Anonymous wrote:Academy
MoCo
MVSA

For a Maryland 14 year old with about a year of rec experience.

Should she try out for all of them?

Anonymous wrote:St. James Girls Volleyball has major red flags.

3 current season head coaches quit DURING the season. That college level coach was encouraged to leave. Mandatory AAU Nationals unless bid is won for USAV Nationals. Business-centric over quality coaching.

$5,300 for a social club, court time and generalized strength and conditioning. Uniform package not included.

Pricey for what you get.

Anonymous wrote:St. James Girls Volleyball has major red flags.

3 current season head coaches quit DURING the season. That college level coach was encouraged to leave. Mandatory AAU Nationals unless bid is won for USAV Nationals. Business-centric over quality coaching.

$5,300 for a social club, court time and generalized strength and conditioning. Uniform package not included.

Pricey for what you get.

Anonymous wrote:St. James Girls Volleyball has major red flags.

3 current season head coaches quit DURING the season. That college level coach was encouraged to leave. Mandatory AAU Nationals unless bid is won for USAV Nationals. Business-centric over quality coaching.

$5,300 for a social club, court time and generalized strength and conditioning. Uniform package not included.

Pricey for what you get.

FPYCparent wrote:Former St. James parent (one year removed)

I found the previous St. James comment interesting. It almost makes you wonder if the boys teams use a completely different venue than the girls. I will agree that the facility is phenomenal.

It is easy to look at the results for STJ girls teams and just say that they have never measured up to Metro/Paramount/etc. However, folks must realize that the same can be said for nearly ever other club not named Metro/Paramount. My kid made her HS varsity team after a year at STJ with no prior club experience. There are at least four former STJ players that are currently at Paramount. I'd say that that STJ is capable of drawing in talent. I just cannot speak for the current coaching staff, as my kid's coach is no longer there (he coached three of the four players now at Paramount). For what it is worth, one of the newer girls' coaches at STJ is also a current college-level (not NCAA) coach in the area.

I have no basis of comparison for the boys' side. To me, the mere existence of a boys' program at STJ may immediately make them one of the best in the area given that there aren't any other programs that **I** am aware of. Nonetheless, I think one of the STJ boy's coaches is also the girls varsity head coach at Flint Hill. That's certainly a (good/great) statement that not many other clubs can offer an equivalent ... for girls or boys.

Anonymous wrote:First hand knowledge here.

*St. James Boy's has phenomenal coaching and training.

*The Girl's Program is known for having a beautiful facility.

AVOID Renaissance unless not having a coach show for tournaments is your thing.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone tell me more about Renaissance? Was thinking we’d consider them for clinics/camps this summer but hearing some negative buzz about them

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once some CHRVA teams earned higher/better bids at qualifiers, a few USAV bid slots opened up for those bids that went "back to region." With some teams finishing tied for 5th/7th/whatever at Bid Regionals, what is the proper procedure for the region to fill those available bids. Did CHRVA decide what teams make it based on a coin flip?

Don't have any direct knowledge of whether there was a coin flip or not, but a few years ago there was a strange decision made by CHRVA that seemed arbitrary and resulted in some similar controversy. At 15 bid regionals in 2022, Liberty Elite upset Metro 15 Travel in the semifinals and VA Juniors beat Paramount in the other semifinal match resulting in a Liberty Elite vs VA Juniors final which Liberty won. There was a consolation match to determine 3rd and 4th place between Metro and Paramount which Metro won meaning the final results and the corresponding bids earned the day of bid regionals were:

1. Liberty Elite - National Bid
2. VA Juniors - American Bid
3. Metro 15 Travel - Freedom Bid
4. Paramount

Things were fine until the reallocations started. Paramount had subsequently earned a USA bid by placing 3rd at Big South. When CHRVA received another National bid to award to a regional team, rather than giving it to VA Juniors, who had come in second at the bid regional tournament and was seemingly in line to get that bid, CHRVA gave it to Paramount supposedly under the reasoning that Paramount deserved the higher National bid because they were holding a USA bid which was higher than the American Bid that VA Juniors had. This completely disregarded the results of the bid regional tournament which seems pretty arbitrary and unfair. After all, isn't the whole point of the bid regional tournament to decide how CHRVA distributes bids?

Later in that same year, CHRVA also received another American and Freedom bid to reallocate for 15s. The American bid went to Metro, their Freedom bid rolled down to the 5th place (because Paramount now had the National bid, I think their USA bid had gone back to a team that had finished behind them at Big South). There were 4 teams tied for 5th place having lost in the quarterfinals. That year, they gave the 2 Freedom bids to MVSA and VA Volleyball Academy. It was my understanding that they had looked to match record/set record/point differential from the bid regional tournament to decide which of the four 5th place teams got those 2 bids but maybe they flipped a coin?

After 2022 and other controversies relating to bid reallocations, I thought CHRVA had revised their rules for bid reallocation to make it more clear and to avoid things like coin flips or somebody just deciding, but I can't seem to find any updated policies on the CHRVA website. With so many more bids being made available to the regions and bids potentially going all the way down to 7th place finishers (or even lower) at regionals in some age groups , CHRVA needs to be more transparent about how these decisions are made.

Doesn't reallocation of bids also depend on when a club "accepts" the bid. So CHRVA has to offer up reallocations based on the teams that haven't yet won or accepted a different bid? For this reason sometimes teams that don't do super well in regionals may get a higher allocated bid (per example pp shared). I'm a bit confused by the reallocation process as well but I was told the club officially "accepting" the bid has something to do with it. But, I'm not sure what accepting the bid actually entails.