The benefits of clubs
Join the club.
Unlike other high school sports, volleyball players with college aspirations look to club teams for exposure to college coaches with scholarships to offer.
“Any more, college coaches really don’t pay very much attention to the high school season,” Central Valley coach Chad Coupland explained. “They do their recruiting during the club season and at the big club tournaments.”
Coupland coaches several teams in the VIP Juniors club. His U17 club placed 11th at the Reno Volleyball Festival Tournament last month. The five-day tournament, considered the largest girls volleyball tournament in the world, featured competition from U12 through U18 age groups and featured 96 teams in U17 alone.
“There were college coaches everywhere you looked,” said Kim Wold, who manages the club and helped coach the U17 team, which features her daughter, Alyssa, a West Valley sophomore. “It makes sense that they would be at a tournament like Reno. They’re looking at kids who are dedicated and have committed themselves to the game. And they’re not in the middle of their own season and can spend some time studying players first-hand.”
The regional club Web site, www.evergreenregion.org, lists more than 25 volleyball clubs in the Inland Empire, ranging from Lewiston to Sandpoint in Idaho and from Pullman to Colville in Washington.
The local clubs host the Evergreen Region Club Information Fair each November at Spokane Community College. In one evening, prospective players can meet with coaches and look for the best fit.
“The tryouts are just a few days after the fair,” Kim Wold said. “That’s a busy day for the players. Most of them want to try out for more than one club in case they don’t make their first choice. They’re pretty exhausted by the end of the day.
“From a club standpoint, we’re always looking for talent, of course, but just as much we’re looking for players with the right kind of personality to fit together. You can have the best talent, but if they can’t play together as a team, you aren’t going anywhere.”
Girls begin playing in club programs as early as 9 or 10.
“Because it’s such an overhead sport, you don’t want kids starting out too early,” Kim Wold said. “Most of the clubs in the area have developmental teams for kids just starting out, but we don’t see that many kids interested in volleyball until they get into middle school and are exposed to it for the first time.
“Unless the parents play or have played the game.”
Which is how Alyssa Wold got her early start.
“Both my mom and dad played and still play,” she said. “I started out playing club pretty early.”
“I wish more of my girls would play club volleyball,” West Valley coach Drew Wendle said. “They get so much more experience, and they gain so much more confidence. It makes a tremendous amount of difference.”
Wold was already a court veteran when she arrived at West Valley as a freshman last year, and the Eagles took advantage of her experience.
“I was the setter and the court captain right from the beginning,” she said. “It’s funny being that young and having other players looking to you for leadership, but I’m used to that. I’ve always played up (with an older age group) on my club teams.”
Most of the VIP club was playing up at Reno.
“Some of the girls who had played on that team during the regular club season couldn’t make the trip to Reno,” Coupland said. “We pulled that group together kind of at the last minute,” Coupland said. “I got a couple girls from the Tri-Cities (Kristin Barott from Hanford and Stacey Smith from Kamiakin) who would drive up to practice with us, and a girl from Northport (Kaprina Goodwin) who would drive three-and-a-half hours every day just to play with us.”
Those three joined Pam Eatock (East Valley), Kristin Telin and Allison Giusti (Central Valley), Chanel Ratkovich (University), Grethe Vogel (Pullman) and Wold.
The surprise was how well the group blended.
“We all just naturally melded as a team,” Alyssa Wold said. “It was pretty incredible the way this team would just fight and keep fighting.
“We were sitting in eighth place pretty much the whole tournament and lost on the last day to finish 11th.”
“You don’t get that kind of team chemistry, but it was sure fun to watch,” Kim Wold added. “You hope for it, but you don’t get it very often.”
The experience is something that carries forward.
“It helps that we get a chance to play with different players and coaches,” Alyssa said. “I’ve played with most of the kids I play against during the high school season, and that makes the rivalries even more interesting.”