The Heartland Cup was formed in 2017 by Nebraska Prep Volleyball in an attempt to solve the conundrum facing local club teams when it comes to weekend tournaments.
For several years now, many clubs have started splitting their time between JVA and USAV events, which decreased the number of teams playing in local USAV tournaments and decreasing the overall competition level of those tournaments. As a result, what you have seen in recent years for the local USAV tournaments is teams registering then pulling out of a tournament because of a lack of competition, younger teams playing “up” an age group or more just to find good competition and many other issues. Gold tournaments no longer are consistently high-quality tournaments and these local USAV tournaments also required in many cases athletes to play anywhere from 10-15 sets in a very condensed time period, which is much more than athletes should be playing.
With the creation of the Heartland Cup, Nebraska Prep Volleyball has created a tournament system which is independent – meaning it is not affiliated with JVA nor USAV – which allows all teams to participate. It also brings consistency to scheduling, so teams know they are going to get guaranteed quality competition on those weeks. Also, by utilizing a two-day schedule, athletes will not be over-extended in a condensed period of time – creating a safer and better environment for the players. When teams sign-up for all three weeks of the Heartland Cup (in either the Open or Club divisions) the cost is actually cheaper than signing for for 3 Gold or 3 Silver USAV local tournaments.
The Heartland Cup format also creates a better recruiting environment for the teams and players since college coaches know there will be a multitude of standout players and teams on hand. The Heartland Cup is also integrated with University Athlete, a recruiting software package college coaches at all levels utilize at major tournaments, such as President’s Day, USAV Qualifiers, AAU Nationals, etc.
We are looking forward to an outstanding start in 2018 and growing year and year!