Anonymous wrote:In U15, Blue Ridge and Virginia Juniors.

Virginia Juniors are playing for sure

Anonymous wrote:In U15, Blue Ridge and Virginia Juniors.

Last year was the 1st year Blue Ridge has done Regionals. Historically they have not done regionals. Their priority come spring is beach volleyball. To me it’s a shame, as I think Blue Ridge has established itself as the 3rd best club in our region from a competitiveness standpoint (behind the two clear heavyweights, Paramount and Metro). If you look at the tournaments results across most age groups, you’ll see that their teams routinely finish ahead of MDJRS, VAE, VAJRS, etc. Their only issue is indoor recruiting, or the lack thereof. They have only sent 1 kid to an indoor Division 1 program in the entire history of their club, as their focus is on sand so they don’t play in many qualifiers (let alone in open). They do a great job with what they do, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe people are on this forum arguing about the results of tournaments with kids who are 12 and 13 years old. What has this crazy volleyball world come to where we’re bashing the play of 12 and 13 year olds…

Agreed. I have no idea whether the MVSA 12s team is "better" than the Paramount 13-2s and it really doesn't matter. Younger teams beat older team all the time - these are kids and not robots. Sometimes they play up to what they are capable of and sometimes they don't.

Also, I think it's pretty well established that MVSA is a solid club and a good value for the money. Their coaches are all volunteers, they utilize school gyms which are cost effective, and they don't provide as much swag as many other clubs (practice shirts, warmups, etc.). MVSA also hosts a lot of tournaments which helps to offset costs. All of these contribute to MVSA having the lowest club fees in the area. That said, it doesn't mean other clubs are bad or overpriced - they are just structured differently. Choose the club that works best for you and your DD.

No matter how much I agree with most of your message, the bolded part made me smile. There are definitely bad clubs, there are definitely overpriced clubs, and there are bad AND overpriced clubs. All of them address a "need" and help club owners make a decent profit. Or a really good profit (depending how overpriced they are).

I wrote the quoted post and definitely understand what you’re saying and do agree there are definitely different degrees of quality, but I was thinking more if the players on a team have fun and improve at the game, regardless of how many medals they get or matches they win, then that should be enough for most players. If you’re measuring quality based on wins and losses, then you are correct that there are some bad clubs.

Club volleyball is undeniably expensive, but for the most part I don’t think club directors/club owners are getting rich from club fees. It’s my understanding that the margins for club fees are pretty low. Clubs make more money from rec leagues, clinics, and camps. They can pack a lot more players into a gym with far future coaches meaning the overhead is much lower.

MVSA (particularly at the younger age groups) is one of very few examples of clubs where the cost is low and the teams win but I think their model would be hard to replicate because finding that many volunteer coaches of a high quality would be tough. Understandably, MVSA attracts a lot of girls to their tryouts. Generally, they only take 10 players per team and making one of their teams, especially the top team in an age group, can be challenging.

In U15, Blue Ridge and Virginia Juniors.

Anonymous wrote:Looking forward the St James tournament and the CHRVA qualifiers over the next two weeks. Surprised at some of the teams who are not at the qualifiers.

Like?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe people are on this forum arguing about the results of tournaments with kids who are 12 and 13 years old. What has this crazy volleyball world come to where we’re bashing the play of 12 and 13 year olds…

Agreed. I have no idea whether the MVSA 12s team is "better" than the Paramount 13-2s and it really doesn't matter. Younger teams beat older team all the time - these are kids and not robots. Sometimes they play up to what they are capable of and sometimes they don't.

Also, I think it's pretty well established that MVSA is a solid club and a good value for the money. Their coaches are all volunteers, they utilize school gyms which are cost effective, and they don't provide as much swag as many other clubs (practice shirts, warmups, etc.). MVSA also hosts a lot of tournaments which helps to offset costs. All of these contribute to MVSA having the lowest club fees in the area. That said, it doesn't mean other clubs are bad or overpriced - they are just structured differently. Choose the club that works best for you and your DD.

No matter how much I agree with most of your message, the bolded part made me smile. There are definitely bad clubs, there are definitely overpriced clubs, and there are bad AND overpriced clubs. All of them address a "need" and help club owners make a decent profit. Or a really good profit (depending how overpriced they are).

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe people are on this forum arguing about the results of tournaments with kids who are 12 and 13 years old. What has this crazy volleyball world come to where we’re bashing the play of 12 and 13 year olds…

Agreed. I have no idea whether the MVSA 12s team is "better" than the Paramount 13-2s and it really doesn't matter. Younger teams beat older team all the time - these are kids and not robots. Sometimes they play up to what they are capable of and sometimes they don't.

Also, I think it's pretty well established that MVSA is a solid club and a good value for the money. Their coaches are all volunteers, they utilize school gyms which are cost effective, and they don't provide as much swag as many other clubs (practice shirts, warmups, etc.). MVSA also hosts a lot of tournaments which helps to offset costs. All of these contribute to MVSA having the lowest club fees in the area. That said, it doesn't mean other clubs are bad or overpriced - they are just structured differently. Choose the club that works best for you and your DD.

Looking forward the St James tournament and the CHRVA qualifiers over the next two weeks. Surprised at some of the teams who are not at the qualifiers.

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe people are on this forum arguing about the results of tournaments with kids who are 12 and 13 years old. What has this crazy volleyball world come to where we’re bashing the play of 12 and 13 year olds…

because volleyball is worse than soccer now

I can’t believe people are on this forum arguing about the results of tournaments with kids who are 12 and 13 years old. What has this crazy volleyball world come to where we’re bashing the play of 12 and 13 year olds…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MVSA 12 Vortex beat Paramount 13 Tate team today. MVSA was playing up. It shows that you don't have to pay a premium price to be on a good volleyball club.

That is Paramount’s 2nd/“B” team. Paramount VBC 14 Cozad (Paramount’s 2nd team in that age group) finished 3rd place in the 14 Open Division at Capitol Hill Classic. Metro 18 north team always solid

Oh, so you are saying that this 2nd rated/B Paramount team wasn't good enough to beat a U12 team that has been playing with the lower net of 7' and the volley lite balls all season until now.

Do you not see MAPL’s where Metro and Paramount’s top U14 teams routinely beat 15 and 16 year old teams (check out MAPL Hampton where Paramount 15-1, Metro 14 Travel and Paramount 14-1 finished 1st, 2nd, and 5th, respectively). 2’s teams in this area are not typically very strong, so a 1’s teams in a lower age group should beat a 2nd team in an older age group. Metro 18 North (Jerry, good coach) is always a team that is in contention in the lower divisions of qualifiers, but the other 2’s teams in that club are pretty bad. I believe Paramount started having 2nd teams three years ago. Their 14-2 finished 3rd in Open at Cap Classic, which was a better finish than dozens of the other 1’s teams of other CHRVA clubs. MDJrS 2’s teams are bad. MVSA does good job with 2’s teams

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MVSA 12 Vortex beat Paramount 13 Tate team today. MVSA was playing up. It shows that you don't have to pay a premium price to be on a good volleyball club.

That is Paramount’s 2nd/“B” team. Paramount VBC 14 Cozad (Paramount’s 2nd team in that age group) finished 3rd place in the 14 Open Division at Capitol Hill Classic. Metro 18 north team always solid

Oh, so you are saying that this 2nd rated/B Paramount team wasn't good enough to beat a U12 team that has been playing with the lower net of 7' and the volley lite balls all season until now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MVSA 12 Vortex beat Paramount 13 Tate team today. MVSA was playing up. It shows that you don't have to pay a premium price to be on a good volleyball club.

That is Paramount’s 2nd/“B” team. Paramount VBC 14 Cozad (Paramount’s 2nd team in that age group) finished 3rd place in the 14 Open Division at Capitol Hill Classic. Metro 18 north team always solid

Both Paramount 13 teams are in top 200. We lost twice to the top one (Hannah) and we never played the second one (Tate). No matter how you look at it, a 12 team beating a Paramount 13 team is painful for Paramount. No doubt that the Paramount parents are questioning their choices right now. Paying 5 times more to ride the bench quite a bit may not seem like money well spent.

Anonymous wrote:MVSA 12 Vortex beat Paramount 13 Tate team today. MVSA was playing up. It shows that you don't have to pay a premium price to be on a good volleyball club.

That is Paramount’s 2nd/“B” team. Paramount VBC 14 Cozad (Paramount’s 2nd team in that age group) finished 3rd place in the 14 Open Division at Capitol Hill Classic. Metro 18 north team always solid

MVSA 12 Vortex beat Paramount 13 Tate team today. MVSA was playing up. It shows that you don't have to pay a premium price to be on a good volleyball club.