Anonymous wrote:Dang, there are some parents who are *really* into all of this. I may be the only parent who doesn't follow all of this (despite being in year 5 of my DD in club volleyball) and all I can manage is figuring out what time to leave the house to get to the tournaments, and which court they're playing on?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

While I don't agree with the assessment that every club in some other regions are open level, your point is well taken. There are definitely regions where there are multiple teams from that region are getting open bids with regularity, but other regions still have a majority of teams that are not going to be competing for an open bid.

Is VAE an "open" level club across the board and nationally? Probably not, but across most age groups for which they have teams they are amongst the top 10 in CHRVA. As has been discussed at length, CHRVA is not one of the stronger regions nationally, but it's fair to say that VAE is one of the stronger local clubs. Most of the VAE teams have a core group of 4-5 girls who have been with the team since 13s and then players who have joined later. I suspect the VAE teams are like those at other clubs - the rosters tend to be pretty stable year over year, but there maybe 3 or 4 spots on the roster that change each season. Also, it is not uncommon at 17s/18s for girls who decide they don't want to play in college to stop playing club altogether so maybe there is a little more movement of girls coming to VAE at the older age groups who want to play in college. VAE has been very successful in helping girls get recruited - not as many playing D1 as Metro or Paramount, but many more than most other local clubs.

My DD is in U15 on a CHRVA team - CHRVA is well represented nationally, with 4 teams in the top 100. Given that there are 40 regions, CHRVA is doing pretty well at that age group.

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

Anonymous wrote:

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

While I don't agree with the assessment that every club in some other regions are open level, your point is well taken. There are definitely regions where there are multiple teams from that region are getting open bids with regularity, but other regions still have a majority of teams that are not going to be competing for an open bid.

Is VAE an "open" level club across the board and nationally? Probably not, but across most age groups for which they have teams they are amongst the top 10 in CHRVA. As has been discussed at length, CHRVA is not one of the stronger regions nationally, but it's fair to say that VAE is one of the stronger local clubs. Most of the VAE teams have a core group of 4-5 girls who have been with the team since 13s and then players who have joined later. I suspect the VAE teams are like those at other clubs - the rosters tend to be pretty stable year over year, but there maybe 3 or 4 spots on the roster that change each season. Also, it is not uncommon at 17s/18s for girls who decide they don't want to play in college to stop playing club altogether so maybe there is a little more movement of girls coming to VAE at the older age groups who want to play in college. VAE has been very successful in helping girls get recruited - not as many playing D1 as Metro or Paramount, but many more than most other local clubs.

Anonymous wrote:Dang, there are some parents who are *really* into all of this. I may be the only parent who doesn't follow all of this (despite being in year 5 of my DD in club volleyball) and all I can manage is figuring out what time to leave the house to get to the tournaments, and which court they're playing on?

Anonymous wrote:Dang, there are some parents who are *really* into all of this. I may be the only parent who doesn't follow all of this (despite being in year 5 of my DD in club volleyball) and all I can manage is figuring out what time to leave the house to get to the tournaments, and which court they're playing on?

FPYCparent wrote:From my limited "experience" of 1.5 club years, I think I can say that winning at the Open level outside of CHRVA is HARD. We all agree that this region simply doesn't have dominant teams (on a national scale) like other regions where every club seems to be at least at the level of Metro/Paramount. I think I looked at Paramount's finishes from this year's Triple Crown NIT ... and only two of five teams(<== link) finished that event with equal or more wins than losses. None of those teams finished in the top half of their respective age groups.

So, for a club like VAE to consistently play Open, they are going to accept/have accepted that USAV bids are going to be few and far between. It doesn't mean that their teams are terrible. Those teams may have a bit of success if they played in lower divisions at qualifiers ... and could even get USAV bids at those levels. However, the players are getting exposure to high-level play (and to college recruiters seeking high-level players) even without the teams wins. It looks like the older teams (17s/18s) seem to perform fairly well. I just don't know much about the makeup of those teams to know if all of their talent came into VAE early and stayed ... or if quality players from other clubs switch to VAE in the 17s/18s years for more playing time.

Is there value in that exposure/experience that VAE teams/players receive? To me, that's something that can only be answered at a player/family level. I'm going to guess that there are players at the top clubs that are paying quite a bit and not getting any playing time. What's the value in that?

Anonymous wrote:That’s not a great return for VAE, or is it? I thought they didn’t play Regionals or has that changed?