Always! Families can apply for partial or full scholarships prior to the season starting.

The best thing athletes can do right now is touch a volleyball as often as possible! Grab a friend, sibling, or parent and practice passing, setting, or even serving together. Play pepper, pass against a wall, or work on controlled bump→set→spike rallies. Every touch helps your ball control and confidence grow.

Our Sunday Clinic and After School Clinics are also wonderful ways to practice!

Beyond volleyball, it’s important to stay active and athletic. Do things that help coordination, balance, and body awareness: throw a football, kick a soccer ball, shoot some hoops, go for a swim, ride your bike, or practice handstands. Even yoga or light stretching keeps your body strong and flexible for the season ahead.

Most importantly, have fun! Playing and moving every day builds the foundation for a great season when practices start.

We will finalize tournament dates prior to tryouts, and release practice days along with team assignments. All teams will practice from 7-8:30. 

We are "guests" at Harbor High, and must work around the high school sports that have priority over the facilities.

We organize our practices, tournaments and organizational structure based on scientific data whenever possible. 

Research on middle school athletes suggests that 90 minute practices are more effective for long term learning and growth. At this age, athletes have reduced athletic and cognitive capacities, and longer practices often lead to "burn out", more than improved performance. 90 minutes gives athletes time to improve, work through a variety of skills and exercise without pushing themselves too far. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6446524/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12366744/

We place girls on teams based on ability and commitment moreso than ages, but are mindful of the maturity and age differences across the program. Athletes should expect to play with girls no more than a year apart in age/grade.

We have a tennative list of qualified coaches that we are in the process of finalizing for this upcoming year, some of whom are on our home page. All our coaches will complete JVA Background Screening and Training Requirements.

Elementary school athletes are welcome, but prior experience is required.

We can make exceptions for high school athletes, as long as their age is in accordance with the 14 and Under Division: Players who were born on or after July 1, 2012.

This is not only possible, but encouraged! We beleive that school sports are the best way to build community, friendships, and connection. Our program is meant to supplement a young athletes extracurriculars, not replace any. 

Absolutely! Studies show that Sport Sampling (playing multiple sports throughout the year) is correlated with lower injury risk, reduced burnout rate, a higher sense of accomplishment, and even greater peak formance later in life!

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/youth-sport-specialization

We will accomodate the requests of families to the best of our ability, within reason. If someone tries out for a performance or development team, we will do our best to find a collection of athletes with similar skills, abilities and commitment levels. We also take friendships, school enrollment, and carpools into consideration. 

If in our estimation, an athlete does not have the skill that is appropriate for a performance team, we may reach out to the family to discuss a developmental team being a better fit. These cases are rare, as athletes at this age are capable of drastic improvement in a short time frame, if given the opportunity.

We do not make cuts, every athlete will be offered a position on a team.