Volleyball club- recap and thoughts
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Anonymous
DD wants to try out there but it will be a tough team to make. I’m sure parents still attend and watch, so you will still be paying more for travel! Yes, we paid around 10k last year with travel. I purposely don’t want to add it all up. |
Anonymous
VA Elite is easier to make than some of the other travel teams. Tell your DD to go for it! |
Anonymous
Easier than Metro and Paramount and that’s probably it. The cost is eye watering though. |
Anonymous
Generally, their performance doesn't match their price. They had one team in U12-U17 in the top 10 in the region per AES, which is based on their direct results against other CHRVA teams. The only other team in the top 10 was their U18 team. Age: Regional Rank - National Rank U12: 10, 751 U13: 38, 1963 U14: 38, 1089 U15: 15, 742 U16: 31, 1061 U17: 22, 527 U18: 5, 226 |
Anonymous
In terms of competitiveness, the performance definitely doesn’t match the price. If you look back a few posts in this thread, it was a discussion about CHRVA teams at USAV Nationals that sparked this VAE conversation. Even though their teams don’t tend to be particularly competitive, they tend to have pretty good recruiting results. If you’re someone who isn’t bothered by the cost whose DD wants to play in college, then VAE might be a good option. |
Anonymous
No, we aren’t concerned with college. The most attractive thing about VAE is their practice location at Madeira. DD went to Mojo last year and the teams seemed preselected. All of the other clubs are so far. She ended up on a low level club with a long commute. She’s looking at VAE because it’s decent and close. Nothing else is in the immediate area. But it is so expensive. |
Anonymous
It is only slightly more expensive if you have to do your own travel, and assume parents have to travel as there is no team travel. We did a few years there, the facility is nice, the coaching is decent and there were times we didn’t travel, watched it on stream and went about our business at home. I genuinely think it was a wash all things considered (especially if parents don’t go to every tournament). |
Anonymous
What age group? In general, if you aren't concerned with college then VAE is likely not the right fit. If your DD is in HS (or even U14 in some cases) and they know that she isn't interested in college, they aren't likely to be interested in her. As a result, VAE has some of the highest turnover of all clubs between U15-U17, typically having only 3-4 players who stay with them across those three years. |
Anonymous
Is this because they are bleeding the top players to Metro and Paramount? Or this is just part of it? |
Anonymous
I’m always a little suspect of clubs that lose more than half of a team from one season to the next. Sure a handful of players might go to Metro or Paramount or to another club or maybe some players don’t meet expectations and the club doesn’t ask them back, but I think if there is consistently a lot of turnover year after year, it indicates that players/families are not happy at that club. Same with players quitting a club before the end of the season. |
Anonymous
In our experience they keep the kids they think have the potential to play at college. If a 6’3 kid walks in, some other kid is walking out. They lose a player or two to Metro/Paramount but not that many as, to be frank, their players may have potential and are good athletes but most are not good enough to start at Metro or Paramount, and don’t want to risk it mostly. If you start at VAE, you’re only going to Metro if your future college coach tells you to. |
Anonymous
Agreed, there's a big component of players developing at other clubs and then coming into VAE for recruiting and less movement of players switching to Paramount or Metro. Another factor is the recruiting focus. In order for VAE to keep its 100% recruiting commitment, it has to keep the players that will be recruited to the types of schools they can market. Our experience was the players know this and some of them will take advantage of it. Cliques form, players get excluded from the team social structure, players sometimes behave in inappropriate ways to their teammates, etc. |
Anonymous
I think this discussion about VAE is pretty revealing about recruiting for collegiate volleyball. Even if the 100% stat is some creative math and strategic wording, there's no question that VAE is sending a lot of players to college programs every year. The fact that most VAE teams are not particularly successful in terms of wins and losses, bids for nationals, etc. suggests that they don't consistently have the strongest players/best coaching and really emphasizes the fact that understanding and knowing how to manage the college recruiting process is potentially more important than how good a player is at volleyball, particularly for D3. So if you can afford VAE and your DD wants to play in college but isn't a superstar, maybe VAE is a good option. |
Anonymous
As a parent who’s DD went through the process, college coaches don’t just look at wins and losses, the level they are playing at is important. VAE play in Open, which is where the most college coaches watch. Now, they may not be winning tournaments but they re playing the best of the best. They’re generally in the flights after the first day, but their kids get a lot of college coaches eyes on them in Day 1. They also have very tall teams, and coaches are looking at raw goods that they can mold. I would say this is particularly attractive for strong D3 programs, and Lo and behold, who’s recruited VAE kids lately at the D3 level? Tufts, Colby, Carnegie Mellon, John’s Hopkins, Williams, NYU, Emory, Bates, Caltech, Carleton, Washington and Lee, Hamilton. Pretty good selection |
Anonymous
Several very good points here. Playing open will screw up your standing because you may lose more than you win. VAE may look worse than a regional team that wipes the floor with all the regional competitors. However, they are looking at the big picture (college recruitment) instead of focusing on the instant gratification (bringing home easy medals). They may have found the recipe for success in their niche market (rich families with tall players). If you cannot afford the VAE club fee, you better be really good to make Metro or Paramount (which are not really cheap either). |