All 40 regions of USA Volleyball use a player’s birthday, not grade, to determine what age-level the player can participate in during the club season. That means a player won’t play on an 8th-grade team. They will play on a 14 and Under or 15 and Under team. Adhering to these age definitions is a requirement, resulting in uniform/consistent age divisions across the 40 regions of USA Volleyball.

Sometimes a player’s birthday will require them to compete on an older team than their same-grade peers. Because of this, North Country Region has decided to allow junior club directors the opportunity to request an AGE WAIVER so that a player who is in this position can be placed on a roster of players who are in the player's grade but are in a younger age bracket.  Each club makes their own policy on if they will accept a waivered player. Each tournament director makes their own policy on accepting grade teams.

·       Waivered Player is a junior player whose birthdate places him/her in an age division older than their current grade.

The Club Director must email North Country Region to request that  a player be considered for an age waiver so that he/she can placed on younger team/  a *GRADE team. 

Email To: NorthCountryRegion@ncrusav.org

Request must contain ALL the following information:

• Club Name
• Club Code 
• Team Name that will be a *grade team
• Player Name
• Player Date of Birth
• Player Current Grade
• Player Uniform Number

A “Club” that has a Junior Player, whose date of birth places them in an age division older than their current grade (Age Classification Guidelines), is eligible to register that team under the following options:
REGISTER THE ENTIRE TEAM AT THE DIVISION OF THE OLDEST PLAYER

•    This option is required if the team wishes to play outside of NCR‐sanctioned events.

REGISTER ENTIRE TEAM AS A “GRADE” TEAM

• This allows the team to play at the current grade in NCR sanctioned events, excluding the NCR Regional National Bid Tournament. Grade teams that wish to play in other USA Volleyball Regions, participation would be at the discretion of each tournament director.
• If a “grade” team later decides to play in the NCR Regional National Bid Tournament, USA Volleyball National Championships and/or a Qualifier, they would have the following options:
• An * will be placed next to team names that are registered as a grade team.  

1. Keep the waivered player on the roster and register in events based on age classification (play up).
2. Register and pay team fee for a new team (with a new name).
3. Submit a new roster with all waivered junior players removed.
4. The newly formed team may not use their win‐loss results while they were a “grade” team.
5. The new team’s rank will automatically be placed in the next consecutive order within that age division of the club.