Beginning on Friday, 11 teams will compete in the first annual Circus City Invitational in Sarasota, Florida, the Circus Capital of the World. In the two-day tournament, three teams ranked in the top 100 PrepVolleyball.com Preseason Rankings have entered and all three are from out of state. The field, which intends on expanding each year, welcomes five teams who have won a state championship in 2018.

You’ll notice that the seeding sometimes makes you stop and scratch your head a little bit… with just three teams ranked and three pools, No. 56 Walton is second in its pool. Mooney coach Chad Sutton said he and his staff seeded the tournament the best they could, but then had to rearrange some teams to meet the out-of-state restrictions since different state associations require different start times. For instance, we know that in Georgia, teams are not permitted to play a game within school hours, so Walton will play the second match of the day at 4 PM.

One more (huge!) thing to consider this weekend – Hurricane Dorian. The storm is currently brewing in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to make landfall on the East Coast of Florida on Sunday where teams like Ft. Pierce Central (who is no longer in the tournament) and St. Thomas Aquinas are from. Safety, of course, is first and the event still appears to showcase plenty of competitive matches.