Deciding between club and high school teams

During the off-season of high school sports, students continue to work hard to perfect their skills and keep a competitive edge by committing to club teams.

In any sport, playing for a club is a very different experience from the typical high school team. However, athletes have varied preferences toward both teams.

The options for club teams range all over the area, pooling kids from different schools to form teams and practice their respective sports. Reasons to join a club team depend on the player: to keep in shape, to improve their skills or because they simply love playing the game. Some students choose to play all year round, managing both their teams and schedules.

“I play for Northern Virginia Volleyball Club,” Junior Carrie Ceh said. “It’s a club team, but a lot of people from other schools play on it.”

This past season, Ceh played for the school’s varsity volleyball team. Her club team lasts from December to the end of May, and then conditioning for high school volleyball begins in the end of summer.

Choosing to practice even after their season has ended rewards players with benefits.

“It keeps you in shape and works on your skills better because you have a different coach than your high school coach and by the time you come back you have improved,” Ceh said.

Over-all, high school coaches agree that club teams are more helpful than anything. Nearly half of the swim team participates in club swim during the off-season.

“Club swims costs money so it’s completely up to them, but it’s good for them to find some way to get in the water when it’s not swim season and they want stay competitive with the team,” swim coach Mara Palen said.

Sometimes the benefits of playing club outweigh all other options of playing for a high school team. Junior Conor Moran has had to make this important decision this year for playing tennis.

“I emailed the coach, and I asked if I can start practice 20 minutes late for my club practice but he said he wouldn’t allow that and that I just need to leave my own club practice 30 minutes earlier,” Moran said. “I just can’t do that; I can’t be missing practicing with national level players and kids that will challenge me.”

Moran practices tennis at Fairfax Racquet regularly. Last year, he played seeded No. 2 for the varsity tennis team.

“The benefits are definitely high-level coaching, high-level kids, much more structured practices and a lot better feedback from the coaches,” Moran said. “You can always go to a higher-level racquet club, but you can’t go to a higher-level high school team.”

When choosing a club team over the high school team, a player is sacrificing all the parties and dinners, the matches, secret pals and the bonding team spirit.

“If I want to play in college, it’s not really worth missing club tennis,” Moran said.

club sports Issue 6, Sports