There may be an opportunity to see some decent local club volleyball this upcoming weekend. The Chesapeake Region (CHRVA) is holding its "non-bid" championships in Jessup (Maryland Juniors) and Springfield (The St. James).

Here's the schedule: https://results.advancedeventsystems.com/event/PTAwMDAwMzM2MDM90/home (elementary/middle school ages on Saturday; high schoolers on Sunday)

Bear in mind that these aren't the very top teams in the area, but you should get to see some decent play. I'm guessing that there would be no admission costs at the Jessup site, but there may be an entry fee at The St. James. If anything, your player will either be entirely turned off by club volleyball or will want to go all-in.

I've bought my last two vehicles locally after finding them on cargurus.com

I think 5 or 6 CHRVA teams have either improved their existing GJNC bids or have received initial bids due to reallocation after the results from the most recent qualifiers. Some additions to the list are teams from MOCO, MOJO, Libero, and American. MVSA and VA Juniors appear to have added teams as well. The post on Page 49 should be up-to-date.

The official spreadsheets on the USA VB site were updated April 19th.

From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

Based on that information, I think the results from this weekend lead to the following:

1st Metro 13 gets the reallocated National bid
2nd MDJRS 13 gets the original National bid
3rd MVSA 13 Wahoo! gets the Liberty bid that was originally earned by MDJRS 13 as it stays in CHRVA
4th Paramount 13 gets the American bid

Honest request ... can every CHRVA club chip in one complete scoreboard and a pair of line judge flags to be used at in-region tournaments? Please? I mean, build it into the club fee if necessary!

Anyway, I re-formatted the post with the earned bids and listed bids per club.

Agree with Paramount 13. I'll wait for the official USAV spreadsheets to get updated.

I've reformatted the post above to list bids earned by club.

I think I've got all earned 2024 CHRVA bids noted in a post at the end of the larger thread. Instead of just pasting everything here, use the link in case I make updates/corrections. It already looks like I may have to re-format that post given all the bids earned this weekend.

I don't know how many CHRVA clubs will attend the remaining qualifiers, but it will be fun to see if any teams earn a more competitive bid or if new teams join the list.

The official USAV document (https://usavolleyball.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2024-Bid-Allocations-All-Divisions.pdf) lists CHRVA as having these allocated bids:

U11: 1x National
U12 & U13: 1x National, 1x American
U14 - U18: 1x National, 1x American, 2x Freedom

The earned bids are tracked on spreadsheets linked here: https://usavolleyball.org/compete/girls-indoor/2024-girls-and-18s-qualifier-results/

MDJRS 13 Elite also earned a Liberty bid at the Sunshine Classic, so I don't know which of their bids will get reallocated (Liberty vs. American). Metro 18 Travel has an Open bid from the Ohio Valley Qualifier. Renaissance 18 Black DC got an American bid at NEQ.

CHRVA is second in line to get reallocated bid for American (14 through 17); and fifth in line for National (14 through 18).

...

Here's the per-club breakdown (listed alphabetically):

Potentially two more CHRVA teams will get a bid due to reallocation as of April 25th

American: 1x Freedom (American 18)

Columbia: 1x National (Columbia 18 Black)

Liberty Elite VBC:
1x American (LEVBC U14 National)
1x Freedom (LEVBC U17 National)

Libero VBC: 1x Freedom (Libero 14 Huskies)

MDJRS:
2x National (MDJRS 13 Elite, MDJRS 18 Elite - reallocated)
1x American (MDJRS 14 Elite - reallocated bid)
1x Freedom (MDJRS 15 Elite)

Metro:
2x Open (Metro 14, Metro 18)
4x National (Metro 13 -- reallocated bid, Metro 15, Metro 16, Metro 17)

MOCO: 1x American (MOCO Motion 13 - reallocated bid)

MOJO: 1x Freedom (MOJO Elite 18)

MVSA:
1x Liberty (MVSA 13 Wahoo!)
1x National (MVSA 14 Force - reallocated)
2x American (MVSA 12 Vortex - reallocated, MVSA 15 Charge)
1x Freedom (MVSA 16 Sparks)

Paramount:
1x Open (Paramount 15)
2x National (Paramount 11, Paramount 14)
4x American (Paramount 12, Paramount 13, Paramount 16, Paramount 17 - reallocated)
1x Freedom (Paramount 14-2)

Premier EDGE:
1x American (Premier EDGE 17)
1x Freedom (Premier EDGE 15)

Renaissance DC: 1x American (Renaissance 18 Black DC)

Renaissance DE: 1x National (Renaissance 12 Black DE)

VA Elite:
1x National (VA Elite 17 - reallocated)
1x American (VA Elite 18)

VA Juniors:
1x USA (VA Juniors 15)
1x American (VA Juniors 18 - reallocated)
2x Freedom (VA Juniors 16, VA Juniors 17)


Updated list above after mid-April qualifiers ... hopefully I got them all correct. CHRVA is up to 40 teams going to GJNC, with potentially two more to come!

For folks who are more knowledgeable on the 18s age group, how does Paramount's 2024 schedule compare to 18s teams at other CHRVA clubs? It looks like they played (and won?) two CHRVA events on the first weekends of January and February. They also competed in three qualifiers (Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia) and Triple Crown. Is that a significantly high number of qualifiers through mid-March even though the club season is shorter?

It looks like the CHRVA Regionals landed on the weekend between the Southeast and Northeast Qualifiers. Paramount was the only CHRVA team at Southeast and only one of three at Northeast (with Metro and VA Elite). Had they not been waitlisted for CHRVA Regionals, tournaments on back-to-back-to-back weekends seems like a rather heavy load for any team.

I'm only in my second season with this ... and my kid's team did not earn a USAV bid last year. So, here's what I think I understand.

The only way to earn a berth to the USAV National Championship is either through your region or by earning a spot through a national qualifier event. Each of the ?40? USAV regions is allotted a few bids (2024 allocations PDF). Earning a bid through your region may be easier than earning one through the national qualifier events. So, making sure you meet your region's requirements for a chance to compete for its allotted bids is important. Bids for some levels of play (like Open) can only be earned at a national qualifier.

USAV tracks the bids earned here:

https://usavolleyball.org/compete/girls-indoor/2024-girls-and-18s-qualifier-results/

NOTE that AAU Nationals are simply a pay-and-you-are-in type of event. I think some teams who earn bids to USAV Nationals may still enter AAU Nationals as a tune-up.

Couldn't the same be said for any CHRVA event? When you get to see Open teams from all other regions, there aren't many CHRVA clubs that can consistently measure up. Without automatic bids given to the region, how many teams would make Nationals in a given year?

For the 15s, both Blue Ridge teams, Columbia 15 Red, and American 15-1 appear to be among the top 12 CHRVA teams based on the March 12th numerical rankings (USAV National, AES National, and AES Regional), but were not accepted to Bid Regionals. I think we have an explanation for BRVA based on previous posts. Columbia is waitlisted with two other teams. American is listed as "Not Accepted," even though they played Open at Capitol Hill and a CHRVA local (MDJRS). Certainly seems weird at first glance.

My kid attended one club "makeup" tryout at Metro (and is not playing there), but we forgot to unsubscribe from their mailing list. Here is what they recently sent about their summer opportunities:

Metro Summer Camps

Good catch! I see it now. The spreadsheet lists that MDJRS team in the "IA" region on the 14 Liberty tab. I was only looking at the region column for "CH" and then grabbing the corresponding team.

Let me see if I can update my post.