The NBVL’s mission has always been to provide a high quality, high performance playing atmosphere for the top talent in Canadian cities. This year in Calgary, that will include some of the cities top club volleyball aged athletes as well. At this year’s draft, NBVL teams from Calgary will be selecting from a pool of Emerging Talent athletes to bolster their rosters. We’re excited to offer this opportunity and to be a part of developing the next generation of beach volleyball talent in Calgary. If things go smoothly, we’ll look to roll Emerging Talent out to other cities in the future as well.
What is Emerging Talent?
Anyone born in September 2004 or later can be chosen as an Emerging Talent athlete. We want to encourage more young players to see what they’re capable of on the beach, and experience what training and competing looks like alongside some of the best beach volleyball player’s in the city. Players selected to a team through the Emerging Talent portion of the 2023 Draft will get an official NBVL team uniform and be eligible to play for their team during the season should they be called upon to do so.
Emerging Talent Combine and Draft
The first step to being a part of the NBVL is registering (individually) for the 2023 NBVL Draft. Registration is currently available at NBVL Registration 2023 | NBVL, and registered athletes will automatically be entered into the Draft as well as a Combine tournament to showcase athlete talents in either a king/queen of the beach or king/queen of the court format, both Draft and Combine are happening on April 15th. We know club aged players are pretty busy this time of year, so the Combine tournament is not mandatory in order to be entered into the draft. That being said, we have made sure it doesn’t conflict with any 17u or 18u Volleyball Alberta events, and the entire tournament will be held in under 4 hours, in order to minimize any chance of overtraining or injury, so if any E.T. athletes are available to play on April 15th, starting at 9am, it’s a great chance to showcase your skills to any NBVL teams that will be there looking for who they want on their teams.
The draft will take place in the afternoon/evening following the Combine on the 15th, and the entire 3rd and 4th rounds of the draft will be dedicated only for Emerging Talent athletes. These means that all 8 teams in the 2023 season will be selecting at least 1 male and 1 female athlete born after September 2004.
Emerging Talent Role
Emerging Talent athletes can be used as much or as little as the team needs. Players will receive the same uniform as their teammates, and all teams will be encouraged to invite their E.T. athletes to any training sessions they may have. During match days, while E.T. players are not guaranteed to play in any matches, they are eligible to suit up when needed and are always welcome sit courtside with their teammates during the games. The schedule is also flexible, so for any athletes that also get selected to Provincial Teams for indoor or beach, or have any other summer vacations or commitments planned, it’s perfectly ok to miss some of the NBVL action as well. We want to encourage our young athletes to play as much as possible this summer, but not to feel like the NBVL is all or nothing. It should be something that can be used by each of the athletes to grow on the sand, and enjoy the rest of their summer activities as well.
Call for Young Athletes
If you are a volleyball athlete in or around Calgary born after September 2004, and have played or want to play some competitive beach, then we encourage you to register for the NBVL Calgary before the April 13th deadline. It’s a way to push yourself further in beach volleyball, and to have a chance to play and train amongst Calgary’s best. Registering gives you the optional entry into the Combine tournament, and entry into the 2023 draft with a chance to be a part of one of the NBVL’s 8 teams. What is there to lose?
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky
