Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An observation for families of players in the 15-16 year old range that are new to club volleyball. Let me start by saying you're not too late. There are lots of girls who maybe dabbled in volleyball in rec leagues or similar settings and then play on their JV or 9th grade teams and decide volleyball is something they enjoy and want to pursue more seriously. And that's great - welcome!

My advice for your first season of club tryouts is to be realistic. While it's not too late, the top tier of club teams at 15-16s are mostly made up of girls who have been playing since they were 12 or younger. It's going to take a bit to catch up to that kind of experience. Your DD might be a standout on their JV or rec league, but don't let that fool you into thinking they are ready to play on the best teams in the region. Many of the 9th graders from the top 15s club teams in the region are starters on their HS varsity teams. This thread is great because it's not focused on the top tier of CHRVA clubs, but rather trying to help find the best fit. Find the club that fits best with your DD's skill level and works for you in terms of location and hopefully price. Good luck!

This is great advice. I was one of those clueless parents who thought that my daughter was really good at volleyball and we tried out only for top clubs (because that's where she belonged for sure). We didn't only waste time and money, the experience brought a lot of disappointment and frustration. Finally, we struggled to make a good second tier club during the make outs (this was more successful). I won't have to go through this again, but my advice to parents in this situation is to focus on mid-tier or bottom-tier clubs almost exclusively (this will come with significantly less stress and disappointment).

If you are a new to club volleyball at 15-16 you should have a one or two clubs (or one or two teams if you are trying out at clubs with multiple teams) where you have a realistic chance of making a team. Then one stretch club where they might only make the team if everything goes perfect--they perform great in pre-tryout clinics, at tryouts, other players decline offers, etc. And one safety club where they should get an offer for sure. And if there is one club that you really want, as a PP said -- tell them. It won't help you much if you never had a chance of making a team in the first place, but it will help if you are on the bubble.

And the point about don't use JV or rec league to judge your players ability is very accurate. If you are playing JV, make sure you are staying to watch the V games, especially against the better teams in the region. Focus on the players on the court that play for the clubs you are interested in. If you are in one of the club rec leagues, stay and watch the most advanced groups. You'll get a better idea of what good looks like for the clubs you are considering.

Anonymous wrote:An observation for families of players in the 15-16 year old range that are new to club volleyball. Let me start by saying you're not too late. There are lots of girls who maybe dabbled in volleyball in rec leagues or similar settings and then play on their JV or 9th grade teams and decide volleyball is something they enjoy and want to pursue more seriously. And that's great - welcome!

My advice for your first season of club tryouts is to be realistic. While it's not too late, the top tier of club teams at 15-16s are mostly made up of girls who have been playing since they were 12 or younger. It's going to take a bit to catch up to that kind of experience. Your DD might be a standout on their JV or rec league, but don't let that fool you into thinking they are ready to play on the best teams in the region. Many of the 9th graders from the top 15s club teams in the region are starters on their HS varsity teams. This thread is great because it's not focused on the top tier of CHRVA clubs, but rather trying to help find the best fit. Find the club that fits best with your DD's skill level and works for you in terms of location and hopefully price. Good luck!

This is great advice. I was one of those clueless parents who thought that my daughter was really good at volleyball and we tried out only for top clubs (because that's where she belonged for sure). We didn't only waste time and money, the experience brought a lot of disappointment and frustration. Finally, we struggled to make a good second tier club during the make outs (this was more successful). I won't have to go through this again, but my advice to parents in this situation is to focus on mid-tier or bottom-tier clubs almost exclusively (this will come with significantly less stress and disappointment).

An observation for families of players in the 15-16 year old range that are new to club volleyball. Let me start by saying you're not too late. There are lots of girls who maybe dabbled in volleyball in rec leagues or similar settings and then play on their JV or 9th grade teams and decide volleyball is something they enjoy and want to pursue more seriously. And that's great - welcome!

My advice for your first season of club tryouts is to be realistic. While it's not too late, the top tier of club teams at 15-16s are mostly made up of girls who have been playing since they were 12 or younger. It's going to take a bit to catch up to that kind of experience. Your DD might be a standout on their JV or rec league, but don't let that fool you into thinking they are ready to play on the best teams in the region. Many of the 9th graders from the top 15s club teams in the region are starters on their HS varsity teams. This thread is great because it's not focused on the top tier of CHRVA clubs, but rather trying to help find the best fit. Find the club that fits best with your DD's skill level and works for you in terms of location and hopefully price. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you recommend for a 10 year old boy with no formal training but lots of casual play (he has done a 6 week session with i9 and played at summer camp) who is tall and athletic and interested in playing on a team? Location is Fairfax.

He plays soccer year round, so is looking for something with only 1x week practice initially, as a secondary sport if that exists.

I've been looking at BRYC rec as a start but interested in other options. Im still learning the timing of seasons and when teams form too.

Boys volleyball for boys is different than girls in terms of starting age and conflicts with other sports, at least here in the DMV. Its not unusual for boys to come into volleyball later, and its also common for them to play multiple sports. Once you get to HS specialization starts to happen, but usually because of schedule conflicts. For example, if you play HS volleyball and club volleyball, both run at roughly the same time so you don't have room for another spring sport. Soccer pairs very well with volleyball because of the Summer/Fall soccer schedule and the Winter/Spring volleyball schedule.

Club clinics may be the best to place to start, rather than rec. If he's athletic and tall he'll probably find that rec leagues are too easy for him, especially at that age. Clinics usually are once a week and can be done for 3-6 weeks, letting you choose after the first round of clinics if he like the sport. At 10, mixed clinics (boys and girls) are the norm so make sure he's OK with that. Clinics teach skills much faster and a good foundation of skills is a huge boost in boys volleyball, where sometimes those skills aren't really refined until U13/U14. For example, in CHRVA boys teams can play girls teams up through U13. A lot of the time the girls will win the matches, solely from better fundamentals.

So helpful! Thank you for this information.

What club clinics do you reccomend in the northern va area? We would ideally start with some close and convenient to see how it goes.

I'm sure others can add to this list, but here are the boys clubs in the area (there aren't a lot of them) that also run girls programs that you can look at:
St. James (Springfield)
No Panic (Manassas, Facility is between Manassas and Chantilly, so a bit of a hike if you live close in to DC)
VolleyViet (Falls Church)

For girls clubs that run youth clinics, consider:
American (Bristow)
BRVC (Burke)
Libero (Ashburn)
Loudon Elite (Ashburn)

There may be others that take boys in their clinics, so if anyone else has more to add please do.

And if you live close to DC in the McLean area there are options on the MD side that may be closer.

Agree with this but will add VAVA to youth clinics list. We signed up for a few of the fall clinics they're currently running and are happy so far.

Anonymous wrote:

Could you share any perspectives on your experience w/TSJ for girls club vb? Specifically, the coaching, how the program runs, level of competitiveness in the 15-16 yr old range? TIA.

My DD played at TSJ on a top team two years ago. It was her first VB club season after having played 5+ years of another club/travel sport (DD had only starting playing VB during COVID while in middle school). The team's coaches were great as was the facility. The returning team members had gone to USAV Nationals the year prior (not sure what division they played at Nationals that year). I understand that they lost a key member or two from the prior year's team. With the influx of new players, they team seemed to have the talent to succeed. I think (again, as a novice VB club parent) they just needed another year together to really solidify as a unit.

The VB management at TSJ seemed to make a misstep or two during that season. For example, DD's team did not participate in enough local events in time to qualify for CHRVA Bid Regionals that March. Could that error have been on the coach? Maybe, but it seems like at least one person on the admin side would have noticed that in time to correct it. So, the team was basically out-of-the-running for earning a bid allocated to the region by mid-February. That team may not have earned a bid via CHRVA, but they never had the chance to play for it. At the end of the season, the coach was not offered the opportunity to return and move up with the team for the following season (yet the B team coaches were allowed to return and move up to coach the A team). It is probably unsurprising that only one player from that team returned to play for TSJ last year. Three players earned spots at Paramount, while others played at Mojo, Renaissance (unfortunate for those players), Columbia, and elsewhere, so it seems that there was some talent there. Had the coach been asked to return, I think many/most of the team would have stayed.

I don't quite know what happened to TSJ teams last year, but it seems that some of last year's new coaches that were there aren't returning. As it is now, I only recognize one girls' coach from two years ago that's still there.

Other than that, the facility is great ... parking aside!

Anonymous wrote: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.

The above is a comment someone left on a different thread, but may be relevant here. We only visited TSJ during the CHRVA regionals and the facility is impressive.

FPYCparent wrote:Annandale screams "The St. James" for me

-Former Annandale resident and TSJ girls VB parent

TSJ is great but he specifically doesn't want to join the TSJ teams because their schedule is a lot.
He has a lot of other stuff going on that eats up his time.

Right now it looks like he is going to do a bunch of clinics.

FPYCparent wrote:Annandale screams "The St. James" for me

-Former Annandale resident and TSJ girls VB parent

Could you share any perspectives on your experience w/TSJ for girls club vb? Specifically, the coaching, how the program runs, level of competitiveness in the 15-16 yr old range? TIA.

Annandale screams "The St. James" for me

-Former Annandale resident and TSJ girls VB parent

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New Poster. My 15u son is on his high school volleyball team and is looking for something that doesn't require a huge time commitment (2-3 times a week). He is on his high school team and would like to avoid degrading during the off season but doesn't want a full travel schedule commitment.

You may get more targeted advice if you provide your location. Boys have more limited options than girls in volleyball. Generally speaking, rec leagues provide what you are looking for. Before club my DD was doing two rec leagues in parallel, which gave her ~4h of volleyball per week. Once you reach a certain level, your skill level will likely plateau because the level of play is defoned by the weakest players on the court (and there will be beginners all the time).

Annandale

Anonymous wrote:New Poster. My 15u son is on his high school volleyball team and is looking for something that doesn't require a huge time commitment (2-3 times a week). He is on his high school team and would like to avoid degrading during the off season but doesn't want a full travel schedule commitment.

You may get more targeted advice if you provide your location. Boys have more limited options than girls in volleyball. Generally speaking, rec leagues provide what you are looking for. Before club my DD was doing two rec leagues in parallel, which gave her ~4h of volleyball per week. Once you reach a certain level, your skill level will likely plateau because the level of play is defoned by the weakest players on the court (and there will be beginners all the time).

Anonymous wrote:New Poster. My 15u son is on his high school volleyball team and is looking for something that doesn't require a huge time commitment (2-3 times a week). He is on his high school team and would like to avoid degrading during the off season but doesn't want a full travel schedule commitment.

If in NoVA, you may want to take a look at Evolution VB (when they put out their winter schedule eventually) or NVVA.

New Poster. My 15u son is on his high school volleyball team and is looking for something that doesn't require a huge time commitment (2-3 times a week). He is on his high school team and would like to avoid degrading during the off season but doesn't want a full travel schedule commitment.

Anonymous wrote:Cross posted, as I didn't get any bounce on another thread.

Does anybody have any recent experience with St. James at the 15U/16U level?

They have a beautiful facility, but that's only part of the decision process. We are in a lower age group, so we never met 15/16 in a tournament. Here is how St. James did last season:

The St. James 15 Navy: 33/142 (CHRVA), 1651/5393 (nation)
The St. James 15 White: 87/142 (CHRVA), 3608/5393 (nation)

The St. James 16 Navy: 42/140 (CHRVA), 1921/5436 (nation)
The St. James 16 White: 45/140 (CHRVA), 2211/5436 (nation)

Not top, but solid middle.

Anonymous wrote:22:06 here. I want to rephrase my first sentence. I don’t think it is necessarily easy to get into either club, soI guess my question. Is more how do these two regionally clubs compare and is one known for only wanting kids who have done their clinics in the past, etc. like others have said about other clubs on other threads on this board.

Attending fall clinics is about the club getting to see the player more than they would in a tryout setting. Tryouts tend to be short and chaotic with a lot of girls so it can be hard to get a real sense of what a player can do. And tryouts are stressful for players and they might not play as well as they are capable, so the club having seen a player can be a little insurance for someone who has a bad day. Also, for more competitive teams there are sometimes invite-only clinics in the week or two prior to the actual tryouts. These usually include most of the returning players as well as players they have identified through clinics (and sometimes other contacts) who are on the short list.