Travel Rules
Junior National Qualifiers are tournaments that require an overnight stay for the weekend and possibly missing school on Thursday, Friday and/or Monday. Dates of play for Junior National Qualifiers may not be confirmed until later in the fall based on when tournaments announce dates and accept teams to play. Players are responsible for paying their own hotel and airfare. Please do not make any travel arrangements until explicitly instructed to do so. Players are expected to stay with a parent and the room will need to be secured by your personal credit card. Each team will have a Team Parent to help coordinate meals and transport, however each parent is expected to help with all of the tasks the Team Parent has for the weekend. The Team Parent will delegate accordingly. Any help is a big help!
Travel fees are collected up front by the club, and all players are responsible whether they travel or not as the cost is shared amongst the team. Players are responsible for their hotel, airfare and food at travel tournaments.
Hotel:
Surfside abides by tournament “Stay and play” policies which require girls to stay in the assigned hotel. Surfside often does not have a choice in which hotel is assigned by the tournament travel agent, and hotels can vary greatly even among teams at the same tournament. All players must stay in the assigned team hotel with their parent(s). IF a parent is unable to travel, her family should arrange for her to stay with a teammate, but the coach must approve this. Families must let the coach AND Director know at the start of the season if they do not plan to use their allotted room for any travel tournament. Failure to do this may result in a fine assessed by the hotel and/or travel agent.
Please do not have players in a room alone without an adult. Any girls going to/from each other’s rooms should travel in groups of 3 or more, or be with an adult.
Transport:
All players/parents provide their own transport to/from the airport to the hotel at any travel tournament. Surfside will provide transport to/from all team meals and play until the final ball drops on the last day of play.
For any team event (meal, activity, play), players will meet their coaches in a designated spot in the hotel to walk as a team to that event. Please walk your daughter to/from this spot for every drop off or pick up. In the evenings, after the final team meal, match or activity, coaches will release the players to their parents care at this spot for the remainder of the evening. Your coach will let you know at that point what time the girls are expected to be ready and in the meeting spot the next day. If a coach must help another team once your play has concluded, a coach may designate a team mom/dad to walk the girls back to the hotel.
On the final day of play, players will be released to their parent(s) at the Convention Center when play/reffing duties have concluded for the tournament. Girls will NOT be walked back to the hotel on the final day after the tournament is over.
Meals/Food:
Team moms/dads have organized food for the girls and coaches during the tournament. Please help and support them whenever needed. While the Convention Center rules will state no outside food allowed, if girls bring their bags outside and put their food in the bottom, they will be able to bring the food back in.
Night Time:
Coaches will provide a curfew each night that players are expected to follow and parents expected to enforce. This may include not only when girls should be in their rooms, but when phones should be turned off and lights out. Please respect the coaches wishes and make sure your daughter is getting proper sleep by following the coaches’ rules.
USAV and Surfside Code of Conduct Travel Policy:
Players are expected to remain with the team at all times during the trip from the first team meal on to the final match/ref match. Players are not to leave the competition venue, the hotel restaurant or any other place the team has gathered without permission/knowledge of the coach and/or team parent. Our players are representing both themselves and the club the entire length of the tournament, and are expected to act in a polite and respectful manner. The possession or use of alcohol, tobacco, weapons, or any illegal activity including but not limited to gambling, will result in immediate dismissal from the tournament and return home at the athlete’s expense.
Travel Tournament format:
Unlike the SCVA single day tournaments where you are playing similar level teams, the first day of a JNQ is “snake seeded,” and you may encounter teams of both significantly greater or weaker ability than your team. As the tournament progresses teams will become more similar in ability. Please also understand that the goal of this tournament is different than regular tournaments and as such, may have play-time changes that girls are not used to. The goal is to “win a bid” to Junior Nationals and the tournament is mostly a “can’t lose” situation or else teams are knocked out of “bid contention.” While teams are still in bid contention, coaches will be looking to keep their team in a good rhythm and preparing for the tougher matches to come. For teams playing in American, National, and USA, once a team is “knocked out of contention,” coaches will be able to ensure more girls get to play. For teams in Open, final finishes still matter for “at large” open bids, so teams must play to win the entire tournament.