Season Timing

Every year, we get questions about the formatting and timing of the school and club seasons, so I thought I’d go over it here.

The timing of boys and girls volleyball seasons is built around the academic calendar. And clearly, priority (and money) goes to the girls. In the simple chart above, we see that the girls high school season runs from the start of the school year in mid-August through November. Their club season follows immediately and lasts until nationals in late June or early July.

There are a couple of subtleties in this schedule. For one, girls club teams are built around earning a bid to USAV nationals. In my opinion, too many girls teams call it quits if they don’t earn a bid to this tournament, opting to end their seasons early. For me, this represents a positive feedback loop, where an early failure leads to more future failures. Why not attend AAUs or another, smaller tournament late in the season as your ending? Why choose to get fewer reps, especially as a developing athlete, in a sport that you (hopefully) enjoy?

Second, for some regions, girls tryouts have recently moved to late July. The idea here is to try to bundle high school and club tryouts in the same time frame, at the beginning of the academic year, as a way to avoid the stress and anxiety of having tryouts loom throughout the year. I’m not sure yet if this is working, but I think the idea comes from a good place.

For boys, the season layout is more complicated. The boys fall club season runs from mid August to early February. They then take a break for the high school season that runs from late February to early May. The boys club season then reconvenes in mid May for the Summer season, which ends in early July. Every power or travel boys team goes to nationals, which has fairly recently shifted from USAV to AAU for competitive teams. Unlike USAV nationals, there is no bid system for AAUs, teams simply sign up for the division they want to compete in. This is slowly changing, and if the sport grows large enough, will eventually necessitate some sort of bid-like system. Ironically, the bid system we hated on the boys side is, in a way, a future goal.

This final point is better served in a different post, but I see the gap between seasons eroding. Players, families, and coaches used to enjoy a month or two off between seasons. Now days, kids are genuinely playing year-round. Holiday closures are getting harder to find. Club tryouts have been replaced with month-long pre-tryout marathons. Taking a real break between seasons is important, not just for physical health, but for mental health as well. Everyone wants to maximize their reps and their development, but more does not always mean better. Encourage your kids to take a step back from time to time, hit pause, and see the big picture.