Club Team FAQs

There are several ways you can prepare for tryouts at RVA. 

For 10U-14U athletes, attending Fall Ball clinics throughout the month of October is a great way to get familiar with our gym, coaches, and drills. It is also a way to meet new friends and let our coaching staff get to know you. 

For 15U-18U athletes, RVA will hold open gyms for players who are completed with their high school seasons. Please note: varsity athletes who are still competing in the state tournament cannot attend open gyms until their team has finished their season. Attending our open gyms is a great way to become familiar with our gym, coaches and meet new friends prior to evaluations and tryouts. 

Attending our Open House/Evaluations is another way you can prepare for tryouts. Evaluations are important because it allows RVA coaches to see you play prior to the day of tryouts. We also structure our evaluations to be similar to drills that will be run at tryouts so athletes feel comfortable with our drills and have an understanding of how each drill will run. Evaluations also give you the chance to talk to the coaches in your age group and receive feedback based on your performance in the gym that day. RVA will hold 3 evaluations for each age group leading up to the day of tryouts. It is important to attend at least one evaluation so our coaches can see you play prior to tryouts. 

Evaluation dates/times for all age groups can be found HERE.

The Arizona Region allows all clubs to hold 3 evaluation clinics prior to tryouts. Evaluations at RVA are structured with various skill and competition drills which allow our coaching staff an opportunity to see athletes play prior to tryouts. Players can expect to be lead through drills they will see at tryouts and expect to have their age group’s coaching staff observing and taking notes on the athletes in the gym. Coaches can provide feedback to athletes/parents at the end of each eval based on the athletes performance in the gym that day, answer any questions parents/players may have regarding the athlete’s performance, or the upcoming club season in general. Our coaches will not make guarantees or promises to parents/players at evals regarding team selection or placement.

We require athletes who plan to tryout at RVA to attend at least 1 evaluation clinic.

Coaches will look at many aspects of an athletes performance while they are competing in the RVA gym during evals and tryouts. Coaches will look for the athletes ability to execute skills and the consistency of the skill being executed. For example, high-level or advanced athletes will be able to consistently execute skills with little error. Intermediate-level athletes will be able to execute skills most of the time with frequent errors. Beginner-level athletes will not be able to execute skills and are high-error.

Coaches will also look at the players communication on and off the court, as well as how each player interacts with players and coaches around them.

The day of tryouts, players will check-in at our front desk, grab a name tag, enter the gym and place their bags on the half court. All athletes will be lead through multiple skill and competition based drills. Players can expect to be moved around on our 3 courts throughout the tryout process for coaches to evaluate and make player selections for their team.

Teams will start to be formed after the first 90 minutes of tryouts. Players who are selected for teams will grab their backpacks, find their parents, and head to the lobby to meet with the rest of their team and coaching staff.

Athletes selected for teams will need to provide their first club payment, signed RVA contract, sized for uniforms, and provide all required paperwork. Please print, complete, and bring to tryouts: the 2023-2024 Medical Release form, Concussion Acknowledgement form, and Safe Sport form (all found on our tryouts page) as coaches will be collecting them before you leave the gym. Players will also need to provide proof of their AZ Region USAV Membership, either with a screen shot of their active membership or a print out of their membership card. Any players who are new to the AZ Region or new to club volleyball all together also need to provide a copy of a birth certificate.

The season costs and practice schedules will be available at our Open House/Evals and will be posted in our lobby and front desk. We will not be releasing this information online, so attending our evals the week leading up to tryouts is important in order to get this information and avoid any surprises regarding cost or practice schedule the day of tryouts.

Athletes who are selected for a team at RVA will receive season practice calendars and tournament schedules from their coaches via email.

The AZ Region competition calendar can be found on the AZ Region website which is the governing body of the league we compete in. Our teams are entered into either Open, Championship or the Club division based on the level of play of each particular team. For this information and additional tournaments for each team, please visit our Tournament Schedule page.

To verify your daughter's age group, based on her birthdate, please use the following link the Check your Age Calculator from the region website. Please note that at RVA, we always suggest a player play with her graduating class if possible. For reference, most 5th graders fall into U11, most 6th graders fall into U12, most 7th graders fall into U13 and so on. That is why it is important to know her age group and how that aligns with her graduating class.

The basic differences are coaching, competitive play, travel, skill growth and cost.

Cost:  Generally, a season of recreational volleyball is less than $300 while club volleyball can range anywhere from $1,300 to $4,000+ depending on the club organization, tournament schedule, and coaching staff.

At RVA, you are paying for:  the player uniform/practice gear package, 3-day event tournament entry fees, AZ Region season team and player fees, our dedicated practice facility,  experienced/certified coaching staff of 2-3 coaches per team and administration fees. Some teams depending on level, age group and travel components have additional costs related to the travel expenses for the coaching staff, a Sports Recruits Profile (for recruiting), a team HUDL account and Max Out Mindset services. Please note that travel expenses for your family and the players are NOT included in your season costs.

Coaching Staff: Coaching staff for recreational volleyball is normally loving parents and community volunteers. While club volleyball coaches (coaching for a USAV club) are required to be Impact and SafeSport certified through USA Volleyball, as well as have a current background check. Most are likely to be former collegiate players, middle school, high school and collegiate coaches, or those with extensive sports backgrounds who are students of the game in order to help young volleyball players progress in the sport. Our coaching staff at RVA are dedicated to the promotion and development of volleyball players ages 8-18. Our coaches take great pride in teaching the best techniques, communicating effectively, and setting a good example.

Competitive Play and Skill Growth:  The rule of thumb in any sport is that you will get better by competing against those better than you.  Rec. ball is "generally" a time for a player to learn the basics of the game, gauge their love of the sport and play in a low-pressure environment.  Once a player discovers a passion for the game, they will want to compete against better players to test their skills and grow their game.  The more you play, the better you get.  At RVA we produce technically-sound, mentally strong volleyball players through skill based instruction and positive feedback in a competitive team building environment.

Travel:  Recreational volleyball is generally played and practiced locally in one place.  While club volleyball can be played at a variety of locations in AZ or travel out of state for competition. Our teams will travel to tournaments on weekends to face anywhere from 3-4 teams in one day.  In the AZ Region, you can expect to play anywhere in the valley on a regional tournament day, from Prescott to Tucson. You will also not know more than a few days prior to the region tournament the site you will be playing at or your start time.

RVA travel teams will also travel out of state for 3-day tournaments, typically 1-3 per season depending on the age group and team. You can see which travel tournaments teams have been entered into at our gym during the evaluation period leading up to tryouts. Please see our season costs to view which teams are traveling and to which tournaments they have been entered.

First practices typically start the week following the 15U-18U tryouts or after Thanksgiving weekend. Your coach will communicate first practice day/time at tryouts once teams have been formed. The first AZ Region tournaments begin in January. The region schedule will vary depending on which division your team will be entered into.  

Click HERE to view the AZ Region Tournament Calendar.

For teams playing in the Open division, there will be 5 region tournaments throughout the regular club season. Open division teams can expect to play on Sundays and all teams will have an AM start time.

Championship/Club division teams will play 7 region tournaments throughout the regular club season and can expect to play on Saturdays with either an AM or PM start time.

The AZ Region website will post the location and start time for each division the week of the region tournament. This means you will not know where you are playing more than a week in advance. 

At region tournaments, you can expect to play 3-4 matches per day and have at least 1 team reffing assignment. It is also expected that teams coordinate a food table for each tournament to ensure all players have access to healthful foods throughout the day.

At RVA we expect teams to show up wearing the same gear (ie: sweat pants/jackets/matching shirts/etc). It is important to RVA that our look unified walking into a tournament and arrive on time. Arrival times will be communicated from coaches prior to the tournament date. No players should be leaving the playing site at any time during the tournament. All players will be released by their coach at the conclusion of each tournament. 

The difference between a travel team and a region team is that travel teams will travel out of state for tournament/s. Regional teams will only play in tournaments located in Arizona (this includes potentially driving to Prescott and Tucson for competition).

Another difference between these teams is cost. Travel teams will have a higher season cost than region teams because of out of state tournament entry fees, coaching staff travel costs and uniform package.

Our uniform package varies based on the team athletes are selected for. All packages include backpack, 2 pairs of spandex, 2 jerseys, hooded sweatshirt, 1/4 zip jacket, shorts, practice shirts, and kneepads.

Teams who have an out-of-state travel tournament will have an additional jersey in their package.

Shoes and socks are not included in the uniform package.

Uniforms typically arrive the first week of January, just in time for everyone's first tournaments.