Wow. I guess things have changed a bit at The St. James. Sorry to hear that players and families had to endure that.

Former St. James parent (one year removed)

I found the previous St. James comment interesting. It almost makes you wonder if the boys teams use a completely different venue than the girls. I will agree that the facility is phenomenal.

It is easy to look at the results for STJ girls teams and just say that they have never measured up to Metro/Paramount/etc. However, folks must realize that the same can be said for nearly ever other club not named Metro/Paramount. My kid made her HS varsity team after a year at STJ with no prior club experience. There are at least four former STJ players that are currently at Paramount. I'd say that that STJ is capable of drawing in talent. I just cannot speak for the current coaching staff, as my kid's coach is no longer there (he coached three of the four players now at Paramount). For what it is worth, one of the newer girls' coaches at STJ is also a current college-level (not NCAA) coach in the area.

I have no basis of comparison for the boys' side. To me, the mere existence of a boys' program at STJ may immediately make them one of the best in the area given that there aren't any other programs that **I** am aware of. Nonetheless, I think one of the STJ boy's coaches is also the girls varsity head coach at Flint Hill. That's certainly a (good/great) statement that not many other clubs can offer an equivalent ... for girls or boys.

My kid said that Texas VB got a commitment today from a 2026 player. That seems a bit crazy, but I guess the player is that good (as in, U19 National team good, apparently).

Not to turn this into a VB-only thread, but does Harper Murray still have a roster spot? If not, I'm assuming Nebraska won't fill that with a 2026 commit ... if they can get someone who can play sooner.

I'm pretty sure all camps listed in my first post are for individuals. However, my kid attended a camp at JMU last summer and there were clearly multiple players from the same team (HS) that were there together.

There is a "HS Team" camp offered at UMd, but not on the dates I listed above. The prices listed are for individual players on each team. https://www.terpsvbtraining.com/team-camp.cfm

Is anyone tracking the prospect camps going on for volleyball this summer? Here's what I've seen thus far:

I think George Mason U. had two days over the weekend (June 1 & 2).

Metro has one today/tomorrow at the Soccerplex fieldhouse (June 3 & 4): https://www.metrovbc.com/showcase

Paramount will have one at their facility on June 8: https://paramountvbc.sportngin.com/register/form/796797173

Maryland (UMd) has Academy Day (June 8) and two days in July (6 & 7): https://www.terpsvbtraining.com/

American U. has one in a few days (June 13 & 14) and again in July (13 & 14/20 & 21): https://www.americanvolleyballcamp.com/

Junior Day will host a June 28 event at GMU with 6+ schools including U. of Arizona: https://www.juniordayvolleyball.com/

Which ones am I missing?

The St. James isn't high level ... yet. There may be aspirations to get there. I may ... or may not ... be saying much, but I think this year's top 16s team has one returning player from the previous year's 15s team.

In any event, the facility is amazing. I know it is not a dedicated volleyball-only facility, but it has to be the best volleyball venue in the area.

Is The St. James too far from Fairfax/Burke to travel for volleyball? My high schooler played her first club season there. We "commuted" to practice from near Fair Oaks Mall ... and, ironically, we were the closest family of all involved with that team.

Someone affiliated with the volleyball at Vienna Youth (VYI) shared this list of possible summer events with me. I can only offer that my high schooler (completed one JV and one varsity season) has attended some of the GMU and JMU camps in previous years.

High School
https://www.oakcrest.org/volleyball-with-coach-mcpheeters?pending=true&cached=false
https://mcleanhs.jumbula.com/volleyball
https://langleyathletics.org/page/3188
https://summer.gds.org/programs/volleyball-camp/
https://www.flinthill.org/summer-on-the-hill-registration/#fhcamps

Club
https://metrovbc.sportngin.com/register/form/786567928
https://www.virginiaunitedvbc.com/page/show/4296464-2022-summer-camps

College
https://www.hoyasvolleyballcamps.com/all-skills-camp.cfm
https://www.masonvolleyball.com/all-skills-camp.cfm
https://portal.campnetwork.com/Register/Register.php?camp_id=397383
https://www.jmuvbcamp.com/all-skills-camp

Is there any reasoning for Blue Ridge sending teams to a qualifier if the teams were not going to accept any GJNC bids? I hope the players and parents were well aware that no earned bids would be accepted as early as possible. I understand that the club may be more focused on beach volleyball, but I'd like to think that they have some players that would benefit from playing in front of recruiters in Las Vegas.

Blue Ridge 16 Blue earned a USA bid at NEQ, but declined. Same for Blue Ridge 17 Blue. Are there penalties for declining a bid (or is that only if you keep a "lower" bid)? Is the region negatively impacted for declined bids?

Tomorrow (the last day of NEQ 16s Open) could be interesting for the Metro squad. Of the twelve teams vying for Gold in the morning, "only" four of them already have Open bids. Metro is pooled with two teams that already have Open bids. They may have to beat both teams just to make the Gold bracket and even then they may not get their own Open bid pending the results of the other morning pools. It looks like the Paramount 16s played themselves out of an Open bid on the first day of the weekend.

If I am reading last weekend's NEQ results correctly, the Paramount 15s finished tied for 5th in the Open division. I think they only won a morning match last Sunday (losing the other match), but that was enough to earn them an Open bid as the top finishers already had Open bids. In fact, there wasn't even a Silver bracket for 15 Open. Five of the top eight finishers already had Open bids (including all four in Gold), so the remaining three Open bids went to the teams that didn't already have one.

Other than the Paramount 15s, only the Metro 14s and 18s have Open bids. As mentioned above, it looks like the Metro 18s are playing in Silver to finish in 9th place overall tomorrow morning at the 18s national championships in Baltimore.

I posted a few pages back that:

The official USAV document (https://usavolleyball.org/wp-content/uploads/...ns-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
...

If anything, these bids may be easier to get because the competition is limited to just the CHRVA region. I think we all accept that CHRVA as a whole is not one of the strongest regions on a national scale. Nonetheless, CHVRA could send at least 8 teams to compete in the National division, 7 teams to the American division, and 10 teams to the Freedom division at the USAV championships at the end of the season.

As noted, bids to other championship divisions like Open, USA, and Liberty are typically earned at national qualifier events. I think there are 40 USAV regions and the Open division at GNJC ranges from 24 to 36 teams for age groups younger than the 18s (they have 48 teams). By default, there will be some regions at the non-18s age groups that will NOT be represented in the Open division. Then, we have regions with multiple teams earning Open bids which will increase the number of regions that have zero teams making it to Open.

For this year ... and with one 3-bid qualifier remaining, the 15s Open division already has five teams from NT, four from SC, and three each from AZ and GP, and two each from GW and HA. More than half of the entire 36-team Open field is covered by just six (out of 40) regions! Teams in the remaining 34 regions will only get 17 Open bids at most, pending the Far Western qualifier results. Getting an Open bid is hard, and not earning one should not be considered a sign of a team or club underachieving.

It looks like the Paramount 18s were waitlisted for Bid Regionals earlier this season. https://advancedeventsystems.com/events/33601

It may (or may not!) be worth mentioning that Metro 18 Travel dropped out of Bid Regionals as well. To be fair, Metro 18s had already earned an Open bid to GJNC about a month before the Bid Regionals.

My DD tells me that all of the Paramount 18s players have college commitments (I presume that means they'll all be playing VB in college). I don't know if she has similar information on Metro 18s and other teams in the age group.

There was also a mention that the Paramount 15s got an Open bid at NEQ today. I'll wait for the USAV spreadsheet to get updated to see what that means ... as I believe another 15s team from CHRVA might be going to Las Vegas as the bids trickle down to Bid Regionals finishers.

Is it correct to think that this year's Paramount 18s were last year's Paramount 17s (give or take a few changes)? How did the team fare as 17s last year?

Post in the other thread has been updated. CHRVA is now up to 40 teams that have bids to Las Vegas. Maybe a few more will get added after NEQ!