Volleyball club- recap and thoughts
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Anonymous
How do you know my DD is not very young, very tall, or very athletic? |
Anonymous
DP. Can you people just answer questions for new families? My daughter has not played for Paramount so anyone can correct me if I’m wrong. Most of my info is from here. The coaching is super strict and they have the reputation of yelling. The starters will play, many will ride the bench. Some teams have girls who quit mid season. That says a lot at this high level. The teams are very very hard to make. But my daughter has enjoyed some of their clinics and has been going this summer. She does not plan on trying out for a team but still likes the preseason training. She’s in high school. |
Anonymous
Fair enough. Here is what I previously wrote about coaching (that doesn't apply to Paramount only): You have all kinds of coaches in all the clubs. Some coaches try to pump up the players no matter how many mistakes they make. Others accept that players may have a bad day and simply take them off the court if they have alternatives. Stick around on this forum enough and you will read about coaches who yell or even curse at their players. But it's not like the best coaches are in [insert club name here] and all the other clubs have coaches who are negative at their teams. It's all about you doing your homework and avoiding red flags when you choose your club. Since you are new to club volleyball, you should know that the expectations are pretty low during the first year: players need to practice and create habits. After the first year you will hear the coaches saying things like: "you cannot serve into the net at this level" or "you cannot let the ball drop without even attempting to move." Some will yell "get to the ball" or "move your feet" - and the tone can vary. After another year of club volleyball, the expectations will increase further and they will involve more advanced topics than serve or serve-receive. Other actions (or inactions) will become unacceptable as the years pass by or the team level increases. I am not saying that the coaches are necessarily going to start yelling or be negative, but they are going to expect more. The coaches of higher level teams have even more expectations and they put more pressure on their players. |
Anonymous
Paramount almost lost their CHRVA certfication as a club b/c of the owner's son losing his absolute mind on the court and the parents of a certain team being absolutely nasty, getting a yellow or purple card (can't recall which color exactly). There are favorites and the coaches pit the favorites against the rest of the team. The coaching is nuts... and they think that results in the girls improving but they play scared. The favorites stay and the girls that suck up the environment to play for good teams stay. The marketing is cringe and half their claims are completely blown out of proportion. They agressively recruit and your dd is on the team without being agressively recruited be prepared to not play or be the proverbial punching bag. Rumors also swirl that the parents nickname the other girls and make fun of them- core mean girls and that perpetuates down to their dd's. If you are considering paramount be sure to look under the hood and jump in with two feet. Some people love it, most don't. |
Anonymous
While I agree that if you think your DD is good (or tall) enough for Metro Travel or Paramount, that you can’t just show up to tryouts and expect a spot, I think you also need to create situations for the club director and coaches to see your DD play. The easiest way to get that exposure is by going to the fall clinics that are identified as being for players interested in playing for a particular team. For Metro in particular, they usually hold their clinics for potential travel players at Ritchie Park Elementary School in Rockville in September and October. Metro and many other clubs will identify players they are interested in and invite them to an invite-only clinic that happens in the week or two before tryouts. If your DD doesn’t get invited, they probably will not be getting an offer at tryouts and you should make sure to tryout elsewhere. While I know both Metro and Paramount are careful about not making formal offers prior to the open tryout period, the coaches are willing to have conversations after clinics and will generally provide feedback on the likelihood of an offer. |
Anonymous
| I saw an Instagram post about Metro 15-17 National. What is this all about? Are they expanding to have 2 travel teams for 15-17? |
Anonymous
Metro has always been reactionary towards Paramount. Paramount added a 12s team three years ago, then Metro just added a 12 Travel team this year. Paramount added an 11s team two years ago, Metro just announced an 11 Travel team. Paramount has established a successful programs with two teams per age group (whereas Metro has only ever formed Regional teams); now it appears Metro is trying to rebrand their Regional teams into something else. This is due to them being upset that they are no longer earning the most bids in the CHRVA Region, since Paramount is now qualifying some of their 2nd teams (in fact, Metro 15 Travel and Paramount 15-2 both played in the same division of Nationals this past season, which says something). You would think a club thats been around since 1999 would be trailblazing instead of being reactionary to a club that's only been around for 10 years. |
Anonymous
Lots of carefully selected facts that, while technically true, don’t really paint the full picture of the relative successes of Paramount vs Metro Travel today. But rather than trying to rebut these or provide the counter arguments (things like national rankings, open bids, recruiting success, results at nationals, etc, etc) I’ll just say that this post is a perfect demonstration of the fixation many at Paramount have with trying to one up Metro and the general negative energy that starts from the top down. |
Anonymous
Paramount (and a few other top clubs) are very good at marketing now. Statements like "the only club to qualify XXXX teams", "100% recruitment success", "the only team to attend XXX", "we have an exclusive training relationship," "look at our alumni meetup at college XXX", and "there's no difference between our 1s and 2s team - both compete at the same level", etc. are all examples of very real marketing by those clubs. The marketing clearly works because you see both club staff and parents on these boards parroting the same talking points. Discussions about other good teams or clubs are inevitably steered towards on those clubs as well, usually with the same talking points. And you hear it in conversations at tournaments all the time. The clubs are businesses who have to live up to those marketing claims in order to keep their model working and revenue coming. As a result, they treat players more like cogs in the wheel of the club's success. They made a choice about the type of business they want to be. It can sometimes work out if your player is a vital cog, but if they aren't it can be very painful. A very good player leaving a club mid-season is the worst example of the wheel grinding up its cogs, but it manifests in many other ways too. For example, players that are vitally important to a club's success often know how important they are (and so do their parents). Some players take advantage of that and treat their teammates poorly and/or get special treatment from the team coach. Coaches know that they can't lose those players and you'll often see markedly different treatment between "important" and "replaceable" players. The most visible version of this is playing time at tournaments, where coaches will play those important players because any time they aren't playing the parents and their player get upset and they will complain. But it manifests in many other ways, including their focus in practice on key players, their willingness to forgive errors those players make while aggressively calling out the exact error by a less-favored player, and the amount of time they spend helping one player in recruiting vs. another. There are even instances of teammates working with each other to make another player look bad by making sure she doesn't get set, doesn't get on the court during practices, isn't told the play being run, etc. Blatant violations of team rules are overlooked if the consequence of enforcement is that team could lose an important match and/or not have a player available on the first day of the tournament, risking that the team gets knocked out of contention for a bid or high finish. All of those are decisions made for the benefit of the club, not for the player. If you are one of the favored players, be prepared for the consequences of playing for a club more focused on the club than on you. Expect to be berated and told by coaches "if you can't deliver for me, I don't want you here. Don't bother coming to practice" which is an exact quote made to a top player during an important tournament when the team was losing. Expect to be asked to play through injuries. Expect negative energy from the top, driven by the belief that great players are born in a "crucible" and that you can justify virtually any action as good for the player because it "challenged" them. And then you have to deal with the parents constantly working behind your back to figure out a way to make sure they're DD gets more playing time, because they are spending $10K+ and they want they're return on investment. If you aren't one of the favored players you'll generally receive less focus from coaches, less playing time in matches, limited opportunity to make the same mistakes another player makes all the time, and face many other issues. You won't see any of this during open gyms or fall clinics if you have a chance to make the team, it usually only manifests once the season starts. Your DD may come out of the clinics saying they loved the intensity, the quality of play, and the coaching -- but you find out once you make the team the coach and the players behave completely differently. |
Anonymous
Okay, Mrs. Nguyen. For those who don’t know, this woman is a high-powered exec in the corporate world who works behind the scenes for Metro and does their dirty work… |
Anonymous
You’re wrong and this is further evidence of my point about the negative culture at Paramount. |
Anonymous
Looks like Metro is adding 11-1, 15-2, 16-2, and 17-2 teams, and Paramount is planning to add 14-3 and 15-3 teams. Should be a lot of movement among the clubs? I thought Metro North teams are basically Metro second teams, but maybe these "National" team will go to more qualifiers. |
Anonymous
This could have a negative effect on other club teams, as players wait out to see if they can get on a 1s team, but only offered on a 2s or 3s team on Paramount. The same with players at the 15s level trying to leverage on a 1s or 2s team between Paramount and Metro, but get offered on a 3s team. This could be a longer process this year to field all club teams. |
Anonymous
I think I know where we will see the MOCO-1 players during the next season. Probably some of the MVSA-1 players as well. |
Anonymous
Curious if you know of the 2025 commits how that shakes out by club? Which clubs have the highest placement counts? Maybe besides the obvious 2. |