Volleyball club- recap and thoughts

[Anonymous]

I'm hearing, but can't substantiate, that VAJRS is being kicked out of King Abdullah (the school they have been utilizing as their practice space the last two seasons). Can anybody corroborate if this is true?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm hearing, but can't substantiate, that VAJRS is being kicked out of King Abdullah (the school they have been utilizing as their practice space the last two seasons). Can anybody corroborate if this is true?

Not heard that but doesn’t surprise me. That’s going to be a big problem for juniors - they’ll have to go cap in hand to share another facility

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm hearing, but can't substantiate, that VAJRS is being kicked out of King Abdullah (the school they have been utilizing as their practice space the last two seasons). Can anybody corroborate if this is true?

Why are they getting the boot?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have info on Maryland Exclusive (MEVC)? I can’t gauge how many tournaments they play in for the younger teams from the website. DD is 12. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

New to the thread but did try and read the last few pages...newbie parent in Montgomery County ... 12 year old daughter wants to get into volleyball. Please breakdown or point me to where one would start in this sport in this area? From what I have read Metro is elite and MoCo Volleyball is as well? What about rec programs?

Any help, timelines etc would be appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I am the PP and just found the answer to my question on this thread. Posting here as well in case it is helpful for others

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1219014.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm hearing, but can't substantiate, that VAJRS is being kicked out of King Abdullah (the school they have been utilizing as their practice space the last two seasons). Can anybody corroborate if this is true?

Not heard that but doesn’t surprise me. That’s going to be a big problem for juniors - they’ll have to go cap in hand to share another facility

This is not true.

And PP why so agressive when you have no idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have info on Maryland Exclusive (MEVC)? I can’t gauge how many tournaments they play in for the younger teams from the website. DD is 12. Thanks.

MEVC had two 12U teams last year. MEVC courage (their top 12s team) participated in at least 12 tournaments while their #2 team seem to have participated in at least 9. You can use AES and SportWrench to get an idea of the tournaments they participated in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New to the thread but did try and read the last few pages...newbie parent in Montgomery County ... 12 year old daughter wants to get into volleyball. Please breakdown or point me to where one would start in this sport in this area? From what I have read Metro is elite and MoCo Volleyball is as well? What about rec programs?

Any help, timelines etc would be appreciated!

Metro has a single team that is "elite" at age groups from 12-18 and they are known as Metro Travel teams (Metro 12 Travel is new for next season). These teams are generally difficult to make and the vast majority of players on these teams who make it to 16s or older go on to play Division I volleyball in college. Metro also has tons of regional teams which are less competitive and similar to many other club teams and are not nearly as difficult to make. The Metro regional teams are named North, Central, South, and East and are run similar to most other clubs.

MOCO is not one of the elite local clubs. They have a handful of teams that are solid, but for the most part MOCO teams are not considered among the top in the region. That doesn't mean that it's not a good club to play for - just that it's not the same caliber as Metro Travel, Paramount, and other teams discussed extensively on these forums.

I see you found the thread about programs other than club volleyball which is a good place to start for a newbie. If your DD is certain that she wants to get serious about volleyball, playing club volleyball is the logical next step. It is important to understand the timing for club volleyball tryouts since they only happen once per year. Tryouts for all Chesapeake Region (known as CHRVA and includes DC, MD, NoVa, Delaware and NE WV) clubs is in late October/early November. https://www.chrva.org/page/show/3927262-chrva-girls-volleyball If she doesn't get on a team then, generally she would need to wait until next season to tryout again. The tryout process is pretty brutal. With a max of 15 players per team (and most only taking 12 or so), making your preferred team is not guaranteed. In order to increase the chance of making a team, many parents will have their DD attend multiple tryouts. The weekend of tryouts can be stressful and difficult to manage. Many tryouts happen at the same times and you can find yourself racing between facilities to get to as many as possible.

You have likely seen the discussion on this thread and others about the importance of fall clinics. With 50+ girls trying out for 12 spots, it can be difficult to stand out in a 2 hour tryout if a coach/club director isn't familiar with a kid ahead of tryout day. One way to get your DD seen by clubs and for you to learn more about what a particular club might be like is to attend clinics in September and October ahead of tryouts. Look at the website/social media for clubs that your considering and sign up for a few clinics.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know when the tryout schedule comes out? Do clubs typically post in late August or September?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know when the tryout schedule comes out? Do clubs typically post in late August or September?

Differs by club, but I think late August through September is pretty typical. Paramount has already opened tryout registration https://www.paramountvbc.com/tryouts

CHRVA has set the dates for tryouts:
Girls 14 and under: October 25, 2024 - October 29, 2024
Girls 15 and older: November 1, 2024 - November 5, 2024

While it's nice they split them back into 2 weekends, bumping them up a week from the way it used to be creates more potential conflicts with HS volleyball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: MoCo Volleyball.

I would avoid the 16u Club (well, more accurately anything coached by a particular coach whose name rhymes with “Whitney Go Back!”) This coach of the spring 2024 Moco Mania team was very weak in terms of being able to create forward momentum.

When my daughter played, the coach led the team to a 12-59 record. That’s a win % of .203 for a "club-level" team.

Some reasons:

1. The Coach is a weirdly sensitive and doesn't like it (can’t accept it) when people don't like her. So, she won't push people out of their Comfort Zone to get better. Obv, no one wants to leave the Comfort Zone. But that's the only way athletes get better. So, any improvement is at a glacial pace and the Coach lets the players dictate their level of comfort/pace when instead the head Coach should be dictating pace of improvement to keep up with the other local teams.

2. About 1/3 of each practice goes wasted (either because the first drill starts 15 minutes into the practice session) or the exercises don't really prepare the teammates for in-game / tourney scenarios. An example is that there is a common drill focused on speed serving. But in an in-game scenario, refs do not rush players to serve.

3. The Coach only set up scrimmages with statistically inferior teams which does not help the team improve (you can only get better when you scrimmage up).

4. The Coach has a one-size-fits-all mentality when it was clear that players of varying levels of ability needed customized training, which they never received. The coach did ask all players to suggest one area where she could help each player. My daughter made a suggestion but the coach never bothered to honor her promise of helping her develop that skill.

So, lack of intensity; inability to bring out the best in the player; inconsistent/one-size-fits-all player development; poor preparation for tournament-level pace; and a lowly season winning percentage of .203% are all objective reasons why I would "not recommend”.

MoCo actually had a 16U team? Amy leaving and starting her own club affected 16U.

What is the deal with Coach Amy? Why did she leave MoCo? MoCo Motion (top 13 team) did really well this year - they earned a bid to the Nationals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: MoCo Volleyball.

I would avoid the 16u Club (well, more accurately anything coached by a particular coach whose name rhymes with “Whitney Go Back!”) This coach of the spring 2024 Moco Mania team was very weak in terms of being able to create forward momentum.

When my daughter played, the coach led the team to a 12-59 record. That’s a win % of .203 for a "club-level" team.

Some reasons:

1. The Coach is a weirdly sensitive and doesn't like it (can’t accept it) when people don't like her. So, she won't push people out of their Comfort Zone to get better. Obv, no one wants to leave the Comfort Zone. But that's the only way athletes get better. So, any improvement is at a glacial pace and the Coach lets the players dictate their level of comfort/pace when instead the head Coach should be dictating pace of improvement to keep up with the other local teams.

2. About 1/3 of each practice goes wasted (either because the first drill starts 15 minutes into the practice session) or the exercises don't really prepare the teammates for in-game / tourney scenarios. An example is that there is a common drill focused on speed serving. But in an in-game scenario, refs do not rush players to serve.

3. The Coach only set up scrimmages with statistically inferior teams which does not help the team improve (you can only get better when you scrimmage up).

4. The Coach has a one-size-fits-all mentality when it was clear that players of varying levels of ability needed customized training, which they never received. The coach did ask all players to suggest one area where she could help each player. My daughter made a suggestion but the coach never bothered to honor her promise of helping her develop that skill.

So, lack of intensity; inability to bring out the best in the player; inconsistent/one-size-fits-all player development; poor preparation for tournament-level pace; and a lowly season winning percentage of .203% are all objective reasons why I would "not recommend”.

MoCo actually had a 16U team? Amy leaving and starting her own club affected 16U.

What is the deal with Coach Amy? Why did she leave MoCo? MoCo Motion (top 13 team) did really well this year - they earned a bid to the Nationals.

I don't have any first hand knowledge of the exact reason(s), but Coach Amy seemed to be laying the groundwork for starting her own club for a few years. She was running her own clinics and camps outside of MOCO for awhile. MOCO has really grown a lot and perhaps the goals didn't align with what she wanted to do. And while MOCO has had some solid teams, like many mid-tier clubs a lot of their best players who hope to play in college move to other clubs as they get older. I believe Coach Amy coaches her daughters and perhaps she feels like she can do better at helping them to be recruited to play in college away from MOCO.

[Anonymous]

For NOVA, this site is a great resource on clubs and clinics/camps:

https://www.novavolleyballalliance.org/club

[Anonymous]

Metro seems to be adding 11U for 2 of their regional teams, North (this is upcountry) and East (think this is PG county area). These are two additional options for younger players.