Volleyball club- recap and thoughts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is mojo likely to be any better that ECP? Aren’t they the same people?

Yep, SAME people.

I don't think that's accurate or fair.

Mojo coaches and leadership were established and well-respected in the DC area long before ECP came into the picture. ECPDC coaches that came from Arlington Elite and The St. James were solid as well.

The major issues with ECPDC began last year during the 2022-23 season. From the volleyball gossip mill, the problems are attributed to either A) 3 Step Sports National corporate leadership or B) the influx of Delaware coaches and director (Chris Smith) just not meshing with the local group. Either way, the merger between corporate franchise, Delaware, and DC local coaches did not work out. The DC local coaches are now back with Mojo. Former Delaware coaches seem to be with Renaissance.

Being a DC volleyball parent with older kids, I know the Mojo/St James coaches and hate to see them smeared. My kids owe a lot of their skills and confidence to Mojo.
N
I'm inclined to give the Renaissance coaches the benefit of the doubt as well. Unlike 3 Step Sports, the coaches do not profit personally from clinic or registration fees that are not refunded.

Then consider your family fortunate that you got to see the pretty side.
Mojo coaches and directors play such obvious favorites and have no problem taking your money for clinics and even inviting you to invite only to add a few extra bodies. But when you go to tryout day and they suddenly avoid eye contact and immediately put you on the “thanks for coming” court without even pretending to observe your tryout, you know you were just one of the suckers.
I’m sure other clubs are the same way in making up their rosters in advance, but those clubs do a much better job of trying to make it appear that the tryout is a tryout.

This is true from before they transferred the club to ECP. Experienced it 2 years ago and would say it’s accurate

I was planning to have my DD tryout for Mojo. So I should skip and focus on the other clubs then to save a possible bad experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is mojo likely to be any better that ECP? Aren’t they the same people?

Yep, SAME people.

I don't think that's accurate or fair.

Mojo coaches and leadership were established and well-respected in the DC area long before ECP came into the picture. ECPDC coaches that came from Arlington Elite and The St. James were solid as well.

The major issues with ECPDC began last year during the 2022-23 season. From the volleyball gossip mill, the problems are attributed to either A) 3 Step Sports National corporate leadership or B) the influx of Delaware coaches and director (Chris Smith) just not meshing with the local group. Either way, the merger between corporate franchise, Delaware, and DC local coaches did not work out. The DC local coaches are now back with Mojo. Former Delaware coaches seem to be with Renaissance.

Being a DC volleyball parent with older kids, I know the Mojo/St James coaches and hate to see them smeared. My kids owe a lot of their skills and confidence to Mojo.
N
I'm inclined to give the Renaissance coaches the benefit of the doubt as well. Unlike 3 Step Sports, the coaches do not profit personally from clinic or registration fees that are not refunded.

Then consider your family fortunate that you got to see the pretty side.
Mojo coaches and directors play such obvious favorites and have no problem taking your money for clinics and even inviting you to invite only to add a few extra bodies. But when you go to tryout day and they suddenly avoid eye contact and immediately put you on the “thanks for coming” court without even pretending to observe your tryout, you know you were just one of the suckers.
I’m sure other clubs are the same way in making up their rosters in advance, but those clubs do a much better job of trying to make it appear that the tryout is a tryout.

This is true from before they transferred the club to ECP. Experienced it 2 years ago and would say it’s accurate

I was planning to have my DD tryout for Mojo. So I should skip and focus on the other clubs then to save a possible bad experience?

NP and we were debating the same. We ended up looking at possible practice locations and basing tryouts on that. She can decide later depending where she is offered a spot.

As for Mojo, it’s looking like a no for us because of the practice locations. But other than that, I couldn’t find the cost on their website. Others seem to list it and I didn’t like that they didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Also the chances are higher the Mojo coaches-former ECP coaches, will pick players they already know and have worked with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also the chances are higher the Mojo coaches-former ECP coaches, will pick players they already know and have worked with.

As a former ECP family, we are looking at both Mojo and Renaissance . This is to say that some families will go Mojo and some will go Renaissance. As both clubs are planning for 2 teams for each age, and ECP only had 2 teams for each age last year (except 12 and 15U, which had 3 teams)- both clubs should definitely have room for new players. To the PP who said they could find the club fees for mojo- they were posted a few days ago. For those who are looking for the Renaissance website- it has been mentioned on previous posts though it does not come up if you google for it. It is

https://www.renaissancechesapeake.com/

Unfortunately only tryout info is up so far for the DC branch but the word is more info should be up this week 🤞.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also the chances are higher the Mojo coaches-former ECP coaches, will pick players they already know and have worked with.

As a former ECP family, we are looking at both Mojo and Renaissance . This is to say that some families will go Mojo and some will go Renaissance. As both clubs are planning for 2 teams for each age, and ECP only had 2 teams for each age last year (except 12 and 15U, which had 3 teams)- both clubs should definitely have room for new players. To the PP who said they could find the club fees for mojo- they were posted a few days ago. For those who are looking for the Renaissance website- it has been mentioned on previous posts though it does not come up if you google for it. It is

https://www.renaissancechesapeake.com/

Unfortunately only tryout info is up so far for the DC branch but the word is more info should be up this week 🤞.

Most likely more will go to Mojo and follow their coach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MEVC and MOCO also has U10-12 teams.

The difference is none of those clubs that traditionally do U10-U12 have any open-level teams when the girls get older. MVSA is known to be strong in U10-U14, but then around U15 all those girls leave for bigger clubs because they know they need to do so for college recruiting and competitiveness purposes. But now with Paramount expanding into the U10-U12 category, we finally have an elite club in our area getting into those age groups.

\

While Metro doesn't have U10-U12 in it's travel program, it has them at the regional level and it helps feed the travel program, starting at 13U. While many of Metro's players come from other clubs, some move up through thier regional programs as well.

[Anonymous]

Do any players make teams if they haven’t been selected for invite-only clinics? Do most teams know their roster before tryouts start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do any players make teams if they haven’t been selected for invite-only clinics? Do most teams know their roster before tryouts start?

If you haven’t been given the nod before tryouts, your only route into any club is as a bench warmer. Some clubs tell their kids not to go to other clubs clinics or they’re out.

Paramount do a great job marketing on this forum btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do any players make teams if they haven’t been selected for invite-only clinics? Do most teams know their roster before tryouts start?

If you haven’t been given the nod before tryouts, your only route into any club is as a bench warmer. Some clubs tell their kids not to go to other clubs clinics or they’re out.

Paramount do a great job marketing on this forum btw.

For clarity, if my kid hasn’t received any invites to invite-only clinics, there is no point in going to tryouts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do any players make teams if they haven’t been selected for invite-only clinics? Do most teams know their roster before tryouts start?

If you haven’t been given the nod before tryouts, your only route into any club is as a bench warmer. Some clubs tell their kids not to go to other clubs clinics or they’re out.

Paramount do a great job marketing on this forum btw.

For clarity, if my kid hasn’t received any invites to invite-only clinics, there is no point in going to tryouts?

What has been the coaches feedback at clinics you have attended?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do any players make teams if they haven’t been selected for invite-only clinics? Do most teams know their roster before tryouts start?

If you haven’t been given the nod before tryouts, your only route into any club is as a bench warmer. Some clubs tell their kids not to go to other clubs clinics or they’re out.

Paramount do a great job marketing on this forum btw.

For clarity, if my kid hasn’t received any invites to invite-only clinics, there is no point in going to tryouts?

What has been the coaches feedback at clinics you have attended?

There really isn’t any feedback happening with anyone. They all seem to hurry the groups out at the end.

[FPYCparent]

I'm still relatively new, but I think the invite-only clinics may be very dependent on age groups. I could be wrong, but I'm going to guess that there aren't invite-only's for 12s or 13s and younger ... unless your 6th grader is already 6-foot 4.

I think I shared a bit of my kid's story earlier in this thread. This time last year, she was still 100% club soccer (in her 6th consecutive year of mid-level travel) but she earned a spot on her high school's JV team as a freshman with no prior VB club experience (not a really high bar, given the school). Someone from a local club watched her at one of the JV matches which resulted in a clinic invite. Although she attended multiple clinics (five to ten) last October before tryouts, I believe all but one were "general admission." Ultimately, she tried out at three clubs ... and got offers from all three. My kid isn't super tall (5-6/5-7 now at age 15) but she can jump.

[Anonymous]

Just here to give a shout out for the Metro regional teams. Maybe not as competitive as Metro Travel or Paramount, but they are definitely not slouch teams. Look at the age group rankings (AES power rankings). Many of the Metro regional teams perform more competitively than ECP, Vienna Elite, VaVa, etc. My DD played for a Metro regional team and not only did her skills improve dramatically, but the coaching was fantastic, appropriate, encouraging, and she was able to develop, and she actually played. Her coach - even at the younger club age group level -
Also coaches for a well known private HS school VB program. Terrific experience for DD. She can’t wait to go back if she’s fortunate to earn a spot again. We know girls who stepped up and referred to travel, as well.

She has been to other club clinics at ECP/Mojo (watch out, Regina George, in the cliquey mean girl and mean parents rankings!), VA Elite (good for training but club rosters are clearly preordained despite claims to the contrary- but they’ll gladly take your money), xfactor (good development but not super competitive), VaVa (DD’s age group coach was grumpy and critical. Bad vibe, and heard same thing from two others there who won’t return), and No Panic (liked the clinics but location tough). Maybe will check out Renaissance and Vienna Elite. But there’s only so many hours in the day and all the tryouts seem to be at the same times this year.

Anywhere else good in NoVA to check out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do any players make teams if they haven’t been selected for invite-only clinics? Do most teams know their roster before tryouts start?

If you haven’t been given the nod before tryouts, your only route into any club is as a bench warmer. Some clubs tell their kids not to go to other clubs clinics or they’re out.

Paramount do a great job marketing on this forum btw.

For clarity, if my kid hasn’t received any invites to invite-only clinics, there is no point in going to tryouts?

What has been the coaches feedback at clinics you have attended?

There really isn’t any feedback happening with anyone. They all seem to hurry the groups out at the end.

I would suggest that, unless your dd is 12 or 13 (and even then) - no love from the coaches is generally not a good sign. Don’t know which clinics you are attending but maybe take in a different one next weekend…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just here to give a shout out for the Metro regional teams. Maybe not as competitive as Metro Travel or Paramount, but they are definitely not slouch teams. Look at the age group rankings (AES power rankings). Many of the Metro regional teams perform more competitively than ECP, Vienna Elite, VaVa, etc. My DD played for a Metro regional team and not only did her skills improve dramatically, but the coaching was fantastic, appropriate, encouraging, and she was able to develop, and she actually played. Her coach - even at the younger club age group level -
Also coaches for a well known private HS school VB program. Terrific experience for DD. She can’t wait to go back if she’s fortunate to earn a spot again. We know girls who stepped up and referred to travel, as well.

She has been to other club clinics at ECP/Mojo (watch out, Regina George, in the cliquey mean girl and mean parents rankings!), VA Elite (good for training but club rosters are clearly preordained despite claims to the contrary- but they’ll gladly take your money), xfactor (good development but not super competitive), VaVa (DD’s age group coach was grumpy and critical. Bad vibe, and heard same thing from two others there who won’t return), and No Panic (liked the clinics but location tough). Maybe will check out Renaissance and Vienna Elite. But there’s only so many hours in the day and all the tryouts seem to be at the same times this year.

Anywhere else good in NoVA to check out?

Don’t be fooled by aes rankings - Metro regional are just that, regional, playing lower level teams and tournies. Our DD came up against them a couple times last season and it was over quickly, despite them being ranked higher. Regional teams are a money making scheme for Silvia, and why not - she’s done great things with Metro as a club, but don’t expect the same experience as the travel teams….