The five minutes it takes you to read this post will be a great investment of your time. If you decide to attend other tryouts keep in mind the Xplosion tryouts for our older groups are last to happen this year on Nov 16&17. This is going to be a good opportunity for our club to get the players/parents who really share in what we want to accomplish. Most if not all the other clubs will pressure the girls who tryout to commit to them within 24 or 48 hours. HOA our region encourages you to wait until you are sure to commit to a club, and there is not a rule through HOA that says you must commit to a club within 24 or 48 hours following tryouts. So just keep in mind that if you tryout somewhere else there will be pressure. At that time you will have to stand firm and tell them you are trying out at Xplosion and they will have to wait, to turn them down, or take their offer.
As a club director I am not looking to fill the club with only the elite players. I especially don't want players and parents who shop their kids each year to a different club, looking for the most elite coach, and checking out which players show up to tryouts. My approach to building the foundation for club success is to engage the players, parents, and coaches who share a similar vision as I do and see the opportunity to share in something better. I know I will lose some girls/parents to the pressure by other club directors at their tryouts. I know I will lose some girls b/c a club offers them a 1s team and they take it b/c it’s a 1s team. I'm ok with that. In a year or two the girls who are onboard with Xplosion will get college prep training, be recruited from our website, sign college commitments, and truly enjoy their time in the club. Our 2s and even some 3s teams will be strong b/c of our training and the people who humble themselves to be on one of those team will have bought into our plan and see that it can be successful even if they are not on a 1s team. Xplosion players will become elite players b/c of their commitment to the club and my (our) commitment to give them our very best. I don't think other clubs can touch the experience myself, Kelly (SBU), and Ashleigh (Drury) can bring to the table as coaches.
I will continue to invest in the Xplosion faithful players until they have graduated high school and if they choose so to play college vb. Club should be about way more than volleyball and playing on a 1s teams. I am making plans to bring in as many players as I can who share our vision. Some of our 2s teams may be really talented, and even some of our training teams who don't travel much might be stronger than other clubs 2s and 3s teams. The girls who train with us and work hard at practice should see great improvement. I say this b/c I am planning on having a strong 14-16s group and our 2s teams can be national teams as well.
The club is recruiting specific players to our 181 and 171 teams. If any other players in this age range want to play for the club and we can field a third national team in this age range we will do so. Both of these teams still need players and I think we may have to fill a few girls from our tryouts for these teams. If your daughter is interested in one of these teams please plan on attending tryouts b/c all of the girls in this age range can benefit greatly from joining the club and the recruiting resources/network that we will have available this year.
With that said I am recruiting players of all ages, for all of our other teams, to join the club and be part of a new beginning for Xplosion vbc. It’s a wide open tryout for the rest of the teams. I think parents should discuss with their daughter what she wants to accomplish. An opportunity to play in college....maybe that she has to be on a 1s team....perhaps she just likes the social aspects of club....etc... If a parent discovers their daughter wants to be in a college prep or competitive type of club then the next step is to make sure she will get good training. I am going to take the lead training in the gym I am in for about half of the practice and in various position training sessions twice a month. Parents I encourage you to attend tryouts and you will see what I am talking about. My training style is up-tempo, competitive, and challenging very similar to the type of training I would use to prepare a college program for success. Adaptations will be made for younger teams, but the goal of this style is to instill a sense of competitiveness and athleticism in the girls so they can be successful in match play. This training approach will allow me to work with each player in the club at some point. In some circumstances I will encourage Kelly or Ashleigh to take a lead training role for an amount of practice time so the kids benefit from their experience too. This really changes the dynamics of "who is my daughter’s club coach" b/c your daughter’s training in part is from college level coaches and part from your club team coach. If the girls get high level training it will transfer into games, and that is the goal of a lead training coach system.
I hope this letter is reassuring to many of you. I can understand the challenge of leaving another club to join Xplosion vbc. If I had a daughter playing club vb and I wasn't sure about Xplosion I would go to the meetings of all the clubs prior to tryouts and see if you agree with the direction the club is going, their approach to training, your gut feeling or intuition, and how many kids they are getting recruited to college each year. If you come to one of my meetings and leave excited about what Xplosion is to become then I would commit to the club and rest assured your daughter will get good training from myself and our staff.
Thanks,
Coach James
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