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New to Club - Should I tryout?

My child has never played on a school team or was not selected for the school team. Should we bother trying out?

  1. Should we bother trying out? Even if your player has only played recreational volleyball and not had the opportunity to be on a school team, there still is a good chance they will find a place on a club team and here are a few reasons why.
     
    1. Smaller pool of players:    Many times school teams get a very large turnout.  Sometimes as many as 40 to 100 kids show up for tryouts for the one school team. Due to other obligations, sports, costs and time, not all of those same kids will not be available to try out for travel volleyball.  Normally you would have 2-3 months to prepare if you were not selected for a school team.  Spend this time practicing and investing in some private lessons.  Imagine how much could be improved in 30 minutes a day, 3-4 days per week for that 2-3 month period.  
       
    2. Teams are picked by age:   For school teams, you will have 3 grades for middle school and 4 grades for high school, all hoping to make the one team.  In club ball, generally each team is all players of the same age.  Your school tryout may have had only 3 kids your player's age at tryouts and the spots were all taken by older kids.  This probably won't be the case at club tryouts.
       
    3. It could have been a bad day:   We all have good and bad days and many things may have influence a school tryout. Nerves, amount of sleep, food eaten, how school went that day and more. They have managed to survive at least one tryout and now they know what to expect and prepare for.