Introducing Your Kid to Club Volleyball: What to Expect and Tips From a Parent Who Tried It
The damp laundry was still spilling out of the dryer last March when my 12-year-old, Lila, dropped her backpack on the couch next to half my folded towels and announced she was quitting rec soccer. She’d had enough, she said, of the coach playing the same three fast kids the entire game and sitting everyone else on the bench for 40 minutes. “I want to try club volleyball,” she said. I paused mid-fold, because all I knew about club volleyball was what I’d overheard at the PTA meeting: it cost a fortune, required traveling out of state every other weekend, and turned normal family life into a chaotic schedule of car pools and snack runs. I also knew Lila had quit three different activities in the last two years: after-school art, guitar lessons, even that weekend trail riding group she’d begged me for. Why would this be any different?
I told her I wasn’t saying no, but I wasn’t saying yes either. I did a quick search online that night, and found three local clubs within 20 minutes of our house that hosted weekly drop-in open gyms for middle schoolers new to the sport. They were $10 a session, no commitment, you just showed up with athletic shoes and a water bottle. That was my first surprise I didn’t know before: almost every club has low-stakes entry options for new kids, you don’t have to sign a year-long contract first. I told Lila the deal: she had to go to eight drop-ins before we’d even discuss joining a team. If she still wanted it after eight, we’d do it, but if she quit halfway through the season, she’d cover half the cost with chore money and hold off on any new activities for a year. She agreed immediately.
I dropped her off the first Wednesday, sat in my car for 10 minutes thinking I’d get a text 20 minutes in saying she wanted to leave. Instead, when I picked her up an hour and a half later, her hair was stuck to her neck with sweat, she’d ripped a hole in her favorite leggings diving for a ball, and she couldn’t stop talking about how one of the older girls taught her how to do an underhand serve. I sat in the bleachers for the next session, and talked to another mom whose kid had been coming for three months just for fun, hadn’t joined a team yet. She told me most clubs split their teams into competitive travel ones and developmental entry-level ones – the latter are for kids who just want to play, don’t care about playing college volleyball, and cost half as much with way less travel. That was the second big eye-opener: I assumed all club volleyball was for elite athletes, but that’s not true. Most clubs want to grow the sport, so they have options for average kids too.
After eight drop-ins, Lila still wanted in. We signed her up for the developmental team at the club she’d been attending. The entire season cost $625, that included all practice time and tournament fees, we just had to buy her a $45 uniform and her own knee pads. Practices were twice a week after school, an hour and a half each, so three hours total a week – less time than she used to spend scrolling TikTok after homework. Tournaments were once a month, all within a two-hour drive, so no hotel stays, just leave the house at 7 a.m. and be home by 6 p.m. That’s way more manageable than I ever expected.
Lila’s always been shy. She’d rather sit alone at lunch than ask a group if she can sit with them, she used to freeze up during group presentations at school. I didn’t expect that to change just from playing volleyball, but it has. A month into the season, she asked me if she could host a team pasta night before their first tournament. She texts the group chat every week to confirm practice times, and when one of the new girls forgot her water bottle at a tournament last month, Lila gave her half of hers and walked with her to the water fountain after the game. Last month, they were up by one point in the final set of a tournament, Lila messed up a serve that went out of bounds, and they lost. I was already getting up from the bleachers to go comfort her, expecting her to cry. Instead, she high-fived the girl next to her, shrugged, and said “That was on me, we’ll get them next time.” That’s not something she would have done a year ago. I think a lot of that is because volleyball doesn’t work like soccer, where one or two good kids can carry the whole team. Every position matters. If your libero doesn’t dig the ball, the setter can’t set it, and the hitter can’t spike it. Lila’s our libero – she’s not the tallest, not the strongest hitter, but her job is to stop the other team’s spikes, and her team relies on her. That’s a feeling you don’t get when you’re sitting the bench at rec sports.
Of course, it’s not all perfect. Last week she had practice the night before her big 7th grade math test, and we had to rush through her study guide, she got a B- and was upset for an hour after. I still forget to wash her uniform half the time, and we’ve had more than one morning scramble to find a clean pair of spandex. Some tournaments are boring as hell for parents – I bring a paperback and sit on the hard bleachers for six hours, and I’ve spent more money on vending machine chips than I’d like to admit. We don’t even know if she’ll want to do it next year. Last week she mentioned maybe trying cross country in the fall, because her best friend is doing it. If she quits, it won’t be a waste. The $600 we spent this season gave her more confidence speaking up in groups than any of the after-school workshops the school hosts, and that’s already worth it.
If you’re sitting where I was a year ago, wondering if club volleyball is something your kid would like, don’t write it off immediately just because of the horror stories you hear about elite travel sports. Start with the $10 drop-in, no strings attached. Ask the club about their developmental teams, not just the top competitive squads. Set a clear expectation about commitment with your kid before you sign anything, so you don’t end up out a bunch of money if they lose interest. It doesn’t have to take over your whole life, if you don’t want it to. For us, it’s just another thing we do during the week – some weeks it’s messy, some weeks it’s really cool to watch her figure it out. We’ll see what happens next season.
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