Knoxville Volleyball Academy vs. K2 vs PR

[beachboy]

First of all, my bad on the AA thread comment, old age rears its ugly head once again, oops!  Interesting comments from Volley22.  I am sure there are parents from K2 that would have positive comments as well.  And we will probably hear from some of them.  One question for the club parents.  Why are the kids really playing club volleyball?  Is it for the love of the game, or promises of a college future in mind.  Maybe it is a combination of both.  I am asking that question out of genuine curriosity.  Also another thought/question to ponder, after kids play a long season of club volleyball and then go into high school volleyball (some right away), what is the burn out factor by the time they are seniors?  Thanks for your thoughts, they are very good and very informative.

[EBTHER]

Closed Practices, very strenuous work outs,  sometimes adult language is used,  travel with the team and not the parents so parent cant coach them  and undermine the coach before and after games, oh and throw in playing at some of the toughest venues they can against he finest teams in the country.  Sounds alot like College Ball.  I had often told my daughter if you want to "play around" we can save ourselves a lot of money and play local rec league..  If you want to "PLAY!"  Train hard,  get on the toughest team in town and play the toughest competition you can.  These are the things that will make you better.  i m sure that KVA will have some great coaching but will they push the girls that want to play serious ball in the future?  That remains to be seen.  Are K2 coaches tough on the kids? Sure are.  Do they demand the perfection from them.  Yup!  Talk to any UT player and they will say that it is nothing compared to Patrick and his staff. I feel that the K2 staff is preparing the kids that can hack it to play at the next level.   If your kid wants to "play around"  find  good rec league or play highschool ball.  If they want to play for at the next level and get there college paid for.  Do your research!  Fancy Gyms and Coaches that don't want to hurt your daughters feelings about their skill level may or may not work for your kid. i think alot of the defectors from K2 will be from parents that want to control the coaching staff and dictate what the club will do, and also the parents that think their kid is the best player and cant understand why their kid did not make the 1 team. who knows those parents may go start their own club for their kids so they can be on the 1 team.  Just saying. 

[bratman]

I will weigh in. I played for a state championship level program in high school, a competitive D1 college and spent a few years playing minor league pro ball. My oldest daughter played for a strong group of high school coaches at AC, played for the K2 people when they were still with Smokey Mountain and played college volleyball.

 

Several high school coaches impressed me in TN. As I've said before we had powerful coaches at AC, Coach Jones at Catholic was great, Coach Brock at GPS and Coach Berry in middle TN were all better coaches than my daughters college coaches. The husband and wife tandem who are now at K2 were her club coaches. The wife was solid, and I thought a good teacher. I thought the husband was a wannabe coach.

 

Coaching is teaching, motivating, getting the player to do her best. Club is good for certain things, but to be honest, I was not blown away by any of the club coaches. My daughter benefitted by playing club because she got to touch alot more balls in the offseason, and as a result she became a better fundamental player. But, I did not like the player first mentality of club, and I think she got burned out by her soph year in college.

 

Very few, if any, of the players in east TN will become elite vbers in college. East TN is basketball country. Club is a business, go into it with that in mind.

 

Coach Jones, Coach Harshbarger and Coach Cantrell are really good coaches, as good as you will find at high school. There is alot more to coaching than teaching a spike. Life lessons are taught. Be wary of who you let your girl be around. A bad club coach can do worse than teaching bad habits, they can break spirits.

 

Other than the husband and wife team at k2 I don't know any of the new club coaches. I would not let my daughter play for a team where I was not allowed in the gym. That is not debatable, these are high school girls, not college athletes.

 

You don't have to play club to play in college. At the bigger schools it is all about athleticism. At the smaller schools its about charachter and coach ability. I would not let a coach scream at my daughter. That does not build charachter it breaks spirits. Be careful of clubs, do your homework, and ask the local high school coaches who have been around, and who are respected. These coaches will give you an honest answer.

 

Remember, these clubs are run to either make money for the people who own them, or to help a specific high school program like PR, or both. They are businesses. No one is licsened or monitored, they are selling a product.

 

Club has a place, and can really help a player improve, but do you homework.

[bigbluevolley]

Beachboy. To answer some of your questions. As we all know, all kids are different. I think the majority of girls play at PR just to play, have fun and stay around their classmates. I think the majority of K2 girls play for the love of the game and the goal of playing in college. It will be interesting to see the make up of the KVA girl. I think it a may be a mix of the two. The "burn out" thing is really the toughness of the girl and how bad she wants it. I am not saying that if a girl gets burned out she is lazy or doesn't want it. I'm saying that burn out happens and volleyball isn't for every one.

 

To Bratman. There are VERY few good high scholl coaches in the knox county area. If you think you don't need to play club to get a scholarship at the next level then you are sadley mistaken. A girl that doesn't play club may get looks from a D2,D3 or NAIA school but high level D1 schools are not looking at "high school only" girls. No way no how. Just ask ANY D1 coach if he recruits through high schools. The answer is 100% no!!!!

[bratman]

Big blue I don't disagree with you. The only high school coaches worth a dime when we were in the area in knoxville were the guys at AC and coach Jones at Catholic. I don't doubt that hasn't changed. In fact, some of the coaches were just awful. Most of them, in fact, just didn't care. But you can't say that all of these club coaches are top shelf. You probably have a couple that are good, but I wouldn't pay several thousand dollars for most of them. Good volleyball coaches in east TN are rare, high school or club.

 

But....I dare say that there are that many D1 prospects in knoxville. Here in Iowa, to play in the big ten, a hitter has to contact a ball at 10 feet. MBs have to contact higher. Can any player in Knoxville contact the ball at 9 feet? Probably not. Play all of the club you want, if you aren't a special athlete you are not playing big time ball. Do you agree? Also, don't rag on the smaller schools. In TN Lee, where Hopi's daughter played, could have beaten alot of D1 schools.

 

Blue, you are right, IF an elite athlete wants to play at a big conference D1 school they have to play club. But when was the last time that Knoxville produced that caliber of player? Club will not make you 6 3 with big jumps. In Knoxville the better athletes play basketball, not volleyball.

 

There are some great high school and club coaches out there. But there are more duds. Don't look at club as a ticket to D1.

[bigbluevolley]

Brat

 

I agree that there are not a whole lot of good coaches. When you talk about paying though you have to put the payment in perspective. I think 3k is what the K2 people pay. When you break down the cost of uniforms, tourney fees, facility fees etc etc the person coaching your daughter for 7 months is probably getting around $400.

 

There are not a lot of high D1 prospect here. There are only 250k people in knoxville. All D1 players are "special athletes". I'm not ragging on smaller schools. Just stating facts about how each level recruits.

 

We are seeing a trend of good female athletes finding volleyball. They are also liking what they have found. You watch, the new era female athlete in knoxville will chose volleyball over basketball. Bearden has 2 big girls that were basketball players and now have chosen no more basketball. CAK has a big girl that was an AAU basketball star and now will not play basketball any more. That's the trend.

[bratman]

I thinks that fantastic. Blue, which club would you pick? And am I wrong about wanting to be in the gym while my daughter practices. Also, is it fair to scream at these kids? Do you agree about checking out the new coaches?

 

Also, do you respect any of the local coaches?

[bigbluevolley]

I would pick K2 or KVA. I would do some big time homework on both of them and then go with my gut.

 

I can understand how some would want to be in the gym. I don't care either way. I think it should be the parents option, unless the parent gets out of hand.

 

I have played sports and so has my whole family. The screaming doesn't bother me as long as it is not done to demoralize the athlete. Most coaches around here want to win and so I am comfortable with yelling to motivate. The ones that yell to demoralize are few and far between.

 

Yes. You should know your coach.

 

I respect all coaches. I think you mean do I think any of the coaches are good at teaching volleyball. My answer to that is....there are some that are good volleyball coaches. Most have no idea what they are doing but are very good people.

Edited September 18, 2013 by bigbluevolley

[bratman]

Who are the good ones?

[EhsVBCoach]

Just throwing my 2 cents in, I played big time college ball and won ALOT of games and my coach never once used "adult language" towards me or my team...so no, it does not sound like college ball to me.  I also coached at the college level and none of that language was used by me or my head coach.  That's all.

[bigbluevolley]

Ehs.....That's great. Glad to hear you didn't use bad language and you didn't need anyone else to use it on you to motivate. No one said that using bad language is part of "college ball". I don't think cussing is good but you have to understand, these kids cuss themselves. If you think your kid doesn't cuss then you need to reevaluate. There are some and I mean a very small some that don't but for the most part they do and their friends do. When a coach cusses that doesn't mean they hate you or they think you stink. That's just their fo

[bigbluevolley]

Brat........Who are the good what??