Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro has had its regional teams for many years but hasn’t developed players through them. You don’t see anyone from their regional teams moving up to their travel teams. At their clinics, they always place their travel players (and a few others) on the top court and pay little attention to the rest.

Yes, there are always good players from other clubs who want to join Metro Travel, but you really don’t want to be the third-best player in your position there. If you’re the third OH, MB, RS, or S on Metro Travel, you’ll likely spend the season standing on the sidelines and feeling miserable. You should aim to join a club where you’re one of the top two in your position. If that’s not Metro Travel, consider Paramount, VA Juniors, MD Juniors, VAE, etc. They all have strong track records of sending players to play in college.

Will Metro’s new National teams be successful? That depends on how much the club invests in those teams. However, I don’t think the club director has shown much interest in players who aren’t already at the top.

Additionally, unlike Paramount, which has its own 8-court gym and can host multiple teams training simultaneously in one location, Metro doesn’t have its own facility. I think this limits their ability to expand.

Metro has had a lot of players go on to play collegiate volleyball out of regional teams, especially out of North teams. If you look at Metro's college commitment page, there are 9-players from Metro regional teams going on to play collegiately out of the class of 2025 https://www.metrovbc.com/college-commitments. And there are many more from earlier classes. And players do move from Metro Regional teams to Travel - it's not necessarily a pipeline for developing talent for Travel teams, but standouts from Metro regional teams have made Travel teams numerous times.

The issue of large roster size and good players not getting lots of playing time is definitely a concern for Metro Travel teams, but I don't see Paramount as being any better. They also take 14 or 15 players on their 1s teams and certainly aren't known for making sure everyone gets significant playing time. Maybe more playing time opportunities open up when 1/3 of the team quits mid season.

As far as the facility goes, if almost 20 miles outside the beltway in Manassas works for you, I suppose that is an advantage, but Metro has long relationships with universities, schools, and churches and doesn't seem to have a big problem with finding gym space.

Having 12-18 year old girls walking out in spandex into the parts of DC that the Model School and the University of DC are located in is ideal?

I guess if Manassas is convenient for you, you don’t make it to DC much. The Model School is inside the fenced campus of Gallaudet University. UDC is in Van Ness between Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase. The median home price in that zip is almost $870,000. It’s a really nice neighborhood.

The 495 Express lanes will reach American Legion Bridge later this year. With EZPass-Flex, three people can travel on 495-Express and 66-Express to Manassas for free. Carpooling from Montgomery County to Paramount next club season will be easier.

Maybe easier, but driving from Montgomery County to Manassas during rush hour is still going to be awful. Just getting to the American Legion bridge can be miserable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro has had its regional teams for many years but hasn’t developed players through them. You don’t see anyone from their regional teams moving up to their travel teams. At their clinics, they always place their travel players (and a few others) on the top court and pay little attention to the rest.

Yes, there are always good players from other clubs who want to join Metro Travel, but you really don’t want to be the third-best player in your position there. If you’re the third OH, MB, RS, or S on Metro Travel, you’ll likely spend the season standing on the sidelines and feeling miserable. You should aim to join a club where you’re one of the top two in your position. If that’s not Metro Travel, consider Paramount, VA Juniors, MD Juniors, VAE, etc. They all have strong track records of sending players to play in college.

Will Metro’s new National teams be successful? That depends on how much the club invests in those teams. However, I don’t think the club director has shown much interest in players who aren’t already at the top.

Additionally, unlike Paramount, which has its own 8-court gym and can host multiple teams training simultaneously in one location, Metro doesn’t have its own facility. I think this limits their ability to expand.

Metro has had a lot of players go on to play collegiate volleyball out of regional teams, especially out of North teams. If you look at Metro's college commitment page, there are 9-players from Metro regional teams going on to play collegiately out of the class of 2025 https://www.metrovbc.com/college-commitments. And there are many more from earlier classes. And players do move from Metro Regional teams to Travel - it's not necessarily a pipeline for developing talent for Travel teams, but standouts from Metro regional teams have made Travel teams numerous times.

The issue of large roster size and good players not getting lots of playing time is definitely a concern for Metro Travel teams, but I don't see Paramount as being any better. They also take 14 or 15 players on their 1s teams and certainly aren't known for making sure everyone gets significant playing time. Maybe more playing time opportunities open up when 1/3 of the team quits mid season.

As far as the facility goes, if almost 20 miles outside the beltway in Manassas works for you, I suppose that is an advantage, but Metro has long relationships with universities, schools, and churches and doesn't seem to have a big problem with finding gym space.

Having 12-18 year old girls walking out in spandex into the parts of DC that the Model School and the University of DC are located in is ideal?

I guess if Manassas is convenient for you, you don’t make it to DC much. The Model School is inside the fenced campus of Gallaudet University. UDC is in Van Ness between Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase. The median home price in that zip is almost $870,000. It’s a really nice neighborhood.

Spoken like a high-powered corporate attorney

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro has had its regional teams for many years but hasn’t developed players through them. You don’t see anyone from their regional teams moving up to their travel teams. At their clinics, they always place their travel players (and a few others) on the top court and pay little attention to the rest.

Yes, there are always good players from other clubs who want to join Metro Travel, but you really don’t want to be the third-best player in your position there. If you’re the third OH, MB, RS, or S on Metro Travel, you’ll likely spend the season standing on the sidelines and feeling miserable. You should aim to join a club where you’re one of the top two in your position. If that’s not Metro Travel, consider Paramount, VA Juniors, MD Juniors, VAE, etc. They all have strong track records of sending players to play in college.

Will Metro’s new National teams be successful? That depends on how much the club invests in those teams. However, I don’t think the club director has shown much interest in players who aren’t already at the top.

Additionally, unlike Paramount, which has its own 8-court gym and can host multiple teams training simultaneously in one location, Metro doesn’t have its own facility. I think this limits their ability to expand.

Metro has had a lot of players go on to play collegiate volleyball out of regional teams, especially out of North teams. If you look at Metro's college commitment page, there are 9-players from Metro regional teams going on to play collegiately out of the class of 2025 https://www.metrovbc.com/college-commitments. And there are many more from earlier classes. And players do move from Metro Regional teams to Travel - it's not necessarily a pipeline for developing talent for Travel teams, but standouts from Metro regional teams have made Travel teams numerous times.

The issue of large roster size and good players not getting lots of playing time is definitely a concern for Metro Travel teams, but I don't see Paramount as being any better. They also take 14 or 15 players on their 1s teams and certainly aren't known for making sure everyone gets significant playing time. Maybe more playing time opportunities open up when 1/3 of the team quits mid season.

As far as the facility goes, if almost 20 miles outside the beltway in Manassas works for you, I suppose that is an advantage, but Metro has long relationships with universities, schools, and churches and doesn't seem to have a big problem with finding gym space.

Having 12-18 year old girls walking out in spandex into the parts of DC that the Model School and the University of DC are located in is ideal?

I guess if Manassas is convenient for you, you don’t make it to DC much. The Model School is inside the fenced campus of Gallaudet University. UDC is in Van Ness between Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase. The median home price in that zip is almost $870,000. It’s a really nice neighborhood.

The 495 Express lanes will reach American Legion Bridge later this year. With EZPass-Flex, three people can travel on 495-Express and 66-Express to Manassas for free. Carpooling from Montgomery County to Paramount next club season will be easier.

It seems we have very knowledgeable people here. Whatever happened to Cassell's and The Campus as volleyball facilities? All I heard they closed down, but never knew why. This area lacks good volleyball facilities with all the clubs and affluent people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro has had its regional teams for many years but hasn’t developed players through them. You don’t see anyone from their regional teams moving up to their travel teams. At their clinics, they always place their travel players (and a few others) on the top court and pay little attention to the rest.

Yes, there are always good players from other clubs who want to join Metro Travel, but you really don’t want to be the third-best player in your position there. If you’re the third OH, MB, RS, or S on Metro Travel, you’ll likely spend the season standing on the sidelines and feeling miserable. You should aim to join a club where you’re one of the top two in your position. If that’s not Metro Travel, consider Paramount, VA Juniors, MD Juniors, VAE, etc. They all have strong track records of sending players to play in college.

Will Metro’s new National teams be successful? That depends on how much the club invests in those teams. However, I don’t think the club director has shown much interest in players who aren’t already at the top.

Additionally, unlike Paramount, which has its own 8-court gym and can host multiple teams training simultaneously in one location, Metro doesn’t have its own facility. I think this limits their ability to expand.

Metro has had a lot of players go on to play collegiate volleyball out of regional teams, especially out of North teams. If you look at Metro's college commitment page, there are 9-players from Metro regional teams going on to play collegiately out of the class of 2025 https://www.metrovbc.com/college-commitments. And there are many more from earlier classes. And players do move from Metro Regional teams to Travel - it's not necessarily a pipeline for developing talent for Travel teams, but standouts from Metro regional teams have made Travel teams numerous times.

The issue of large roster size and good players not getting lots of playing time is definitely a concern for Metro Travel teams, but I don't see Paramount as being any better. They also take 14 or 15 players on their 1s teams and certainly aren't known for making sure everyone gets significant playing time. Maybe more playing time opportunities open up when 1/3 of the team quits mid season.

As far as the facility goes, if almost 20 miles outside the beltway in Manassas works for you, I suppose that is an advantage, but Metro has long relationships with universities, schools, and churches and doesn't seem to have a big problem with finding gym space.

Having 12-18 year old girls walking out in spandex into the parts of DC that the Model School and the University of DC are located in is ideal?

I guess if Manassas is convenient for you, you don’t make it to DC much. The Model School is inside the fenced campus of Gallaudet University. UDC is in Van Ness between Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase. The median home price in that zip is almost $870,000. It’s a really nice neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro has had its regional teams for many years but hasn’t developed players through them. You don’t see anyone from their regional teams moving up to their travel teams. At their clinics, they always place their travel players (and a few others) on the top court and pay little attention to the rest.

Yes, there are always good players from other clubs who want to join Metro Travel, but you really don’t want to be the third-best player in your position there. If you’re the third OH, MB, RS, or S on Metro Travel, you’ll likely spend the season standing on the sidelines and feeling miserable. You should aim to join a club where you’re one of the top two in your position. If that’s not Metro Travel, consider Paramount, VA Juniors, MD Juniors, VAE, etc. They all have strong track records of sending players to play in college.

Will Metro’s new National teams be successful? That depends on how much the club invests in those teams. However, I don’t think the club director has shown much interest in players who aren’t already at the top.

Additionally, unlike Paramount, which has its own 8-court gym and can host multiple teams training simultaneously in one location, Metro doesn’t have its own facility. I think this limits their ability to expand.

Metro has had a lot of players go on to play collegiate volleyball out of regional teams, especially out of North teams. If you look at Metro's college commitment page, there are 9-players from Metro regional teams going on to play collegiately out of the class of 2025 https://www.metrovbc.com/college-commitments. And there are many more from earlier classes. And players do move from Metro Regional teams to Travel - it's not necessarily a pipeline for developing talent for Travel teams, but standouts from Metro regional teams have made Travel teams numerous times.

The issue of large roster size and good players not getting lots of playing time is definitely a concern for Metro Travel teams, but I don't see Paramount as being any better. They also take 14 or 15 players on their 1s teams and certainly aren't known for making sure everyone gets significant playing time. Maybe more playing time opportunities open up when 1/3 of the team quits mid season.

As far as the facility goes, if almost 20 miles outside the beltway in Manassas works for you, I suppose that is an advantage, but Metro has long relationships with universities, schools, and churches and doesn't seem to have a big problem with finding gym space.

Having 12-18 year old girls walking out in spandex into the parts of DC that the Model School and the University of DC are located in is ideal?

Anonymous wrote:I want to add that if you look at the top clubs in top volleyball regions—such as A5, Legacy, and Circle City—you’ll see that their top teams play in Open, their second teams in USA, and their third teams in American, Liberty, or Freedom divisions. They have a pyramid system where players can move up or down based on their development. This is a stable and proven system for success.

Paramount is moving in this direction. Their 15-1 team played in Open, 15-2 in National, 14-1 in National, and 14-2 in Freedom. Now, they’re adding 14-3 and 15-3 teams. With their own gym and the growing popularity of volleyball, it's not hard to predict that they'll add 11-3, 12-3, and 13-3 teams in the coming years.

Currently, Metro is only good for the top two players at each position and age group. It's not even good for the third-best players in those categories. Metro is adding 15-2, 16-2, and 17-2 teams, but as I wrote above, the success of these teams depends on how much the club invests in them—the quality of coaches they hire and the training they provide. They haven't done much to their regional teams.

If Metro and Paramount were two companies, I would buy Paramount's stock over Metro's.

I think it's great that Paramount is expanding and improving and is pushing Metro to do more as well. It would be nice if there were others clubs that were able to up their game as well. That said, I think Paramount has a serious culture problem that needs to be addressed. They lose far more players season over season than most other clubs. They also lose more players in the middle of the season than any other club that I have heard of. In talking to the parent's of some of these players, the culture is toxic and the goal seems to be more about pumping up the egos of the club's leadership rather than developing or creating a positive experience for their players.

Anonymous wrote:Metro has had its regional teams for many years but hasn’t developed players through them. You don’t see anyone from their regional teams moving up to their travel teams. At their clinics, they always place their travel players (and a few others) on the top court and pay little attention to the rest.

Yes, there are always good players from other clubs who want to join Metro Travel, but you really don’t want to be the third-best player in your position there. If you’re the third OH, MB, RS, or S on Metro Travel, you’ll likely spend the season standing on the sidelines and feeling miserable. You should aim to join a club where you’re one of the top two in your position. If that’s not Metro Travel, consider Paramount, VA Juniors, MD Juniors, VAE, etc. They all have strong track records of sending players to play in college.

Will Metro’s new National teams be successful? That depends on how much the club invests in those teams. However, I don’t think the club director has shown much interest in players who aren’t already at the top.

Additionally, unlike Paramount, which has its own 8-court gym and can host multiple teams training simultaneously in one location, Metro doesn’t have its own facility. I think this limits their ability to expand.

Metro has had a lot of players go on to play collegiate volleyball out of regional teams, especially out of North teams. If you look at Metro's college commitment page, there are 9-players from Metro regional teams going on to play collegiately out of the class of 2025 https://www.metrovbc.com/college-commitments. And there are many more from earlier classes. And players do move from Metro Regional teams to Travel - it's not necessarily a pipeline for developing talent for Travel teams, but standouts from Metro regional teams have made Travel teams numerous times.

The issue of large roster size and good players not getting lots of playing time is definitely a concern for Metro Travel teams, but I don't see Paramount as being any better. They also take 14 or 15 players on their 1s teams and certainly aren't known for making sure everyone gets significant playing time. Maybe more playing time opportunities open up when 1/3 of the team quits mid season.

As far as the facility goes, if almost 20 miles outside the beltway in Manassas works for you, I suppose that is an advantage, but Metro has long relationships with universities, schools, and churches and doesn't seem to have a big problem with finding gym space.

I seem to remember VAE being one of the 2 dominant forces in the region. Not sure what happened but they seem to have been overtaken by quite a few other clubs. Maybe in same way Juniors lost their way a few years back. Metro has done well to maintain their position while other clubs come and go

I want to add that if you look at the top clubs in top volleyball regions—such as A5, Legacy, and Circle City—you’ll see that their top teams play in Open, their second teams in USA, and their third teams in American, Liberty, or Freedom divisions. They have a pyramid system where players can move up or down based on their development. This is a stable and proven system for success.

Paramount is moving in this direction. Their 15-1 team played in Open, 15-2 in National, 14-1 in National, and 14-2 in Freedom. Now, they’re adding 14-3 and 15-3 teams. With their own gym and the growing popularity of volleyball, it's not hard to predict that they'll add 11-3, 12-3, and 13-3 teams in the coming years.

Currently, Metro is only good for the top two players at each position and age group. It's not even good for the third-best players in those categories. Metro is adding 15-2, 16-2, and 17-2 teams, but as I wrote above, the success of these teams depends on how much the club invests in them—the quality of coaches they hire and the training they provide. They haven't done much to their regional teams.

If Metro and Paramount were two companies, I would buy Paramount's stock over Metro's.

FPYCparent wrote:I appreciate some of the context. Thanks!

Prior to 2015, what other CHRVA clubs produced teams that were consistently competitive? I've read hints here that suggest Virginia Juniors teams might have been competitive, but were they neck-and-neck with Metro? How did MD-based clubs fare in the "before times?" I recognize that the overall popularity of volleyball has boomed since 2020 ... or maybe 2015, so there may not have been as many clubs/teams in that era.

Without taking too much away from the primary topic, I'd also be interested in the stories of clubs have emerged/merged/whatever over time. I think I understand that an iteration of EC Power was acquired and moved to The St. James, but then some parts may have since splintered off (Mojo?). Are there similar stories for other CHRVA clubs that may have contributed the current state with Metro and Paramount seemingly on top in nearly every age group?

The only two local clubs I am aware of that still exist and go back as far as Metro are MVSA and Columbia, although I think Columbia is similar to Metro in that it's gone through some various iterations and changes of leadership. From what I can find MVSA volleyball was founded in 1991 as part of the broader Montgomery Village Sports Association which has existed since 1971. Columbia Volleyball Club was founded in 1985. There are probably more clubs with long histories that I am not aware of.

From what I can find, most of the clubs we talk about today were founded much more recently:
Paramount - 2016
MDJRs - 2003
VA Juniors - 2011
VA Elite - 2005
MOCO - 2015
MOJO - 2011

I think VA Juniors and Vienna Elite are both good examples of local clubs that used to be pretty strong (in the last 10 years or so) that have not been able to maintain the same level of competitiveness, although VA Juniors had a pretty decent season last year. I am not fully versed in the earlier history so I'm not sure if there was ever a club that made a meaningful challenge to Metro's dominance like Paramount is starting to.

The St James/EC Power/MOJO saga from a few years ago primarily starts with a now defunct club called Arlington Elite. Arlington Elite was a Virginia club that was pretty successful for a while https://blog.sportsrecruits.com/2016/10/13/arlington-elite-forges-player-driven-club-assisted-recruiting-program-with-sportsrecruits/. When the St James facility was completed in 2018, rather than start their volleyball club from the ground up, they acquired Arlington Elite which meant most of the coaches and teams became part of the St James club in the 2019-20 season. The stories I have heard are that the leadership and some of the coaches from Arlington Elite clashed pretty early with the St James leadership and were looking for an exit strategy. Around the same, 3 Step Sports, which is a VC backed company that is buying up clubs in multiple sports nationwide, had acquired EC Power in 2019. 3 Step has been aggressively buying up clubs around the country and the list of clubs under their umbrella today is pretty crazy (Munciana, Kiva, Tribe, and many more well known clubs). https://threestep.com/our-sports/volleyball/. As part of the 3 Step expansion strategy, EC Power (who had a branch in Delaware) was looking to establish a presence in the DMV in the 2020 timeframe and they ended up luring some of the dissatisfied, former Arlington Elite, staff from the St James to coach the new EC Power teams in DC. In the second year of EC Power DC, they wanted to create more teams for younger players and ended up coming to some kind of arrangement with MOJO in Mclean who was pretty strong at younger age groups and fit well geographically. MOJO was recast as EC Power although they continued to do some things under the banner of MOJO. When the whole EC Power DC organization fell apart just ahead of the 2022-23 season, MOJO hurriedly reorganized themselves back into an independent club taking with them some of the former EC Power coaches while others went to the newly formed DC branch of the Renaissance volleyball club that ultimately only lasted for that single season.

This discussion has sent me down a bit of an interweb rabbit hole. I think the first organized club volleyball nationally that sort of resembled the junior club volleyball we know today was AAU in the 1970s. I found an interesting article talking about the first AAU Volleyball Nationals championships being held in Catonsville, MD in 1974 https://www.aausports.org/volleyball/news/article?id=3827. There is also an interesting discussion of the history of volleyball in the US at this site https://ncva.com/info/general-info/history-of-volleyball/. That timeline shows that AAU and early predecessors to USAV sort of worked together organizing "Junior Olympic" volleyball through the 70s and 80s with USAV organizing the juniors program more formally in the mid 80s. From what I can tell, there were regions going back to at least the 1970s, but this was primarily intended to create an infrastructure for developing volleyball players to compete internationally. https://www.zippia.com/usa-volleyball-careers-724653/history/. Women's volleyball as a collegiate sport started in 1969 with the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_women%27s_volleyball_tournament. Women's volleyball became an NCAA sport in 1981 as part of NCAA's expansion in many women's sports. Men's indoor volleyball started as an NCAA sport in 1970.

This CHRVA document from 2002 gives some interesting stats about participation at the time http://www.chrvajuniors.org/juniors/docs/JuniorsInfo.pdf They note that in 2002 CHRVA was composed of approximately 35 clubs, 225+ teams for ages 10 to 18, and more than 2000 players. The current CHRVA club directory shows around 130 clubs.

Perhaps there is a book idea here documenting the history of club volleyball in the United States? I'm sure it would be a bestseller

Metro has had its regional teams for many years but hasn’t developed players through them. You don’t see anyone from their regional teams moving up to their travel teams. At their clinics, they always place their travel players (and a few others) on the top court and pay little attention to the rest.

Yes, there are always good players from other clubs who want to join Metro Travel, but you really don’t want to be the third-best player in your position there. If you’re the third OH, MB, RS, or S on Metro Travel, you’ll likely spend the season standing on the sidelines and feeling miserable. You should aim to join a club where you’re one of the top two in your position. If that’s not Metro Travel, consider Paramount, VA Juniors, MD Juniors, VAE, etc. They all have strong track records of sending players to play in college.

Will Metro’s new National teams be successful? That depends on how much the club invests in those teams. However, I don’t think the club director has shown much interest in players who aren’t already at the top.

Additionally, unlike Paramount, which has its own 8-court gym and can host multiple teams training simultaneously in one location, Metro doesn’t have its own facility. I think this limits their ability to expand.

I appreciate some of the context. Thanks!

Prior to 2015, what other CHRVA clubs produced teams that were consistently competitive? I've read hints here that suggest Virginia Juniors teams might have been competitive, but were they neck-and-neck with Metro? How did MD-based clubs fare in the "before times?" I recognize that the overall popularity of volleyball has boomed since 2020 ... or maybe 2015, so there may not have been as many clubs/teams in that era.

Without taking too much away from the primary topic, I'd also be interested in the stories of clubs have emerged/merged/whatever over time. I think I understand that an iteration of EC Power was acquired and moved to The St. James, but then some parts may have since splintered off (Mojo?). Are there similar stories for other CHRVA clubs that may have contributed the current state with Metro and Paramount seemingly on top in nearly every age group?

I’ll bite.

Parent of Metro Travel alum here .

I suppose we should start at the beginning. The frequent DCUM Paramount poster who seems really offended by the Est. 2015 that Metro has on their uniform sleeves often refers to Metro as having been started in 1999 and that’s not accurate. My understanding of Metro history from people who played for Metro in the early days (and a few other sources) is as follows.

The original Metro Volleyball Club was founded in 1990 by Fran Duvall and two partners (Fran Duvall would later go on to found Platform Volleyball Club). That iteration of Metro existed until 2002 when it merged with Barry Goldberg’s American Volleyball Club (he was the legendary head coach at American University who passed away a few years ago) to become the Metro American Volleyball Club. Metro American existed from 2002 until 2015 when Silvia Johnson, the current owner/club director, acquired the club. Silvia played at AU for her last two seasons of collegiate volleyball, was an assistant coach at AU for a few years, and was involved with Metro American for 9 years prior to taking the club over..

I think it’s fair to say that Metro had a big head start in 2015 when the current iteration of the club was established. The club already had a good reputation and was attracting top players and had coaches and infrastructure in place. That said, Silivia has not simply been skating by on the good reputation of the predecessor clubs for the past 10+ years. First of all, she was the head coach of 18 Travel at Metro American for 9 years and was in charge of the coaching staff and training so she was a big reason for the good reputation of Metro American prior to her becoming club director. Second, SIlvia has continued to improve the level of play at the club and expanded the regional programs and numbers of travel teams creating a club with hundreds of players every year. Metro recently announced they are adding 3 new “National” teams plus 11 Travel next year. This could be in response to Paramount and other clubs starting to add younger teams and second teams that are still designed to be competing for bids, but why not leverage the experience and expertise that exists at the club to give opportunities to more players?

While Metro Travel isn’t perfect, our experience has been overwhelmingly positive. My DD has had some great coaches and gotten to play with many remarkable athletes. She has improved dramatically in her years with the club. Despite what you might read on these boards, they do have solid training and do a great job of preparing players for collegiate volleyball. Silvia and coaches were very supportive and helpful during the recruiting process. While it is up to the players (and parents) to take the lead on a player’s recruiting journey, the club was there to provide guidance and advice (you do have to ask) and anytime my DD reached out to Silvia looking for help she was remarkably responsive.

Another positive thing about Metro is the strength of the alumni network. At certain times of year (Christmas break, after colleges are done in May) many alumni will come back to workout with Travel teams. It is a great experience for the travel players to get to be on the court with current collegiate or even professional players. It’s been fun for my DD to see players she has met and played with on top collegiate and professional teams on TV.

One of the downsides of Metro would be the roster size of the older Travel teams - because these teams are generally regarded as the top teams in CHRVA, the number of players trying out to be on these teams is high and Metro tends to take the max allowed by USAV which is 15. For the past few years there have been 15 players on the rosters of 16, 17, and 18 Travel. With that many players, there are a lot of talented players standing on the sidelines who would likely be starters at almost any other club in CHRVA. The goals and expectations of Travel teams are made clear every year - they are looking to get Open bids and place highly at Nationals and also prepare players to succeed in college. I think most players understand what they are signing up for - playing time is not guaranteed and with 15 players, it’s not unusual for a player to only see the court for a few points at a 3-day tournament. Obviously this can be frustrating for both players and parents and it has been a reason that some players have left the club. Perhaps the new Metro National teams will allow them to accommodate more players on competitive teams and not have so many players on the Travel rosters.

Another downside is that since expectations are high and winning is a priority, there is a lot of pressure and coaches can be intense. For the most part, the coaches do a reasonable job of being supportive while also holding players accountable, but there are undoubtedly times when certain coaches cross the line to being too negative.

Overall, in my mind the positives far outweigh the negatives. Our experience with Metro Travel was great and I know my DD looks back at her time with the club as some of the fondest memories of her teenage years.

Let's go Metro!

As requested on a different thread, here is a place to continue the Metro vs Paramount discussion. I've seen this discussion flare up on multiple other threads because both clubs have passionate supporters. Unfortunately, these passionate supporters act as if their topics are of general interest. I am personally tired of reading the same "concerns" expressed over and over as soon as the names Metro or Paramount come up. Hopefully, this thread will allow the other threads share interesting / helpful information that doesn't get buried under the constant and relentless Metro vs Paramount debate.