AVP Releases Grass, Junior and Semi-Pro Tour Schedules
Irvine, CA, February 9, 2022: Less than a week ago, the AVP alluded, in an auspicious Instagram post, that the summer was about to get a lot longer. And on February 4, it was confirmed that the summer did indeed get substantially longer, as 16 events, the most in a single season since 2009, populate a schedule that will stretch from May to November.
And if the summer is looking a good deal longer, its also about to become a good deal fuller. AVP America, host/partner to thousands of volleyball events across the United States every year, will continue to fill out the schedule for the amateurs, juniors, and a booming rising crop of professionals.
So successful, in fact, have the largest events under the AVP America umbrella been that seven previous AVP America events were elevated to the AVP Tour Series, and another two were promoted to the AVP Pro Series.
"We were left with a big void of AVPNext Events," AVP America Director Wayne Gant said. "Which only made room for more."
Already, AVP America has established new AVPNext events, featuring at least $20,000 in prize money, in San Antonio, Texas (May 21-22), Racine, Wisconsin (July 16-17), Seaside, Oregon (August 13-14), and Laguna Beach, California (September 10-11). One, potentially two, more events are in the works to be added. That, of course, goes alongside the $50,000 in prize money per event for the AVP Tour Series, which is adopting the format of the former AVPNext Gold Events for, at least, this upcoming season.
"It's definitely getting busier, which is our goal," Gant said. "I think things are moving quite well and the future is very bright. Players coming up through the ranks now will really have something to look forward to in the coming years."
And that's not just on the beach, either. It was only two years ago that the AVP began expanding its programming to include the large-scale grass events as a featured element of it's amateur tour. Those featured events included the traditional grass mainstays the Pottstown Rumble and the famed Clash and a few others, but still, there were limited opportunities for grass players to compete for major purses. Now, the Grass Tour features six massive events: The Clash ($20,000), Pottstown ($70,000), The Dig ($20,000), The Smash ($25,000), Greenville Open ($20,000), and Grass Nationals ($25,000) -- $180,000 in total prize money.
Opportunities abound for the juniors, too. Six events, projected to begin in Muskegon, MI and concluding in late November in Clearwater Beach, Florida, fill out a Juniors Tour that will stop in five different states, and the coveted Junior Nationals will be held in Hermosa Beach, California, July 5-10.
In between all of this the AVP Gold, Pro, and Tour Series, the AVPNext Tour, the Grass Tour, the Juniors Tour are all of the usual AVP America haunts, as well.
There is the AVP America Big Money Tour, adding eight confirmed events and another $45,000 in prize money. Gant expects that number to swell as well, projecting potentially 20 tournaments with up to $200,000 total in prize money.
Non-existent is the weekend that does not feature outdoor volleyball of some kind.
Indeed, this summer is a long one, in the best of ways, for beach and grass volleyball players.
And its a full one.
~Travis Mewhirter @trammew