Illini Elite
Illini Elite is a volleyball club outside of Bloomington, IL. It is an independent club for all ages where each age group and grade has its own season. Anyone in grade school through high school from anywhere can join. There are two different programs, an expansion and an elite program. Both programs practice at the Illini Elite gym. There are also camps that take place during the summer that kids of all ages can attend. This is a good club for building your skills as a volleyball player.
Accomplishments
Illini Elite has had nine AAU Medal Finishes, two AAU National Championships, and thirty-one AAU All-Americans (since 2007). Just in the past year, there have been many accomplishments this club has made.
2015:
- 13 Cardinal - 51st out of 102 (13 Club) at the AAU’s, 1st at the IE Central Spring Event, 1st at the IE Central Kick-Off Event.
- 14 Black - 3rd out of 133 (14 Club) at the AAU’s, 1st at the IE Central Kick-Off Event.
- 17 Black - 55th out of 117 (17 Club) at the AAU’s, 1st in 17 Club at the AAU Lakeshore Volleyfest, 3rd at the JVA World Challenge, 13th at The Showcase in Wisconsin.
- 17 Cardinal - 2nd out of 60 (17 Open) at the AAU’s, 1st at Badger State AAU Super Regional, 1st in the 17 Open at the AAU Lakeshore Volleyfest, 2nd at The Showcase in Wisconsin.
- 18 Black - 24th out of 60 (18 Club) at the AAU’s, 1st in the 18 Club at the AAU Lakeshore Volleyfest.
- 18 Cardinal - 5th out of 39 (18 Open) at the AAU’s, 3rd at The Showcase in Wisconsin.
17 Cardinal at 2015 AAU's 
14 Black at 2015 AAU's
Alumni
Illini Elite is known for getting their players recruited to great schools after they graduate. There have actually been 254 alumni playing collegiate volleyball. This club has sent players to Illinois State University (Emily Orrick, Courtney Pence), Illinois Wesleyan University (Melissa Swartz, Tyler Brown) which are two major universities around here. They have also sent players to College of Coastal Georgia (Kayla Gadberry, Regan Coughlin, Leah Anderson, Emma Anderson, Jessica Fujimoto, Kara Neisen), Olivet Nazarene University (Micki Quakenbush, Hannah Collins, Lead Milam), Southern Illinois University (Rachel Maguire), Elmhurst College (Stacie Harms, Mary Lawrence), Illinois Central College (Emily Zelhart, Megan Beutke), Millikin University (Grace Ganley), Parkland College (Courtney Moritz), and many more colleges around the United States.
Courtney Moritz playing for the Elite Program
Camps
There are camps offered over the summer (June to early August) split into different groups based on age and skill you are looking to improve. These camps take place over the summer and are run from 8-11 and 12-2 with the lunch breaks in between. There are numerous camps that include: Attacking/Serving, All Skills and Competition, 1st Contact, Middle Hitter/Blocking, Setter, Outsider Hitter. Going to any one of these camps will help improve your skills for the upcoming seasons.
One of the many campus IEVBC has to offer
Elite Program
The Elite program is for those who are more for excelling their volleyball career. The practices Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 4:30-8 for the 16's, 17's, and 18's teams and Tuesday and Friday 4:30-8 for the 15's teams. After spring break, the practice nights switch to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at the same time as before. The season runs from late in November to late June. On Tuesday's and Thursday's/Wednesday's they lift based on a plan made by Warbird Academy (http://warbirdacademy.com). This program focuses on preventing injuries and care for joints and muscles like knees and shoulders. Lifting normally lasts about an hour and is in station form (teams rotate in time intervals). When it gets closer to tournament time, jerseys, practice shirts (2 black and one red) spandex, shoes, bags, and warm-up jackets/pants are handed out by the club and are included in the cost of playing there. Cost of the Elite program is around $1,875 for 15's and $2,050 for 16's-18's. It is fairly expensive, but the experience you earn from playing Illini Elite is well worth it in the end.
Tournaments are almost every weekend for this program. Teams move up or down or stay in the same pool week by week depending on their placing the weekend before. Other tournaments are competed in Louisville, Kentucky, Wisconsin Dells, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Michigan. Nationals occur at the end of June and that is a weeklong event in Orlando, Florida. Teams play for 4 consecutive days and get a 'free-day' after play to enjoy somewhere in Florida together. Teams fly together down to Florida and stay in houses as a team. The whole season before Nationals is getting prepared to play with all the other teams in the tournament there. Illini Elite has thirty-one AAU All-Americans since 2007, nine AAU Medal finishes, and two national championships. In 2014 we placed second in the 17 Open and 16 Club; 2015 we placed second in the 17 Open and third place in the 14 Club. These are very high accomplishments for the club.
Tryout Information can be found on the Illini Elite website.
Each year the Elite teams go to the OWLS for team building exercises
Expansion Program
The Expansion program is more for those who play multiple sports, cannot afford the expense of Elite, or are not as interested in furthering their career in volleyball. The practices every Monday and Wednesday either 5-7 or 7-9 and the seasons goes from December to March. This is different than the other program where practices are sometimes a slower pace than the Elite with team drills and competition and Expansion seasons lasts a significantly shorter amount of time than the Elite. There is no set conditioning (like lifting) built into the expansion programs, so the drills that are ran have conditioning set into them. Spandex, two different colored jerseys, and a practice shirt are provided closer to the first tournament and is included in the cost of the program. Teams can wear whatever shirt they want to practice and are not expected to match with their team unlike the Elite practices.
Tournaments are every other weekend and they are played at the Illini Elite center. There are four sport courts to be played on and a designated area for your bags to go. There are concessions provided and a place to sit and eat (no outside food is permitted). Depending on where you are in the bracket, you will either play in the morning or in the afternoon. Wherever you place on Saturday also determines when you will play on Sunday. How you play those weekends determines when you will play the next. The winner of the gold bracket on Sunday gets t-shirts for their whole team.
Tryout information can also be found on the Illini Elite website. You need to register early to make sure you make the list. There is an https://www.allplayers.com/ website where you can update your grade or do tryout information. Expansion is expected to cost somewhere around $750.
18 Gold at the last tournament of the season 
18 Red at the 18U CWE 2015
Location and Websites
Along with this being a great club to play for, you also get to experience making new friends and having some amazing coaches to learn from. Your experience here will be one to remember and what you take from here is only as hard as you work. Joe Sanders and Andy Erins have built a great place here and have only improved since opening.
You can sign up for their mailing list on their webpage; you can also get updates on Twitter and Facebook.
Official website: http://www.illinielite.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ievbc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ievbc?fref=ts
Illini Elite is located at: 3 Quest Drive, Unit #209 Bloomington, IL 61705
For more information on the Elite or Expansion programs, camps, or lessons, you can contact either: Joe Sanders ([email protected]), Andy Erins ([email protected]), Jimmy Jarmuth ([email protected]), call the office (309) 829-3671, or email [email protected].
