Club Information 2024

Overview

Welcome to 2024! It is a huge year as we are celebrating a major milestone of 25 years in Antigonish. We are so excited to have your families celebrate this year with us.  

Please take the time to read the following sections carefully as our processes have changed since last year.

What’s New

Since COVID shut us down in 2020, we have been successful in rebuilding and re-establishing Stoírm as a positive, inclusive, and respected club both on and off the court. Last year we moved back into a more competitive atmosphere, and since then we have acknowledged that we need to look for ways to create opportunities for more of our athletes to potentially play at a higher level.

For our Female Athletes (14U-18U):

In discussions with other clubs and given the way Volleyball Nova Scotia ranks teams via their Seeding and Super Series tournaments that we participate in, we have decided to move away from our own designation of teams as T1 or T2 teams. Moving forward, all Stoírm teams from the 13U-18U age levels are considered Travel Teams, where we will all be competing and representing the club at tournaments across the province and at Provincials in Halifax in April.

To support this, and to support the competition level of all our female athletes as best we can, and considering the number of coaches we have and facility times, this year have introduced two evaluation camps; one for the 17-18U age level, and another for the 14U-16U age level. All athletes looking to play at one of these age levels were required to attend at least one of these evaluation camps. Due to our increasing size and carrying capacity we were limited to the number of new athletes we could welcome to the club at these age levels but were excited to be able to welcome a handful of new athletes.

Athletes in the 14U-16U age group were permitted to attend the 17U-18U evaluation camp, however they were not guaranteed a spot on an older team. If they were not selected, they attended the 14U-16U evaluation camp. 13U athletes are permitted to attend an evaluation camp only if they have previously played one full year of club volleyball at the 13U level (see below for information for our 13U program and our 12U development program).  

We feel this new format will provide an opportunity for all our athletes to compete at their respective development levels within the sport, while providing an appropriately challenging environment for them to grow as athletes both on and off the court. 

13U Girls team (Athletes born on September 1, 2010 – December 31, 2011)

Based on the success of the 12U development stream last year, all previous 12U athletes who may still be of 12U age are invited to move up to the 13U age level. We will be rostering 2 teams at this level and are following 2023’s format of registration on SportHub. We will open our registration up to last year’s group first and will then fill remaining spots on a first come, first serve basis, followed by a waitlist. Unfortunately, we can only carry 24 athletes between the two teams. The maximum number of athletes on each roster is 12 and we want to ensure that all athletes will receive an equal amount of court time. We would love to take everyone, but we are restricted by coach availability and facility allotment.

This age group will participate in 2 practices/week, 2-3 weekend tournaments and provincials in April.

Development Stream (12U girls and boys; Athletes born September 1, 2011 – December 31, 2012)

We will be running this program again for 2024. This will be a 1x/week program (usually Sunday mornings) again from mid/end January-April. This is not a travel team, however we hope to be able to organize some friendly scrimmages later in the season.

Stoirm Boys

We will be registering an 18U and 16U boys team and will be running a development stream for 13U and younger.  Note: The Boys divisions are still growing across the province. As such, VNS does not offer a 13U/15U/17U age group.

Leadership Stream:

Leadership and Service are values that Stoírm leans into with all their participants. Without these, we simply wouldn’t have the club. Last year we created a Leadership Stream with our senior athletes called Stoírm Buddies. Part of the responsibilities as a Stoírm athlete was to participate each Sunday morning with our 12U development group. This was incredibly successful, and we are looking forward to continuing this program.

Beginning this year, our Stoírm Buddies program will be reserved for our 18U athletes, where they will be required to complete the SafeSport training module (45min), which will provide them an NCCP coaching number. Younger athletes at the 16U level who are interested are encouraged to reach out. Scheduling will be sorted in the new year. We are also encouraging our athletes ages 15 and up to pursue their refereeing certifications if this is an avenue of interest. We have had a surge in the last couple of years with new referees, which is absolutely fantastic, and incredibly helpful for us, our neighboring clubs, and VNS with regards to game and tournament organizing.
At the end of the season we will provide a certificate for these athletes acknowledging their leadership and service back to the club.

Key Season Dates

Practices for all groups will begin on/week of Sunday, January 14th.

The following dates are applicable to our teams. Location for the 14U seeding tournament is tbd while NS Championships will be held in Halifax.  13U tourneys will be announced once they become available.

Registration

Who can Register?

Once your athlete has been evaluated and placed on a roster, you will be able to then register through https://mysporthub.ca/. If you are new, please take your time to acquaint yourself with this platform and payment process* (online via the SportHub platform or e-transfer). If you need assistance with registration, please reach out to admin@mysporthub.ca or stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com.

Fees this season for all travel teams at the 13U-18U age categories will be $375: $325 + $50 (refundable jersey deposit). These fees are the same as 2023.

The Development stream will also remain at $125, which includes a Stoirm numbered jersey that this group keeps.

Please note that you will not be asked to pay the registration fee until registration has been confirmed. Families can pay at any time after confirmation with the deadline being February 3rd.

Please no phone calls or social media messages to coaches or board members – please direct questions to our email, stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com.  

How do I Register?

Registration will be through https://mysporthub.ca/ between January 10th (noon) and January 21st (4pm). If you are new, please take your time to acquaint yourself with this platform and payment process*. If you need assistance with registration, please reach out to admin@mysporthub.ca or stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com.

*Please note that you will not be asked to pay the registration fee until registration has been confirmed. Families can pay at any time after confirmation with the deadline being February 3rd. 

Fees this season will be as follows:  

Girls:
13U-18U Travel Teams: $375 ($325 + $50 refundable jersey deposit)

Development Stream: $125

Payment

There are no family rates for additional children.

Please follow this link for information on funding programs to help support the cost of registration if applicable: https://www.antigonishvolleyball.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Athlete-Registration-Funding.pdf

For the 2024 season, Stoírm will accept payment via the Sporthub Platform, or e-transfer to stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com

Note that payment is not required until registration status has been confirmed, after registration closes.  You will receive an email and see the status change on your Sport Hub account when you are confirmed. Be sure to keep an eye on your junk mail, and mark us as a “safe sender” so future emails are not missed.

When you have received the confirmation email indicating you can now pay, please follow these steps if you are paying via the SportHub platform:

Payment can now be made online right from your Sport Hub profile! Log in and scroll down your family profile page until you see the tabs and select the "Fees" tab. Beside the Stoirm registration and fee you will see a big blue button called "PAYTODAY".

Click this, and a credit card portal will be opened for you. 

Note: Review the Terms&Conditions of PayToday online payment portal here, anytime! 

We will also accept e-transfers to stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com Please add in the memo section the first and last name of the Athlete. 

If you have any questions please contact stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com and/or admin@mysporthub.ca 

Teams and Scheduling

Teams have been notified of practice times and locaions. 

Note that we have gym times currently booked at Saint Andrew Junior School (SAJS), Antigonish Education Center (AEC), East Antigonish Education Center (EAEC) and École acadienne de Pomquet (POM)

Without the use of each of these locations we would not be able to accommodate the level of interest we see on an annual basis.

Fundraising & Welcome Back Serve-a-Thon

We are currently working on organizing our 2nd Annual Serve-a-Thon! This was such a fun Welcome Back event and Fundraiser, so we're doing it again on Sunday, January 28th in lieu of pratices that day. Save the date!

We are also part of Sport Nova Scotia’s SportSplit monthly 50/50 draw via Rafflebox (same platform as the provincial Firemen’s 50/50). It is a monthly, province-wide, multisport, online 50/50 raffle. We will work to push this platform on our social media channels this season.

To buy tickets, go to www.sportsplit.ca, click “Buy Tickets Now” in the upper right-hand corner, choose your entry. At the end of the Billing Information section, you will see a drop-down menu titled “I would like to support:” and you can choose Antigonish Stoírm Volleyball. Thanks in advance for your support!