Volleyball club costing teen scholarship?

Teen sues after not getting PT on club volleyball team.

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Teen volleyball player takes her dispute to another kind of court - The Washington Post

 

Top-quality playing experience is definitely the commodity offered by most youth sports club teams.

As high school competition becomes more and more irrelevant in college recruiting, these lawsuits are going to mushroom.

 

The story I read said the girl wasn't allowed to transfer to another team, even though she had an offer. As much as I hate lawsuits in youth sports, I hate AAU scumbags even more.

 

According to this, high school girls volleyball players have a 6.2 percent chance of playing in college, at any NCAA divisional level, NAIA, or junior college. And about half the spots are for D-III, NJCAA, or other, which are shown to be non-scholarship, although of course, there are academic scholarships that are seen as "need-based" for athletes.

Volleyball Scholarships & Chances of Playing College Volleyball

Meanwhile, her parents are spending $6K a year for college exposure, and she isn't even getting playing time with her team, but thinks the team is costing her a scholarship. Why would a college want to offer a scholarship to someone who sits on the bench for an AAU team, unless that team's starting lineup is spectacular?

 

Yep.

This thread started off on completely the wrong foot and is mislabeled and miscast from the beginning. The club is completely in the wrong here.

The club was happy to take her money.

 

From the story:

Audrey said she could miss a pivotal season this spring and thinks that a large, controlling league has lost sight of its primary mission: encouraging kids to play sports.

This ain't Little League, young lady. It's club sports, and it's meant to make a profit, especially off of players and parents who are dreaming of being that 2 percent that will earn that college scholarship.

 

Baron, you're the one who thinks NCAA players should be able to transfer anywhere at any time. Why do you want this girl stuck on a team that is not in any way educational but is just a sign-up business?

This is all-too-typical behavior among club coaches. They are like cell-phone companies -- they will tell you anything they can to get you to sign up, then they don't give a shit about you once you're committed.

 

My issue with NCAA transfers is the hypocrisy in that athletes are restricted in terms of who they can transfer to, and that they have to sit out a year, while coaches are allowed to jump their contracts for other teams and can coach the next year, for greater profit, while the players receive the same compensation.

If the club coaches are allowed to jump to different teams while players cannot, I would not like that either. If the coaches cannot jump, then the players should not be permitted.

What the story also seems to indicate is that she wanted to jump to another team during the season, and the coach was willing to let her go, but the league was not unless it was a special circumstance. College players already have the one year rule in terms of sitting out, which also counts for during the season. The rationale is reasonable, in terms of not having players jumping from team to team during the season, which could cause chaos. What's not reasonable is the NCAA's transfer rules, which may be loosening up as more media attention is gained and how the courts are watching.

 

Actually, it's the league that's really driving the issue. The club has tried to accommodate the girl, even though I'd bet money it was spelled out very clearly that playing time was not a given. That is certainly the case with my daughter's club. Why the league is doing what it's doing is beyond me, though ...

One of my golf buddies has a granddaughter who was a bad-ass club player and got (and is still on) a full ride at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. She's good, probably their best player, and really fun to watch even to someone who doesn't know shit about volleyball (e.g., me). He tells the story of when she was a 9th- or 10th-grader, the club (my daughter's club) had convinced her to play one level up, involving traveling to tournaments across the country (and, of course, more $$$$). Once, her parents flew to and spent two days in Florida for a tournament ... and their daughter never got on the floor.

 

Most clubs, at least as far as I've seen, are pretty careful not to make any specific promises of PT.

But almost all the coaches are quite willing to give the players ( and parents) lengthy song-and-dances about how great they'll be at "the next level," (whatever that is) if they soak up their secret Jedi wisdom.

 

And, from what I've seen and heard, it's not just volleyball, it's soccer, travel baseball and softball, basketball ... the list goes on. All in pursuit of that full ride that, in most sports, doesn't exist.

 

Yep, it's a byproduct of club sports superseding HS sports in the talent-development chain.