Volleyball club- recap and thoughts
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Anonymous
I don't have a perfectly updated list for 2025, but here's what I have. Feel free to add to the list/update the numbers if you have better info. Stars indicate at least 1 D1 commit: Metro - 16* Columbia - 13* VAE - 11* Paramount - 10* MD JRS - 9* Blue Ridge - 7* LEVBC - 6* VA JRS - 5* MOCO - 3* MVSA - 3* MOJO - 2 VAVA - 1 Metro North - 1 SRVC - 1 88 players total |
Anonymous
| Could someone start a new thread just for Paramount and Metro ppl to continuously argue back and forth and leave the rest free to discuss like anonymous adults? FFS there are thousands of other players and many clubs in the DMV. |
Anonymous
Holy crap you deserve an award my friend 🎖️ |
Anonymous
I appreciate the hard work that went into this, but when I look at the Columbia 18s roster from Cap Hill on SportWrench, they only have 12 players on the roster and I know at least one who is not playing in college.and another who was a 2026 playing up to 18s. Were there 2025s who were young and played on 17s? What was the source for the 13 figure? |
Anonymous
Good question -- according to Columbia's insta feed, 18 black was 100% committed. I don't know if they were telling the truth or not. They are one of the clubs that markets 100% commitment, so if someone knows of players on their 18s team that didn't commit that would be good to know. They claimed: Townson - 2 Lafayette - 1 Kutztown - 1 UMD Eastern Shore - 3 ECU - 1 Morgan State - 1 Hampton -1 FSU - 1 Delaware State - 1 Notre Dame of Maryland - 1 |
Anonymous
+1,000 |
Anonymous
Given how good both the MVSA and MOCO 1s team were at U13 & U14, I wouldn't be so sure. Paramount adding 3s teams shouldn't have any impact at all on MVSA or MOCO 1s. Those who do leave for a lower level Paramount team probably do so because they don't get a 1s offer from either of those clubs. For U15-U17 Metro adding 2s teams may cause some movement but it will probably pull players from MDJRS, VAJRS, VA Elite and Columbia and Metro North even more than MVSA or MOCO. Last Season Results for U13/U14 for those clubs: 13s - MOCO 13-1 earned a bid, beating Paramount 13-2s to get it. MVSA finished tied for 5th with Paramount 14-2s, with 1 more win in the bid tournament, neither got a bid. I don't think MVSA and Paramount 14-2s played each other. MD Juniors finished 5th at bids, VA Juniors finished last at bids. VA Elite and Columbia didn't get into bids. Hard to believe that a MD JRS, MOCO, or MVSA player would leave the 1s team to play on a Paramount 3s (or even 2s). Could happen with VA Elite though given they are closer to Paramount, but probably not with Columbia given the long drive. 14s - MD JRS 14-1 was arguably the best team in the region, although they did lose to Metro in a great match at bids. They double qualified for USAV and finished 3rd in AAU nationals. VA Juniors earned a bid finishing 4th, beating Paramount 14-2 head to head. MVSA 14-1 and Paramount 14-2s both earned bids even though they finished 7th because the region had extra bids from trickle down and reallocations. MVSA didn't play Paramount head to head. VA Elite finished last at bids. MOCO played Paramount 14-2 at a regional tournament and beat them, but MOCO didn't try for a CHRVA bid - they went to AAU and finished 33rd. Columbia wasn't even close to getting into bids. Again, hard to believe MD JRS, MVSA or MOCO players on the 1s jump to Paramount 3s (or even 2s). In AES, VA Elite was ~600 ranks below the next closest bid team and Columbia was ~1400 ranks lower, despite both of them having some athletic players, so you might see some movement there. |
Anonymous
Parents who are new to volleyball (and probably other sports as well) tend to be clueless about their kids' skills and abilities. I've been there myself and made pretty poor decisions early on. I am still making poor decisions, but now I know for sure that my DD doesn't have any chance of playing for Metro or Paramount. And MVSA. And I could add a few more on the list, but I will stop here. |
Anonymous
Haha. I am getting there myself (new poster). When my daughter started playing in middle school I thought, hey! here’s something she’s really pretty good at, better than her peers, even! And I had delusions about MVSA and Metro etc. But now that she’s a rising sophomore, and have watched IG reels of D3 players, I realize she’s good but not great and will probably continue playing in college on a club-level team. I mean, I don’t want to see her short, but I laughed when I read your post because it seemed like me! I follow this forum, though, because I’m trying to find a MD club that isn’t Metro but that’s mid-level. The knowledgeable folks on here are too deep in it, though, and I haven’t actually gotten great info. Plz share if you know of good mid-level clubs in MD/DC!! |
Anonymous
Yep, same. And after a couple of years I realize that my very athletic daughter will always be limited by her height. Because although she is very athletic, she is short and that’s something she can’t control. We made some poor decisions and she almost ended up without any club last year at all. You need to have realistic expectations as they get older and understand there are hundreds who are just as athletic, if not more, than your kid and maybe taller. |
Anonymous
I think the obvious place to start for mid-level club in MD/DC is MOCO. They practice in mostly close-in Montgomery County and have grown quite a bit in the past few years. The club director/founder was a long time MVSA coach so it has some aspects that resemble MVSA. Specifically, lower prices and lots of parent involvement, including some coaches. Because they have grown pretty quickly, the consensus seems to be as they have had to find more coaches, there can be a lot of variability in the quality of coaching between teams. Some are great and others less so. Another close-in MD/DC accessible option is Metro Central. The Central teams are generally similar in level to MVSA 2s teams. Other options might be DMV (which is the Maryland branch of Vienna Elite in Rockville) although I've heard mixed things about the quality of coaching and the pricing is pretty high. Academy was started by a former MOCO coach with good credentials but I think the club is still pretty small and don't have teams at every age group. If you're willing to venture further out, there are more Maryland options, but what's practical really depends on where you live and how far you are willing to travel for practice. |
Anonymous
Good advice, two minor adjustments. - Metro Central is probably closer to or even below MVSA 3s, especially at U16. I don't think there was any age group where Central outperformed MVSA 3s last year. Central tends to be on the lower end of the Metro regional teams in general. - MOCO is good especially if you are close in to the city. MOCO 1s are generally not mid-tier though -- making one of those teams generally puts you in the top 10-15% of teams in the region, and their 1s teams generally compete at the open level regionally and in the same divisions as MVSA/MD Jrs/VA Jrs, etc in travel tournaments. For your specific age (U16 if your DD is a sophomore) MOCO 2s/3s, Metro Central, MEVC 1s/2s, and MVSA 3s would be good goals to shoot for. Next options are Platform and Academy. There is some coaching variability at the 2s/3s level at every club, including those listed above -- its the nature of the beast in club volleyball. The good news is the variability tends to settle down at the U15+ age groups. You generally will have coaches with some experience -- its tough to coach HS age players and not have a good understanding of how to coach. But I'd always make sure to meet and talk with the coach before tryouts (using at the club clinics in October) to make sure you get a good understanding of their credentials. |
Anonymous
You were right. I double checked from sources other than the club page and the total I could verify was 7. I updated the above to fix it. Thanks for the info. |
Anonymous
The other thing to keep in mind. Some clubs try to be sneaky and take credit for a commitment that took place prior to the player joining their club, which I think is unethical and unfair to the club that the player previously played for. VAE does this on their website (I guess in an attempt to make their 100% college placement rate look more realistic). Metro frequently has players come to their club at 18s who were already committed, and they also appear to take credit on their website for that player's commitment, even though the player committed prior to joining Metro (e.g. the class of 2025 Penn State commit committed before joining Metro; they also list a class of 2025 commit to Virginia Tech when that player committed while playing with another club). If a club is going to list a commitment on their website from a player that committed prior to joining their club, they should at least do so with an asterisk indicating that the player committed prior to joining their club. |