Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I agree it's insane. And for a girl that gets a stomach flu or something similar the day before -- she's basically out for the season. It all seems particularly inhumane given that we are talking about 10-13 year old children, not HS kids.
And also clubs should be upfront about the concept that clinics are basically a pre-tryout -- that was NOT at all clear to me as a new parent.

I think some clubs do try to make this clear, but if you're new you might not understand that is the case until it's too late. If you don't know hear that you should be attending clinics in September until mid-October then it's already too late.

I agree that it is a harsh system. The unfortunate reality for volleyball is that more than about 12 players on a roster makes it really challenging to get everyone some playing time so there is an upper limit to how many girls a club can take on a team. Couple that with the explosion of popularity in volleyball making demand for spots being so high, and it becomes really hard for a new player to make a team. If you haven't found a club for your DD yet, my suggestion would be to reach out to as many mid and lower tier clubs that might be practical for you. There are likely still some roster spots out there unfilled.

And for parents of older girls for which tryouts start tomorrow, if you're new to volleyball and don't have a solid lead on a club go to as many tryouts as you can. It will hopefully increase the odds of getting at least one offer, and if you get multiple, that's a good problem to have.

Is court time really THAT hard to come by?

Why aren't there more teams?

Coaches are hard to come by too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I agree it's insane. And for a girl that gets a stomach flu or something similar the day before -- she's basically out for the season. It all seems particularly inhumane given that we are talking about 10-13 year old children, not HS kids.
And also clubs should be upfront about the concept that clinics are basically a pre-tryout -- that was NOT at all clear to me as a new parent.

I think some clubs do try to make this clear, but if you're new you might not understand that is the case until it's too late. If you don't know hear that you should be attending clinics in September until mid-October then it's already too late.

I agree that it is a harsh system. The unfortunate reality for volleyball is that more than about 12 players on a roster makes it really challenging to get everyone some playing time so there is an upper limit to how many girls a club can take on a team. Couple that with the explosion of popularity in volleyball making demand for spots being so high, and it becomes really hard for a new player to make a team. If you haven't found a club for your DD yet, my suggestion would be to reach out to as many mid and lower tier clubs that might be practical for you. There are likely still some roster spots out there unfilled.

And for parents of older girls for which tryouts start tomorrow, if you're new to volleyball and don't have a solid lead on a club go to as many tryouts as you can. It will hopefully increase the odds of getting at least one offer, and if you get multiple, that's a good problem to have.

Is court time really THAT hard to come by?

Why aren't there more teams?

21:07 and before anyone asks why we went to 8, which we did, and how we fit them in.

Friday - 1
Sat- 3
Sun - 3 (originally none but added when nothing Sat night)
Mon - 1 (added Sun night)

One offer came in on mid day Sunday for a regional team. One came in late Monday for an open team. Tryouts were a mix of regional, national and open teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I don’t understand what the “simple” part is in your ideal description. Don’t you realize that clubs would just send out their offer emails to the same 12 girls? Then what?…they get 48 hours to decide while your DD has no offers and waits until the next round of offers? And then does round 2 get 48 hours to decide as well?
What if a player accepts an offer when it comes in the second round but then in round three, she finally gets an offer from a club she really wants that still has a spot? Can she change her mind?
The system they have is imperfect, but your proposal is a nightmare.

+1. That proposal would be awful. My DD and her friends went to 5-9 tryouts over that weekend. They were all trying for open level or national teams. It was a terrible weekend and we knew it would be. Stretching it out over a longer period of time would have these girls going to even more tryouts, out of fear that they wouldn’t have a spot anywhere. Even with 5-9 tryouts in that short amount of time, everyone we know can away with 0-2 options. So don’t say they went to too many. Every girl went to some lower level clubs too. I wouldn’t want to stretch this out over two weeks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I don’t understand what the “simple” part is in your ideal description. Don’t you realize that clubs would just send out their offer emails to the same 12 girls? Then what?…they get 48 hours to decide while your DD has no offers and waits until the next round of offers? And then does round 2 get 48 hours to decide as well?
What if a player accepts an offer when it comes in the second round but then in round three, she finally gets an offer from a club she really wants that still has a spot? Can she change her mind?
The system they have is imperfect, but your proposal is a nightmare.

Seems MDJRS in Jessup opened some spots for 12R and 14EY/R, check their Facebook

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does CHRVA publish the rosters?

Each club will publish their rosters. Eventually. We are also curious who made the team because we have less than a handful of returning players.

It's a ritual every November to stalk club websites to see who went to what teams. Be warned though - some clubs are terribly slow at updating their website rosters so you might not know for weeks or even until tournaments start in January.

It's relatively easy to figure out where the teammates from the last season ended up, but how about the friends from the clinics or from the MVSA rec league?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does CHRVA publish the rosters?

Each club will publish their rosters. Eventually. We are also curious who made the team because we have less than a handful of returning players.

It's a ritual every November to stalk club websites to see who went to what teams. Be warned though - some clubs are terribly slow at updating their website rosters so you might not know for weeks or even until tournaments start in January.

LOVE the Cobra Kai comment!

Anonymous wrote:Does CHRVA publish the rosters?

Each club will publish their rosters. Eventually. We are also curious who made the team because we have less than a handful of returning players.

Does CHRVA publish the rosters?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I agree it's insane. And for a girl that gets a stomach flu or something similar the day before -- she's basically out for the season. It all seems particularly inhumane given that we are talking about 10-13 year old children, not HS kids.
And also clubs should be upfront about the concept that clinics are basically a pre-tryout -- that was NOT at all clear to me as a new parent.

I think some clubs do try to make this clear, but if you're new you might not understand that is the case until it's too late. If you don't know hear that you should be attending clinics in September until mid-October then it's already too late.

I agree that it is a harsh system. The unfortunate reality for volleyball is that more than about 12 players on a roster makes it really challenging to get everyone some playing time so there is an upper limit to how many girls a club can take on a team. Couple that with the explosion of popularity in volleyball making demand for spots being so high, and it becomes really hard for a new player to make a team. If you haven't found a club for your DD yet, my suggestion would be to reach out to as many mid and lower tier clubs that might be practical for you. There are likely still some roster spots out there unfilled.

And for parents of older girls for which tryouts start tomorrow, if you're new to volleyball and don't have a solid lead on a club go to as many tryouts as you can. It will hopefully increase the odds of getting at least one offer, and if you get multiple, that's a good problem to have.

Well, certainly harsh if a club only holds one pre-tryout clinic that overlaps into the regular HS season. This is still an extracurricular activity, not Cobra Kai.

We had that problem as well. Before we knew how demanding JV was, we signed up for a few things. When the HS reality hit (JV plus a ton of homework), we had to rethink everything we signed up for. It was not ideal at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I agree it's insane. And for a girl that gets a stomach flu or something similar the day before -- she's basically out for the season. It all seems particularly inhumane given that we are talking about 10-13 year old children, not HS kids.
And also clubs should be upfront about the concept that clinics are basically a pre-tryout -- that was NOT at all clear to me as a new parent.

I think some clubs do try to make this clear, but if you're new you might not understand that is the case until it's too late. If you don't know hear that you should be attending clinics in September until mid-October then it's already too late.

I agree that it is a harsh system. The unfortunate reality for volleyball is that more than about 12 players on a roster makes it really challenging to get everyone some playing time so there is an upper limit to how many girls a club can take on a team. Couple that with the explosion of popularity in volleyball making demand for spots being so high, and it becomes really hard for a new player to make a team. If you haven't found a club for your DD yet, my suggestion would be to reach out to as many mid and lower tier clubs that might be practical for you. There are likely still some roster spots out there unfilled.

And for parents of older girls for which tryouts start tomorrow, if you're new to volleyball and don't have a solid lead on a club go to as many tryouts as you can. It will hopefully increase the odds of getting at least one offer, and if you get multiple, that's a good problem to have.

Well, certainly harsh if a club only holds one pre-tryout clinic that overlaps into the regular HS season. This is still an extracurricular activity, not Cobra Kai.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

The whole process doesn't make any sense. Its especially confusing for new parents. A better process would be to stretch out tryouts over a week or two time frame giving clubs and players an opportunity to evaluate and see who's a good fit. All clubs send out offer emails the following day after tryout week. Monday morning 8am etc... Give parents and player 48 hours to decide. Boom, done, simple. The tryout rules are governed by CHRVA not the clubs. It's my 3rd year of this madness. This weekend will be brutal for girls who have their hopes up to make a specific team or make a team at all. Good Luck!

I agree it's insane. And for a girl that gets a stomach flu or something similar the day before -- she's basically out for the season. It all seems particularly inhumane given that we are talking about 10-13 year old children, not HS kids.
And also clubs should be upfront about the concept that clinics are basically a pre-tryout -- that was NOT at all clear to me as a new parent.

I think some clubs do try to make this clear, but if you're new you might not understand that is the case until it's too late. If you don't know hear that you should be attending clinics in September until mid-October then it's already too late.

I agree that it is a harsh system. The unfortunate reality for volleyball is that more than about 12 players on a roster makes it really challenging to get everyone some playing time so there is an upper limit to how many girls a club can take on a team. Couple that with the explosion of popularity in volleyball making demand for spots being so high, and it becomes really hard for a new player to make a team. If you haven't found a club for your DD yet, my suggestion would be to reach out to as many mid and lower tier clubs that might be practical for you. There are likely still some roster spots out there unfilled.

And for parents of older girls for which tryouts start tomorrow, if you're new to volleyball and don't have a solid lead on a club go to as many tryouts as you can. It will hopefully increase the odds of getting at least one offer, and if you get multiple, that's a good problem to have.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They also make it pretty clear that if you don’t go to both days of tryouts that it reduces the likelihood of making a team."

How the heck can folks fit in tryouts for more than one team with that requirement?

With the low price, small roster size, and reasonable level of competitiveness, the demand for MVSA is high. Unless a player decides they want to play for a higher level team, families are generally pretty loyal to MVSA and will come back year after year, so people are going to prioritize getting to MVSA tryouts.

Because of the long history of the club and length of time MVSA many of their coaches have been around, MVSA is a bit of a throwback. They do little recruiting (although many MCPS HS coaches are MVSA coaches so there is a bit of a pipeline there), they have resisted the trend of teams going to multiple qualifiers, and even their 1s teams go to a lot of regional tournaments. I think sticking with this tried and true formula continues to work for the most part, but I do think as the level of play continues to increase (both locally and nationally) MVSA is going to continue to slip in terms of their teams' rankings within the region. But I don't know that is a concern for the most part. There is always going to be a place for a good quality club at a reasonable price. Every club doesn't need to be striving for open bids and trying to send their entire 18s team to play in college every year. MVSA players who are looking for something more will go to other clubs and will be well trained when they get there.

Is MVSA slipping in the rankings? I thought they did really well last season, like having many of their 2 teams do better in their age group than other good teams' 1 teams?

I don't think they've slipped yet, but it's seeming like the writing is on the wall. A lot of their success has been due to being able to get good players at the club when they were really young. Some might leave as they get older, but a core group of solid, experienced players would stay. This resulted in their younger teams being near the top in the region and then their older teams being slightly less successful, but still quite good and competing for bids at regionals and dominating local tournaments (most of the more competitive CHRVA clubs only go to the minimum numbers of regional tournaments to satisfy the requirements for bid regionals, but MVSA still has all of their teams attend tons of regional tournaments). They were one of the only CHRVA clubs that had teams in age groups younger than 12 so the players on their 12s teams already had a year or two of club experience while most other 12s teams were all beginners. More clubs are starting teams at 10s and 11s which will result in more competitive CHRVA teams in those age groups. Additionally, Paramount, Metro, and VA Elite have added 12s teams designed to be competitive. I think with more clubs for younger players to start out and more competitive options for 12s, MVSA will no longer the only game in town for young players which is likely to reduce the talent pipeline for their older teams.