Does my child need a physical?

You do not need a physical. By registering online, and arriving at your tryout or first practice, you are acknowledging that your child is physically fit and healthy. 

What age group can my child play in?

USA Volleyball’s cutoff is July 1. Before that day, you must play an age older. To calculate your age of eligibility, please use our calculator on this page.

What days are practices? What times?

Travel team: 2.5 hour practices on Sundays (with the exception of Boys 17s and 18s, which is Monday nights).

Practice only team: 1.5 hour practices on Sundays.

My child has never played volleyball before. What are the chances she makes the travel team?

That is very hard to determine until tryouts. In general, if you are trying out for 14 and under, you have a better chance since most other athletes have never played organized volleyball. 15 and older is very competitive since most have played high school ball by then.

What is the difference between regional team and travel team?

There is no difference. The travel team travels within the region to compete against other clubs. Please note that other clubs have multiple levels and may have a different definition. At other clubs, you may see National, Regional, Local, etc. You’ll need to reach out to those clubs to get the specifics of what is included with their teams and programs.

What are the costs?

Girls Info

Boys Info

Where do you practice?

Boys Travel: Abundant Life, Nutley

Girls Travel:

• Abundant Life, Nutley
• Mary Help, North Haledon

Girls Non-Travel

• Mary Help, North Haledon
• IHM, Wayne
• PS2 Athletics, Wayne
• St. George Church, Clifton

How long does the season last?

Boys: Mid-September through the end of February.

Girls Travel: November through the first week of May

Girls Practice (non-travel): First weekend of January– First week of April.

How far are the events? 

We try to keep the tournaments and events within an hour’s drive. We were 90% successful at that in 2023. No tournament was over an hour and a half away (with the exception of the non-required additional sleepaway tournament).

Does NJVBC provide transportation? Or do I have to drive my child?

We do not provide transportation to practice, tournaments, or events. We encourage the players to set up carpools.

What discounts does the club offer?

Siblings: If you have 2 children in the club, we take 10% the total. If you have 3 or more, we take 15% off.

Military/Veteran: Parents, if you are currently in the military or were honorably or medically discharged, your child will receive a 10% discount.

I want my child to “play up” (play for an older team). OR: My child is young for her grade. I want her to play with her grade level. Is that possible?

It is NJVBC policy that a player must tryout for the age group assigned by USA Volleyball. You can view that chart here. Your child still needs to attend their age group’s tryouts. However, if we believe they are ready, we have no problem moving up a child to an older age group. If a request is denied, please do not take it personally – we will not move up a child if they will not get much playing time at an older age. This is why it is imperative to show up to round 1 of tryouts. If a child scores way above the rest of her peers in her age group, we will automatically invite her to round 2 for an age group higher.

If you or your child decide to try to show up for another age group without asking, they will not be allowed to tryout. We see hundreds of girls every year, and our rubric provides us the information necessary on whether your is child ready to move up to another age group.

Do you offer travel teams for ages 12 or under?

If you’re Age of Eligibility is 12 or under, you will follow the “13s and Under” schedule above. Please reference our Age of Eligibility Calculator to determine which travel team you are eligible to tryout for. Currently, the earliest age group we offer travel teams to is 13. If your player is younger and insterested in travel, we encourage them to tryout for the 13s travel team. Please note that if you are 11 or younger by the Calculator, we highly recommend starting with our practice only, non-travel team to learn the fundamentals.

Is there a tryout or tryout fee for the non-travel (practice only) team?

No, you just show up!

When, and how, do we pay our dues?

If you are trying out for a travel team, there is a tryout fee:

• $60 for girls travel tryouts.
• $40 for boys travel tryouts.

We only accept cash at the door for tryouts. No other form of payment is accepted for tryout fees.

For both travel and non-travel teams, payment is due at the first practice. Cash or check is accepted. You can pay in full, or pay in payments over four months. More information about the payment plan will be emailed to you as the first practice gets closer.

My child needs to miss a tournament due to another commitment. Can I be reimbursed?

Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate those requests. We prepay everything in club volleyball (jerseys, tournaments, gym time, insurance, etc.) before the season even begins.

When are the tournaments and events?

We cannot book until December 1st, so we do not know either! However, all tournaments and events will be on Saturdays or Sundays. We will do our best to keep tournaments and events to Sundays.

Girls: Tryouts are from mid-October through mid-November each season. We try to finalize the girls event schedule each season by Dec. 15.

Boys: Tryouts are mid-September. We try to finalize the event schedule by mid-October each season.

What time will my practices be? Who will be my child’s coach?

High school coaches cannot coach the players from their high school. Therefore, we have to see who makes our travel teams first, then we will assign coaches to them. We also have to work around our coaches schedule. Therefore, we cannot answer these two questions until after tryouts.

If my child doesn’t make the travel team, will that hurt their confidence?

We get this question all the time – and we can’t answer it. Only you know your child. From past experience, we noticed that are only two things that are going to happen if they do not make the travel team:

1) They will join the practice team and work as hard as possible to make the team next year.

2) They realize they didn’t really like volleyball to begin with, and quit the sport.

Honestly, neither are a bad thing. We want athletes to love the game, but we understand that not everyone will.

Do you offer spring and summer camps and clinics?

Absolutely! Please make sure to subscribe to our newsletter, as well as follow us on social media.

Spring clinic: We have an outdoor spring clinic in Clifton for beginners starting in May. Registration for this will open in March. This is Sundays only.

Summer camps: We have one week long camps from Monday – Friday for ages 9 – 18, seperated by skill level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Our advanced week is our Volleyball Boot Camp week for varsity players only.

Summer clinics: We have once-a-week clinics. In 2023, we held our doubles (2 vs 2) clinic every Wednesday night, where we taught players the rules of beach volleyball on the grass. This was held in Clifton at Stefan Tatarenko Memorial Park.

How many tournaments would we need to commit to, and how many per month? Are there tournament fees that need to be paid in addition to the season fee?

All team members must attend all practices, tournaments, and events. This is a season-long commitment. By accepting the travel team spot, you took a spot that someone else could have had. We understand things will pop up from time to time, and you can communicate those with coaches. However, showing up to practice once a month and/or only showing up only at tournaments is unacceptable.

Are there tournament fees that need to be paid outside of the season fee?

Nope! However – we cannot control parking fees, admissions fees, etc. The cost you see on our website includes everything (except the optional Girls Sleepaway Tournament, which is an additional $350).

Would you have an Open and a Club Team?

We do not play Open (also known as Power League). The teams are split by level. If we have three teams in the 13s age group, we would keep 36 of them and have 12 players per team.

Does everyone have an opportunity to play? Are there specific factors that would count negatively towards playtime?

Due to substitution rules, there is no such thing as equal playing time. It is impossible. Everyone gets an opportunity to play at every tournament – but you might not play in every single set. We try to balance out playing time to not only give everyone a chance but also, to keep everyone fresh for playoffs.

The factors that would affect playtime are:

– a negative attitude towards other players, coaches, referees etc.

– not attending practices, tournaments and events.

Once we try out, how soon will we receive notice of acceptance? Will a rejection notice be sent as well?

We will send out emails to all tryout attendees, informing them of whether they have been selected for the travel team or not. Those emails go out within 72 hours. Once you receive that email, you have an additional 72 hours to accept or decline the spot.

Are tryouts closed to parents? 

Yes. There are too many issues of parents trying to interfere in previous years.

Are there any additional expenses not listed on the website?

Nope! Other than parking fees, tolls, food, etc, we list everything you will pay to play for us for the season.

Is my child tall enough to play volleyball?

The beautiful thing about volleyball is we have a spot for players of all heights. Players on the shorter side can become liberos or defensive specialists, which mean they primarily play in the back row. Some of the best players in the country at the college level are under 5 foot 9!