Club Volleyball:
Also known as Juniors or Travel volleyball, Club volleyball is a nationwide highly competitive sport dedicated to giving student athletes across the country the ability to participate and excel in volleyball against other players their same age, both regionally and nationally. Club competition takes place outside the primary school seasons in Tidewater. Also, many school players play club to increase their chances of making their school teams. You will see that many of the teams who make states do so because they have so many members of their team who play club volleyball. Club volleyball offers the most advanced and competitive youth volleyball experience in Tidewater.
Club teams are available for both girls and boys starting with Elementary School (U11, U12) going through Middle School (U13, U14) and High School (U15, U16, U17, U18).
There are three governing bodies in the Tidewater Area which under their jurisdiction most clubs operate: the Old Dominion Region (ODR) of USA Volleyball (USAV), the American Athletics Union (AAU) Volleyball, and the Junior Volleyball Association (JVA).
School Volleyball:
Most are familiar with school volleyball, starting with middle school (or JJV), then Junior Varsity (yes, Va Beach kids – other schools have JV ball), then finally the coveted Varsity Squad. You all remember when you were in middle school and you would see the older girls play and wanted so badly to be as good as those players; jump that high, hit that hard, dig those balls –making the varsity team is every volleyball player’s goal. The tryout process can be awfully hard, and for middle school you will be competing against 3 grades of players and for JV and Varsity you will be competing again 4 grades of players.
Rec Volleyball:
Before school ball many of you played recreation volleyball. More popular in Va Beach, but for many players in Hampton Roads, Rec is their first exposure to volleyball. Rec is designed to give introduction to as many players as possible with a focus on everyone playing to learn and come to love the game instead of playing to win.
