Frequently Asked Questions
What is club volleyball?
Club volleyball gives players an opportunity to play volleyball outside of their school season. In order to be part of a club team, players must try out and be selected. Clubs are independent of each other and may participate in various leagues (such as Power League) as well as independently-run tournaments (such as the Emerald City Classic).
What does a club volleyball season look like?
Once selected to be part of a club volleyball team, the season consists of a set roster of selected players, a consistent practice schedule, and competitions held over the course of approximately 4-6 months.
What do club volleyball tournaments look like?
There are several formats for club volleyball tournaments:
1-day tournament
A 1-day tournament typically consists of 3 or 4-team pools. Each team will play every other team in their pool, followed by bracket play. A 1-day tournament typically runs an entire day, starting around 8 or 9am and finishing around 5pm, although may go (rarely) shorter or (often) longer depending on how long matches take. Matches run back-to-back, meaning the next match will start as soon as the current match ends, whether it is ahead of or behind schedule. Teams can typically expect to play 4 (sometimes 5) matches in a 1-day tournament.
2 or 3-day tournaments
Longer tournaments typically have shorter days, with pool play for the first day or two, and bracket (playoffs) play on the last day. These tournaments usually have two waves: an AM wave and a PM wave, where an AM wave typically plays during an 8am-2pm window, and a PM wave plays during a 3pm-9pm window. Similar to 1-day tournaments, matches run back-to-back and the next one starts as soon as the current one ends.
Tournament responsibilities
In all tournaments, teams have the responsibility of working (reffing) matches for other teams. At the beginning of the season, each player will be required to get USAV certified in line judging, scorekeeping, libero tracking, and being an R2 (down ref). Teams will be assigned to work matches and must delegate players to handle each of these roles. During tournaments, teams can be expected to either: play, work, or be off. Play means they play the match, work means they are reffing a match for other teams, and off means they have a break.
Why are tournament locations unavailable?
Tournament locations are usually released a few days before the day of the scheduled tournament start. Schedules and locations are updated on the SportsEngine website for the relevant event.
Tournaments are held in various locations all around the Puget Sound region, ranging from south Puget Sound (Tacoma area) to as far north as Bellingham.
1-day tournaments will usually be held in one location. Multi-day tournaments can be expected to be in different locations on different days, possibly even on the same day.
What are the age cutoffs for the different teams?
Players must be no older than the maximum age of a team before the club season cutoff of July 1. For example, to be on a U14 team in the 2024-2025 season, a player must be a maximum of 14 years old before July 1, 2025. If they turn 15 before July 1, 2025, they must play on a U15 team (or higher).
Players are allowed to play for an older age group (i.e. someone who is 14 may play for a U15 team), however must go through the same tryouts for the appropriate age group and be selected. Players are NOT allowed to play for a younger age group (i.e. someone who is 15 may not play for a U14 team).
Specific age cutoff dates can be found here (updated annually).