LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL (November 7, 2013) – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and Festival Sports have joined forces for one of the most prestigious junior volleyball events in the country - the Volleyball Festival.   The partnership brings together two organizations that annually conduct some of the largest junior volleyball events in the country.

“We welcome the Volleyball Festival to the AAU family,” says Henry Forrest, AAU President and CEO.  “We are excited to partner with an organization that is rich in tradition of high quality volleyball events on the West Coast,” added Dr. Roger J. Goudy, AAU Secretary and National Volleyball Chair.  “The Volleyball Festival has been a leader in the volleyball community and we look forward to the opportunity to work with them for many years to come to offer outstanding volleyball tournaments together for developmental through high performance players.”

Since 1984, thousands of junior players have experienced participating in the Volleyball Festival.   The Festival, known for creating the format used by most tournaments today, allows for equal playing time for teams at all ability levels.  The 2014 Volleyball Festival will be held in Phoenix, AZ on June 26-29, 2014 at the Phoenix Convention Center.  In addition, the Festival Fiesta Classic will be held on February 15-17, 2014 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ.   Both events are AAU sanctioned events.

About Festival Sports

Festival Sports (Sugar Land, TX) is a youth sports services organization committed to inspiring, educating, and unifying athletes, coaches, and parents. Its premier event, the Volleyball Festival (Volleyball-Festival.com), has been dedicated to expanding opportunities of young women athletes since 1984. Now in its 31st year, the Volleyball Festival serves over 10,000 athletes annually and is part of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame. Festival Sports will hosts over 200 teams in the annual Festival Fiesta Classic (festivalfiestaclassic.com) at the University of Phoenix Stadium. The founders of Festival Sports, Bernice and Dr. David Epperson, are members of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Since 1999, the education division of Festival Sports, Promise of Good Sports, has conducted innovative parent education programs to school and youth sports organizations throughout the United States. In 2007, Dr. Epperson was named by the Institute for International Sport as one of America's 100 most influential sports educators.  For additional information, please visit www.volleyball-festival.com.

About AAU

Founded in 1888, the AAU is the largest multi-sport, non-profit, volunteer organizations in the United States dedicated solely to the development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.  The AAU philosophy of “Sports For All, Forever” is shared by nearly 700,000 member athletes, coaches and volunteers as the grassroots level.  The AAU youth sports program provided opportunities for millions of youth to participate in 32 sport programs at the local, regional and national levels.   The AAU Volleyball program conducts the AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships held annually at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, FL.   With over 1900 teams, the event has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest volleyball tournament in the world.  For additional information, please visit www.aauvolleyball.org.

AAU National Office:  Debby Batz, Senior Sports Manager, 407-828-3561, debby@aausports.org, www.aauvolleyball.org

Festival Sports:  Bryan Kelley, President, 281-545-1939, bk5583@gmail.com, www.volleyball-festival.com