One piece of advice that DD's U15 club coach gave us last year is that you want to aim for playing on an 18s team in your player's senior year ... at least if you want to continue in the sport at some collegiate level. If you work backwards from there, that means targeting 17s as a junior, 16s, as a sophomore, etc. Of course, each player charts their own path, but that may be a starting point to consider.

In our experience with vball- you should have her play at a club and with the age group where she will get the most play time. Players who actually play in tournaments will get exponentially better than players who get little to no time at tournaments, despite having the same practices/coaches. The age group you play during the club year is irrelevant for high school. The best thing to do is get as much experience/play time as you can for high school tryouts, as they are getting more and more competitive.


Would definitely recommend playing the age group, and not the grade, this upcoming year. Many players do this- get better as they are starters, and then are able to switch to their grade level in club at 9th or 10th grade.

To the PP, this is very helpful, thank you. DD is not interested in playing for college, just wants to make a high school team.

There's no perfect answer. Here's how we thought about it: There are advantages to playing at age level/below grade level. Physical maturity matches your teammates, younger teams focus more on fundamentals which is always a good thing in early VB years, and a great player on a younger team will probably get a lot of playing time and may be able to play multiple positions – which is really important in HS where there’s a player in your “spot” that you have no chance of beating out, but you still want to be on the court. The younger game is generally slower, and just because you are skilled doesn’t mean you are ready for the game speed that comes with the older age group. A year of physical development is huge at this age. You might start the season able to keep up because of experience, but when the older athletes catch up to your skill level, they may pass you by very quickly.

There’s also disadvantages to playing below grade level: Unless you skip an age group, you eventually are the HS player playing on a MS grade level team. If you want to play in college, its generally better to be on a team in your grade level when recruiting starts (at least by U16, but its not absolutely required). However, its much easier to jump up in HS years than it is in MS years.

Definitely talk to the club – good clubs have a lot of experience with this issue and are willing to discuss it in advance of tryouts. If they’ve seen your DD play, even better. At virtually all of the clubs that compete in open/bids/qualifiers, its required to get approval to tryout for a playup above age anyway.

Yes, her age group would be younger than her graduating class. Just don’t know how much it will matter.

I don’t know anything about volleyball, so please forgive me if I sound ignorant, but is her age group younger than her high school graduating year?

If so, I personally would play her with her graduating class group. My son is like with baseball; he has a birthday that would make him one of the older ones in the next age group down with a summer birthday, but since that’s not his graduating class age group, he technically plays up so he can play against the peers he’ll be facing in high school.

DD has a late summer birthday. Last year she played up but this year she is trying for a different club. She could play her age group and likely be on a top team or play up and be in a lower team or she might not make the team at all. She’s currently in middle school so I’m not sure how it will affect her in a high school team. She is average sized for volleyball (so on the taller side for her age) and an average club player. She’s not the best player out there but can certainly hold her own. Playing her age group, she would likely be a very strong player. Need some advice on how to guide her.