Prep Dig Sizzle High School Tournament Coming To Iowa
Prep Dig is coming to Coralville! The home of the Iowa Girls State Volleyball Tournament where they will host a high school summer tournament August 6-7 at the Xtream Arena Green State Fieldhouse. For those Iowa teams, this is a chance to start and end your at Xtream.
What Is The Prep Dig Sizzle?
The Prep Dig Sizzle started in the summer of 2020 coming out of Covid at the Community First Champion Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. This was a way for teams to play matches in a very spacious area where we took extreme measures to assure the safety of the athletes.
We will be running our fifth “Sizzle” in Appleton this summer where we will have 32 JV teams and 62 Varsity teams with JV taking place Monday, July 15 and Varsity being a two day event July 16-17. This is an event for high school teams. We have known teams to make this into a compete and bond type event to build some momentum heading into the high school season.
Iowa Is Up Next!
The Prep Dig Iowa Sizzle will take place at the Green State Fieldhouse connected to Xtream Arena where the Iowa Girls State Volleyball Tournament is held the first week of November. This area is full of restaurants, hotels, shops, and is also the home to the University of Iowa Women's Volleyball team where they play their home matches. Green State Fieldhouse is the practice facility for Iowa Rockets Volleyball club and All Iowa Attack Basketball. Xtream Arena is in the backyard of the University of Iowa where it is less than three miles from Kinnick Stadium. The event will take place Tuesday, August 6 and Wednesday, August 7.
What Is The Format?
Teams will have three matches on day one and three matches on day two. At the Iowa Sizzle, we will most likely not have a bracket. Why no bracket? We have taken a different approach at this event. The summer is about giving your team a chance to see new things and the last things teams want to do is play a team they traditionally see in the summer league for the fifth time or travel two hours to play the high school that is ten miles down the road. Our goal is to create matchups with teams who are for sure not in the same conference and do our best to avoid teams who would see each other in regionals. Iowa City Regina vs. Hinton? Let's Do It. Green Bay Notre Dame Academy vs. Cedar Rapids Xavier, bring on the Catholic school battle. Take a state tournament team in Iowa vs. a state team from Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, or Nebraska? We are here for it.
When designing a schedule we value the most appropriate competition level as well as travel. In our Wisconsin Sizzle we have had teams from four to five hours away. We can schedule those teams later in the day on day one and earlier in the day on day two. When the time gets closer to the tournament, we will send out schedule requests to best accommodate your travel plans. This event is open to teams from any state.
Oh! And we hire varsity officials!
Teams will be playing three matches where there would be a break between match one or match two. Teams are in the facility for four to maybe five hours. There will be no officiating assignments besides having some parents volunteer to keep score. We schedule teams in waves so they aren't spending a nice summer day in the gym for 8-10 hours. We have done this the past four years and have found a schedule that is efficient for teams involved.
Will Prep Dig Provide Coverage?
That's what we do! We will have Prep Dig Scouts in the house where they will be tweeting, posting, pictures, video, and articles. This is a great way for scouts to get a glimpse of what they can see during the high school season. As a scout myself, this has been a great way to find some hidden gems and get some new athletes on our radar. Being the Prep Dig Iowa scout I am able to see a lot of what will happen this upcoming high school season - even I want to start and end my season at Xtream Arena :)
Registration for All Sizzle Events Open March 1
