American Volleyball Coaches Association

The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is an organization of over 6,000 members, incorporated as a private non-profit educational corporation in 1981, as the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association. It is currently headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky.

The original members of the AVCA were all intercollegiate coaches who banded together to form this particular coaching body. They have been the backbone of the association's existence and a united voice determining volleyball's future. In 1986, during the San Francisco convention, the membership recognized the growing and developing high school and club communities. The name of the association was then changed to reflect these growing constituencies. The original Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association was renamed the American Volleyball Coaches Association with the intent of responding to and serving all volleyball coaches.

The organization produces a number of publications including Coaching Volleyball Magazine, "Coaching Volleyball 2.0," "Phenom," AVCA at the Net, Volleyball Ace PowerTips and VolleyBiz.

All-America

An All-America team is a hypothetical team, from a given American college sport, composed of outstanding amateur players—those players broadly considered by media and other relevant commentators as the best players, of a specific season, for each team position.

Such college athletes are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes" or simply "All-Americans".

Term usage

As of 2009, the term is used in U.S. team sports to refer to players who are selected by members of the national media. The term is used primarily with regard to college and, occasionally, to high school players.

Note that similar terms exist for non-amateur athletes: outstanding professional players usually are referred to as "All-Stars", or, in the case of professional American football, "All-Pros": (as opposed to Pro Bowlers, who are selected by players, coaches, and fans to compete in Pro Bowl games).

Selection to an All-America team for collegiate (or high-school) players, however, is honorary in nature. "All-America teams" do not typically play any games as a unit, unlike many of the all-star teams.