Well, it's official. I won't have a volleyball team to coach this year. I'm angry, pissed off and trying to understand how it even came to this. The short version of the story is that there simply aren't enough kids to make a team. The bigger picture is more detailed.
Basically, there were just barely enough kids at the tryout to make a pretty solid national team. They weren't the tallest or most skilled team you've ever seen, but I think with a little work there was enough talent there to have significant impact in the region, and maybe even contend for a bid. If I were a kid trying out for that team, I would have been thrilled to be on it.
But apparently, the kids here have a different idea about things (or their parents do). The six core kids in that lineup chose to accept offers from other teams (four played together for this club last year), and I can tell you from experience that it was unlikely that they would end up in a more talented lineup. But whatever, that was that.
The club director convinced me that they could still come up with a solid regional team (i.e., not national team) with the kids that were left, some kids that were holding out for the regional team, and some kids that would come to the make-up tryout. That didn't materialize either. So somehow, beyond belief, this club has no 17 or 18 teams, regional or national. I've never had a tryout where I didn't at least have people to cut, let alone not have enough for a team.
So what happened? I have no idea. Talking to parents, it sounds like a combination of things. The first was cost. I don't know what gym time goes for out here, but they're asking for three times what we ever did in Cleveland, and we did just as many tournaments. One parent suggested that the club was "middle tier" and more concerned with the number of teams than the quality. Another suggested they were concerned about the high turnover in coaches. One of the other coaches suggested the tryout time was the worst possible, on the last day before kids could sign, and at the same time as some other clubs. Collectively, these all sound like plausible reasons for the failure.
Whatever the reasons, it still leaves me feeling angry, because I already had a lot of emotional investment in doing this. I know none of it's personal, but I almost feel like I was duped into thinking this was where the magic would happen, instead of with other clubs. I'm also disappointed in the kids and parents who play these games over commitment. We had a little bit of this back in Cleveland, where someone was always holding out for one of the annual top-ranked clubs, but usually it was one, maybe two at most. Even then, you had enough kids dedicated to the club, and plenty of alternates.
I don't know what to think. Does volleyball just suck here? It definitely isn't at the level that it was in the OVR, judging by the skill level I've seen in the younger kids (lots of poor technical issues), but I just can't believe that every kid not playing soccer is destined for mediocre volleyball.
Sigh. I'm frustrated out of my mind.
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