Club Volleyball: First Team Meeting

Got a chance to meet Coach F last night and Kate and I liked her. She played at DII and has coached for 5 years now. She said practices will be tough and she will not hesitate to ride someone to make them better. She thinks the girls will come to understand that they are better than they even thought they could be. This will all be a giant splash of cold water in the face for Kate. In the 7 years of recreational soccer she played, no one ever yelled at her or pulled her aside for a bit off ass kicking. Same in her year of 8th grade volleyball. So I think this will be the season she starts getting some serious coaching that has consequences. It will be fascinating to see her do it in tandem with Jr High Varsity.

I really think The Animals are going to be a good fit for us this year at the U15 level. By this time next year one of 3 things will happen with her: she will decide volleyball is not something she wants to continue, it is something she enjoys and wants to continue recreationally on this level of team, or her skills have gelled and she is committed to being the best and playing in college thus resulting in trying to get on an elite travelling club. A poster on prepvolleyball (pirateVBfan) has given me permission to copy his excellent post here on his take on 'elite' teams. Great stuff.

I think the most important things in a club are the quality of the coaching, the quality of the teammates and the club reputation. The reputation is built over years and is based on the broad range of results of a number of teams over the years. I think that encompasses your "win/loss" and "multiple team" comments. But it also is built on having players recruited by and playing in major universities. In 2006 UW could put five KJ players on the court and three were starters (a fourth, Jill Colleymore, is now a starter). 

Why is reputation important? Well for many reasons. Number one it helps attract the top coaches and players. Number two it opens doors. When our older daughter was being recruited we had a number of college coaches tell us "She played for KJ, of course we want her". Everyone on her KJ 18 team is playing volleyball in college, most on D-I scholarships.While the top players will get seen regardless of the club (assuming a fairly top club that travels) the club reputation (and those top players) can pull in coaches to look at the other players. Having coaches and a club director with connections to a wide range of colleges can really enhance the recruiting of the non-star players. If that is important to you, then club reputation and connections are very important. 

As to club volleyball rankings, I think KJ, WVBA and (at least in the past) Puget Sound have consistently been the top clubs around here with Sudden Impact a small step below. It will be interesting to see how the transition at PS goes. It is a big step they are taking building a new facility and changing ownership at the same time.I think UPVBC has been rising and is about at the same level as Sudden Impact now. They have had the results over several years from several teams (although not as much as the top tier teams yet) but the question will be how well they make the transition into college recruiting. 


The question was "What are the best clubs" but I realize that the criteria for "Best" very much depends on your goals. If you want to be an elite athlete, lead your HS team, get a scholarship to college, etc, then clubs like KJ and WVBA are the best and the best fit. If you want to have fun, make HS varsity and have no plans on playing in college, then WVBA, KJ, PS, etc are a waste of money and you would be miserable there. 

The "elite clubs" (I know I am going to get in trouble for that term, but you know what I mean) have a totally different set of expectations than the more "normal" clubs do. You will be competing against the best players in a large geographical area for playing time (it is not uncommon for players to drive 50 miles for practice - heck, one player used to fly from Idaho to play for KJ). You will travel to three or four (or more) out of state tournaments and try like mad to make Nationals. You will practice about three times a week and the practices will be very intense, often harder than the games. You will start club basically as soon as HS season is over, then overlap club and HS in the summer, have the mandatory three weeks off in August, and then start right back with HS. You will have college coaches around your court pretty much any time you play out of state, sometimes two or three deep around the court. Assuming you are a top player on the team you will have multiple offers to play D-I volleyball and the absolute best players will get multiple PAC-10 offers - the "holy grail" of college recruiting. 

But that is definitely not for everyone. Even on elite teams (or should that be "especially on elite teams") playing time is earned and a third of the team may never see the court in a tournament. You may not understand the coaches decisions on playing time but you have to grin and cheer. 

So, the best fit for many players is not the KJs and WVBAs of the world, but rather the Above the Net, NW Juniors and Cascades of the world - good programs that play good, fun volleyball and turn out good HS varsity volleyball players, but will have limited potential/desire for a college scholarship. 


Again, great stuff. Any time any of you have advice or stories or experiences or news of other clubs to share, please email me and I will build it into the blog.