Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any recent experience (like last year or so) with St James girls' club vb?

I've seen lots of comments on facilities, some drama with coaches leaving, something about 'social club vibe,' etc., but didn't see anything specifically about the level of coaching/development and general experience. Thanks in advance.

We were there last year and our overall impression is (i) your experience will largely depend on the coaches for your team and (ii) quality varies a lot across the staff, likely because there has been a lot of turnover in recent years. Some coaches are better than others in terms of structuring practices and those teams tend to do better/develop more.

On the general experience, our DD really liked her teammates and the parents were all reasonable and pleasant to spend time with at tournaments. We liked the schedule - good mix of regional and more challenging national tournaments. The STJ admin staff were usually pretty responsive to questions or concerns.

One more newby family looking at St James. DD trying out for U12 and the coaches are Angelica Nichols and Nikki Barbry. Any info on them in particular? DD went to a clinic and really enjoyed it. Kids broken up into smaller groups, did super fun/dynamic drills, coaches appeared to be really enjoying themselves (contrast with a Mojo skills clinic we went to last week that was a sh*tshow to say the least--so many girls of all ages thrown together onto one court with only two coaches overseeing the process, very little actual coaching happening and lots of standing around waiting for your turn to hit). Could someone explain why St James hasn't been able to recruit top talent/achieve better results when the coaches seem great and the facility is beautiful and very convenient to all DMV areas (right off Beltway)? My theory is that Nikki is only a few years in as director so maybe she is trying to rebuild a program that struggled previously but is now on the right track? Thanks for any advice in navigating this process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any recent experience (like last year or so) with St James girls' club vb?

I've seen lots of comments on facilities, some drama with coaches leaving, something about 'social club vibe,' etc., but didn't see anything specifically about the level of coaching/development and general experience. Thanks in advance.

We were there last year and our overall impression is (i) your experience will largely depend on the coaches for your team and (ii) quality varies a lot across the staff, likely because there has been a lot of turnover in recent years. Some coaches are better than others in terms of structuring practices and those teams tend to do better/develop more.

On the general experience, our DD really liked her teammates and the parents were all reasonable and pleasant to spend time with at tournaments. We liked the schedule - good mix of regional and more challenging national tournaments. The STJ admin staff were usually pretty responsive to questions or concerns.

One more newby family looking at St James. DD trying out for U12 and the coaches are Angelica Nichols and Nikki Barbry. Any info on them in particular? DD went to a clinic and really enjoyed it. Kids broken up into smaller groups, did super fun/dynamic drills, coaches appeared to be really enjoying themselves (contrast with a Mojo skills clinic we went to last week that was a sh*tshow to say the least--so many girls of all ages thrown together onto one court with only two coaches overseeing the process, very little actual coaching happening and lots of standing around waiting for your turn to hit). Could someone explain why St James hasn't been able to recruit top talent/achieve better results when the coaches seem great and the facility is beautiful and very convenient to all DMV areas (right off Beltway)? My theory is that Nikki is only a few years in as director so maybe she is trying to rebuild a program that struggled previously but is now on the right track? Thanks for any advice in navigating this process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any recent experience (like last year or so) with St James girls' club vb?

I've seen lots of comments on facilities, some drama with coaches leaving, something about 'social club vibe,' etc., but didn't see anything specifically about the level of coaching/development and general experience. Thanks in advance.

We were there last year and our overall impression is (i) your experience will largely depend on the coaches for your team and (ii) quality varies a lot across the staff, likely because there has been a lot of turnover in recent years. Some coaches are better than others in terms of structuring practices and those teams tend to do better/develop more.

On the general experience, our DD really liked her teammates and the parents were all reasonable and pleasant to spend time with at tournaments. We liked the schedule - good mix of regional and more challenging national tournaments. The STJ admin staff were usually pretty responsive to questions or concerns.

Anonymous wrote:What is the reputation of MD Juniors?

Anonymous wrote:Any recent experience (like last year or so) with St James girls' club vb?

I've seen lots of comments on facilities, some drama with coaches leaving, something about 'social club vibe,' etc., but didn't see anything specifically about the level of coaching/development and general experience. Thanks in advance.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else find Paramount's instagram posts to be amusing? Instead of just celebrating their successes (of which they deserve to be very proud), they frequently frame their posts in some strained way that makes them the "Only CHRVA club..." to do X or Y. Their recent post about their teams that earned bids to Nationals is a good example.

Instead of just acknowledging the huge accomplishment of their 15s earning an open bid, they say "Only CHRVA club with an OPEN BID in the U15 age group this season. Under the modern format of GJNC, the CHRVA Region has only had a total of six U15 teams qualify in Open, one of which was our own U15 team back in the 2021 season!"

Similarly, when they were hyping up their teams attending Triple Crown, they kept saying awkward things like "Given the fact that Paramount VBC is the only CHRVA club to be invited to and accepted into the 2024 Triple Crown NIT..." While this assertion is technically true (Metro was invited but didn't accept making Paramount the only CHRVA club invited and accepted), I feel like it would be more effective to just say they are excited to go to Triple Crown or if they really believe there is a reason to put it in a CHRVA context, say they were the only CHRVA club attending.

These strangely worded posts always seem like a thinly veiled (and a little desperate) attempt to one-up Metro. Paramount has pretty firmly established themselves as a top CHRVA club - they are no longer some unknown under dog and they should just promote and celebrate their successes without worrying so much about how it stacks up against Metro, or any other club.

Anonymous wrote:NVVA isn't in CHRVA. They do AAU/JVA only. They revamped their club system this year, all last year's teams are now labelled as NVVA XP teams - in line wit their "rebrand."