Volleyball club- recap and thoughts

[Anonymous]

Volleyball club fees are insanely expensive, way more expensive than high level travel soccer, AAU basketball or club lacrosse that my other kids have played. On top of the club fees, you have to pay all your travel expenses since club volleyball only does tournaments (spooky nook, etc). You have to pay for a ticket to watch your kid play, parking, hotels, gas, all meals, etc. EVERY tournament, which seem to be at least 1-2 times a month, for 2-3 days each. I once kept a spreadsheet of all the expenses to go to Spooky Nook for a 2 day tournament (and we went up early Saturday so only one night in hotel), it was over $1,000 and I was trying to be cost conscious.

Then there are the clinics, invite only clinics, try outs, camps. All cost at least $45 per day. The swag is extra too. You easily spend over $10,000. It is a real struggle for us and I imagine for others too.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Wanted to see if anyone could share their experience with VAVA, Virginia Volleyball Academy at the younger ages, 13U/14U. I know they were founded by coaches that left VA Juniors. Trying to find out about any of the following:

Culture
Level of Play
Amount of Play
Size of the Team on Average
Do they have multiple club teams?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi,

Wanted to see if anyone could share their experience with VAVA, Virginia Volleyball Academy at the younger ages, 13U/14U. I know they were founded by coaches that left VA Juniors. Trying to find out about any of the following:

Culture
Level of Play
Amount of Play
Size of the Team on Average
Do they have multiple club teams?

Thanks.

Culture: good
Level of play: low (they didn't even play in Open at Cap Classic; no bids earned to USAV Nationals last season)
Amount of play: lots of local tournaments
Size of the team on average: 13-15 players
Do they have multiple club teams: they had 2 teams in a few age groups last season

[Anonymous]

Has anybody heard what is happening at Metro with their Travel coaching staff in regards to who is coaching which age group? I've heard they are losing their U17 coach. I've also heard their U18 team is falling apart; they are apparently losing 4 of their top 5 players (one setter, their superstar OH, their best MB, and their best RS). What is going on there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anybody heard what is happening at Metro with their Travel coaching staff in regards to who is coaching which age group? I've heard they are losing their U17 coach. I've also heard their U18 team is falling apart; they are apparently losing 4 of their top 5 players (one setter, their superstar OH, their best MB, and their best RS). What is going on there?

Metro 18s is not falling apart. Players are taking the opportunity to leave for college early to train which is common with many of the top players in the country. Coach Silvia (club director) typically coaches the 18s and she always find players that want to compete at the top level. Not sure if she will rely on her previous bench players to step up or try to recruit from other clubs?

Going to be an interesting club tryouts this year with all age groups trying out at the same time! Good luck everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anybody heard what is happening at Metro with their Travel coaching staff in regards to who is coaching which age group? I've heard they are losing their U17 coach. I've also heard their U18 team is falling apart; they are apparently losing 4 of their top 5 players (one setter, their superstar OH, their best MB, and their best RS). What is going on there?

Metro 18s is not falling apart. Players are taking the opportunity to leave for college early to train which is common with many of the top players in the country. Coach Silvia (club director) typically coaches the 18s and she always find players that want to compete at the top level. Not sure if she will rely on her previous bench players to step up or try to recruit from other clubs?

Going to be an interesting club tryouts this year with all age groups trying out at the same time! Good luck everyone.

It is 100% true that it is becoming more common for players to leave early for college. However, in this specific situation, those who are in the know are aware that these 3 players are leaving early for reasons other than wanting to get a head start in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anybody heard what is happening at Metro with their Travel coaching staff in regards to who is coaching which age group? I've heard they are losing their U17 coach. I've also heard their U18 team is falling apart; they are apparently losing 4 of their top 5 players (one setter, their superstar OH, their best MB, and their best RS). What is going on there?

Metro 18s is not falling apart. Players are taking the opportunity to leave for college early to train which is common with many of the top players in the country. Coach Silvia (club director) typically coaches the 18s and she always find players that want to compete at the top level. Not sure if she will rely on her previous bench players to step up or try to recruit from other clubs?

Going to be an interesting club tryouts this year with all age groups trying out at the same time! Good luck everyone.

It is 100% true that it is becoming more common for players to leave early for college. However, in this specific situation, those who are in the know are aware that these 3 players are leaving early for reasons other than wanting to get a head start in college.

When players leave early, if the early tuition is covered.......that is a huge savings not paying for club and getting excellent training and bonding with new teammates. The player does miss out on 2nd half of Senior year. Some early leave players do come back for Prom.

What other reason to leave club early? I assume its club drama!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anybody heard what is happening at Metro with their Travel coaching staff in regards to who is coaching which age group? I've heard they are losing their U17 coach. I've also heard their U18 team is falling apart; they are apparently losing 4 of their top 5 players (one setter, their superstar OH, their best MB, and their best RS). What is going on there?

Metro 18s is not falling apart. Players are taking the opportunity to leave for college early to train which is common with many of the top players in the country. Coach Silvia (club director) typically coaches the 18s and she always find players that want to compete at the top level. Not sure if she will rely on her previous bench players to step up or try to recruit from other clubs?

Going to be an interesting club tryouts this year with all age groups trying out at the same time! Good luck everyone.

It is 100% true that it is becoming more common for players to leave early for college. However, in this specific situation, those who are in the know are aware that these 3 players are leaving early for reasons other than wanting to get a head start in college.

When players leave early, if the early tuition is covered.......that is a huge savings not paying for club and getting excellent training and bonding with new teammates. The player does miss out on 2nd half of Senior year. Some early leave players do come back for Prom.

What other reason to leave club early? I assume its club drama!

It's not drama - the ones leaving are big stars with college commitments to power programs locked up and nothing left to prove at the club level - one of them spent the summer as captain of the gold medal-winning USA U19 team. Why not get a jump on training at a higher level? Happens in football all the time, and volleyball is the same season.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if EC Powers will be fielding teams this club season? I see that Paramount has expanded to add two teams for 13-16. Are they getting players from other clubs?

[Anonymous]

The Chesapeake director of ECP, Chris Smith, (both DC and DE chapters) has left ECP and is forming a new club in both areas. It will be a branch of Renaissance VBC, based in Pittsburgh. This club will be up and running for this coming season- 2023-2024! Details regarding clinics/teams/tryouts should be posted over the next few days!

http://www.renaissancechesapeake.com/

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info! I wonder why everyone left ECP. I thought they were trying to establish a foothold in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Chesapeake director of ECP, Chris Smith, (both DC and DE chapters) has left ECP and is forming a new club in both areas. It will be a branch of Renaissance VBC, based in Pittsburgh. This club will be up and running for this coming season- 2023-2024! Details regarding clinics/teams/tryouts should be posted over the next few days!

http://www.renaissancechesapeake.com/

Thanks for the info. Looks like from the website he is only going to have teams up to U16 for DC? Thought for sure there would be U17 and maybe U18.

Anyone know if there is going to be an informational meeting or any way to find out more? Getting close to tryouts and don't really know much. Can't tell if this will be worth pursuing for DD.

[Anonymous]

The website is not really up and running as of yet- it still just has the skeleton for his website. He is definitely going to have teams up to 18U and likely 2 teams for a couple of ages. Hopefully the website will be fully functioning in a couple of days.

[FPYCparent]

I find the Paramount announcement (two teams in sever age groups) interesting. I think I've read here that the club has previously attracted players that ultimately didn't play much for their teams. Now, outside of national qualifiers, they'll have two Open-level teams. Is there that much top-level talent? Will all of that talent get to play meaningful minutes?

I also wonder if the 15-2 team, for example, outperforms the 15-1 team in the events leading up to the big qualifiers. Does the 15-1 team still play in the Open division at the big events? Or, will the rosters between the two teams remain fluid throughout the club season. Will players get offers for a specific team (-1 or -2)? How will coaching work, as I don't think any information like that has been publicly shared.

...

I also find Renaissance Chesapeake becoming a wrinkle in the (original) The St. James - to - EC Power + MOJO - now without MOJO - now without EC Power storyline.

...

I don't have any first-hand interaction with any of these clubs, but wow ... there seems to be a lot going on ... and if you don't have access to inside information, you can easily be caught unaware.

[Anonymous]

We were completely caught unaware and signed our DD up for the fall ECP league. It’s been unorganized and terrible. She’s still relatively new to volleyball and we don’t really understand what’s going on but there have been three changes in leadership in a month.