Wow, thanks for the nice answer! She just turned 14 and is truly 5’10.5 barefoot. This will be her second year playing club. You’re absolutely right regarding the middle position - that is what she is mostly wanted for. What is funny though is that middle has always been her favorite position. I’ve been trying to encourage her to consider outside positions, but she has her heart set on middle. I do to really mind if this is what makes her happy.

Anonymous wrote:Any parents of tall girls, how many offers are you getting? My daughter is 5’10.5 and I would say somewhere in the middle skill wise, but she has 3 offers in top teams. Wondering at which age level this will change.

If she's 5'10.5" and reasonably athletic, that could carry through all the way through 18s, assuming she's a nice kid, a hard worker, and her parents aren't high maintenance At younger ages, the allure of the tall girl is both what she can contribute this season and perhaps even more importantly, what she might be in the future. If she continues to improve, being tall is one of the data points that is always important in volleyball. And if she's truly 5'10.5" in her bare feet, then she's probably already taller than a lot of the college players who list themselves as 6'1". The amount of exaggeration of heights on rosters is pretty comical, particular for girls in the 5'9"-5'11" range.

You didn't say how old she is, but if she's on the younger side be careful about her being trained only as a middle blocker. Lots of girls in that 5'10" range are the tallest on their teams at 12 and 13 so they are made middle blockers. Depending on how much more they grow and how athletic, by 15s or 16s, if she's still on a high level team and still in that 5'10" range, she might be better suited as an outside hitter, but it can be tough to train up on serve receive and defense which tends not be a focus for middle blockers. So even if she ends up playing middle for this season, she should insist on getting reps at other positions.

Any parents of tall girls, how many offers are you getting? My daughter is 5’10.5 and I would say somewhere in the middle skill wise, but she has 3 offers in top teams. Wondering at which age level this will change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St James 14U coach brought in his Flint Hill high school team and displaced a lot of St James families. Avoid, as his focus will be training and playing his high school players.

I’m not sure what is meant by “brought in”? Was he running a practice while tryouts were being held? Were the Flint Hill players participating with the girls trying out? What was the issue?

As far as there being a conflict between training HS players and club season, HS season ends in a few weeks and I assume there won’t be anymore HS practices and I assume most of the FH players will start training with whatever club they’ll play for.

I’m not defending what might have happened at the St James with this coach and the Flint Hill HS team, but HS teams won’t be training anymore in a few weeks so the idea that there will be some continued focus on HS to the detriment of their club team doesn’t make sense.

The U14 St James coach is the coach for flint hill’s middle school and high school team. If he takes flint hill girls on the St James team it’s to his advantage to train them to be better for flint hill. Basically it’s just favoritism and unfair to the girls who were with St James before but didn’t make the team this year.

All of us have been telling you forever, there is no loyalty either way in every club. This isn’t just for St. James and can happen anywhere. Any girl can get cut any year. Never think there is an advantage since you played there the year before. There are always girls lined up to take the spot, which is why clinics are so important.

My daughter learned this hard lesson in U14 too when most of her team got cut from their club when they offers would be a sure thing for returning players. It wasn’t personal. It isn’t for your DD either. And it’s not necessarily unfair. This coach wanted someone else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St James 14U coach brought in his Flint Hill high school team and displaced a lot of St James families. Avoid, as his focus will be training and playing his high school players.

I’m not sure what is meant by “brought in”? Was he running a practice while tryouts were being held? Were the Flint Hill players participating with the girls trying out? What was the issue?

As far as there being a conflict between training HS players and club season, HS season ends in a few weeks and I assume there won’t be anymore HS practices and I assume most of the FH players will start training with whatever club they’ll play for.

I’m not defending what might have happened at the St James with this coach and the Flint Hill HS team, but HS teams won’t be training anymore in a few weeks so the idea that there will be some continued focus on HS to the detriment of their club team doesn’t make sense.

The U14 St James coach is the coach for flint hill’s middle school and high school team. If he takes flint hill girls on the St James team it’s to his advantage to train them to be better for flint hill. Basically it’s just favoritism and unfair to the girls who were with St James before but didn’t make the team this year.

I assume you mean middle school players from FH since only a small number of 9th graders would be eligible to play 14s? Sure maybe, but it’s super common for HS coaches who also coach club to have overlap. If you think this is a problem there are way worse offenders. The overlap between MVSA and MCPS coaches and players is crazy. And there are many other examples at other clubs including VA Elite, Metro, and many, many more. The reality there aren’t enough volleyball coaches for HS and club to have completely separate pools of coaches. It would be nice if there could be more separation, but you’re going to really narrow your DD’s options if you limit her club choices to ones where the coaches don’t also coach HS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St James 14U coach brought in his Flint Hill high school team and displaced a lot of St James families. Avoid, as his focus will be training and playing his high school players.

I’m not sure what is meant by “brought in”? Was he running a practice while tryouts were being held? Were the Flint Hill players participating with the girls trying out? What was the issue?

As far as there being a conflict between training HS players and club season, HS season ends in a few weeks and I assume there won’t be anymore HS practices and I assume most of the FH players will start training with whatever club they’ll play for.

I’m not defending what might have happened at the St James with this coach and the Flint Hill HS team, but HS teams won’t be training anymore in a few weeks so the idea that there will be some continued focus on HS to the detriment of their club team doesn’t make sense.

The U14 St James coach is the coach for flint hill’s middle school and high school team. If he takes flint hill girls on the St James team it’s to his advantage to train them to be better for flint hill. Basically it’s just favoritism and unfair to the girls who were with St James before but didn’t make the team this year.

Anonymous wrote:Are any clubs planning Monday tryouts for U12? And if it's too early to say, what would be the best source of this information later in the day? thank you!

The tryouts for 12s are compiled here:
https://volleymontgomery.wordpress.com/2025/09/07/2026-u12/

Are any clubs planning Monday tryouts for U12? And if it's too early to say, what would be the best source of this information later in the day? thank you!

Anonymous wrote:St James 14U coach brought in his Flint Hill high school team and displaced a lot of St James families. Avoid, as his focus will be training and playing his high school players.

I’m not sure what is meant by “brought in”? Was he running a practice while tryouts were being held? Were the Flint Hill players participating with the girls trying out? What was the issue?

As far as there being a conflict between training HS players and club season, HS season ends in a few weeks and I assume there won’t be anymore HS practices and I assume most of the FH players will start training with whatever club they’ll play for.

I’m not defending what might have happened at the St James with this coach and the Flint Hill HS team, but HS teams won’t be training anymore in a few weeks so the idea that there will be some continued focus on HS to the detriment of their club team doesn’t make sense.

Interesting about St James. My daughter tried out for U14 and it was very difficult to tell who stood out there. But if the coach already knew girls from flint hill, well that’s an in!

Anyone know what tryouts are still happening today for makeups? Please list here for those of us who still need a team. Asking for U14

St James 14U coach brought in his Flint Hill high school team and displaced a lot of St James families. Avoid, as his focus will be training and playing his high school players.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro Central 13U had about 45 girls trying out for 12 spots today. They met with each player and their parents after the tryout. They told us my DD is “on the bubble” and they will get in touch if players ahead of her turn them down. It looked like the group trying out for 14U was considerably bigger.

There were about the same amount of U14 girls at the Metro central today. My daughter (who plays freshman vball for a local team) got told she was "on the bubble" too. Any advice to help her succeed?

It is hard to provide meaningful feedback without knowing your location. Since you mentioned trying out for Metro Central, you might be in NW DC or southern Montgomery County. Here is a list of clubs in the order of their rankings:
PVC1 > MOCO2 > Metro Central > MEVC1 > MOCO3 > MEVC2 > DMV > PVC2 > Academy > PVC3

If you are on the bubble in Metro Central, you may also be on the bubble in MEVC and MOCO. Your best chances are with PVC bottom teams (farther away from you) or Academy (closer to you). DMV may be another choice if you get really desperate.

Anonymous wrote:Metro Central 13U had about 45 girls trying out for 12 spots today. They met with each player and their parents after the tryout. They told us my DD is “on the bubble” and they will get in touch if players ahead of her turn them down. It looked like the group trying out for 14U was considerably bigger.

There were about the same amount of U14 girls at the Metro central today. My daughter (who plays freshman vball for a local team) got told she was "on the bubble" too. Any advice to help her succeed?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me about call backs. If you get a call back what are your chances of making the team?

The best outcome is an offer. If you don't get an offer, a call back is better than a rejection. You are still on their radar, but they have other players at about the same level. They want to see all those players on the same court to make a better decision on who gets an offer and who doesn't.

Has anyone here received a call back and NOT received an offer?

Plenty of players. Assuming that the club has one setter position left, two setters who showed up at different tryouts may be invited back to be seen on the same court. One of them will make the team, the other will not. This example is somewhat simplistic (with a chance of 50% to make the team), but I hope you get the idea. If there was no question who the better setter was, the club would have made an offer and would not go through the call back session. In other cases, the callback may be just to figure out which setter would make the second team and which setter would make the third team (and they would both get an offer). But it is typical to bring in alternates to the call backs to learn more about them in case one of the club offers don't get accepted. So a call back is good, but it does not guarantee an offer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me about call backs. If you get a call back what are your chances of making the team?

The best outcome is an offer. If you don't get an offer, a call back is better than a rejection. You are still on their radar, but they have other players at about the same level. They want to see all those players on the same court to make a better decision on who gets an offer and who doesn't.

Has anyone here received a call back and NOT received an offer?

Yes