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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Mine has played club two years and based on the numbers at tryouts, I am worried she won’t even get a JV spot.  Ugh.

I also am kind of curious whether coaches would take a 6 foot girl with no experience over a 5’ 7” girl with expeiruence.  I don’t know but one thing I don’t like about this sport is that it seems that unless you are in the top percent of girls for height, you’re time in the sport is limited.  [/quote]

If you consider grade-based distribution, the majority of girls who show up at HS volleyball tryouts are freshmen. Most of the freshmen have no idea what they are getting into. They feel prepared for HS volleyball based on some rec leagues or clinics that they attended. They might end up on the HS team if not many other girls play club volleyball. [b]Some of the seniors still hope to make the JV team, so you will see some of those at the tryouts. The junior and senior population trying out for the varsity team drops significantly.[/b] A lot of them don't even try out to avoid the embarrassment of a rejection.

[b]What I am trying to say is that the number of players showing up at tryouts is not very relevant[/b]. One third is quickly eliminated due to lack of basic skills. Another third is eliminated due to unpolished skills. It's really the remaining one third who have a chance to make the team. That's the crowd you will see in the last day of tryouts.

It is not a tough call to pick between 6' and 5'7" if the skills are similar. If the taller girl has less experience, the question is how big the gap is. It comes down to coachability, attitude, athleticism, agility, strength, and endurance. If the tall girl cannot close the gap during a relatively short season, 5'7" is still tall enough. Now drop the height to 5'2" and the tall girl is more and more likely to get the spot.[/quote]

My understanding is that even the returning Varsity and JV players are expected to come to the try-outs so the number quoted (72 or something for WJ) would include the 20 or so returning players, so really like 52 players trying out for like 5-10 spots, I think?  [/quote]

Let's start with the Junior Varsity team because things are easier. To make things easier, you can think of the JV team (~14-15 spots) as being balanced 50:50 between freshmen (7-8 spots) and sophomores (7-8 spots). The coach may decide to have a different ratio depending on the skill level at each grade level. The former freshmen (current sophomores) have another chance to try out for JV, but there is no certainty that the same 7-8 would make the team. A lot of the freshmen who got burned trying out as freshmen will avoid another embarrassment and won't show up at the tryouts. It's the turn of a new generation of freshmen to show up and embarrass themselves.

Varsity is a little bit more complicated because the team is a mix of all grade levels. You cannot assume that is is balanced 50:50 between juniors and seniors. Most of the players will still be juniors and seniors, but - depending on skill level - you can have a few freshmen and a few sophomores on the team. Instead of having an opening of 7-8 spots, you may have just 5-6 spots opening up. Returners have a really good chance of staying on varsity because they were the cream of the crop to begin with. Which means that incoming juniors will have to compete for those spots with the former varsity players, plus ambitious freshmen and sophomores. Some of them see the writing on the wall and don't even show up at the tryouts. [/quote]

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