Club Director: Becky Elkins
Fees: $500-$700 (this years current fees not posted)
BVAC Attack has come a long way from previous years. In the past they had little talent on their teams. I have personally seen their talent grow over the last two years. Is BVAC worth it...Yes but mainly because their fees match the level of coaching they provide. Many parents I spoke to were thrilled with their teams, a few expressed coaching concerns. They do have a what I consider a mostly novice coaching staff. One coach in particular was described to me as belligerent. He supposedly uses profanity more often than words from the dictionary. At a fundraiser he reportedly was so drunk parents spoke of it for weeks. I know I would not want one of my daughters on his team. I had the opportunity to speak to previous players of mine and their moms, who played for BVAC last year.
One said they were happy with the experience they had playing for BVAC. They liked the coach and felt like personally as a player she grew a lot. Their team as a whole ended up doing pretty well and the player when asked said "I loved it" She was happy and felt successful, what more could a parent ask for.
Another of my previous players played on another BVAC team. She happened to play for the coach mentioned above who drinks too much and has a potty mouth. Her mother expressed that her daughter progressed very little playing on that team and wished she had known about the coach before trying out.
I have noticed that any girls that I have coached who play for BVAC tend to be at the higher end of the talent pool and are placed on their gold teams. If your daughter is a moderate player you can expect her to look like a superstar at BVAC's open gyms and tryouts:)
http://www.bvacattack.com/home
Our next review will be on Invasion Volleyball
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Southern Elite VBC Review
Southern Elite VBC
Club Director- Bre Barnes
Silver $695 Select $895 Gold $995 Force $1295
Conclusion:
Should you consider trying out for Southern Elite VBC? I have mixed feeling on this. They are worth the fees that is sure but the atmosphere is not healthy for young girls to be in. There are other clubs out there that are competitive yet foster a great attitude and environment for these young girls to learn in.
I had a hard time finding parents willing to allow me to publish their experience with Southern Elite. Many feared their daughters being punished or worse released from their team, if they were ever found out. So I decided to use my own personal experience.
One of my daughters went to both their open gym and their tryout last year. Upon arrival she said she just felt like a piece of meat. The coaches were so short an impersonal compared to other clubs she has participated with. I stayed and watched the open gym. They did not follow HOA rules for open gyms. They separated girls into modified skill level, which is a no no. They took a group and worked with them on setting. My daughter is a setter and every time she asked to join the setters she was told she would get a chance, but they never allowed her to set. Not at the open gym or the tryouts. She ended up playing for PVA as a setter which is a much more elite club, though it too is not without flaws.
The only comments I could get Southern Elite members to allow me to publish is as follows;
"Bre Barnes is a nut job"
"My daughter learned and improved despite our coaches lack of coaching skills"
"We had a good coach, but she wasn't able to bring the girls together as a team"
"The director is really intense, and the overall atmosphere is tense"
"My daughter thoroughly enjoyed her team and coach"
"Our team was very successful and we enjoyed the experience"
Our next review is BVAC. If you have any comments about BVAC please let me know. ClubVolleyballKC@gmail.com
Club Director- Bre Barnes
Silver $695 Select $895 Gold $995 Force $1295
Conclusion:
Should you consider trying out for Southern Elite VBC? I have mixed feeling on this. They are worth the fees that is sure but the atmosphere is not healthy for young girls to be in. There are other clubs out there that are competitive yet foster a great attitude and environment for these young girls to learn in.
I had a hard time finding parents willing to allow me to publish their experience with Southern Elite. Many feared their daughters being punished or worse released from their team, if they were ever found out. So I decided to use my own personal experience.
One of my daughters went to both their open gym and their tryout last year. Upon arrival she said she just felt like a piece of meat. The coaches were so short an impersonal compared to other clubs she has participated with. I stayed and watched the open gym. They did not follow HOA rules for open gyms. They separated girls into modified skill level, which is a no no. They took a group and worked with them on setting. My daughter is a setter and every time she asked to join the setters she was told she would get a chance, but they never allowed her to set. Not at the open gym or the tryouts. She ended up playing for PVA as a setter which is a much more elite club, though it too is not without flaws.
The only comments I could get Southern Elite members to allow me to publish is as follows;
"Bre Barnes is a nut job"
"My daughter learned and improved despite our coaches lack of coaching skills"
"We had a good coach, but she wasn't able to bring the girls together as a team"
"The director is really intense, and the overall atmosphere is tense"
"My daughter thoroughly enjoyed her team and coach"
"Our team was very successful and we enjoyed the experience"
Our next review is BVAC. If you have any comments about BVAC please let me know. ClubVolleyballKC@gmail.com
Monday, September 24, 2012
Boost Volleyball Review
Boost Volleyball
Club Fees Gold $1975 Silver $1490
Conclusion:
Should you give Boost Volleyball a chance? I want to say no but I have recently learned they have a new director. So my answer is...Maybe. But the price, I feel the price for this club is too steep. They are not established enough to warrant that price level. Also their main facility is not up to standards. Their court is too small and has a dangerous ledge in the serving position. I think your money is better spent elsewhere.Read on to hear from a parent.
The following was submitted anonymously from a mother a a girl who played for the club Boost last year.
"Our experience with Boost Volleyball started off well, but ended bad. Boost promised individual training with a trainer. We went to training sessions every Sunday, it was a waste of time we had 30 minutes conditioning 30 minutes skill training. It just wasn't enough to help. The conditioning done by the coach was much better. We had a great coach who really cared about the girls and their individual skills and their team skills. Our team was a mess, passing was poor, hitting was not good and we did not have a setter. She worked with the girls individually and as a team. In less than 4 weeks she had brought the girls individual skills up and team skills to a much higher level. One night we scrimmaged with the other team in our age group who was supposed to be the gold team, we kicked their keesters. Within one week of that scrimmage our coach was replaced without even asking parents. She was replaced less than a week before our first tournament. Not only did they replace the coach they cut our practice time an hour per week. Over all we lost more than 20 hours of practice time we paid for. Our new coach was a nice guy but he didn't know how to relate to or coach girls this age and he seemed pre occupied with the other team he coached. we stopped progressing as a team. I honestly believe that was the intent Boost Volleyball director had in replacing our coach like she did. She wanted our team to fail."
The purpose of club volleyball is to allow players to grow and excel. Removing 20 hours of practice time from a team can seriously stunt their growth individually and as a team. I cant say what the reasons were behind such an abrupt decision. I have been in club volleyball both as a coach and a player and there is no reason for a director to behave the way the director did and to cut practice time on a team who needed that time. Could 20 hours of practice really made a difference...Yes, yes it could. I cannot speculate what the directors reasons were or why she made the decisions she did, but I think she made a bad decision.
Boost Volleyball has a new director for 2012-2013 Jennifer Hart has replaced Erin Wilson.
http://boostvolleyball.lockerdome.com/
It should be noted that Erin Wilson has started a new club Summit Volleyball club. Information I chose not to publish makes me leery of any club she is involved in. Do your homework.
Next review will be Southern Elite Volleyball. If your child has played for Southern Elite Please let me know your experience. ClubVolleyballKC@gmail.com
Club Fees Gold $1975 Silver $1490
Conclusion:
Should you give Boost Volleyball a chance? I want to say no but I have recently learned they have a new director. So my answer is...Maybe. But the price, I feel the price for this club is too steep. They are not established enough to warrant that price level. Also their main facility is not up to standards. Their court is too small and has a dangerous ledge in the serving position. I think your money is better spent elsewhere.Read on to hear from a parent.
The following was submitted anonymously from a mother a a girl who played for the club Boost last year.
"Our experience with Boost Volleyball started off well, but ended bad. Boost promised individual training with a trainer. We went to training sessions every Sunday, it was a waste of time we had 30 minutes conditioning 30 minutes skill training. It just wasn't enough to help. The conditioning done by the coach was much better. We had a great coach who really cared about the girls and their individual skills and their team skills. Our team was a mess, passing was poor, hitting was not good and we did not have a setter. She worked with the girls individually and as a team. In less than 4 weeks she had brought the girls individual skills up and team skills to a much higher level. One night we scrimmaged with the other team in our age group who was supposed to be the gold team, we kicked their keesters. Within one week of that scrimmage our coach was replaced without even asking parents. She was replaced less than a week before our first tournament. Not only did they replace the coach they cut our practice time an hour per week. Over all we lost more than 20 hours of practice time we paid for. Our new coach was a nice guy but he didn't know how to relate to or coach girls this age and he seemed pre occupied with the other team he coached. we stopped progressing as a team. I honestly believe that was the intent Boost Volleyball director had in replacing our coach like she did. She wanted our team to fail."
The purpose of club volleyball is to allow players to grow and excel. Removing 20 hours of practice time from a team can seriously stunt their growth individually and as a team. I cant say what the reasons were behind such an abrupt decision. I have been in club volleyball both as a coach and a player and there is no reason for a director to behave the way the director did and to cut practice time on a team who needed that time. Could 20 hours of practice really made a difference...Yes, yes it could. I cannot speculate what the directors reasons were or why she made the decisions she did, but I think she made a bad decision.
Boost Volleyball has a new director for 2012-2013 Jennifer Hart has replaced Erin Wilson.
http://boostvolleyball.lockerdome.com/
It should be noted that Erin Wilson has started a new club Summit Volleyball club. Information I chose not to publish makes me leery of any club she is involved in. Do your homework.
Next review will be Southern Elite Volleyball. If your child has played for Southern Elite Please let me know your experience. ClubVolleyballKC@gmail.com
Welcome to our first post:) If you haven't read my about me section to the right of this post here it is in greater detail. I feel that I need to outline not only the qualifications that make me the right person to write this blog, but also the things I feel everyone should know about the clubs they are considering.
My love for volleyball started when I began watching my older sisters play, I was 8 years old. I watched them play for 3 years before I was old enough to play. I played on a 12's Club team when I was 10 yrs old. I played club volleyball for the next 8 years while also playing in middle school and high school. I went on to play college MH(middle hitter) and OH(outside hitter). I had 3 very successful college seasons and then left play after a serious injury prevented me from playing for 18 months. I then got married had a few kiddos and started coaching.
My coaching career started with a park and rec team who the bulk of the team stayed together and they went undefeated for 8 seasons. I then took those same girls and started a club team. They played together till they were 16 and for the three years of club play that I coached them they were ranked between 29-40 out of 180 teams. They did very well. I went on to coach with another club for 2 years and then a another for 1 and I stopped coaching 2011. Throughout my coaching career I have coached over 75 girls ages 10-17. In the years I spent coaching the dynamic of the club mentality changed significantly.
Clubs went from wanting to enrich players individual and team abilities to their sole purpose of making money. It is this shift in dynamic that possesses me to write this blog. My last year as a coach I was excited to coach for a club who I thought had the same views and goals toward a club as I did. I was unfortunately wrong. They were only a club to create a business income. I witnessed them move girls from their age group up to the year older when they were not ready to play at the upper age group. I watched them have enough talent for one team but create a second team in an age group when their wasn't enough talent to create a successful team. They created a second team they knew and told the coach wouldn't have a chance to succeed. Practices like this and much worse happen in many clubs. Their are clubs out there that still hold to some sort of values on individual skills enrichment and I hope to help you find them.
Please share with me your personal experiences with club volleyball. All submissions will be confidential. ClubVolleyballKC@gmail.com
My love for volleyball started when I began watching my older sisters play, I was 8 years old. I watched them play for 3 years before I was old enough to play. I played on a 12's Club team when I was 10 yrs old. I played club volleyball for the next 8 years while also playing in middle school and high school. I went on to play college MH(middle hitter) and OH(outside hitter). I had 3 very successful college seasons and then left play after a serious injury prevented me from playing for 18 months. I then got married had a few kiddos and started coaching.
My coaching career started with a park and rec team who the bulk of the team stayed together and they went undefeated for 8 seasons. I then took those same girls and started a club team. They played together till they were 16 and for the three years of club play that I coached them they were ranked between 29-40 out of 180 teams. They did very well. I went on to coach with another club for 2 years and then a another for 1 and I stopped coaching 2011. Throughout my coaching career I have coached over 75 girls ages 10-17. In the years I spent coaching the dynamic of the club mentality changed significantly.
Clubs went from wanting to enrich players individual and team abilities to their sole purpose of making money. It is this shift in dynamic that possesses me to write this blog. My last year as a coach I was excited to coach for a club who I thought had the same views and goals toward a club as I did. I was unfortunately wrong. They were only a club to create a business income. I witnessed them move girls from their age group up to the year older when they were not ready to play at the upper age group. I watched them have enough talent for one team but create a second team in an age group when their wasn't enough talent to create a successful team. They created a second team they knew and told the coach wouldn't have a chance to succeed. Practices like this and much worse happen in many clubs. Their are clubs out there that still hold to some sort of values on individual skills enrichment and I hope to help you find them.
Please share with me your personal experiences with club volleyball. All submissions will be confidential. ClubVolleyballKC@gmail.com
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