Hello Everyone, 

My name is Rafael Urbina and I am from Broomfield Colorado.  I am a current senior in high school that plays volleyball for Bay to Bay Volleyball Club in San Jose, California. 

I am coached by Arielle Houlihan and it has been such an honor to be apart of her great club. Throughout my time with Arielle, I’ve learned to fight for what is right and speak up when something is wrong. Right now, I am  taking the time to speak because something is very wrong. 

Over the course of the last year Arielle has been extremely successful on social media showcasing how great of a coach and mentor she is. On the downside, she’s received tremendous amounts of hate just because of her gender and the role she plays in our society. Just recently, we won a national championship thanks to her great leadership. 

Following our win, we have decided to create the best possible group of players to train this year together. It is what is best for all of us and our careers. I have been a driving force in trying to get my friends in volleyball to join me from their tough situations they face at their club. With them accepting the process it takes to play for a team that’s in another state, this created a sense of fear, envy, and anger for our competitors in the club volleyball world. 

The national governing body our club associates with is called the AAU, the AAU has enacted a rule that prevents players from out of district or adjoining district to compete together. The rule was enacted because of teams like ours . Supporters of this rule want to see Arielle fail. This rule will absolutely kill the sport, there are hundreds of volleyball clubs in small areas that scrap for kids across multiple states just to have a team. For example the club C2 ATTACK is a club in Tennessee that has kids from over 22 states. This club will be completely diminished if this rule is kept in place. This rule creates a new system that prevents THE FAMILIES AND CHILDREN to decide where they want to play and put their money. They talk about “growing the game” this does the complete opposite due to the kids having less and less opportunity to play the sport we all love. 

The United States is a free country, let the youth athletes in this great Olympic sport be able to have a voice and decide what they want to do with their journey. 

Rafael Urbina