ABOUT MIVA
The Midwest Collegiate Club Volleyball (MCCV), Inc. is a club volleyball organization that serves student athletes and registered student organizations from colleges and universities located in the Midwestern United States. More prominently known as the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA), the league and its various conferences offer intercollegiate volleyball organization and competition, and traces its roots back to the late 1950’s.
MIVA season events include Play Days, where college club teams compete within designated conferences, followed by conference championships and the MIVA Championship Tournament. Competitions are held at host schools and select volleyball facilities. Participating teams represent registered student organizations from small and large Midwest schools. Players follow eligibility and league rules, a code of conduct and are obliged to adhere to their respective school policies and venue requirements.
Each year, MIVA clubs select student officers, raise club funds, and organize tryouts, practices, activities, and a competitive playing schedule that is suitable for beginning through advanced players. Student club budgets are managed by club officers, with most club participants paying dues to help defray yearly expenditures that include uniforms, balls, equipment, travel, accommodations, and league/event fees. Clubs are assisted by school administrators, parents, coaches, friends, and a vast network of proud alumni.
Through participation, MIVA student athletes both learn and teach the sport of volleyball, and more importantly, many life-values that can flow from amateur athletic sports participation. Students learn about teamwork and leadership, sportsmanship, sports safety, compliance with team and player competition and eligibility standards, self-governance and self-initiative, accountability, cultural and social understanding, and many other critical life-skills. These lessons survive long after graduation and contribute to the thousands of brilliant careers and lives of diverse MIVA alumni who reside and work throughout the world.
For decades, MIVA teams have achieved regional and national prominence by setting competitive standards that few can rival. MIVA teams have bagged a series of national club championships in several divisions, with MIVA athletes perennially being selected as All-Tournament. TThe annual MIVA Championship Tournament is widely regarded as one of the oldest intercollegiate championship tournaments in the nation, having been first produced in the late 1950’s. The championships were operated by volunteers for many years, spearheaded by Charles and Mitch Stemm (former leaders of Michiana Region of USA Volleyball), whose tireless efforts in the 1980’s and 1990’s helped inspire current MIVA leadership to create the current collegiate club conference model. Thousands of young men have participated in MIVA competitions over the years, proudly representing their schools and the best of what amateur sporting values can help inspire.
MIVA alumni include players, coaches, referees, and administrators at every level of the sport, including individuals and coaches selected to work with the US National teams, and notable athletes who have competed in AVP, FIVB, USAV, amateur and professional beach and indoor events. Dozens of prominent varsity and club coaches, referees and sports administrators trace their roots to MIVA club participation.
MIVA leadership has helped build a regional sports model that has been widely emulated by other sports club organizations. MIVA is operated by a volunteer board of directors, officers, a commissioner, conference coordinators, officials coordinator competition directors and others who vigorously support MIVA’s mission. MIVA leaders include professionals who helped pioneer formation and direction of the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation, Inc. (NCVF) and its annual NCVF Championship Tournament, the largest intercollegiate volleyball tournament in the world. Along with several similar pioneering collegiate club leagues in the United States, MIVA is a NCVF Recognized League that follows NCVF League Best Practices and participates as a member of the NCVF Council.
The MCCV is a registered 501(c)(3) Michigan non-profit corporation that encompasses the MIVA league and its various conferences. For more information, contact MIVA Club Volleyball.
