Highlands Volleyball Club

Program Goal:

        As a Junior Olympic program, we are dedicated to the development of young athletes in and around the Somerset County, PA area. 

     The primary goal of Highlands Volleyball Club is to promote the development of volleyball skills and social values such as teamwork, self-confidence, and sportsmanship . Through a dedicated staff of volunteer coaches, we strive to create a competitive environment in which our athletes can flourish, and prepare them for competition at the collegiate level, if this is their goal.

A Bit of History:

      With the support of the Somerset Power Volleyball Association, the program originated in 1993 with 18 athletes under the name SPVA Juniors.  Our original uniforms were gray tops with flannel shorts.  In 1996, the club name was changed to Highlands Volleyball Club.  In 1997, we changed our affiliation to the Ohio Valley Region from the Keystone Region in an effort to reduce the travel distance to tournaments and increase the competition level.  Through the years we have continued to expand our program from 2 teams in 1993 to as may as 13 teams. In 2009, we returned to the Keystone Region and began an affiliation with the American Athletic Union (AAU) in an effort to increase the opportunities we can provide our athletes.

        As we have grown, so has our success.  In our early years, we did very little winning. The first tournament we won, we received a trophy which the girls took apart and each took a piece as a momento. Many of our girls leave the program now with a drawer full of t-shirts from their winnings.

        In 2003, our club captured its first Ohio Valley Region Championship winning the 17's bracket in Columbus. Since then, we have won region championships at a variety of ages in both the Keystone and Ohio Valley Regions, including the 2009 and 2010 - 18 and Under Club Championship. Our teams have also won age level championships at the East Coast Championships, at the time the largest tournament held east of the Mississippi River.

       But our greatest success has come in our ability to have athletes move on and continue their careers at the collegiate level. Since 1993, over 75 of our athletes have had the opportunity to play collegiately at all levels.