Looking for a mid-level regional VB club for 15s/16s
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Anonymous
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Last fall, somebody suggested the following for a good mid-level regional girls vb club:
Monument X factor NVVA (many levels and leagues) St James (white team) Alexandria titans BRYC (American team, as opposed to National) With another season down, any different thoughts? Looking for a club for my HS JV sophomore. |
Anonymous
I could contribute to that list if you are looking for a club in MD, but - based on the list you provided - I assume that you are looking for a club in Northern Virginia. |
Anonymous
| Yeah we’re looking in Northern VA, but I’m sure somebody else whose DD isn’t destined for D1 and just wants to play would appreciate inputs elsewhere. |
Anonymous
I would love your suggestions for Maryland, PP! I have a 14 yo who started playing rec about a year ago and just made her HS team and wants to keep playing and learning this winter. Do kids mostly try out for club teams? Or should we just have her do a bunch of clinics? TIA |
Anonymous
The top club in MD is MVSA, but it is very unlikely that a player with rec experience only would make any of their 14 teams. The next would be MOCO, where you may get on their lower tier teams with the JV experience. You have a better chance to make a higher level team in MEVC and Platform. The lower level clubs would be RVA and Experience. I recently learned about ECE, but I am not sure how competitive they are. |
Anonymous
Thank you. This is helpful- I’ll look at these clubs. The director of the rec program also recommended MD Juniors. Do you know much about them? Do you think there’s value to playing for a team? It would one-off club clinics/teaching serve a newish player just as well? My DD LOVES it so much- just trying to help her keep learning. |
Anonymous
| *Or would one-off… |
Anonymous
The elite 13 team form MD Juniors (they will likely make most of the 14 elite team) was the top team in CHRVA. They have some lower level teams as well, some way less competitive than their elite team. I didn't mention MD Juniors because they practice in Jessup, which is quite a drive from this region. If your kid would successfully try out for their elite team (which is unlikely the case), you would probably see the value in driving to Jessup for practice. But I would prefer a local club rather than train with one of their other teams. There is some discussion on the value of training with elite clubs (mostly focused on Metro) on a different thread (Volleyball Action). Nobody can guarantee specific results with club clinics. I think the most important factor is to place your player in clinics at their level. |
FPYCparent
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Coming off of years at The St. James and Paramount (and no prior club experience), I would look at where the teams practice. You are looking at two or three practices a week after school. We only steered our player towards clubs that made logistical sense for our family.
As an example, a club like Metro (Travel), which only had practices in DC and Maryland last season, ultimately didn't make sense for us coming from western Fairfax County. Same goes for clubs in Ashburn are "farther" into Loudoun, knowing that we we pass practice locations for clubs like Vienna/DMV Elite (Chantilly) and Virginia Juniors (Herndon). I also wouldn't be too concerned right now about only trying out for a "regional" team. Clubs that field multiple teams aren't going to have exclusive tryouts for each, in my experience. Tryout weekends are going to be a madhouse, and all potential players for a particular age group will start off together. Eventually, there will be some separation, but I can only imagine that a club will take the top X players it can to fill Y number of teams. As tryouts get closer, the clubs will start publishing what competitions they plan to attend. I suspect that even "regional" teams from our immediate area could venture to Richmond (Volley by the James), Hampton (M-APL), Raleigh (M-APL), York (M-APL, I think), and Philadelphia (NEQ), and other events, so any 'regional' label may only mean that you aren't getting on a plane ... but you could end up on the road for several hours each way for a few weekends. Here are some clubs that I haven't seen listed in this thread that may be worth checking: Blue Ridge American Vienna Elite Dulles Youth No Panic Tier One VAVA |
Anonymous
I think a lot will depend on what's logistically possible depending on where you are in Maryland. In many age groups, Maryland Juniors is arguably the top club in MD over MVSA and is certainly stronger than MOCO. Liberty Elite has good reputation if Hagerstown is workable. Metro North and Metro East also practice in Maryland and are club level teams. DMV Elite, Platform, CEVA, and Columbia are other MD clubs that might be worth considering. |
Anonymous
Thank you! There are so many clubs!! The drive from close-in Silver Spring to Jessup for summer workouts was pretty terrible. But a good carpool can make a long drive less terrible. Hagerstown, no. Thanks for all the club suggestions- so, so many! I am going to see where they all practice to help figure out where to have her tryout. Is playing on a club team (regional- it sounds like the high levels aren’t going to be an option- and that’s okay for us!) better than just doing clinics here and there? I think more time = more improvement , but I read some other stuff on here where people say that the lower level teams are just money grabs with just so-so coaching. It’s all new to me- thanks for sharing, PPs! |
Anonymous
Playing on a regional club team can be a great experience and will result in a lot more improvement than than just clinics or rec leagues. The number of touches a players gets practicing several times per week plus playing in many more tournaments on a club team is tough to compare to what you can get from clinics. I think narrowing by what is logistically practical is a good starting point, especially if your goals are fun and improvement and not trying to be recruited to play Division I. For close in Silver Spring, I'd probably prioritize MVSA, MOCO, Metro Central, possibly Metro North (although they practice in Frederick county which might be pretty far for you), and MEVC. MVSA is one of the better values in all of local club volleyball. Even their 2nd and 3rd teams are usually pretty solid, club fees are low, and they only take 10 players per team so everyone gets to play in tournaments. With that being the case, making even an MVSA 3rd team can be challenging, but it's worth trying out for sure. MOCO and Metro Central are probably the closest for you in terms of practice locations and they are usually pretty solid with experienced coaches. I've heard pretty good things about MEVC as well. DMV Elite is probably convenient for you, but I've heard they are on the expensive side and I don't know much about their program. They are the MD expansion of Vienna Elite, which is a club in NoVa that's been around for a long time. On the issue of whether a particular club or team is a "money grab", perhaps I am overly optimistic, but I'd like to think that most clubs are formed with the intention of providing a good experience for its players and their families. My perception that there are some clubs probably charging too much for what they can offer, but with the demand for club volleyball increasing every year, they are still able to attract many players to their tryouts and fill up all their teams. So while it might not always be a great value, your DD can hopefully get a decent level of instruction and have some fun at most clubs. As has been discussed in numerous DCUM threads about volleyball, go to clinics in September and October at clubs you are considering and get a sense of what the club and people are like. |
Anonymous
You have some pretty solid advice above. For your first year of volleyball your motto should be "a lower tier club is better than no club." You can try out for very good clubs (like MVSA), but have a safe option in the likely case that your kid won't make any of their teams. In terms of location (Silver Spring), RVA may also be close to you. The club is overly ambitious in terms of travel though. I heard that the quality of instruction is good, but they are not able to attract top players, so they don't win a lot. Coaches and many players are very comfortable speaking Spanish. Platform may also be a good option, but they are a bit further than MOCO and MEVC. If you are looking for a regional team (less travel to tournaments), you should not aim for the top team in a club (they typically travel more and further away). The disadvantage may be the coaching quality. The best coaches in a club typically try to coach the top team in a specific age group. In some clubs (for example MVSA) you will get great coaching in most teams. However, other clubs struggle to attract and retain coaches for their bottom teams. Try to stay away from teams that don't have coaches listed on the club websites: that's a sign that they have not secured a coach - you may be surprised (either pleasantly or not quite pleasantly) when you eventually meet the coach. |
Anonymous
One additional thought is that if you're looking for a regional team that doesn't travel too much that's great, but in my opinion a DMV based club team should at least attend the Capitol Hill Classic. If the team doesn't travel much, there won't be a lot of exposure to the big 3-day convention center tournaments which is perfectly fine, but going to Capitol Hill is a fun experience for the players and a highlight of many teams' seasons. |
Anonymous
I feel differently about the Capitol Hill Classic. With a few exceptions (the elite teams in the area), all you learn is that your team needs a lot of work to compete against other teams that travel here for this tournament (this will be especially true if you find that mid-level regional team you are looking for). This lesson will come with a lot of disappointment and money wasted by the club to get the team in the tournament (on top of DC traffic, parking, and the price of admission). Most clubs could save the money and offer lower club fees (which most parents will likely appreciate). |