Pro tip- bring a bag of extra everything to tryouts. In all the nervousness, DD forgot her knee pads and we lived too far for me to get them and return. I’m planning on making a bag with extra knee/elbow pads, tshirt, shorts, water bottle, hair tie, sanitary napkins, and snacks. You think it won’t happen to you until it does, or it happens to a friend. Bonus point, keep that bag in your car for tournaments after she makes a team.

Anonymous wrote:Our club does not allow t-shirts advertising other clubs during practice. They do allow t-shirts from rec leagues, HS teams, and summer camps. In understand why: you want to make everyone feel like they are part of that team, that club. By showing up in a competitive club t-shirt you are questioning your own belonging in your team / club (not good for the team morale). Showing up at a tryout in a t-shirt from a competitive club is just going to result in some bias (which you don't want). I don't know why someone may think it would be a good idea to show up at tryouts wearing another club's t-shirt.

There seems to be a general consensus that wearing a shirt from another club to a tryout is probably not a good idea, but I am still curious about the club that asked someone to change their shirt at a tryout as stated in an earlier post.

With respect to what shirts they wear to practice once they are on a team, a lot of clubs have policies about that. Some have practice jerseys as part of the gear package that players are expected to wear. Others will have the coach or team captains communicate what color shirt to wear to practice ahead of time. Other clubs let players wear whatever they want. Between my DDs, we’ve been at 5 different clubs over the years and have seen all 3 of these variations and I’m sure there are other ways of doing it as well.

Our club does not allow t-shirts advertising other clubs during practice. They do allow t-shirts from rec leagues, HS teams, and summer camps. In understand why: you want to make everyone feel like they are part of that team, that club. By showing up in a competitive club t-shirt you are questioning your own belonging in your team / club (not good for the team morale). Showing up at a tryout in a t-shirt from a competitive club is just going to result in some bias (which you don't want). I don't know why someone may think it would be a good idea to show up at tryouts wearing another club's t-shirt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have your DDs wear a plain tshirt for tryouts. Some girls were asked to change shirts when they wore their MVSA tshirts to another club’s tryout. Idk what the parents are thinking.

Why do they have to be blank? Seems like it doesn’t matter if the shirts have something on them, you just mean they shouldn’t be the shirts of other volleyball clubs, right?

No volleyball related shirts is what we were told.

Which club was this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have your DDs wear a plain tshirt for tryouts. Some girls were asked to change shirts when they wore their MVSA tshirts to another club’s tryout. Idk what the parents are thinking.

Why do they have to be blank? Seems like it doesn’t matter if the shirts have something on them, you just mean they shouldn’t be the shirts of other volleyball clubs, right?

No volleyball related shirts is what we were told.

What club/team said "no volleyball related shirts"?? That means no tournament shirts either, which is... interesting as a policy. Which club/team?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have your DDs wear a plain tshirt for tryouts. Some girls were asked to change shirts when they wore their MVSA tshirts to another club’s tryout. Idk what the parents are thinking.

Why do they have to be blank? Seems like it doesn’t matter if the shirts have something on them, you just mean they shouldn’t be the shirts of other volleyball clubs, right?

No volleyball related shirts is what we were told.

Main takeaway: Wear whatever shirts you like to volleyball tryouts, just NOT shirts of volleyball clubs/teams other than the team you're trying out for.

Pretty sure everyone can agree that that makes sense.

If you wear an MVSA shirt at another club tryout, expect the coaches to think that you have a preference for MVSA and think twice whether they make you an offer. If you are a coach and make an offer to a player in an MVSA shirt, you expect that player to wait for an MVSA offer (sometimes until the last minute). Do you want to wait that long or you would rather make an offer to a player who looks less committed to a particular club? That player with a non-descript shirt may also want an MVSA offer, but that commitment is not written all over the shirt worn at the tryout.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have your DDs wear a plain tshirt for tryouts. Some girls were asked to change shirts when they wore their MVSA tshirts to another club’s tryout. Idk what the parents are thinking.

Why do they have to be blank? Seems like it doesn’t matter if the shirts have something on them, you just mean they shouldn’t be the shirts of other volleyball clubs, right?

I’ve always thought it strange to wear another club’s shirt to a tryout, but I’ve never heard of a player being asked to change before. If you don’t have a shirt from the club your DD is trying out for, a tournament T-shirt is a good option or maybe a t-shirt from a college camp. Not sure if it’s as common anymore, but MVSA and a few others clubs used to give shirts to wear at tryouts- they were numbered and color coded by age group which helped the club in managing tryouts.

+1, also, you don't know the opinion other club's coach for the club on the shirt. Not necessary a plus even you wear a (what you think) higher level club shirt. It's risky.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have your DDs wear a plain tshirt for tryouts. Some girls were asked to change shirts when they wore their MVSA tshirts to another club’s tryout. Idk what the parents are thinking.

Why do they have to be blank? Seems like it doesn’t matter if the shirts have something on them, you just mean they shouldn’t be the shirts of other volleyball clubs, right?

I’ve always thought it strange to wear another club’s shirt to a tryout, but I’ve never heard of a player being asked to change before. If you don’t have a shirt from the club your DD is trying out for, a tournament T-shirt is a good option or maybe a t-shirt from a college camp. Not sure if it’s as common anymore, but MVSA and a few others clubs used to give shirts to wear at tryouts- they were numbered and color coded by age group which helped the club in managing tryouts.

As far as shirt, if I remember correctly from last year MVSA gave you a numbered shirt to wear during tryout.

Anonymous wrote:Which lesser known clubs are you guys trying out for? DD will try out for some of those since trying out for a bunch of popular ones is no use.

Vienna Elite is less competitive and has more than one team at each grade level.

There is also VA Athletics. I hadn’t heard about them until last year but know they were looking for people in make up tryouts. They start at U14.

Sorry, this is direct link
https://www.rockvillevolleyball.com/

Anonymous wrote:Which lesser known clubs are you guys trying out for? DD will try out for some of those since trying out for a bunch of popular ones is no use.

Not sure if this is popular, I think less known
Rockville Volleyball Academy https://share.google/N83Djls0VDu12bUjb

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have your DDs wear a plain tshirt for tryouts. Some girls were asked to change shirts when they wore their MVSA tshirts to another club’s tryout. Idk what the parents are thinking.

Why do they have to be blank? Seems like it doesn’t matter if the shirts have something on them, you just mean they shouldn’t be the shirts of other volleyball clubs, right?

It doesn’t matter. She can wear anything and you will see many tournament and club shirts in the younger tryouts and club and HS shirts in the older tryouts. A shirt is not going to make a difference.