Volleyball club- recap and thoughts

[FPYCparent]

Based on that information, I think the results from this weekend lead to the following:

1st Metro 13 gets the reallocated National bid
2nd MDJRS 13 gets the original National bid
3rd MVSA 13 Wahoo! gets the Liberty bid that was originally earned by MDJRS 13 as it stays in CHRVA
4th Paramount 13 gets the American bid

[Anonymous]

Ok, understood. Great that CHRVA got that additional bid so these 4 teams can go to Nationals.

[Anonymous]

That’s not a great return for VAE, or is it? I thought they didn’t play Regionals or has that changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s not a great return for VAE, or is it? I thought they didn’t play Regionals or has that changed?

VAE wants to brand themselves as an open-level club yet they can only qualify one of their teams for nationals at CHRVA Regionals (let alone national qualifiers!).

[FPYCparent]

From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

[Anonymous]

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

While I don't agree with the assessment that every club in some other regions are open level, your point is well taken. There are definitely regions where there are multiple teams from that region are getting open bids with regularity, but other regions still have a majority of teams that are not going to be competing for an open bid.

Is VAE an "open" level club across the board and nationally? Probably not, but across most age groups for which they have teams they are amongst the top 10 in CHRVA. As has been discussed at length, CHRVA is not one of the stronger regions nationally, but it's fair to say that VAE is one of the stronger local clubs. Most of the VAE teams have a core group of 4-5 girls who have been with the team since 13s and then players who have joined later. I suspect the VAE teams are like those at other clubs - the rosters tend to be pretty stable year over year, but there maybe 3 or 4 spots on the roster that change each season. Also, it is not uncommon at 17s/18s for girls who decide they don't want to play in college to stop playing club altogether so maybe there is a little more movement of girls coming to VAE at the older age groups who want to play in college. VAE has been very successful in helping girls get recruited - not as many playing D1 as Metro or Paramount, but many more than most other local clubs.

[Anonymous]

Dang, there are some parents who are *really* into all of this. I may be the only parent who doesn't follow all of this (despite being in year 5 of my DD in club volleyball) and all I can manage is figuring out what time to leave the house to get to the tournaments, and which court they're playing on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dang, there are some parents who are *really* into all of this. I may be the only parent who doesn't follow all of this (despite being in year 5 of my DD in club volleyball) and all I can manage is figuring out what time to leave the house to get to the tournaments, and which court they're playing on?

We are in our first year of club volleyball and we are still figuring things out. It is unlikely that my daughter will get recruited (even if she gets much better, she is not tall enough), but she really likes the game and I like that she is physically active. This discussion seems to be more relevant for parents who have kids in the top travel teams. We also seem to have someone with a bone against VAE, who constantly bashes the club (might be the person who was constantly bashing their coach).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dang, there are some parents who are *really* into all of this. I may be the only parent who doesn't follow all of this (despite being in year 5 of my DD in club volleyball) and all I can manage is figuring out what time to leave the house to get to the tournaments, and which court they're playing on?

LOL. Over the past 7 years, between my 2 DDs we've been involved with 5 different clubs and on every team there are parents who are deeply knowledgeable, analyzing who is in the pool at every tournament, know what place we need to come in to make the gold bracket, and who seem to know every player/parent/team throughout the region. They can tell what teams we played on the second day of a tournament back in January. And there are parents who don't know how to figure out tomorrow's schedule or what court we're on. Doesn't seem to be correlated to the level of the team or skill of their player - just personality type of the parent. Hopefully your team has at least one of these parents who shares the information in the parent group chat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

While I don't agree with the assessment that every club in some other regions are open level, your point is well taken. There are definitely regions where there are multiple teams from that region are getting open bids with regularity, but other regions still have a majority of teams that are not going to be competing for an open bid.

Is VAE an "open" level club across the board and nationally? Probably not, but across most age groups for which they have teams they are amongst the top 10 in CHRVA. As has been discussed at length, CHRVA is not one of the stronger regions nationally, but it's fair to say that VAE is one of the stronger local clubs. Most of the VAE teams have a core group of 4-5 girls who have been with the team since 13s and then players who have joined later. I suspect the VAE teams are like those at other clubs - the rosters tend to be pretty stable year over year, but there maybe 3 or 4 spots on the roster that change each season. Also, it is not uncommon at 17s/18s for girls who decide they don't want to play in college to stop playing club altogether so maybe there is a little more movement of girls coming to VAE at the older age groups who want to play in college. VAE has been very successful in helping girls get recruited - not as many playing D1 as Metro or Paramount, but many more than most other local clubs.

My DD is in U15 on a CHRVA team - CHRVA is well represented nationally, with 4 teams in the top 100. Given that there are 40 regions, CHRVA is doing pretty well at that age group.

[Anonymous]

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

VAE does have a great setters program and often the setters move to other clubs such as Metro and Paramount after they have really developed as setters. They value height above all and develop their tall outsides as 6 rotation hitters even when those hitters should not be in the back row and take the longer range approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

While I don't agree with the assessment that every club in some other regions are open level, your point is well taken. There are definitely regions where there are multiple teams from that region are getting open bids with regularity, but other regions still have a majority of teams that are not going to be competing for an open bid.

Is VAE an "open" level club across the board and nationally? Probably not, but across most age groups for which they have teams they are amongst the top 10 in CHRVA. As has been discussed at length, CHRVA is not one of the stronger regions nationally, but it's fair to say that VAE is one of the stronger local clubs. Most of the VAE teams have a core group of 4-5 girls who have been with the team since 13s and then players who have joined later. I suspect the VAE teams are like those at other clubs - the rosters tend to be pretty stable year over year, but there maybe 3 or 4 spots on the roster that change each season. Also, it is not uncommon at 17s/18s for girls who decide they don't want to play in college to stop playing club altogether so maybe there is a little more movement of girls coming to VAE at the older age groups who want to play in college. VAE has been very successful in helping girls get recruited - not as many playing D1 as Metro or Paramount, but many more than most other local clubs.

My DD is in U15 on a CHRVA team - CHRVA is well represented nationally, with 4 teams in the top 100. Given that there are 40 regions, CHRVA is doing pretty well at that age group.

AES rankings are somewhat indicative of the relative strength of teams, and yes there are some CHRVA teams ranked highly in most age groups. But take a look at the North Texas (NT) or Florida (FL) regions. They have many more teams in the top 100 and even more just below. And these regions tend to qualify more teams in the open division for GJNC which is a more accurate indicator of the best teams in the country. It’s not that CHRVA teams are not good - more that most just are not quite yet in that absolute top tier of teams with a legitimate chance of competing for an open national championship.

[FPYCparent]

I think 5 or 6 CHRVA teams have either improved their existing GJNC bids or have received initial bids due to reallocation after the results from the most recent qualifiers. Some additions to the list are teams from MOCO, MOJO, Libero, and American. MVSA and VA Juniors appear to have added teams as well. The post on Page 49 should be up-to-date.

The official spreadsheets on the USA VB site were updated April 19th.

[Anonymous]

I still can’t believe Paramount 18 will not be at Nationals. I know it’s a different team, but to finish 5th last year and then not earn a bid at all this year is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dang, there are some parents who are *really* into all of this. I may be the only parent who doesn't follow all of this (despite being in year 5 of my DD in club volleyball) and all I can manage is figuring out what time to leave the house to get to the tournaments, and which court they're playing on?

You and me both!

Pulling up Goigle maps now, in matter of fact, on how to get to Jessup (I wish it was St. James!).