Fall 2025 Volleyball Melville

Additional Info

Link to Semi Pro Photos (Oct-25)

HOW TO JOIN SEMI PRO:

Players can join as a 'franchise group' or as a 'draft pool' player.

• To join as a 'franchise group', you’ll need to join in a group with exactly 3 people (2m/1f or 1f/2m)
• 'Draft pool players' will get drafted onto a franchise.
• Once the series starts, you can only join via draft pool.

You cannot join Semi Pro and be placed on a franchise of your choosing, nor is a placement guaranteed.

2025 SEMI PRO DATES

• Sept 19; Winner = Top Shelf (link to photos)
• Oct 17 Winner = Setsy Diggers
• Nov 21 Winner = Island Volleyball Club (12 video playlist)
• Dec 19
• Jan 16
• Feb 20
• Mar 20

All Tournaments are held at All Sportz in Melville on the third Friday of every month, starting at 7pm.

2025 Player movement Log

November

Drafted Players

• Eddie Yakubov (Island VC)
• Kim Wyand (Top Shelf)
• Jenna Razeq (The Babes & Co.)

October

Drafted Playersd

• Seth Kampala (Sweetie Spikes)
• Jessica Zimmerman (Sweetie Spikes)
• Shannon Finney (Sweetie Spikes)
• Brianna McGowan (Island VC)
• Michael Herrescher (Serve Storm)
• Hailey Farrell (Setsy Diggers)

Available Player

• Kristin Pontiero (Sweetie Spikes)
• Anthony Clarke (Sweetie Spikes)

September

Available Player

• Evan Boerner (Serve Storm)
• Seth Kampta (They Don't Want It)
• Anthony Clarke (Sweetie Spikes)
• Josh Chacon (Island VC)
• Meghan Smolenski (Island VC)

2025 Semi Pro Constitution

The Semi Pro Constitution provides a framework to govern Semi Pro. It is the contract between LI-Kick, Franchises and Players. It will create a level playing field, while balancing stability of franchises and mobility to players. It can only be amended with the approval of 66% of franchises.

ESTABLISHING FRANCHSIES

• The number of franchises is expected to be 8 but is ultimately determined by the number of signups.
• If there are more franchise groups than needed, all players will vote on which franchise groups get accepted. 
• Franchises will each select draft pool players to create franchises of a minimum of 6 players and maximum of 8 player each (Minimum of 3 male and 3 female on the roster ).

TOURNAMENTS

Franchises will receive a minimum of 5 pool play games. The top 6 franchises will qualify for playoffs. Teams play maximum of 3 men and min 2 men on the court and playing ‘tournament rules’ (stricter on net violations and carries). Games are officiated by teams sitting (Each team will provide one head ref and 2 line refs) There will be a winner of each tournament. Winners will receive medals and will take home the ‘LI-Kick Hammer’ until the next tournament. Franchises will carry forward their ELO.

INITIAL DRAFT

The Franchise groups will hold a draft to distribute draft pool players.

Each franchise must draft so that their roster has a minimum of 3 men, minimum of 3 women and a minimum of 6 total players.

SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFTS

There will be a supplemental draft of Available Players held 2 weeks before each monthly tournament. The supplemental draft serves two purposes. One, it will allow new players to join & franchises to officially add players to their roster for the remainder of the year. Two, it will allow franchises to use temporary players to account for absent players at the upcoming tournament.

SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT PROCEDURE

The draft will be held roughly 2 weeks before the next tournament.

Incoming Players have until the day before the draft to declare their entry in the draft pool (must pay the joining fee)

Current Players have until the day before the draft to announce their move to a withdrawal status.

• Players can only withdraw if they've attended the two most recent tournaments.

Captains have until the day before the draft to announce their drops

• Players can only be dropped if they've no showed two consecutive tournaments.

Captains have until the day before the draft to announce their cuts.

• Each franchise can cut one player without cause per tournament

Withdrawn, dropped and cut players are entered back into the draft pool, with no guarantee of getting drafted again.

The supplemental draft order will be in reverse order of ELO. The 'Incoming Player Draft' will be used to to permanently draft players onto franchises. Next an 'Available player Draft' will be used to to add temporary players onto franchises on an 'as needed' basis for the next tournament. Franchises that select players in the incoming player draft will move to the bottom of the queue in the available player draft.

Franchises must come out of the draft with a legal roster of minimum 6 players (with min 3 m and min 3 f)

PLAYER STATUS DEFINITIONS

• Available Players: These are players who are currently in the Semi Pro draft pool. Available players are eligible to be drafted onto a franchise and only available players can be used when a Franchise needs a temporary replacement player.
• Withdrawn Players: Sometimes a player finds themselves on a franchise they don’t vibe with. After attending two consecutive tournaments, a player may withdraw themselves from their franchise and convert their status to 'Available', in hopes of getting picked by a new franchise in the next supplemental draft.
• Dropped Players: A captain may not want an unreliable player taking up a roster spot. If a player no-shows two consecutive tournaments, the captain may issue a drop. The player's status will be converted to 'Available' and they will enter the supplemental draft.
• Cut: After the second tournament, each franchise can cut one player without cause after every tournament, provided that their roster size does not stay below 7 total players (min 3m & 3f). Cut players will be converted to 'Available Status' and go into the draft pool.
• Guest Player: In the case a franchise does not have enough players to enter a tournament, the players on that franchise that can play may enter the supplemental draft and be picked up as guest players for the tournament.

-Franchises are allowed to trade with an approval of 66% of franchises.

Rotation

Teams may opt to have a player not player an entire game. However, if they do chose to utilize a sub it has to be in one of the following formats:

1. Traditional Even Subbing format - Players sub out on serve evenly and adhere to gender requirements on the court
2. One-for-One- Before the game the captain announces to the ref and opposing captain that a player is a direct sub for another player on their team. This allows them to sub in and out whenever the captain decided but only for the players declared

Deficit Rule

If a team has to go down to 5 players, a team has to take a 3 point deficit for the next games to 21 with 5 on the court, if team goes down to 4 it will be a forfeit. In the event of an injury or an extenuating circumstance, the team can pick up an available player from the pool the day of, or the opposing captain can waive the 3 point deficit

PRICING

There is a $80 joining fee.

• Players will receive a refund if they are cut/dropped and don't want to continue as an available player.

The cost to enter a tournament is $300 per franchise.

A player that plays in all 7 tournaments on a franchise of 8 will pay $342.50 for the complete year of semi-pro.

IMPORTANT DATES

• May-01: Registration for 2024 Opens
• Aug-17: Deadline to join
• Aug-17: Franchise group declaration deadline. Voting beings (if necessary)
• Aug-22: Voting Ends, Results announced
• Aug-24: Initial Draft held
• Aug-25: Franchise identities revealed and jersey order
• Sep-19: First Tournament

Why are we doing this? Semi Pro addresses many issues. As much fun as it is to always play with your friends, this typically results in all the top talent being consolidated onto lopsided 'super teams' with really just a few teams having a legit chance of winning leagues with many more teams. This paradoxically creates a situation where the top teams express frustration there aren't more quality opponents, while the bottom teams are equally frustrated about losing to the established teams. The structure of Semi Pro ensures that talent will be evenly distributed. Semi Pro also creates a contiguous 7-month structure which address the 'come and go' nature of weekly leagues that last just 7 weeks and run multiple times a week.