You can't be a successful program unless you travel to countless out of state qualifiers.

You can't be a successful program unless you train over the summer and go to Nationals every year.

We've heard it for 9 years, and guess what…

You can be a successful program without all of the above.

Our 18-Alliance team is the best team in Arizona. Our 15-Elite team is the best 15's team in Arizona, and gold medalists in the 16-Championship division. Our 16 Swat, 17-Pyros, 13-Killaz, 15-Set to kill and 14-One Hit Wonders spent most of or all of the season in the Region's top 5. Our 12's finished 6 th at Regionals.

All of our college eligible players that wanted to play at the next level are. And even a few juniors have already committed to play at the next level.

We are very conscious of the fact that there are many other places for your athlete(s) to play, more in fact this year than ever before. So first and foremost, thank you for being a part of Zia. We hope it was as productive and beneficial to you and your athlete as it was for us.

We aren't rocket scientists. We had a game plan from the first day and we have stuck with it. Hire the best coaches, give them what they need, and good athletes will recognize that and come to play. Be honest and upfront about costs and information, and treat people with respect whether they are parents or athletes. Above all other beliefs though, is that THE ATHLETES ALWAYS COME FIRST!!!

Over the past 3-4 seasons, we have shown ourselves to be continually one of the top clubs in all of Arizona. Not just in performance, coaching and overall training, but in the intangibles; the professionalism our girls show, whether it's officiating or conducting themselves in public, our parental behavior at tournaments and of course, Zia's overall reputation in the Arizona Region.

We want you to know we will continue to offer you our best.

• We will go out and get the best coaches available for next season.

• We will continue to offer our sand program and our Junior's program and keep you informed about other opportunities, like the AVP and special camps and clinics.

• We will continue to elicit your opinions on our end of season survey and use the information, good and bad, to make our program even higher quality.

• We will continue to keep our website as a source of all volleyball information for you, and we will continue to update you on happenings within the club with our ZiaPdate e-newsletter.

• We will continue to work to keep your costs down, and retain the quality of the program you've come to expect from us.

• And we will, above all else, keep your athletes well being and progress as our highest priority. The athletes always come first.

Next year, Zia celebrates our 10 th anniversary, making us one of only a handful of clubs in Arizona to achieve that milestone. We have you to thank for that. We appreciate each and every one of you and we hope we will see you again next season.

Enjoy your summer.

Marideth Nelson and Eric Hodgson
Club Directors, Zia Volleyball

Thank You Bakers!

Our scheduler/Boy's guru Jenny Croxford wanted to send a Thank You shout out to all the Parents that baked some goodies as a thank you for the staffs of the schools we use for practice. The schools were very appreciative and very surprised. Thanks to all those that participated.

USA Volleyball Introduces New Newsletter

A newsletter dedicated to Junior Volleyball throughout the Region's of USA Volleyball is being introduced. To view the newsletter, click here.

To subscribe to this, and other newsletters that USA Volleyball are not publishing, click here.