B.J. Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 6, 2008) – USA Volleyball has announced the schedule for the 2008 edition of the popular USA Beach Junior Tour. The tour is produced and operated by the Elevation Group of Companies and is sponsored by Spalding and Hilton.

The 2008 tour will include 10 exciting open events from coast to coast for all boys and girls two-person teams with players ages 10 to 20. There will also be an open championship, a tour championship, an international selection camp and a performance camp.

“Heading into its third season, the USAV Beach Junior Tour continues to grow and send more players into our beach athlete pipeline,” USA Volleyball CEO Doug Beal said. “Seeing this schedule in February should make young players anxious for summer. Some of the beach athletes who participate in this summer’s junior tour might someday fill the spots of those who will be playing at the 2008 Olympic Games in August.”

More than 800 athletes participated in the second edition of the USA Beach Junior Tour in 2007, which is produced and promoted by the Elevation Group headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

“It has been our pleasure to promote and build the Junior Tour on behalf of USA Volleyball,” said Steve Lindecke, Elevation Group Managing Partner. “We work hard to provide fun, entertaining, well-organized and instructional tournaments. In addition, we strongly believe that success at an individual tournament should lead to bigger and better opportunities for achievement. The structure of the tour supports this effort: Regional Open, U.S. Junior Open Championships, Coastal Championships and Tour Championships.”

New sites for the 2008 USAV Beach Junior Tour include Phoenix, Ariz. (June 14-15), Siesta Key, Fla. (July 26-27) and Santa Cruz, Calif. (Aug. 3).

The 2008 USA Beach Junior Tour opens with the Selection Camp, on June 6-8 in El Segundo, Calif., for experienced beach players in the under-16, under-18 and under-20 divisions. It will be used to identify teams for the FIVB junior (under-21) beach world championship on Sept. 3-7 in Brighton, England and the FIVB youth (under-19) beach world championship on July 30-Aug. 3 in The Hague, Netherlands.

“The USA Beach Junior Tour is the cornerstone of our beach development program,” said Ali Wood, USA Volleyball’s Director of Beach Programs. “Pro beach standouts Sean Rosenthal, Aaron Wachtfogel, and Tracy Lindquist are all past participants of USAV junior beach events, and it is our plan to continue to grow youth- and junior-level programming in an effort to maintain U.S. dominance of the beach game and discover future champions.”

On July 15-18, there will be a beach performance camp, also in El Segundo. This camp will give players at all skill levels a chance to hone their skills on the sand with help from some of USA Volleyball’s best beach coaches.

The two not-to-be-missed major events on the tour will be the USA Beach Junior Manhattan Open Championships on July 19 in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and the USA Beach Junior Tour Championships on Aug. 16 in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Online registration for USAV Beach Junior Tour tournaments will open March 1 at www.usabeach.org. Please contact Elevation’s Tour Director Denny Lennon (dlennon@elevationgrp.com, 310-216-7901) for more information.

Click here to view the full 2008 USA Beach Junior Schedule.