Club Philosophy 

Sky Volleyball believes that developing the complete volleyball player comes from a combination of quality coaching, teamwork, and game experience. 

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Club Goals and Values

·   Team First.  Play as a team and practice good sportsmanship. Every member of the team is valued for their contributions to the program.

·   Respect.  Respect the ROOTS of the game.  Rules, Opponents, Officials, Team, and Self. 

·   Love the game.  Have fun learning, working hard, and putting forth your best effort.  Love the challenge that the game brings to you.

·   Practice and Play at a competitive level to prepare for the next level.  Always try your hardest in practice and in games. Work to be a better player and person at every practice.

·   Balance academics with athletics.  Successes on the court and in the classroom go hand in hand.  A successful athlete can manage the commitment between sports and school work.

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Premier and Power LEague

In club volleyball, there is both Power League and Premier League.  

Power League is the more competative league where teams travel throughout the Northern California Area.  This could range from Truckee to Fresno.  Many power league teams are also trying to win a bid to the Junior National Championships in July by travelling further to play in Junior National Qualifiers.  This year we will have a 14's and 15's team in power league.

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Premier League tournaments are more regional, and should be within an hour or two drive from Alameda.  For the first or second year club player in 12's, the premier league provides great competition and the opportunity for a player to develop all their skills.  

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Playing Time

Club volleyball is a lot of fun but you also hear the unfortunate stories of players practicing but, then going to a tournament and never playing.  Playing time is an important part of developing a volleyball player and as long as a player fulfills their duties as a member of the team which includes coming to practice and putting forth a positive team effort, a player will play in every tournament.  

Some things to note:

·   We want to be a competitive club, however, not at the cost of having players sit on the bench.  On the other hand, we are not going to play players based on predetermined minutes, percentages, or an "equal play" rule.

·   As coaches, we want to play all of our players, however, playing time is not equal for all players.  This has to do with position and experience.  For example, some players specialize in the front or the back row, while some players will play all the way around.  Specialization is something that you will see more in tournaments, however, in practices we do our best to develop all the skills of a volleyball player.

·   Tournament matches are played the best 2 out of 3 games. Generally there are 4-6 matches in a tournament, depending on the format.  With 12 players on a team and only 6 players on the court, a player will not play in every game and sometimes not in every match.  Players learn from playing, but they also learn from not playing.

·   Winning is an important aspect of the game, and we are always trying to win, however, we are trying to win and develop volleyball players.

·   Players and Parents need to trust the judgement of the coaches in balancing playing time with player development. We will lose games because we are trying to develop players. We will win games because we are trying to develop players. A parent once told me, "If you knew we were going to lose, you could have at least played some of the other players."  My answer was, "I didn't think we were going to lose."

·   You cannot judge a team or a player based on the number of minutes they play.  I was once asked why a player didn't play a lot during the game.  My answer was that we won too quickly. The answer could have easily been we lost too quickly, but you get the idea.

·   Some great advice I got from a parent was, "When I come to a tournament, I come to watch the team, not just my daughter."

·   Sky Volleyball believes in double-goal coaching.  "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," is NOT what we believe in.  We believe that winning is the result of positive effort and teamwork.