Va Elite - where are the better players?

[Anonymous]

Don’t forget to include the parents’ travel costs. The girls are staying with other Virginia Elite players, so parents still have to cover their own hotel and travel expenses. To me, it really doesn’t make sense once you factor in those costs, including travel, you’re not actually saving any money like they say.

[Anonymous]

VAE is very duplicitous, sneaky & priortizies club weird elite values over player development.
They are not as competitive as Mojo, check usav rankings for the groups.

Beware Virginia Elite, which has a toxic culture & despite a strong Academy does not develop the individual players but prioritizes optics over teamwork & does not enforce rules equitably

[Anonymous]

Beware Virginia Elite, as the culture is toxic & many players leave. Very high turnover rate due to club leadership not holding snooty attitudes accountable. Lots of other options that rank higher & play on merit.

[Anonymous]

VAE has really fallen from grace & is not as elite as they claim. Check out USAV rankings, turnover rate year over year, & commits if your gals want to play at uni level. VAE recruiting is mostly d3 or pass on post hs playing, so look at md or va juniors, Mojo, or Metro all levels for post hs vb interest

[Anonymous]

I think it’s terrible that I know from two parents that VA Elite gave out offers before tryouts. Clearly against Chrva rules. They are selective with their players but once on the team the results aren’t there and players are not happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s terrible that I know from two parents that VA Elite gave out offers before tryouts. Clearly against Chrva rules. They are selective with their players but once on the team the results aren’t there and players are not happy.

How early are you saying they gave out offers? Do you know for sure? This flurry of posts tonight looks like a bitter parent upset a kid didn’t get an offer. Which I understand too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s terrible that I know from two parents that VA Elite gave out offers before tryouts. Clearly against Chrva rules. They are selective with their players but once on the team the results aren’t there and players are not happy.

Many clubs try to keep the teams together as much as possible if the players have a good chemistry. I've heard about coaches telling the players at the end of the season how much they enjoyed working with them and how much they hoped the team would stay together for the next season. But they know that they will lose a couple of players who go to better clubs, a couple who had enough and want to move to different clubs, and they don't actually want to bring back some of the players. Some players may misread this as a certain promise that they would get an offer - however, there is no offer until you see it in writing. I don't think any club would risk a CHRVA sanction by offering written offers before the tryouts. A coach may tell you "I want you on my team during the next season" and that's a pretty strong indication that you will be getting an offer, but - still - you need to have the offer in writing. And the written offer will not go out before the tryouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s terrible that I know from two parents that VA Elite gave out offers before tryouts. Clearly against Chrva rules. They are selective with their players but once on the team the results aren’t there and players are not happy.

Many clubs try to keep the teams together as much as possible if the players have a good chemistry. I've heard about coaches telling the players at the end of the season how much they enjoyed working with them and how much they hoped the team would stay together for the next season. But they know that they will lose a couple of players who go to better clubs, a couple who had enough and want to move to different clubs, and they don't actually want to bring back some of the players. Some players may misread this as a certain promise that they would get an offer - however, there is no offer until you see it in writing. I don't think any club would risk a CHRVA sanction by offering written offers before the tryouts. A coach may tell you "I want you on my team during the next season" and that's a pretty strong indication that you will be getting an offer, but - still - you need to have the offer in writing. And the written offer will not go out before the tryouts.

DP but if I’m not mistaken they can go out anytime after 11am on Friday. It doesn’t have to be after tryouts. Some clubs base them on what they saw in clinics or prior years. I have no idea if VAE is one of those clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s terrible that I know from two parents that VA Elite gave out offers before tryouts. Clearly against Chrva rules. They are selective with their players but once on the team the results aren’t there and players are not happy.

Many clubs try to keep the teams together as much as possible if the players have a good chemistry. I've heard about coaches telling the players at the end of the season how much they enjoyed working with them and how much they hoped the team would stay together for the next season. But they know that they will lose a couple of players who go to better clubs, a couple who had enough and want to move to different clubs, and they don't actually want to bring back some of the players. Some players may misread this as a certain promise that they would get an offer - however, there is no offer until you see it in writing. I don't think any club would risk a CHRVA sanction by offering written offers before the tryouts. A coach may tell you "I want you on my team during the next season" and that's a pretty strong indication that you will be getting an offer, but - still - you need to have the offer in writing. And the written offer will not go out before the tryouts.

DP but if I’m not mistaken they can go out anytime after 11am on Friday. It doesn’t have to be after tryouts. Some clubs base them on what they saw in clinics or prior years. I have no idea if VAE is one of those clubs.

I know of a case where MOCO made an offer to a player who could not show up at the tryouts due to an injury. They knew that player from their fall training program. Was that unfair to everyone who showed up at the tryouts hoping to get a spot on a MOCO team? It could possibly be perceived that way, but the club evaluated everyone and made a decision based on all the data they had. Would a club send offers to their star athletes before they show up at the tryouts? It might be possible because they pretty much know how they play and they want them to continue on the team. Would it be better to pretend that the tryouts count in those cases? I think it would help their image, but those star athletes would still get offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s terrible that I know from two parents that VA Elite gave out offers before tryouts. Clearly against Chrva rules. They are selective with their players but once on the team the results aren’t there and players are not happy.

Many clubs try to keep the teams together as much as possible if the players have a good chemistry. I've heard about coaches telling the players at the end of the season how much they enjoyed working with them and how much they hoped the team would stay together for the next season. But they know that they will lose a couple of players who go to better clubs, a couple who had enough and want to move to different clubs, and they don't actually want to bring back some of the players. Some players may misread this as a certain promise that they would get an offer - however, there is no offer until you see it in writing. I don't think any club would risk a CHRVA sanction by offering written offers before the tryouts. A coach may tell you "I want you on my team during the next season" and that's a pretty strong indication that you will be getting an offer, but - still - you need to have the offer in writing. And the written offer will not go out before the tryouts.

DP but if I’m not mistaken they can go out anytime after 11am on Friday. It doesn’t have to be after tryouts. Some clubs base them on what they saw in clinics or prior years. I have no idea if VAE is one of those clubs.

I know of a case where MOCO made an offer to a player who could not show up at the tryouts due to an injury. They knew that player from their fall training program. Was that unfair to everyone who showed up at the tryouts hoping to get a spot on a MOCO team? It could possibly be perceived that way, but the club evaluated everyone and made a decision based on all the data they had. Would a club send offers to their star athletes before they show up at the tryouts? It might be possible because they pretty much know how they play and they want them to continue on the team. Would it be better to pretend that the tryouts count in those cases? I think it would help their image, but those star athletes would still get offers.

Virtually every club sees players ahead of tryouts now. Several clubs have fall leagues/programs. Almost all MD clubs run clinics. Most VA side clubs do as well. We talk about the importance of going to clinics before tryouts. During those programs/clinics, all clubs do identify players that they are interested in. Many clubs also have an injury/illness policy if they know a player or if they played for the club in a prior year but the player is unable to try out.

Having been through the "injured for tryouts" discussion with our DD before, clubs that don't know you but are interested may ask for video to evaluate you. Clubs that do know you and believe you have the ability to play on one of their teams can and will offer you a spot regardless if you miss tryouts. There are many examples of this across the well-known clubs in the region.

At the clubs like VAE with one team per age who run private/hidden "invite-only" clinics, tryouts are becoming a formality for the vast majority of players who don't receive the private invites. The fact that VAE often doesn't even hold a tryout for an age group (U18) yet makes offer to their players proves this.

But at the larger clubs with multiple teams there still seems to be a lot of purpose behind the tryouts. The fall programs/clinics may identify a player to watch at tryouts, but those clubs often have a lot of players they are seeing for the first time also make teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s terrible that I know from two parents that VA Elite gave out offers before tryouts. Clearly against Chrva rules. They are selective with their players but once on the team the results aren’t there and players are not happy.

Many clubs try to keep the teams together as much as possible if the players have a good chemistry. I've heard about coaches telling the players at the end of the season how much they enjoyed working with them and how much they hoped the team would stay together for the next season. But they know that they will lose a couple of players who go to better clubs, a couple who had enough and want to move to different clubs, and they don't actually want to bring back some of the players. Some players may misread this as a certain promise that they would get an offer - however, there is no offer until you see it in writing. I don't think any club would risk a CHRVA sanction by offering written offers before the tryouts. A coach may tell you "I want you on my team during the next season" and that's a pretty strong indication that you will be getting an offer, but - still - you need to have the offer in writing. And the written offer will not go out before the tryouts.

DP but if I’m not mistaken they can go out anytime after 11am on Friday. It doesn’t have to be after tryouts. Some clubs base them on what they saw in clinics or prior years. I have no idea if VAE is one of those clubs.

This is correct. As long as the offer doesn’t go out until the start of the CHRVA Open Tryout period (Girls teams 14 and under: 11 a.m. on the last Friday of October through 10 p.m. on the following Tuesday) it’s within the rules, regardless of whether the club had any actual tryouts yet. The other requirement is that the player at least pay the same tryout fee as anyone else trying out. It’s possible for players to get offers who don’t even go to a tryout, as long as they pay.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]VAE has really fallen from grace & is not as elite as they claim. Check out USAV rankings, turnover rate year over year, & commits if your gals want to play at uni level. VAE recruiting is mostly d3 or pass on post hs playing, so look at md or va juniors, Mojo, or Metro all levels for post hs vb interest[/quote]

Someone is either really mad or right. But series of negative comments one after the other make it clear it’s one person. Is anyone else mad or unhappy with VAE?

[Anonymous]

They charge A LOT more than other clubs and you don’t get anything more. Their clinics are run well but many people have complained once they are on the team that they don’t enjoy being on it.

[Anonymous]

Make no mistake, the top clubs are all as bad as each other. They’d all eat their young for a top prospect. VAE is no different from any of them, but at least their players don’t seem to get verbally abused by coaches, like some others. Their recruiting is actually pretty decent, yes, a lot of D3, but those are some pretty impressive schools - Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, Colby, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Williams, NYU, Bates, Caltech, Hamilton. That’s quite the academic roster. Their D1 recruits seem to play from what I gather vs ride the bench. I don’t think they’re perfect but still not any worse than any of the other main clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make no mistake, the top clubs are all as bad as each other. They’d all eat their young for a top prospect. VAE is no different from any of them, but at least their players don’t seem to get verbally abused by coaches, like some others. Their recruiting is actually pretty decent, yes, a lot of D3, but those are some pretty impressive schools - Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, Colby, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Williams, NYU, Bates, Caltech, Hamilton. That’s quite the academic roster. Their D1 recruits seem to play from what I gather vs ride the bench. I don’t think they’re perfect but still not any worse than any of the other main clubs.

A number of players on that list had offers before they moved into VAE at the U17/U18 ages. VAE has an entire recruiting process that is good, but there are a many examples of players getting school offers before they join the club and the recruiting process not adding anything to the players prospects. VAE then takes credit for the recruiting, which is what all clubs do. Not saying they are doing something wrong, just be aware that what you see on their website may not match the reality of how the player actually got to one of those schools.

It also tends to be the most "in crowd" type of club. You are either "in" with the players on your team or you aren't. Same thing with the coaches often. You can be a top prospect before the season starts but if you aren't "in" with the group you may not have the experience you were expecting from how things went before tryouts.

Like all clubs its is a great place for some players and a not-so-great fit for others. Make sure you do your homework before you take an offer there.