Volleyball tryouts in real time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you elaborate on that? My DD really liked the coach and it seemed like all the girls who tried out were sooo good. I read about the club and they seem well run. Anything we should know? She tried out for MoCo, still waiting on that but I’d actually prefer a smaller club.

You probably know that not all the players who tried out will accept their offer. Academy has a short history and not a good track of success with their teams. There is a thread that compares the rankings of the few clubs in the region for each age group, where you can see that their teams are not doing that well. Let me know if you need help finding the thread - it should still be on the first page of the Volleyball forum. Even great coaches can't do much when their teams are not competitive. The teammates play a significant role in a player's development - you develop much faster in a competitive team compared to a non-competitive team. I suggest that you wait for an answer from Moco and dig a little deeper before you make a decision. You still have time to try out for other clubs - we are just two days in the tryout period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you elaborate on that? My DD really liked the coach and it seemed like all the girls who tried out were sooo good. I read about the club and they seem well run. Anything we should know? She tried out for MoCo, still waiting on that but I’d actually prefer a smaller club.

You are going to hear from a lot of naysayers here but we have been very happy at Academy.. Good coaching and the teams are getting better each year. It’s a young club so it will take a while to get there. I also love the location of practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you elaborate on that? My DD really liked the coach and it seemed like all the girls who tried out were sooo good. I read about the club and they seem well run. Anything we should know? She tried out for MoCo, still waiting on that but I’d actually prefer a smaller club.

You are going to hear from a lot of naysayers here but we have been very happy at Academy.. Good coaching and the teams are getting better each year. It’s a young club so it will take a while to get there. I also love the location of practices.

You seem to be saying the same thing as the naysayers, but with a positive spin.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My DD has a teammate from Academy on her JV team. Her mom was telling us that she likes Academy so much that she won't try out anywhere else. I didn't have the heart to tell her that this would be a big mistake. She will likely grow, but not at the same rate as the players in more competitive clubs: that's simply because her teammates will not be very competitive and that will slow her development. Volleyball-wise, we are in a very competitive high school and she will likely not make the Varsity team next year (she won't have the chance to play JV again because she will be a junior).

This is not necessarily true and depends on the kid. I have a kid on a "lower" club who also loves her team. She eats, sleeps, and breathes volleyball. She played all summer, every fall clinic, private lessons, etc. that she could find, practices at home, and has improved exponentially.

Any player can advance exponentially with that commitment and resources like private coaching. But throw those resources at her when she is in on more competitive team and you will see an even steeper growth. Mine is the type that likes to play with her team, but she is doing very little outside practice. Getting her on a better team would help a lot (her team is not that good). But with her current skills, she would need a miracle to get an offer for a better team. We are in a vicious cycle: get an offer on a mediocre team, play with mediocre teammates, avoid practice outside club, improve at a relatively lower rate, then repeat.

Sounds like it’s best to follow the lead of the player. There is nothing wrong with a “mediocre” club. Too many parents on here (not necessarily you) trying to keep up with the Joneses. Just have fun playing a great sport!

There is plenty wrong with our mediocre club. We travel as if we are a higher level team and waste a lot of time and money in the process. The amount of effort that my DD puts into her "favorite" sport is too minimal to justify the amount we are paying for club volleyball.

I don't really understand your comment about keeping up with the Joneses. Aren't the Joneses the rich folks who throw money at everything (including volleyball)? If you don't want to keep up with the Joneses, you stop wasting money on volleyball. Following the lead of the player would be the equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses. The player doesn't understand the value of money that goes into volleyball (even though she knows the dollar amount). She wants to pretend that she plays competitive volleyball without having to put any effort into it. My concern is that every year she keeps being rewarded with a new season of club volleyball despite putting so little effort into it. I think she already learned that the rewards are coming her way no matter what. It's pretty sad for me to realize how much I sheltered her.

No- in this scenario the Joneses are Paramount and Metro.

I think part of the reason for the trend of mediocre clubs traveling more is an attempt to become more competitive. Clubs like MOCO, St James, American, MOJO, etc aspire to be nationally competitive, like Metro Travel or Paramount. The traveling to multiple qualifiers and multi day tournaments seems to me to be some kind of “fake it ‘til you make it” situation, with the rationale being that a team/player will get better by playing better competition. While that is probably true to a degree, without a history of competitive and recruiting success, these clubs are not attracting high enough caliber players to really compete at the highest level nationally. Training and experience count for a lot, but the top clubs have both good training and are able to attract taller and more athletic players with a higher ceiling.

I’ve also seen the argument that the travel is a perk for the coaches and club leadership and that might be true too.

I have my reasons not to like MOCO, but I will defend it here. You cannot place it in the "mediocre" category at this point. Once they earned some bids for the nationals, you have to give them some credit. You can talk about their bottom teams as being mediocre, but those teams don't travel as extensively as their top teams. I have a major beef with our current club, which takes us places as if we were competitive.

If you don’t like all the travel your current club team is doing, then why did you join that team? Surely you were given a list of tournaments the club had signed up for? Or do you mean you are dissatisfied with team’s abilities and only after the fact realized that all the travel isn’t worth it?

That was our best available option. The lower level teams in the club were not competitive because they had mostly beginner players - it would feel like rec all over again. Plus, coaching in lower level teams is typically lower quality. We would have accepted an offer for a lower level team in a better club (and avoid travelling for the sake of travelling), but we didn't have that option.

[Anonymous]

Did Paramount send out offers for the 15 2 and 3 teams yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Paramount send out offers for the 15 2 and 3 teams yet?

For competitive clubs that are forming multiple teams in an age group, you can expect offers to continue coming in throughout the entire weekend based on players accepting or declining offers. Some families accept or decline an offer pretty expediently, but there are always some families that take time to decide. I think most families like to make decisions before the end of the weekend, but clubs kind of have to stay in a standstill until they hear back from players they have made offers to.

[Anonymous]

My 16 year old DC has three on the spot offers for u18 teams and no offers for u17 yet. The clubs had combined 17/18 tryouts and she wanted 17! Not sure if we should accept an 18s spot or keep holding out for the 17s. Are there any clubs still looking for 17s? Any advice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 16 year old DC has three on the spot offers for u18 teams and no offers for u17 yet. The clubs had combined 17/18 tryouts and she wanted 17! Not sure if we should accept an 18s spot or keep holding out for the 17s. Are there any clubs still looking for 17s? Any advice?

What would you say your daughter's level is? Is she a front row player? Tall/can jump?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 16 year old DC has three on the spot offers for u18 teams and no offers for u17 yet. The clubs had combined 17/18 tryouts and she wanted 17! Not sure if we should accept an 18s spot or keep holding out for the 17s. Are there any clubs still looking for 17s? Any advice?

Are there any clubs you haven’t heard from yet? If so, wait. You don’t have to tell them until Tuesday. Which clubs?

My DD only has 1 and is waiting. She is thinking one other club might be a possibility and the others are filled already. Her idea is to not play club if the 1 remaining club doesn’t come through for her. Does anyone have any other options besides rec for a player in VA? She played on an open team last year and her 1 offer is for a low regional team. She is 16.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 16 year old DC has three on the spot offers for u18 teams and no offers for u17 yet. The clubs had combined 17/18 tryouts and she wanted 17! Not sure if we should accept an 18s spot or keep holding out for the 17s. Are there any clubs still looking for 17s? Any advice?

Are there any clubs you haven’t heard from yet? If so, wait. You don’t have to tell them until Tuesday. Which clubs?

My DD only has 1 and is waiting. She is thinking one other club might be a possibility and the others are filled already. Her idea is to not play club if the 1 remaining club doesn’t come through for her. Does anyone have any other options besides rec for a player in VA? She played on an open team last year and her 1 offer is for a low regional team. She is 16.

There should be a few more clubs that you can try out for. But it is not very likely to get on an open-level team at this point - they likely filled up their spots and all remaining spots are on lower level teams. I am crossing my fingers that the remaining club is working out for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 16 year old DC has three on the spot offers for u18 teams and no offers for u17 yet. The clubs had combined 17/18 tryouts and she wanted 17! Not sure if we should accept an 18s spot or keep holding out for the 17s. Are there any clubs still looking for 17s? Any advice?

Are there any clubs you haven’t heard from yet? If so, wait. You don’t have to tell them until Tuesday. Which clubs?

My DD only has 1 and is waiting. She is thinking one other club might be a possibility and the others are filled already. Her idea is to not play club if the 1 remaining club doesn’t come through for her. Does anyone have any other options besides rec for a player in VA? She played on an open team last year and her 1 offer is for a low regional team. She is 16.

There should be a few more clubs that you can try out for. But it is not very likely to get on an open-level team at this point - they likely filled up their spots and all remaining spots are on lower level teams. I am crossing my fingers that the remaining club is working out for her.

Thanks. No news over here. I wasn’t clear and she’s saying she won’t play club at all if no other offers come in. I think she will be regretting that today.

Does anyone know of any last chance tryouts tonight in VA or teams needing a DS or setter? She is a sophomore but can play U16 or U15. I want to be prepared today if I get a desperate text that she’s having regrets and wants to find a regional team since she didn’t get any open offers.

We know a few girls without any offers still. This is so hard for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 16 year old DC has three on the spot offers for u18 teams and no offers for u17 yet. The clubs had combined 17/18 tryouts and she wanted 17! Not sure if we should accept an 18s spot or keep holding out for the 17s. Are there any clubs still looking for 17s? Any advice?

Are there any clubs you haven’t heard from yet? If so, wait. You don’t have to tell them until Tuesday. Which clubs?

My DD only has 1 and is waiting. She is thinking one other club might be a possibility and the others are filled already. Her idea is to not play club if the 1 remaining club doesn’t come through for her. Does anyone have any other options besides rec for a player in VA? She played on an open team last year and her 1 offer is for a low regional team. She is 16.

There should be a few more clubs that you can try out for. But it is not very likely to get on an open-level team at this point - they likely filled up their spots and all remaining spots are on lower level teams. I am crossing my fingers that the remaining club is working out for her.

Thanks. No news over here. I wasn’t clear and she’s saying she won’t play club at all if no other offers come in. I think she will be regretting that today.

Does anyone know of any last chance tryouts tonight in VA or teams needing a DS or setter? She is a sophomore but can play U16 or U15. I want to be prepared today if I get a desperate text that she’s having regrets and wants to find a regional team since she didn’t get any open offers.

We know a few girls without any offers still. This is so hard for them.

Check the Instagram of the clubs you are interested in. Some post last-minute tryouts there.

For example, MD Juniors is having supplemental tryouts on Monday night:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DQkVb_YEf0e/

Also check out the Free Agents list:
https://www.vaelite.com/free-agents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 16 year old DC has three on the spot offers for u18 teams and no offers for u17 yet. The clubs had combined 17/18 tryouts and she wanted 17! Not sure if we should accept an 18s spot or keep holding out for the 17s. Are there any clubs still looking for 17s? Any advice?

Are there any clubs you haven’t heard from yet? If so, wait. You don’t have to tell them until Tuesday. Which clubs?

My DD only has 1 and is waiting. She is thinking one other club might be a possibility and the others are filled already. Her idea is to not play club if the 1 remaining club doesn’t come through for her. Does anyone have any other options besides rec for a player in VA? She played on an open team last year and her 1 offer is for a low regional team. She is 16.

There should be a few more clubs that you can try out for. But it is not very likely to get on an open-level team at this point - they likely filled up their spots and all remaining spots are on lower level teams. I am crossing my fingers that the remaining club is working out for her.

Thanks. No news over here. I wasn’t clear and she’s saying she won’t play club at all if no other offers come in. I think she will be regretting that today.

Does anyone know of any last chance tryouts tonight in VA or teams needing a DS or setter? She is a sophomore but can play U16 or U15. I want to be prepared today if I get a desperate text that she’s having regrets and wants to find a regional team since she didn’t get any open offers.

We know a few girls without any offers still. This is so hard for them.

You can check out Vienna Elite. They have makeups today to Wednesday.

https://www.viennaelite.org/program/club-team-tryouts/24025

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know of 15 teams looking for a front row? DD has varsity experience and former club experience. Looking for a regional team.

[Anonymous]

Do any clubs in the area ever not have enough girls to field a team for 11U?