Volleyball tryouts in real time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The weekend we’ve been dreading is finally here…and we are poorer for it (clinics that now I feel like don’t mean anything because they weren’t invite-only and tryout fees).

Sending good vibes. Our gal so needs to get out of her situation. But it’s really competitive, obv.

btw, I did some back-of-the-envelope math. If you want to keep your kid in shape, you could sign up for a gym membership. The Planet Fitness black card membership is ~$30/month and she can always bring a friend (I guess it could be either of the parents). You would pay $360 for an entire year and you can go as many times as you want and stay as long as you want. Of course, there are gyms that offer a lot more (and also charge a lot more). Compare that price with the volleyball club bill, which is about 10 times more expensive. And that's just at the beginning of the season: by the end of the season, you you realize that you paid 20 times more than the gym membership. For that price, you get 2/3 practices per week and ~10 tournaments. But that money pit is a lot larger: you pay the monthly PF membership (if not more) for each clinic that you sign up for. Then you realize that the coaches lie to you just to give you hope and sign up for more and more clinics, maybe even private lessons.

I have to admit that it is easier to take my DD to volleyball practice and tournaments than it would be to take her to gym: gym is way less fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weekend we’ve been dreading is finally here…and we are poorer for it (clinics that now I feel like don’t mean anything because they weren’t invite-only and tryout fees).

Sending good vibes. Our gal so needs to get out of her situation. But it’s really competitive, obv.

btw, I did some back-of-the-envelope math. If you want to keep your kid in shape, you could sign up for a gym membership. The Planet Fitness black card membership is ~$30/month and she can always bring a friend (I guess it could be either of the parents). You would pay $360 for an entire year and you can go as many times as you want and stay as long as you want. Of course, there are gyms that offer a lot more (and also charge a lot more). Compare that price with the volleyball club bill, which is about 10 times more expensive. And that's just at the beginning of the season: by the end of the season, you you realize that you paid 20 times more than the gym membership. For that price, you get 2/3 practices per week and ~10 tournaments. But that money pit is a lot larger: you pay the monthly PF membership (if not more) for each clinic that you sign up for. Then you realize that the coaches lie to you just to give you hope and sign up for more and more clinics, maybe even private lessons.

I have to admit that it is easier to take my DD to volleyball practice and tournaments than it would be to take her to gym: gym is way less fun.

I suppose if fitness is the primary goal, then a gym membership would definitely be a lot cheaper. I think for must of us, it's a lot more layered than that. There are good lessons to be learned from team sports. Learning to be a good teammate, having to compete for playing time, dealing with harsh coaches, handling pressure, and even how to handle the disappointment of not making a team. Hopefully they will also make some friends, maybe get good enough to make their HS team, and a few will find a passion that leads to playing in college. We have enjoyed it as parents as well. We've met lots of nice people, had some fun times in hotel bars, and gotten to cheer our DD on playing the sport she loves. My DD is playing 18s this year and while there are obviously a lot of challenges, it's been a part of our lives for the last 8 years and I will miss it when it's over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD did 4 seasons of club (this year opting out) and it is my impression that tryouts are prevetted via private invite only pre-tryout clinics. Often these are for girls who played in previous years and those the club has seen during camps and sign up clinics. If you aren’t invited to the private clinics, your chances of making the team via the try out are slim unless you’re DD is 6ft.

My DD had many volleyball friends from other teams and often they would post on social media of them at the invite only preseason clinics. Clubs don’t usually post about these but individual teens will.

There is also no loyalty in volleyball year to year. That goes both for the club and for the players. Never trust a coach who says “I want you on my team”. Get it in writing, even if a text. Or a coach who says: “you’re my first alternate/ top spot on my wait list and as long as one player declines an offer you’re my first call”.

I hate that adult coaches do this stuff because my teen DD ALWAYS believed that was an offer and wouldn’t listen to me, no matter what, that it wasn’t an offer unless in writing and that we needed to keep trying out for other clubs. She always, ALWAYS thought the coaches meant she had an offer and just refused to budge. And it cost her every time and it was so hard as a parent to watch this happen and not have your child trust and listen to you.

Last year she got caught up in the ECP debacle (ECP announced 1 week before try outs they were leaving/closing their DMV clubs and just focusing on Delaware/PA leaving so many girls many girls without a returning club. This was after hosting camps, clinics and invite only clinics (all which are $$$). Her previous coach contacted a bunch of former players, asking them to follow him to his new club and to come to those try outs. At those try outs he literally said to my kid: “i’d love to have you on my team. I’m so excited to see you play again this year.” And other stuff. She thought she was on the team again just at another club. I told her it wasn’t an offer until we got an email but she wouldn’t listen and said she didn’t want to go to anymore try outs. She did not get an offer. So many tears. And anger (from me) that an adult would say this stuff to a kid knowing how it would be received.

Good luck out there.

+1. Parent of the 8 tryouts and back again. I really wish all of you luck this weekend and as low stress as you can make it. This is exactly how my DD ended up at 8. She got caught up in the verbal discussions of coaches at invite clinics. “We hope you come here.” “We really want you on the team”. All of this means nothing if it’s not an official offer in writing. She wouldn’t listen and made some poor decisions tryout weekend and almost ended up without anything. I wish the coaches would not say that. I think she learned some very hard lessons and it took a few days, but she’s very excited and looking forward to a season on a team she originally never considered.

If Sunday comes around and you don’t have any offers, don’t waste time going to make up tryouts on late Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. First email and ask if there are any open positions. We went to tryouts only to find out at the end all of her position were filled. Email first to save time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The weekend we’ve been dreading is finally here…and we are poorer for it (clinics that now I feel like don’t mean anything because they weren’t invite-only and tryout fees).

Sending good vibes. Our gal so needs to get out of her situation. But it’s really competitive, obv.

This is definitely hell weekend. Good luck to all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I don’t understand what the “simple” part is in your ideal description. Don’t you realize that clubs would just send out their offer emails to the same 12 girls? Then what?…they get 48 hours to decide while your DD has no offers and waits until the next round of offers? And then does round 2 get 48 hours to decide as well?
What if a player accepts an offer when it comes in the second round but then in round three, she finally gets an offer from a club she really wants that still has a spot? Can she change her mind?
The system they have is imperfect, but your proposal is a nightmare.

+1. That proposal would be awful. My DD and her friends went to 5-9 tryouts over that weekend. They were all trying for open level or national teams. It was a terrible weekend and we knew it would be. Stretching it out over a longer period of time would have these girls going to even more tryouts, out of fear that they wouldn’t have a spot anywhere. Even with 5-9 tryouts in that short amount of time, everyone we know can away with 0-2 options. So don’t say they went to too many. Every girl went to some lower level clubs too. I wouldn’t want to stretch this out over two weeks.

Like one parent said the clinics are basically pre vetting 100% correct. And the try outs aren't really try outs they throw 100 girls on a court at time. You can't truly evaluate players in that short amount of time and especially with overcrowding. It's like having 200 guys on the basketball court and saying go for it, let me see what you got. Some girls don't know positions or understand rotations. Stretching the time period out would allow for a more comprehensive evaluation. That's the point I'm trying to make. Having them wait two weeks vs two days is reasonable. New parents after your first tryout experience this weekend. Come back and post here, provide your honest thoughts on what you think of the evaluation process.

I wish the coaches would provide honest feedback during / after the pre-tryout clinics. We've never had honest feedback even though we always tried to figure out whether my DD has any chance of making a team at various clubs. All the answers we received were sugar coated and ended with something along the line "you will never know unless you try out." This happens even at the top clubs, where the coaches watch you for five minutes and can tell that you have no chance whatsoever to make any of their teams. We saw exactly the same approach every single year since my DD started playing volleyball. The coaches encourage everyone to sign up for tryouts no matter how many left hands you have. Then they end up at the tryout with a bunch of players with rec-level skill, which they discard on the bottom court and they pay no attention to. I feel like this is extremely unethical and they do it just to brag about how many players show up at the tryouts. I watched the coaches during pre-tryout clinics collecting a lot of data on each player and I think they use that data to make their lives easier during tryouts, when they already know who has a chance and who doesn't. Unfortunately, players and parents are not offered any insight into that data - they simply learn during the tryouts that they had no chance to begin with.

I wish I could better read this sugar-coated language that the coaches use. Many posts here suggest that coaches use more positive / warmer feedback, in line with "I would really want you to play on one of our teams" for players they would get on their teams. That might be code for "you have no problem receiving and offer after the tryouts." We've never heard that from any coach, which might speak volumes why we didn't have successful tryouts at top clubs. It is not clear what language the coaches use for players who are almost there, but not quite. I wish they could use some more quantitative measures to tell you "The bottom player who made one of our teams last season was at 70%, comparatively your DD is at 30%." Parents could decide to show up for tryouts if their DD is at 60%, but not even bother at 50% or lower. I agree that it would be a little more work for the coaches: they would have to get all the data aggregated (probably an Excel sheet would do it), but it would make everyone's life so much better. I would be willing to pay for this data rather than pay a lot more for the tryout and waste time showing up.

Bingo, well stated. New parents warning! Bring a lawn chair to sit in you'll have to wait in long lines to speak with the coaches about your DD "evaluation". Then rush to the next try out if you have others that day. A simple email to athletes on Monday would avoid this headache.

[Anonymous]

A coach told our kid at a tryout that she “would have a good chance” of making it. Oof. Trying to see that for what it is. Wish he hadn’t said it.

[Anonymous]

Pp
Oops I meant at a clinic, not tryout

[Anonymous]

St James tryouts for 15U and up was quite the experience. About 300 girls showed up in total, heavily weighted towards 15s, then 16s, then a lot fewer 17s and up. It felt like the longest pepper session ever till they got the train going.

At least for 16s (I'm guessing there were about 50-60 trying out in this age group), almost the entire tryout was just girls doing basic scrimmaging and folks with clipboards walking around. Eventually the group shrank to two courts, and it was pretty apparent that they were consolidating into a 'good' court and everybody else.

Offers were posted on their website under the tab for each team, along with callbacks (all by assigned player #s) by about 11PM the same evening.

[Anonymous]

Yes, DD had friends try out for St J 15s last night and they already know it’s a no. So many girls!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St James tryouts for 15U and up was quite the experience. About 300 girls showed up in total, heavily weighted towards 15s, then 16s, then a lot fewer 17s and up. It felt like the longest pepper session ever till they got the train going.

At least for 16s (I'm guessing there were about 50-60 trying out in this age group), almost the entire tryout was just girls doing basic scrimmaging and folks with clipboards walking around. Eventually the group shrank to two courts, and it was pretty apparent that they were consolidating into a 'good' court and everybody else.

Offers were posted on their website under the tab for each team, along with callbacks (all by assigned player #s) by about 11PM the same evening.

Looking at the number of CHRVA teams ranked in AES by age group last season, the breakdown is as follows:
12s - 64 teams
13s - 92 teams
14s - 139 teams
15s - 142 teams
16s - 140 teams
17s - 84 teams
18s - 64 teams

So definitely 15s and 16s are the most popular age groups - hope everyone finds a team!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St James tryouts for 15U and up was quite the experience. About 300 girls showed up in total, heavily weighted towards 15s, then 16s, then a lot fewer 17s and up. It felt like the longest pepper session ever till they got the train going.

At least for 16s (I'm guessing there were about 50-60 trying out in this age group), almost the entire tryout was just girls doing basic scrimmaging and folks with clipboards walking around. Eventually the group shrank to two courts, and it was pretty apparent that they were consolidating into a 'good' court and everybody else.

Offers were posted on their website under the tab for each team, along with callbacks (all by assigned player #s) by about 11PM the same evening.

Looking at the number of CHRVA teams ranked in AES by age group last season, the breakdown is as follows:
12s - 64 teams
13s - 92 teams
14s - 139 teams
15s - 142 teams
16s - 140 teams
17s - 84 teams
18s - 64 teams

So definitely 15s and 16s are the most popular age groups - hope everyone finds a team!

Statistically speaking, you can't tell the difference between 14s and 16s. Let's say that 14s-16s are the most popular age groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I don’t understand what the “simple” part is in your ideal description. Don’t you realize that clubs would just send out their offer emails to the same 12 girls? Then what?…they get 48 hours to decide while your DD has no offers and waits until the next round of offers? And then does round 2 get 48 hours to decide as well?
What if a player accepts an offer when it comes in the second round but then in round three, she finally gets an offer from a club she really wants that still has a spot? Can she change her mind?
The system they have is imperfect, but your proposal is a nightmare.

+1. That proposal would be awful. My DD and her friends went to 5-9 tryouts over that weekend. They were all trying for open level or national teams. It was a terrible weekend and we knew it would be. Stretching it out over a longer period of time would have these girls going to even more tryouts, out of fear that they wouldn’t have a spot anywhere. Even with 5-9 tryouts in that short amount of time, everyone we know can away with 0-2 options. So don’t say they went to too many. Every girl went to some lower level clubs too. I wouldn’t want to stretch this out over two weeks.

Like one parent said the clinics are basically pre vetting 100% correct. And the try outs aren't really try outs they throw 100 girls on a court at time. You can't truly evaluate players in that short amount of time and especially with overcrowding. It's like having 200 guys on the basketball court and saying go for it, let me see what you got. Some girls don't know positions or understand rotations. Stretching the time period out would allow for a more comprehensive evaluation. That's the point I'm trying to make. Having them wait two weeks vs two days is reasonable. New parents after your first tryout experience this weekend. Come back and post here, provide your honest thoughts on what you think of the evaluation process.

I wish the coaches would provide honest feedback during / after the pre-tryout clinics. We've never had honest feedback even though we always tried to figure out whether my DD has any chance of making a team at various clubs. All the answers we received were sugar coated and ended with something along the line "you will never know unless you try out." This happens even at the top clubs, where the coaches watch you for five minutes and can tell that you have no chance whatsoever to make any of their teams. We saw exactly the same approach every single year since my DD started playing volleyball. The coaches encourage everyone to sign up for tryouts no matter how many left hands you have. Then they end up at the tryout with a bunch of players with rec-level skill, which they discard on the bottom court and they pay no attention to. I feel like this is extremely unethical and they do it just to brag about how many players show up at the tryouts. I watched the coaches during pre-tryout clinics collecting a lot of data on each player and I think they use that data to make their lives easier during tryouts, when they already know who has a chance and who doesn't. Unfortunately, players and parents are not offered any insight into that data - they simply learn during the tryouts that they had no chance to begin with.

I wish I could better read this sugar-coated language that the coaches use. Many posts here suggest that coaches use more positive / warmer feedback, in line with "I would really want you to play on one of our teams" for players they would get on their teams. That might be code for "you have no problem receiving and offer after the tryouts." We've never heard that from any coach, which might speak volumes why we didn't have successful tryouts at top clubs. It is not clear what language the coaches use for players who are almost there, but not quite. I wish they could use some more quantitative measures to tell you "The bottom player who made one of our teams last season was at 70%, comparatively your DD is at 30%." Parents could decide to show up for tryouts if their DD is at 60%, but not even bother at 50% or lower. I agree that it would be a little more work for the coaches: they would have to get all the data aggregated (probably an Excel sheet would do it), but it would make everyone's life so much better. I would be willing to pay for this data rather than pay a lot more for the tryout and waste time showing up.

Bingo, well stated. New parents warning! Bring a lawn chair to sit in you'll have to wait in long lines to speak with the coaches about your DD "evaluation". Then rush to the next try out if you have others that day. A simple email to athletes on Monday would avoid this headache.

Let me rephrase the new parent warning. If you ended up at a tryout where you have to wait a long time to speak with the coaches, you are likely not going to make the team. Don't waste your time staying in line: go back home and look up low and mid tier clubs and sign up for their tryouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I don’t understand what the “simple” part is in your ideal description. Don’t you realize that clubs would just send out their offer emails to the same 12 girls? Then what?…they get 48 hours to decide while your DD has no offers and waits until the next round of offers? And then does round 2 get 48 hours to decide as well?
What if a player accepts an offer when it comes in the second round but then in round three, she finally gets an offer from a club she really wants that still has a spot? Can she change her mind?
The system they have is imperfect, but your proposal is a nightmare.

+1. That proposal would be awful. My DD and her friends went to 5-9 tryouts over that weekend. They were all trying for open level or national teams. It was a terrible weekend and we knew it would be. Stretching it out over a longer period of time would have these girls going to even more tryouts, out of fear that they wouldn’t have a spot anywhere. Even with 5-9 tryouts in that short amount of time, everyone we know can away with 0-2 options. So don’t say they went to too many. Every girl went to some lower level clubs too. I wouldn’t want to stretch this out over two weeks.

Like one parent said the clinics are basically pre vetting 100% correct. And the try outs aren't really try outs they throw 100 girls on a court at time. You can't truly evaluate players in that short amount of time and especially with overcrowding. It's like having 200 guys on the basketball court and saying go for it, let me see what you got. Some girls don't know positions or understand rotations. Stretching the time period out would allow for a more comprehensive evaluation. That's the point I'm trying to make. Having them wait two weeks vs two days is reasonable. New parents after your first tryout experience this weekend. Come back and post here, provide your honest thoughts on what you think of the evaluation process.

I wish the coaches would provide honest feedback during / after the pre-tryout clinics. We've never had honest feedback even though we always tried to figure out whether my DD has any chance of making a team at various clubs. All the answers we received were sugar coated and ended with something along the line "you will never know unless you try out." This happens even at the top clubs, where the coaches watch you for five minutes and can tell that you have no chance whatsoever to make any of their teams. We saw exactly the same approach every single year since my DD started playing volleyball. The coaches encourage everyone to sign up for tryouts no matter how many left hands you have. Then they end up at the tryout with a bunch of players with rec-level skill, which they discard on the bottom court and they pay no attention to. I feel like this is extremely unethical and they do it just to brag about how many players show up at the tryouts. I watched the coaches during pre-tryout clinics collecting a lot of data on each player and I think they use that data to make their lives easier during tryouts, when they already know who has a chance and who doesn't. Unfortunately, players and parents are not offered any insight into that data - they simply learn during the tryouts that they had no chance to begin with.

I wish I could better read this sugar-coated language that the coaches use. Many posts here suggest that coaches use more positive / warmer feedback, in line with "I would really want you to play on one of our teams" for players they would get on their teams. That might be code for "you have no problem receiving and offer after the tryouts." We've never heard that from any coach, which might speak volumes why we didn't have successful tryouts at top clubs. It is not clear what language the coaches use for players who are almost there, but not quite. I wish they could use some more quantitative measures to tell you "The bottom player who made one of our teams last season was at 70%, comparatively your DD is at 30%." Parents could decide to show up for tryouts if their DD is at 60%, but not even bother at 50% or lower. I agree that it would be a little more work for the coaches: they would have to get all the data aggregated (probably an Excel sheet would do it), but it would make everyone's life so much better. I would be willing to pay for this data rather than pay a lot more for the tryout and waste time showing up.

Bingo, well stated. New parents warning! Bring a lawn chair to sit in you'll have to wait in long lines to speak with the coaches about your DD "evaluation". Then rush to the next try out if you have others that day. A simple email to athletes on Monday would avoid this headache.

Let me rephrase the new parent warning. If you ended up at a tryout where you have to wait a long time to speak with the coaches, you are likely not going to make the team. Don't waste your time staying in line: go back home and look up low and mid tier clubs and sign up for their tryouts.

Which clubs make you do this? We’ve never had to. We know Metro makes you wait in line but what other clubs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weekend we’ve been dreading is finally here…and we are poorer for it (clinics that now I feel like don’t mean anything because they weren’t invite-only and tryout fees).

Sending good vibes. Our gal so needs to get out of her situation. But it’s really competitive, obv.

btw, I did some back-of-the-envelope math. If you want to keep your kid in shape, you could sign up for a gym membership. The Planet Fitness black card membership is ~$30/month and she can always bring a friend (I guess it could be either of the parents). You would pay $360 for an entire year and you can go as many times as you want and stay as long as you want. Of course, there are gyms that offer a lot more (and also charge a lot more). Compare that price with the volleyball club bill, which is about 10 times more expensive. And that's just at the beginning of the season: by the end of the season, you you realize that you paid 20 times more than the gym membership. For that price, you get 2/3 practices per week and ~10 tournaments. But that money pit is a lot larger: you pay the monthly PF membership (if not more) for each clinic that you sign up for. Then you realize that the coaches lie to you just to give you hope and sign up for more and more clinics, maybe even private lessons.

I have to admit that it is easier to take my DD to volleyball practice and tournaments than it would be to take her to gym: gym is way less fun.

I suppose if fitness is the primary goal, then a gym membership would definitely be a lot cheaper. I think for must of us, it's a lot more layered than that. There are good lessons to be learned from team sports. Learning to be a good teammate, having to compete for playing time, dealing with harsh coaches, handling pressure, and even how to handle the disappointment of not making a team. Hopefully they will also make some friends, maybe get good enough to make their HS team, and a few will find a passion that leads to playing in college. We have enjoyed it as parents as well. We've met lots of nice people, had some fun times in hotel bars, and gotten to cheer our DD on playing the sport she loves. My DD is playing 18s this year and while there are obviously a lot of challenges, it's been a part of our lives for the last 8 years and I will miss it when it's over.

I agree with all those stated benefits. But how much extra money should you throw at the clubs for those benefits? Isn't 20x too much money? Mind that the club fees go up every year with no relationship to inflation or between how much you pay and the quality of the experience. It feels like the clubs that charge more money tend to deliver a poorer experience, especially on the MD market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I don’t understand what the “simple” part is in your ideal description. Don’t you realize that clubs would just send out their offer emails to the same 12 girls? Then what?…they get 48 hours to decide while your DD has no offers and waits until the next round of offers? And then does round 2 get 48 hours to decide as well?
What if a player accepts an offer when it comes in the second round but then in round three, she finally gets an offer from a club she really wants that still has a spot? Can she change her mind?
The system they have is imperfect, but your proposal is a nightmare.

+1. That proposal would be awful. My DD and her friends went to 5-9 tryouts over that weekend. They were all trying for open level or national teams. It was a terrible weekend and we knew it would be. Stretching it out over a longer period of time would have these girls going to even more tryouts, out of fear that they wouldn’t have a spot anywhere. Even with 5-9 tryouts in that short amount of time, everyone we know can away with 0-2 options. So don’t say they went to too many. Every girl went to some lower level clubs too. I wouldn’t want to stretch this out over two weeks.

Like one parent said the clinics are basically pre vetting 100% correct. And the try outs aren't really try outs they throw 100 girls on a court at time. You can't truly evaluate players in that short amount of time and especially with overcrowding. It's like having 200 guys on the basketball court and saying go for it, let me see what you got. Some girls don't know positions or understand rotations. Stretching the time period out would allow for a more comprehensive evaluation. That's the point I'm trying to make. Having them wait two weeks vs two days is reasonable. New parents after your first tryout experience this weekend. Come back and post here, provide your honest thoughts on what you think of the evaluation process.

I wish the coaches would provide honest feedback during / after the pre-tryout clinics. We've never had honest feedback even though we always tried to figure out whether my DD has any chance of making a team at various clubs. All the answers we received were sugar coated and ended with something along the line "you will never know unless you try out." This happens even at the top clubs, where the coaches watch you for five minutes and can tell that you have no chance whatsoever to make any of their teams. We saw exactly the same approach every single year since my DD started playing volleyball. The coaches encourage everyone to sign up for tryouts no matter how many left hands you have. Then they end up at the tryout with a bunch of players with rec-level skill, which they discard on the bottom court and they pay no attention to. I feel like this is extremely unethical and they do it just to brag about how many players show up at the tryouts. I watched the coaches during pre-tryout clinics collecting a lot of data on each player and I think they use that data to make their lives easier during tryouts, when they already know who has a chance and who doesn't. Unfortunately, players and parents are not offered any insight into that data - they simply learn during the tryouts that they had no chance to begin with.

I wish I could better read this sugar-coated language that the coaches use. Many posts here suggest that coaches use more positive / warmer feedback, in line with "I would really want you to play on one of our teams" for players they would get on their teams. That might be code for "you have no problem receiving and offer after the tryouts." We've never heard that from any coach, which might speak volumes why we didn't have successful tryouts at top clubs. It is not clear what language the coaches use for players who are almost there, but not quite. I wish they could use some more quantitative measures to tell you "The bottom player who made one of our teams last season was at 70%, comparatively your DD is at 30%." Parents could decide to show up for tryouts if their DD is at 60%, but not even bother at 50% or lower. I agree that it would be a little more work for the coaches: they would have to get all the data aggregated (probably an Excel sheet would do it), but it would make everyone's life so much better. I would be willing to pay for this data rather than pay a lot more for the tryout and waste time showing up.

Bingo, well stated. New parents warning! Bring a lawn chair to sit in you'll have to wait in long lines to speak with the coaches about your DD "evaluation". Then rush to the next try out if you have others that day. A simple email to athletes on Monday would avoid this headache.

Let me rephrase the new parent warning. If you ended up at a tryout where you have to wait a long time to speak with the coaches, you are likely not going to make the team. Don't waste your time staying in line: go back home and look up low and mid tier clubs and sign up for their tryouts.

Which clubs make you do this? We’ve never had to. We know Metro makes you wait in line but what other clubs?

I have to admit, this is unusual, especially on a tryout day. Coaches are so busy that offering individual feedback for every player seems a lot. MVSA gathered everyone in the gym (including the parents) and explained how the process would move forward. We exchanged pleasantries with the coaches, but they were definitely not willing to discuss how individual players performed during the tryouts.