Big Weekend Featuring Wisconsin Club Teams in Three States

In Wisconsin, we have tournaments  going on all over the state, but here are three major events that we will be taking a closer look at with Prep Dig Wisconsin over the weekend, starting with the Winter Classic in Milwaukee Saturday and Sunday.  

Winter Classic - Put on by Wisconsin Juniors @ Wisconsin Center- Milwaukee

The Winter Classic put on by Wisconsin Juniors will be the largest tournament going on in the state this weekend.  Held at the Wisconsin Center downtown Milwaukee with 12s-18s and multiple divisions of premier, club, and open there will also be teams coming up from Illinois.  This will be the first chance to get a glimpse at some of the 15s and 16s play.  Saturday will be pool play and Sunday finishing with bracket play.  

Prep Dig will primarily be covering the Open Division with the 15s and 17/18s in the morning and 16s in the afternoon.  

Here are the Top Four Seeds in each Open Division.

15s - Lions 15-1 (IL), FC Elite 15 Navy, Capital Adidas 15, Wisconsin Premier 15 Teal

16s - 1st Alliance 16 Silver, WI Juniors 16-1, Milwaukee Sting 16 Black, Midwest Penguins 16 Black

17s/18s - FC Elite 17 Navy, Fusion 18 Black (IL), Milwaukee Sting 18 Silver, 1st Alliance 17 Black (IL)

Girls Winter Volleyball Championships - McCormick Center - Chicago

This is the first chance for 18s teams to earn a bid to USAV Nationals.  There are Open, USA, and American Divisions.  These will be some of the same divisions that will be at USAV Nationals in Anaheim, CA.  Teams must finish in a certain place in the division they are competing in to earn a bid.  Bids are given based on the number of teams competing.  I will save you the time before I start sounding like the teacher in Charlie Brown on all of the qualifier rules.

Milwaukee Sting Gold and WVA 18 Black will be competing in the Open division, which is the top division.  Sting has the number one overall seed and will have ACAD 18 Red, ESVBC Ninjas (Illinois), and Spiral 18 Under Armour out of Arizona.  WVA has a loaded pool with teams that have traditionally done exceptionally well on the national level with Circle City 18 Purple (Indiana), Michio Chicago 18 National, and MN Select 18-1.

Prep Dig Wisconsin will not be at the Championships, but will be keeping up to date on AES (Advanced Event Systems) which is a great resource for keeping up with all of these tournaments this year.

M1 Scrimmages - National Volleyball Center - Rochester, Minnesota

Milwaukee Sting will be bringing their Gold and Black teams to the M1 Scrimmage at the National Volleyball Center in Rochester, Minnesota.  Think of this as a future NCAA Tournament with some of the top teams from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois.  Sports Performance out of Aurora, IL  will be there with their 18 Elite Team, Tayler Alden will be playing with her VC United Team, and lets not forget about some of our Wisconsin athletes who are playing for Minnesota clubs.  Selena Levendoski out of Clayton will be playing for MN Select 17-1, Anna Wolf of River Falls will be playing for Kokoro 15-1, Halle Olson and Emily Banitt of River Falls will play for Kokoro 16-1 (MN) , while Izzy Barr and Marissa Stockman also of River Falls play for Kokoro 18-1.

With this being the first weekend Division 1 coaches can get out and recruit, this will be a very popular place with top programs getting a look at their current commits and future athletes to add to their program.