Club Volleyball - rate your club pros/cons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are the Metro 14 and 15 teams looking this season? Heard they added some additional talents. Our teams beat them last season, so just want to know what’s the expectation this season.

If you're talking about Metro Travel and not Regional, I heard the 14s team is pretty much the same, just with the addition of two of the stronger players from VAJrs 13s team last season. However, I've heard that Metro 15T made some major new additions and brought in a lot of new size and talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All true stories about Coach Jharred at VA Jrs…

1) Has moles/friends snap pictures at restaurants of volleyball families enjoying evenings together. One case in point…

This one is really creepy so please read!!!

One night we were out at a bar with a family whose daughter was on the same travel volleyball team as our daughter. Our 6’ 2” daughter (3rd season at VAJ and being watched by Yale coaches) had already quit the team halfway through the season for several reasons (new private school 75 minutes away had a strict quarantine policy, fourth “surprise” Middle added to the team after tryout selections were made, unreal expectations, favoritism, and so much more). The mole at the bar snapped a picture of our families and texted it to Jharred. Jharred then reached out to the other daughter via text and said AND I QUOTE “Why is your family out with the BLANK family???”

2) Recruits way too many players for one team! Four Middles on one team is an AWFUL strategy! Probably how Liz (owner) is recouping losses from the 2020 season.

3) Makes his own teammates turn on each other due to playtime challenges with that many girls on one roster. He’s even gossiped poorly to his OWN rostered athletes about their teammates. Very divisive!

4) Treats “specific” athletes like they are his gal pals! Those athletes get the most playtime despite a lower skill level.

Avoid Coach Jharred’s team like it’s the plague!!!

The behavior described is so childish and quite frankly hard to believe... but if you ask anybody somewhat in the know who has had any interaction with that man, they'll tell you stuff like this is the norm with him. He is the face of VAJrs now, which probably has been a major reason for their decline and the loss of the quality coaches they used to have.

[Anonymous]

Rosters of up to 15 girls in some tier 2-3 clubs? When did this become the norm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rosters of up to 15 girls in some tier 2-3 clubs? When did this become the norm?

If you've been following this very thread, it seems some sort of explosion has happened in interest in volleyball so unprecedented #s of girls and amounts of chaos in tryouts.

We're new to this, but guessing the answer to your question is it became the norm in... 2022?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rosters of up to 15 girls in some tier 2-3 clubs? When did this become the norm?

I've noticed that too. 13-15 has been the norm at Metro (most often 15), Paramount (usually 13-14) and VAJrs (usually 15 on older teams). But most tier 3 clubs traditionally have never put more than 12. I think it's due to the explosion in popularity of volleyball, as well as clubs trying to hoard the talent (and maybe some clubs lying to families about playing time/the role a player will play)

[Anonymous]

Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

Not sure what you mean by 'good tryout' results in this question. Good for the club or good for the players? Only a few clubs have posted rosters so harder to gauge unless you know a lot of players and their results by word of mouth, instagram posts etc.

Based on prior posts and what we know of DDs friends and acquaintances/teammates etc, the Tier 3 clubs also have larger rosters and some with good players going to their tryouts and some landing there if they did not get of the alternate list of Tier 1/2 clubs. BRYC looked like there was some movement either kids moving laterally and coming together as a result of HS or other word of mouth to be potentially stronger, we know others that used to play tier 1/2 also did tryouts at or moved over to others such as American, Metro regional (eg central). StJ seriously increased their roster sizes and changed some players in and out - eg StJ 15s went from 10 players last year to 15 this year with a partial exodus of players taking themselves off to ECP together along with some friends from other teams. ECP 2s and 3s teams are likely much stronger than prior years.

So in general, just seemed to be a lot of shifting. Guessing last year was first year people were coming out of COVID where prior years the players were staying put more. This year was an explosion and shifts as players either tried to move up to align with HS grade or some decided to stay back with grade and play the same age group a second year which then caused more shifts for players that they were going to rise into the next age group team and had to find new homes. Lots of strong players ended up in limbo as Tier 1 alternate players but Tier 2/3s went for more 'sure thing' or 'returning' type yields or the Tier 1s maybe didn't attend enough Tier 2s to have firm backups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

Not sure what you mean by 'good tryout' results in this question. Good for the club or good for the players? Only a few clubs have posted rosters so harder to gauge unless you know a lot of players and their results by word of mouth, instagram posts etc.

Based on prior posts and what we know of DDs friends and acquaintances/teammates etc, the Tier 3 clubs also have larger rosters and some with good players going to their tryouts and some landing there if they did not get of the alternate list of Tier 1/2 clubs. BRYC looked like there was some movement either kids moving laterally and coming together as a result of HS or other word of mouth to be potentially stronger, we know others that used to play tier 1/2 also did tryouts at or moved over to others such as American, Metro regional (eg central). StJ seriously increased their roster sizes and changed some players in and out - eg StJ 15s went from 10 players last year to 15 this year with a partial exodus of players taking themselves off to ECP together along with some friends from other teams. ECP 2s and 3s teams are likely much stronger than prior years.

So in general, just seemed to be a lot of shifting. Guessing last year was first year people were coming out of COVID where prior years the players were staying put more. This year was an explosion and shifts as players either tried to move up to align with HS grade or some decided to stay back with grade and play the same age group a second year which then caused more shifts for players that they were going to rise into the next age group team and had to find new homes. Lots of strong players ended up in limbo as Tier 1 alternate players but Tier 2/3s went for more 'sure thing' or 'returning' type yields or the Tier 1s maybe didn't attend enough Tier 2s to have firm backups.

A roster of 15 is a recipe for disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

Not sure what you mean by 'good tryout' results in this question. Good for the club or good for the players? Only a few clubs have posted rosters so harder to gauge unless you know a lot of players and their results by word of mouth, instagram posts etc.

Based on prior posts and what we know of DDs friends and acquaintances/teammates etc, the Tier 3 clubs also have larger rosters and some with good players going to their tryouts and some landing there if they did not get of the alternate list of Tier 1/2 clubs. BRYC looked like there was some movement either kids moving laterally and coming together as a result of HS or other word of mouth to be potentially stronger, we know others that used to play tier 1/2 also did tryouts at or moved over to others such as American, Metro regional (eg central). StJ seriously increased their roster sizes and changed some players in and out - eg StJ 15s went from 10 players last year to 15 this year with a partial exodus of players taking themselves off to ECP together along with some friends from other teams. ECP 2s and 3s teams are likely much stronger than prior years.

So in general, just seemed to be a lot of shifting. Guessing last year was first year people were coming out of COVID where prior years the players were staying put more. This year was an explosion and shifts as players either tried to move up to align with HS grade or some decided to stay back with grade and play the same age group a second year which then caused more shifts for players that they were going to rise into the next age group team and had to find new homes. Lots of strong players ended up in limbo as Tier 1 alternate players but Tier 2/3s went for more 'sure thing' or 'returning' type yields or the Tier 1s maybe didn't attend enough Tier 2s to have firm backups.

Part of the reason for the explosion is that 2007 and 2008 were the biggest birth years in the last thirty in the US, and those coincide more or less exactly with the peak age groups for club volleyball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

Not sure what you mean by 'good tryout' results in this question. Good for the club or good for the players? Only a few clubs have posted rosters so harder to gauge unless you know a lot of players and their results by word of mouth, instagram posts etc.

Based on prior posts and what we know of DDs friends and acquaintances/teammates etc, the Tier 3 clubs also have larger rosters and some with good players going to their tryouts and some landing there if they did not get of the alternate list of Tier 1/2 clubs. BRYC looked like there was some movement either kids moving laterally and coming together as a result of HS or other word of mouth to be potentially stronger, we know others that used to play tier 1/2 also did tryouts at or moved over to others such as American, Metro regional (eg central). StJ seriously increased their roster sizes and changed some players in and out - eg StJ 15s went from 10 players last year to 15 this year with a partial exodus of players taking themselves off to ECP together along with some friends from other teams. ECP 2s and 3s teams are likely much stronger than prior years.

So in general, just seemed to be a lot of shifting. Guessing last year was first year people were coming out of COVID where prior years the players were staying put more. This year was an explosion and shifts as players either tried to move up to align with HS grade or some decided to stay back with grade and play the same age group a second year which then caused more shifts for players that they were going to rise into the next age group team and had to find new homes. Lots of strong players ended up in limbo as Tier 1 alternate players but Tier 2/3s went for more 'sure thing' or 'returning' type yields or the Tier 1s maybe didn't attend enough Tier 2s to have firm backups.

A roster of 15 is a recipe for disaster.

Tough on the coaches and players/parents to have 15 players - typical club play 8-10 deep with a few back-ups. There will be a few kids that will sit the whole tournament - usually you see that in the most competitive clubs (Metro, Paramount). How some of the less competitive teams get away with 15, I don't get it. At least with Metro or Paramount, you can say you are on a winning team and train with very good players. But if your team is not winning much AND your kid still does not get play time, maybe best to switch clubs to one tier lower and get better by playing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

Not sure what you mean by 'good tryout' results in this question. Good for the club or good for the players? Only a few clubs have posted rosters so harder to gauge unless you know a lot of players and their results by word of mouth, instagram posts etc.

Based on prior posts and what we know of DDs friends and acquaintances/teammates etc, the Tier 3 clubs also have larger rosters and some with good players going to their tryouts and some landing there if they did not get of the alternate list of Tier 1/2 clubs. BRYC looked like there was some movement either kids moving laterally and coming together as a result of HS or other word of mouth to be potentially stronger, we know others that used to play tier 1/2 also did tryouts at or moved over to others such as American, Metro regional (eg central). StJ seriously increased their roster sizes and changed some players in and out - eg StJ 15s went from 10 players last year to 15 this year with a partial exodus of players taking themselves off to ECP together along with some friends from other teams. ECP 2s and 3s teams are likely much stronger than prior years.

So in general, just seemed to be a lot of shifting. Guessing last year was first year people were coming out of COVID where prior years the players were staying put more. This year was an explosion and shifts as players either tried to move up to align with HS grade or some decided to stay back with grade and play the same age group a second year which then caused more shifts for players that they were going to rise into the next age group team and had to find new homes. Lots of strong players ended up in limbo as Tier 1 alternate players but Tier 2/3s went for more 'sure thing' or 'returning' type yields or the Tier 1s maybe didn't attend enough Tier 2s to have firm backups.

A roster of 15 is a recipe for disaster.

Tough on the coaches and players/parents to have 15 players - typical club play 8-10 deep with a few back-ups. There will be a few kids that will sit the whole tournament - usually you see that in the most competitive clubs (Metro, Paramount). How some of the less competitive teams get away with 15, I don't get it. At least with Metro or Paramount, you can say you are on a winning team and train with very good players. But if your team is not winning much AND your kid still does not get play time, maybe best to switch clubs to one tier lower and get better by playing?

The difference is Metro is very clear on who plays and who sits on the bench. Other clubs promise playing time to attract players, then end up with a roster of 15, where expectations on play time are not met. It is the mismatch on expectations that causes the problems. Jnrs are particularly bad at this. I also expect Paramount to have some problems here this year. They recruited well across most age groups but now they have large rosters, new kids coming in expecting to play and the starters from last season not expecting to see the bench.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

Not sure what you mean by 'good tryout' results in this question. Good for the club or good for the players? Only a few clubs have posted rosters so harder to gauge unless you know a lot of players and their results by word of mouth, instagram posts etc.

Based on prior posts and what we know of DDs friends and acquaintances/teammates etc, the Tier 3 clubs also have larger rosters and some with good players going to their tryouts and some landing there if they did not get of the alternate list of Tier 1/2 clubs. BRYC looked like there was some movement either kids moving laterally and coming together as a result of HS or other word of mouth to be potentially stronger, we know others that used to play tier 1/2 also did tryouts at or moved over to others such as American, Metro regional (eg central). StJ seriously increased their roster sizes and changed some players in and out - eg StJ 15s went from 10 players last year to 15 this year with a partial exodus of players taking themselves off to ECP together along with some friends from other teams. ECP 2s and 3s teams are likely much stronger than prior years.

So in general, just seemed to be a lot of shifting. Guessing last year was first year people were coming out of COVID where prior years the players were staying put more. This year was an explosion and shifts as players either tried to move up to align with HS grade or some decided to stay back with grade and play the same age group a second year which then caused more shifts for players that they were going to rise into the next age group team and had to find new homes. Lots of strong players ended up in limbo as Tier 1 alternate players but Tier 2/3s went for more 'sure thing' or 'returning' type yields or the Tier 1s maybe didn't attend enough Tier 2s to have firm backups.

A roster of 15 is a recipe for disaster.

Tough on the coaches and players/parents to have 15 players - typical club play 8-10 deep with a few back-ups. There will be a few kids that will sit the whole tournament - usually you see that in the most competitive clubs (Metro, Paramount). How some of the less competitive teams get away with 15, I don't get it. At least with Metro or Paramount, you can say you are on a winning team and train with very good players. But if your team is not winning much AND your kid still does not get play time, maybe best to switch clubs to one tier lower and get better by playing?

The difference is Metro is very clear on who plays and who sits on the bench. Other clubs promise playing time to attract players, then end up with a roster of 15, where expectations on play time are not met. It is the mismatch on expectations that causes the problems. Jnrs are particularly bad at this. I also expect Paramount to have some problems here this year. They recruited well across most age groups but now they have large rosters, new kids coming in expecting to play and the starters from last season not expecting to see the bench.

I agree with all of this, except for what you said about Metro being clear about who plays and who sits on the bench. While kids/parents on Metro teams typically have an intrinsic sense of their role given their abilities compared to their teammates abilities, the Metro coaches (especially the Club Director) are notorious for not telling players/families where their kids stand in the playing time pecking order. Now, many of these athletes don't care about their lack of playing time and are just happy to be on a really good team. But Metro coaches are notorious for stashing talented players so they can't go play elsewhere, but they don't tell these players in advance that they are stashing them out of fear they will go to Paramount or another club and make them better. And I'm in no way criticizing Metro for doing this; clubs aren't under any obligations to tell kids how much they'll play, and it's more of a courtesy thing and/or a way to alleviate false expectations. I don't think Paramount will get in trouble with their larger rosters because most families who sign up for Paramount knows playing time is earned, and from what I've heard the Paramount coaches don't tend to make big false promises about roles or playing time. But as the PP mentioned, Jrs. has gotten in trouble with their larger rosters because their coaches (in particular their recruitment director) are known for making the same promises of role/playing time to multiple players on the same team.

[Anonymous]

It’s very obvious that you are a Paramount player's mom. No need to try to play it off. Paramount is known to have players dropping out mid-season every year. This happened for a lot of reasons. As for Metro, everyone knows that they will tell you if you will have play time or not. A club like theirs doesn’t need to be telling you lies so you can sign up with them. They will always have the top girls in the area lining up to play for them every year. Whether you agree or not, it’s just facts at this point. VA Juniors is a club that will most likely let most of the players on the team play and they have great recruitment results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know which tier 3 clubs had good tryout results for their U15-U18 age groups? Anybody heard how it went for tier 1 clubs?

Not sure what you mean by 'good tryout' results in this question. Good for the club or good for the players? Only a few clubs have posted rosters so harder to gauge unless you know a lot of players and their results by word of mouth, instagram posts etc.

Based on prior posts and what we know of DDs friends and acquaintances/teammates etc, the Tier 3 clubs also have larger rosters and some with good players going to their tryouts and some landing there if they did not get of the alternate list of Tier 1/2 clubs. BRYC looked like there was some movement either kids moving laterally and coming together as a result of HS or other word of mouth to be potentially stronger, we know others that used to play tier 1/2 also did tryouts at or moved over to others such as American, Metro regional (eg central). StJ seriously increased their roster sizes and changed some players in and out - eg StJ 15s went from 10 players last year to 15 this year with a partial exodus of players taking themselves off to ECP together along with some friends from other teams. ECP 2s and 3s teams are likely much stronger than prior years.

So in general, just seemed to be a lot of shifting. Guessing last year was first year people were coming out of COVID where prior years the players were staying put more. This year was an explosion and shifts as players either tried to move up to align with HS grade or some decided to stay back with grade and play the same age group a second year which then caused more shifts for players that they were going to rise into the next age group team and had to find new homes. Lots of strong players ended up in limbo as Tier 1 alternate players but Tier 2/3s went for more 'sure thing' or 'returning' type yields or the Tier 1s maybe didn't attend enough Tier 2s to have firm backups.

A roster of 15 is a recipe for disaster.

Tough on the coaches and players/parents to have 15 players - typical club play 8-10 deep with a few back-ups. There will be a few kids that will sit the whole tournament - usually you see that in the most competitive clubs (Metro, Paramount). How some of the less competitive teams get away with 15, I don't get it. At least with Metro or Paramount, you can say you are on a winning team and train with very good players. But if your team is not winning much AND your kid still does not get play time, maybe best to switch clubs to one tier lower and get better by playing?

The difference is Metro is very clear on who plays and who sits on the bench. Other clubs promise playing time to attract players, then end up with a roster of 15, where expectations on play time are not met. It is the mismatch on expectations that causes the problems. Jnrs are particularly bad at this. I also expect Paramount to have some problems here this year. They recruited well across most age groups but now they have large rosters, new kids coming in expecting to play and the starters from last season not expecting to see the bench.

I agree with all of this, except for what you said about Metro being clear about who plays and who sits on the bench. While kids/parents on Metro teams typically have an intrinsic sense of their role given their abilities compared to their teammates abilities, the Metro coaches (especially the Club Director) are notorious for not telling players/families where their kids stand in the playing time pecking order. Now, many of these athletes don't care about their lack of playing time and are just happy to be on a really good team. But Metro coaches are notorious for stashing talented players so they can't go play elsewhere, but they don't tell these players in advance that they are stashing them out of fear they will go to Paramount or another club and make them better. And I'm in no way criticizing Metro for doing this; clubs aren't under any obligations to tell kids how much they'll play, and it's more of a courtesy thing and/or a way to alleviate false expectations. I don't think Paramount will get in trouble with their larger rosters because most families who sign up for Paramount knows playing time is earned, and from what I've heard the Paramount coaches don't tend to make big false promises about roles or playing time. But as the PP mentioned, Jrs. has gotten in trouble with their larger rosters because their coaches (in particular their recruitment director) are known for making the same promises of role/playing time to multiple players on the same team.

Agree on VA Juniors, they’ve lost a lot of talent.
Disagree on Paramount - they got a ton of kids who are used to playing, and the reality is not many, if any, will be beating out last year’s starters. That’s going to cause discontent for sure. I also hear some kids were promised starting slots, which I would be stunned if that was the case. I don’t see any returning Paramount starter being replaced by any new kid, at any of the age groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s very obvious that you are a Paramount player's mom. No need to try to play it off. Paramount is known to have players dropping out mid-season every year. This happened for a lot of reasons. As for Metro, everyone knows that they will tell you if you will have play time or not. A club like theirs doesn’t need to be telling you lies so you can sign up with them. They will always have the top girls in the area lining up to play for them every year. Whether you agree or not, it’s just facts at this point. VA Juniors is a club that will most likely let most of the players on the team play and they have great recruitment results.

I’m not who you are responding to but your comment on VA Juniors is plainly untrue - Jnrs have a problem, recently an awful lot of kids have quit halfway through the season due to favoritism and false promises from the recruiting director. Also, a lot of the kids that do get recruited from there, hardly, if ever, play - there is no technical training there, so they are deficient when they arrive - don’t believe the Jnrs social media propaganda.