She has traveled to Colorado already this year and Ohio twice. Then there was that trip to the Dominican Republic. Club competition has taken Herndon senior Logan Westphal all over the place in recent years.
But this isn’t club soccer or softball or AAU basketball, where travel teams have been the norm for years. This is volleyball, a sport once popular only in pockets across the Washington, D.C. area that is now booming, especially at the club level.
Westphal and hundreds of local players like her have steadily increased the level of play of area high school teams in part because of the experience and skills developed playing for clubs.
“It’s a higher level,” said the 6-foot Westphal, a first-team All-Northern Region pick at outside hitter for Herndon. “And it’s really broadened my game because you learn from different coaches and they put you all over the court. After playing club I feel like now I can play every position on the front line.”
Poolesville coach Fran DuVall remembers her first practice at the school 10 years ago when only eight players showed up. This year she had to cut prospective players for the first time and nine of the kids who made it have club experience, even some of her freshmen and sophomores.
“It has made a big difference,” said DuVall, who is an event coordinator for the 17-18-year-old age group in the Chesapeake Region of USA Volleyball, the sport’s governing body. “Kids in this area don’t lack the physical ability. But it’s not a hotbed like in Illinois, Texas, Florida and California. The only way for our kids to get exposure from college coaches is to play in these club tournaments.
Westfield junior Kelsey Maloney, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker, garnered nice reviews from recruiters on the West Coast after her performance at the Colorado Crossroads Tournament in Denver this summer. Teammate Catlin Goodman, the Northern Region Tournament MVP in 2005, boosted her skills with Clash Volleyball, a Manassas-based club.
And as the sport has grown so has the number of clubs. DuVall helps run Metro American based in Washington. Clash competes with Ichiban in Manassas and there are almost a dozen clubs in Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria, including Virginia Elite and the Northern Virginia Volleyball Association.
