Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 11:53     Subject: HS volleyball
Anonymous wrote:At McLean it’s possible to make the freshman team without prior club experience if your DD is athletic and shows well at tryouts. There have been at least a few without club experience over the last few years. I’m guessing that most of the freshman team has had some club experience though, and I’m not aware of anyone on JV who hasn’t played for a club.


This.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 10:57     Subject: HS volleyball
Anonymous wrote:Any volleyball players make the high school team without club experience? Attend clinics, leagues etc, but not regional or national club due to travel. McLean HS?


For boys volleyball teams it seems like most varsity players do not have club experience.
Our boys team is district champion and I am not at all confident they can beat the mid ranked girls varsity team on a girl's net.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 10:53     Subject: HS volleyball
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Equity.

Wonder if the school board is planning to subsidize club costs for potential varsity players who can’t afford that edge provided by club experience that allows girls to make the varsity team?. Whats the economic diversity makeup of that varsity team? Whats the racial diversity makeup?

Some will answer that it doesn’t matter and it’s all about skill. But what if acquiring the skill requires paying $5-6000 in club fees plus $5-8000 in hotel and travel fees in the off-season in order to have a shot at playing on the varsity team at the local high school?

Equity is certainly not at the center of this. Because it’s sports.

And yet the school board is bending over backward to make sure that equity GRADING is a thing, so that academically-advantaged kids no longer have an advantage.

I can't tell whether you're trying to make a point about equity grading or actually proposing that schools should be subsidizing out of school extracurricular activities.

I think it's pretty clear that in order to make varsity at most high schools with competitive teams, playing club volleyball is required. And yes club volleyball is expensive and a huge commitment of time and other resources. I agree there probably isn't a lot of economic diversity among girls playing volleyball, but there's been a huge increase in racial diversity and at least at my DD's school, the racial makeup of the varsity volleyball team pretty closely mirrors the racial makeup of the school as a whole.

As to whether a school should subsidize club volleyball for some number of students, that seems really unworkable for a variety of reasons. How many girls are on a HS varsity volleyball roster - maybe 15? In a school with say 2,000 kids, should school resources be spent to give a handful of girls a better chance to compete for a spot on the team? Why volleyball and not other extracurricular activities? Should schools also be subsidizing other sports, music lessons, or voice lessons? I'd guess the kid who gets first chair violin in the school orchestra or the lead in the school musical take private lessons. That also seems unfair to the kids whose families can afford lessons. Aren't school resources better spent on initiatives that impact more of the student body?

DP here.
They are clearly talking about how merit seems to be the overriding concern in sports but not in academics.

In sports it's about what you bring to the table.
In academics we trying to divine what you would bring to the table is you put in the same effort and had the same resources as others.

If you rank ordered schools by income level, you would get a pretty good approximation of the quality of the volleyball team or any sport other than football or basketball.
The same is true for academics.
But sometimes the effort put in by athletes are portrayed as meritorious and the efforts put in by good students are portrayed as exploiting privilege.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 10:02     Subject: HS volleyball
Anonymous wrote:Equity.

Wonder if the school board is planning to subsidize club costs for potential varsity players who can’t afford that edge provided by club experience that allows girls to make the varsity team?. Whats the economic diversity makeup of that varsity team? Whats the racial diversity makeup?

Some will answer that it doesn’t matter and it’s all about skill. But what if acquiring the skill requires paying $5-6000 in club fees plus $5-8000 in hotel and travel fees in the off-season in order to have a shot at playing on the varsity team at the local high school?

Equity is certainly not at the center of this. Because it’s sports.

And yet the school board is bending over backward to make sure that equity GRADING is a thing, so that academically-advantaged kids no longer have an advantage.

I can't tell whether you're trying to make a point about equity grading or actually proposing that schools should be subsidizing out of school extracurricular activities.

I think it's pretty clear that in order to make varsity at most high schools with competitive teams, playing club volleyball is required. And yes club volleyball is expensive and a huge commitment of time and other resources. I agree there probably isn't a lot of economic diversity among girls playing volleyball, but there's been a huge increase in racial diversity and at least at my DD's school, the racial makeup of the varsity volleyball team pretty closely mirrors the racial makeup of the school as a whole.

As to whether a school should subsidize club volleyball for some number of students, that seems really unworkable for a variety of reasons. How many girls are on a HS varsity volleyball roster - maybe 15? In a school with say 2,000 kids, should school resources be spent to give a handful of girls a better chance to compete for a spot on the team? Why volleyball and not other extracurricular activities? Should schools also be subsidizing other sports, music lessons, or voice lessons? I'd guess the kid who gets first chair violin in the school orchestra or the lead in the school musical take private lessons. That also seems unfair to the kids whose families can afford lessons. Aren't school resources better spent on initiatives that impact more of the student body?
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 09:19     Subject: HS volleyball
Equity.

Wonder if the school board is planning to subsidize club costs for potential varsity players who can’t afford that edge provided by club experience that allows girls to make the varsity team?. Whats the economic diversity makeup of that varsity team? Whats the racial diversity makeup?

Some will answer that it doesn’t matter and it’s all about skill. But what if acquiring the skill requires paying $5-6000 in club fees plus $5-8000 in hotel and travel fees in the off-season in order to have a shot at playing on the varsity team at the local high school?

Equity is certainly not at the center of this. Because it’s sports.

And yet the school board is bending over backward to make sure that equity GRADING is a thing, so that academically-advantaged kids no longer have an advantage.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 09:10     Subject: HS volleyball
At my DD's large NOVA public HS, there are always a few players who play AAU basketball (so are tall) that don't play club volleyball and make JV and occasionally Varsity.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 09:04     Subject: HS volleyball
At McLean it’s possible to make the freshman team without prior club experience if your DD is athletic and shows well at tryouts. There have been at least a few without club experience over the last few years. I’m guessing that most of the freshman team has had some club experience though, and I’m not aware of anyone on JV who hasn’t played for a club.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 08:45     Subject: HS volleyball
At the risk of stating the obvious, especially in the bigger schools, the neck-down for Varsity is pretty severe. When you consider returning players plus skilled younger (JV/Freshmen) folks who could potentially play up, plus anybody else who shows up to try out... it's a lot for ~13 slots. Every little bit helps to get an edge.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 08:04     Subject: HS volleyball
Anonymous wrote:Any volleyball players make the high school team without club experience? Attend clinics, leagues etc, but not regional or national club due to travel. McLean HS?


Yes, DD made freshman team (not at McLean HS) without club experience. Played club after that season and then made JV. I don’t think she would have made the JV team without having played Club, though.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 07:51     Subject: HS volleyball
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any volleyball players make the high school team without club experience? Attend clinics, leagues etc, but not regional or national club due to travel. McLean HS?


Can’t speak to McLean but we definitely had a few on the freshman team that didn’t play club the year prior.


Same here: about 1/3 of our JV team didn't have club experience. If the coaches don't have enough club players to fill out the spots in the V and JV, they will take girls who show potential. That was not the case for the varsity team though: everyone in the varsity team has club experience. I guess it all depends on how popular volleyball is within your HS boundary.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 07:14     Subject: HS volleyball
Anonymous wrote:Any volleyball players make the high school team without club experience? Attend clinics, leagues etc, but not regional or national club due to travel. McLean HS?


Can’t speak to McLean but we definitely had a few on the freshman team that didn’t play club the year prior.
Anonymous
Post 11/07/2024 07:04     Subject: HS volleyball
Any volleyball players make the high school team without club experience? Attend clinics, leagues etc, but not regional or national club due to travel. McLean HS?