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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=FPYCparent]Alongside the availability of quality coaches, would the number of available practice courts also factor in any CHRVA club's ability to offer more teams per age group with fewer players per team?

Of the facilities I've seen, MDJRS has the most courts (11 maybe?) and it seems like the may have the most club teams per age group.  I'm also guessing that the club owns that facility.  Vienna Elite may have a similar number of teams per age group, but that operation is spread across the Fieldhouse and Nzone.  (I'm not sure if they also use the Rockville location for practices.)  The St. James can do practices on 9 courts.  Paramount can maybe do 8 courts, even though I don't think they have exclusive use of "their" facility.  I'm going to guess that every other club of note has to pay rent, even if they can reduce some costs by using schools or churches.  If you don't own your facility, it seems reasonable that you're capped as to how big you can grow as a program and you have to compete with other activities for space.

For those non-CHRVA clubs that have multiple teams with fewer players, I wonder if they have their own facility and are possibly the only game in town.  I'm also guessing that any rents they pay are cheaper than the going rates for court space here in the DMV.[/quote]
I can think of a few reasons:
1. I was told that college volleyball coaches make $40–60k per year. It's expensive to live in the DMV region.
2. Facility rentals are more expensive in the DMV region.
3. Athletes in this region have many other sports options, such as swimming, basketball, and tennis.

MVSA has three teams of 10 players in many age groups, but they can’t fill their first teams with the highest-level players. [b]We may simply not have enough top-tier volleyball players in this region.[/b][/quote]

I agree with that last statement. You improve your skills at any sport by practicing a lot (not being satisfied with what you do during practice). The kids in this area have so many distractions that it is hard for them to stay focused on sports (especially those from higher income families). Parents (especially the highly educated ones) don't care much about sports because they know that playing sports is not a path to a high paying job. They are just happy (and willing to pay) for their kids getting some exercise. For most of them, college is the path to a good education and a high paying job, not a place to waste time on sports (which will likely lead to a much lower paying job). That's how I explain why you don't see higher competition in volleyball (and probably in other sports as well). [/quote]
I don't know if I agree with the argument that kids in this area have too many distractions to be focused on sports, and volleyball in particular. For example, the DMV has produced many high-level basketball recruits (both girls and boys) for many years, and in recent history several local private and public schools are consistently ranked high nationally (Sidwell in particular is consistently in the top 10 nationally for both boys and girls).

For girls volleyball, there are dozens of local girls who go on to play division 1 volleyball every year. A decent number of girls from the DMV play (or will play starting this fall) on perennial top 25 teams, including school like Penn State, Louisville, Pitt, Georgia Tech, and Purdue. In the class of 2026, there are players committed to Tennessee, Kentucky, Baylor, Marquette, etc.  While most of these players at (or going to) these top programs are coming from Metro Travel teams, there are many girls committed to mid-major D1 teams from other clubs. Perhaps there is some truth to the notion that an area with as large a population as the DMV should produce more top-tier volleyball talent. I think some of the reason for that might be that volleyball is just really starting to take off in the area. In Florida, Texas, California, and several places throughout the midwest, volleyball has been huge for many years. This popularity means there are lots of parents who played and who start their kids young giving them a real head-start over the girls who start at 13 or 14. Also, until relatively recently if you were a tall girl athlete in the DMV you were likely encouraged to play basketball. As volleyball grows in prominence, more of those girls are likely decide to focus on volleyball and the quality of talent coming out of the area should continue to improve.

As has been discussed, one thing that isn't completely clear is what other clubs are going to be able to meet the growing need for clubs that can nurture high potential players, compete for open bids, and be able to help with college recruiting. It's a difficult need to try to meet though - players likely to be recruited to play in college are going to look for clubs with demonstrated results, which primarily means Metro and Paramount. At some point there are going to be too many of these kind of players for Metro and Paramount to take (even with 15 players on a team) and hopefully another club will be able to attract enough of these players to develop more local teams that have a shot at competing with the strongest teams from across the country. [/quote]

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