Volleyball Action

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw social media posts that the Mojo travel open-level 1s teams and Legacy VB open-level 1s teams were playing and winning medals at the MD Jrs *regional* tourney last weekend. I’m confused - Shouldn’t both those teams be playing against other open level 1s teams? Like the Metro Travel and Paramount 1s teams? Instead they were bragging about placing over the Paramount 2s team and Metro regional teams. Just wondering what the protocol was there. FWIW, we heard those 2s and regional teams almost beat them in single digit sets. Just wondering what the strategy for that was.

NP - But why did MD Jrs allow that? We've been to Regional Club/Level 2 tournaments there for 3 years now, never heard of playing against 1s in a regional club tourney. Is that just greed on MD Jrs part or is that a "thing" now? From what I saw on social media, Mojo Travel weren't the only Travel/1s team there, also at least 2 others.

idk but MD Jrs is struggling- they lost a few top players, especially 16's.

[Anonymous]

All teams need to play in two local tournaments in order to be accepted into Bid Regionals. Cap Classic counts as one. Paramount 1s teams must play in two local tournaments since they attend Triple Crown in place of Cap Classic. It’s what 1 teams have to do, not what they’re choosing to do.

[FPYCparent]

Anonymous wrote:

FPYCparent wrote:...

No. The only way to get a CHRVA bid to USAV nationals is at Regionals. CapClassic and National Harbor aren't qualifiers for nationals. I'm not aware of any local qualifiers but please correct me if I'm wrong. There are tournaments just for tournaments sake- the teams that want to go to qualify for USAV go to the qualifiers to do that.

You are correct. Cap Hill Classic and National Harbor apparently meet the requirement to compete in the **CHRVA Bid Regionals.** I did not mean to imply that by competing in those two events that a team can earn its way to USAV. Apologies for any confusion.

Through CHRVA Bid Regionals, teams can earn a National, American, or Freedom division bid to USAV. Bids to other divisions (Open, USA, Liberty) can only be earned at national qualifiers.

[Anonymous]

FPYCparent wrote:For better or for worse, there are local CHRVA events nearly every weekend starting in January. Not every team at every club will participate in every event. If there are 75+ CHRVA teams in nearly every age group, there are going to be plenty of local events (Open or otherwise) where teams will compete and win. As I understand things, CHRVA "only" requires that teams compete in two local events to qualify for Bid Regionals in March ... and they only need to compete in one event at the Open level. So, you may not see supposedly higher-tier clubs teams playing at tons of local events.

While my kid was at Paramount last season, I learned that Paramount (1s) and Metro Travel tend to avoid each other at these local tournaments. (I have no idea if that is intentional on both sides ... or just on one). As best I can tell, a club like VA Juniors doesn't participate in many local one-day tournaments, seemingly relying on Cap Hill and ?National Harbor? to fulfill the CHRVA Bid Regional requirements. And then you have Blue Ridge which seems to meet requirements for competing at Bid Regionals, but will then decline to accept any bids their teams earn.

So, clubs have plenty of opportunities to put their teams in events where they can win. They just need to go out and do it on the court.

I don't really understand a lot of what you said, but maybe you can answer this question instead then (since having read a few more responses, it doesn't sound like MD Jrs is about qualifying for USAV): Why mix 1s with 2s at a regional tournament where mostly the decent 1s are going to beat most of the 2s? I thought the whole point of the separation between travel/open and regional/club is a perception of these teams being at different levels? I'm well aware that some club 2 teams could easily decimate some mediocre travel/1s. But that doesn't mean that in a club tournament, there should be travel teams sprinkled in, why does that make sense other than for the 1s to have more easier wins on their record?

[FPYCparent]

Other than top Paramount and Metro teams possibly avoiding each other at a local event, there is no apparent coordination among clubs and tournament hosts to create "ideal" matchups. Clubs just sign up their teams for local events that fit their schedules and coach availability. I don't think there is any attempt to keep top teams only playing other local top teams, while secondary/regional teams only play other teams of a similar caliber. It's all dependent on who signs up for each event.

Just looking at AES, MDJRS is hosting 26 events from January 11 through May. Vienna Elite has 48 and MVSA has 22. Sure, not every age group plays at each of these events, but there are simply so many events. Anyone trying to get the "top" five to eight teams for a given age group to compete in the same local event will probably just give up trying to coordinate that. As far as I know, CHRVA doesn't incentivize the clubs to make that happen.

[Anonymous]

NP and also a new club VB family. My DD was at the MD Jrs tournament last weekend and she was wondering the same thing: why was the Mojo Black (travel/open) team playing against her Metro regional team? It did seem a little odd. They had a seeding round first and then bracket play. Of course the travel teams there (Mojo, Legacy, etc) made it to the gold bracket rounds. DD did watch several games and saw the 2s teams (Paramount) or Metro regional teams win sets against those Mojo and Legacy travel teams. But it was definitely odd to see Mojo Black there when they also have a Mojo Pink regional level team that should have been there instead.

I assume Legacy as a new club is entering below their supposed division level so they can pump up their social media with medal brag photos against lower division teams. Frankly the Legacy team wasn’t that great considering all the hype on social (strong defense but weaker on offense). Same for Mojo black - opposite issue, strong hitters but weaker back row. Both are def going to get killed at the bid tournaments when they have to face other true open level teams. I guess it’s the optics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP and also a new club VB family. My DD was at the MD Jrs tournament last weekend and she was wondering the same thing: why was the Mojo Black (travel/open) team playing against her Metro regional team? It did seem a little odd. They had a seeding round first and then bracket play. Of course the travel teams there (Mojo, Legacy, etc) made it to the gold bracket rounds. DD did watch several games and saw the 2s teams (Paramount) or Metro regional teams win sets against those Mojo and Legacy travel teams. But it was definitely odd to see Mojo Black there when they also have a Mojo Pink regional level team that should have been there instead.

I assume Legacy as a new club is entering below their supposed division level so they can pump up their social media with medal brag photos against lower division teams. Frankly the Legacy team wasn’t that great considering all the hype on social (strong defense but weaker on offense). Same for Mojo black - opposite issue, strong hitters but weaker back row. Both are def going to get killed at the bid tournaments when they have to face other true open level teams. I guess it’s the optics.

There are very few real open level teams. Many in the area advertise as open for tryouts but they aren’t. My daughter is on one at a different club. The truth is, girls go to all of these tryouts and the vast majority accept where they can get a spot. Tryouts were brutal this year. These aren’t open level clubs, expect for a few. My DD is also on an “open” (regional) level club. That’s the only spot she was offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP and also a new club VB family. My DD was at the MD Jrs tournament last weekend and she was wondering the same thing: why was the Mojo Black (travel/open) team playing against her Metro regional team? It did seem a little odd. They had a seeding round first and then bracket play. Of course the travel teams there (Mojo, Legacy, etc) made it to the gold bracket rounds. DD did watch several games and saw the 2s teams (Paramount) or Metro regional teams win sets against those Mojo and Legacy travel teams. But it was definitely odd to see Mojo Black there when they also have a Mojo Pink regional level team that should have been there instead.

I assume Legacy as a new club is entering below their supposed division level so they can pump up their social media with medal brag photos against lower division teams. Frankly the Legacy team wasn’t that great considering all the hype on social (strong defense but weaker on offense). Same for Mojo black - opposite issue, strong hitters but weaker back row. Both are def going to get killed at the bid tournaments when they have to face other true open level teams. I guess it’s the optics.

They just all happened to sign up for the same tournament.

Teams want to play in tournaments to get ready for the bigger tournaments.

How is this so hard to understand?

[FPYCparent]

Maybe to put in another way, ...

There is no central body that does scheduling for tournaments to ensure some level of fair competition. This isn't high school (or Little League, the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc.) where someone has a vested interest in having all teams play each other. At best, each tournament host takes all paying entrants for a particular age group and tries to seed them so that better teams (based on past-but-hopefully-very-recent performance) have the best chance to win their bracket. It is basically a pay-and-you-are-in NCAA Tournament Selection Show and the tourney itself starting and ending within a span of a week ... and repeating the process weekly for the next tourney. Things will naturally be out-of-whack here in January, because we really don't know how good/bad some teams may be in these early-season contests.

Remember, each club must pay a fee to the host of each team it enters into a tournament. So, clubs have an interest to keep their own balance sheets clean while providing (we hope, as paying customers) an adequate level of competition. Sometimes, it works. Other times, it won't.

[Anonymous]

FPYCparent wrote:Maybe to put in another way, ...

There is no central body that does scheduling for tournaments to ensure some level of fair competition. This isn't high school (or Little League, the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc.) where someone has a vested interest in having all teams play each other. At best, each tournament host takes all paying entrants for a particular age group and tries to seed them so that better teams (based on past-but-hopefully-very-recent performance) have the best chance to win their bracket. It is basically a pay-and-you-are-in NCAA Tournament Selection Show and the tourney itself starting and ending within a span of a week ... and repeating the process weekly for the next tourney. Things will naturally be out-of-whack here in January, because we really don't know how good/bad some teams may be in these early-season contests.

Remember, each club must pay a fee to the host of each team it enters into a tournament. So, clubs have an interest to keep their own balance sheets clean while providing (we hope, as paying customers) an adequate level of competition. Sometimes, it works. Other times, it won't.

Can only speak to MD Jrs but the main reason I think this is coming up is that this is a CHANGE. For those of us who've had girls play on DMV club 2s teams for the last 4 years, no one can remember playing a travel team during a MD Jrs tournament. And I've got multiple DDs playing for multiple teams, so we've got a good range of experience since many teams play at least 2 (some 4!) tournaments at MD Jrs per season. So the question is, why NOW? Why are Club Teams matched up with Travel teams at MD Jrs now? Is it just squeezing in as many paying teams as possible and not enough to do a Travel-only tournament so throw them in with the club teams, just spread them out? Or is there another reason?

All you say makes sense but it's the fact that this seems so different, it's natural to wonder what changed and why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP and also a new club VB family. My DD was at the MD Jrs tournament last weekend and she was wondering the same thing: why was the Mojo Black (travel/open) team playing against her Metro regional team? It did seem a little odd. They had a seeding round first and then bracket play. Of course the travel teams there (Mojo, Legacy, etc) made it to the gold bracket rounds. DD did watch several games and saw the 2s teams (Paramount) or Metro regional teams win sets against those Mojo and Legacy travel teams. But it was definitely odd to see Mojo Black there when they also have a Mojo Pink regional level team that should have been there instead.

I assume Legacy as a new club is entering below their supposed division level so they can pump up their social media with medal brag photos against lower division teams. Frankly the Legacy team wasn’t that great considering all the hype on social (strong defense but weaker on offense). Same for Mojo black - opposite issue, strong hitters but weaker back row. Both are def going to get killed at the bid tournaments when they have to face other true open level teams. I guess it’s the optics.

They just all happened to sign up for the same tournament.

Teams want to play in tournaments to get ready for the bigger tournaments.

How is this so hard to understand?

No one, NO ONE is confused about what you just said. It's not that simple. This specific occurrence is different from what people are used to at this particular facility. When change happens, and when that change seems a bit like an unfair setup for the teams that have to play against a travel team when other teams are not, it's natural to ask why.

How is that so hard to understand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

FPYCparent wrote:Maybe to put in another way, ...

There is no central body that does scheduling for tournaments to ensure some level of fair competition. This isn't high school (or Little League, the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc.) where someone has a vested interest in having all teams play each other. At best, each tournament host takes all paying entrants for a particular age group and tries to seed them so that better teams (based on past-but-hopefully-very-recent performance) have the best chance to win their bracket. It is basically a pay-and-you-are-in NCAA Tournament Selection Show and the tourney itself starting and ending within a span of a week ... and repeating the process weekly for the next tourney. Things will naturally be out-of-whack here in January, because we really don't know how good/bad some teams may be in these early-season contests.

Remember, each club must pay a fee to the host of each team it enters into a tournament. So, clubs have an interest to keep their own balance sheets clean while providing (we hope, as paying customers) an adequate level of competition. Sometimes, it works. Other times, it won't.

Can only speak to MD Jrs but the main reason I think this is coming up is that this is a CHANGE. For those of us who've had girls play on DMV club 2s teams for the last 4 years, no one can remember playing a travel team during a MD Jrs tournament. And I've got multiple DDs playing for multiple teams, so we've got a good range of experience since many teams play at least 2 (some 4!) tournaments at MD Jrs per season. So the question is, why NOW? Why are Club Teams matched up with Travel teams at MD Jrs now? Is it just squeezing in as many paying teams as possible and not enough to do a Travel-only tournament so throw them in with the club teams, just spread them out? Or is there another reason?

All you say makes sense but it's the fact that this seems so different, it's natural to wonder what changed and why?

BINGO. My DD has played for a Metro regional team for a couple of seasons now and this was the first time we saw Open-level travel 1s teams at this tournament. DD was also curious why— we assumed it had to do with those maybe weaker open teams trying to boost their win rankings in AES or something.

[Anonymous]

Generally 3 levels of regional game provided: open, mixed and club, where club is the least competitive. Some travel teams may attend mixed level. And some regional team may attend open level to give their players a challenge.

[Anonymous]

Is the qualifying tournament always Easter weekend? Just wondering if we will have to skip Easter celebrations and travel for the next several years…. (Please say no.)

[Anonymous]

New volleyball parent and although we have played other travel sports with other kids this our first volleyball experience. Can you help me understand:

Open - highest level
Travel - next highest
Club - third highest

Next at each club you might have

1s teams that although at the particular club may be the highest level they may not necessarily compete with other "open" level 1s teams and play in Travel level brackets

2s teams

Now in the Montgomery County area please clarify the hierarchy of clubs

Metro - most competitive
MVSA
Paramount
MoCo
Platform
MEVC

is this order right? Who am I missing? Anyone from Montgomery County play for clubs not listed above in Virginia or DC?