Modesto-Stanislaus Newsletter
January 2008

Hopefully you have registered for the 2008 season.  As of January the registration fee will go up to $70.  Many of you have taken advantage of the seasonal membership, that is still available to you, however if you intend to participate in Junior Olympic type events, you must have a regular membership.

The terminology for the different age groups has changed.  The former youth level will now be called JUNIOR and will take in the years 1991-1992.  The former cadet level will now be called the YOUTH and will be 1993 and younger.  Those of you interested in trying out for the respective zone teams, be advised that the tryouts for this will take place in late February and March and only be held on Sundays in respective areas.  For our area the girls tryouts will be at Johansen, whereas the boys tryouts will take place at Tokay.  More information on this as we get closer to those dates.

Junior Olympics will be held in Southern California this summer.  At this time the only thing we know are the dates.  There will be a new level this year, 12 and under boys and girls.  I am really hoping that we will have a great turn out so that we can field teams in those divisions.  With the qualification tournament being the third weekend in June for girls and fourth weekend for boys, we will need to start practicing as soon as possible.

I have posted up all the GENERAL dates and information on the club website within the heading "summer."

NEW THIS YEAR for all tournaments, athletes MUST bring their USWP membership card or they will not be allowed to play.  This is similar to the rules in place for other youth sports.  So, be prepared this year, no card at the tournament, then you will not be allowed to play.

I apologize that I never posted a December newsletter, but there were so many things going on in preparation for the upcoming year.  I will be attending an organization conference in late January in Southern California, I am hoping that I will be able to post dates, etc. for all at that time.

This year we would also like to add the parents email address as well as the athletes.  It has come to our attention that many of the email addresses that we have are those of the athlete, and when we were trying to see the interest for going to New Zealand, many emails never got to the parents who ultimately would be responsible for the "money."  So, we are requesting both emails this year.

The email list that I am using is based upon 2007 membership.  I will continue to use this list until the end of February, at which time I will start using the new updated lists.

Happy New Year

Brent