If you cannot go to Virginia to join a club volleyball team, Virginia is trying to come to you.

On Saturday, the Coastal Virginia Volleyball Club held the first tryouts in Elizabeth City for an offshoot organization of the highly successful teams based in Virginia Beach, Va., with a second tryout scheduled for this weekend.

The idea, according to Morghan Bosch, coordinator Coastal Virginia’s 12-15 girls’ teams, is to start a grassroots program in the area for girls that would like to play a high level of volleyball.

“We notice we’re getting more younger North Carolina girls and they don’t want to commit themselves to just volleyball, which they shouldn’t have to at that age,” Bosch said. “But when you’re travel time is an hour-and-a-half and you practice two hours, it really does limit what you’re able to do in conjunction with volleyball.”

Based on the recent success of area players like Lindsay Jones, Francie Jenkins, Ashtin Truesdale and Kellianne Crouse in Virginia, Bosch feels there is a wealth of talent in the Albemarle. It just needs to have an avenue to develop.

“The talent is very comparable in some ways,” Bosch said. “North Carolina has some great athletes, but volleyball is not like football or soccer or basketball where you go out with your family when you have a family reunion or whatever and everyone has dribbled or kicked or done that kind of stuff. Volleyball is different. You have either played it and you know how, or you have no idea how to do it.

“In Virginia they are so far ahead because they learn about volleyball at 8-, 9- or 10-years old and they start playing club at 12. In North Carolina they’re learning about it at high school age really. So you’re looking at like 14 when they start learning about volleyball. It’s not that they can’t do it, it’s just that they are so much later in the learning process.”

Coastal in Virginia currently fields two teams each in seven different age divisions. Bosch acknowledges that building that kind of player pool took close to a decade. Here in Elizabeth City, the teams will begin with younger girls mostly and increase as the players age and move through the program.

“What I would like to see to start is one to two teams in 12, 13 and 14 and then probably one team after that,” Bosch said. “Once they hit 14 and 15, they start to decide, 'Is this for me, do I want to continue?’ Once they hit 15 or 16, they’re really making decisions on what sport to play.”

At the same time, though, Coastal is not coming into the area to necessarily compete for players.

“Softball is much more prevalent down there and my main goal, communicating to a lot of the families down there in the last month or so,
is to let them know we’re not trying to say, 'OK, here comes volleyball, softball is out.’ “ Bosch said. “We’re wanting to make sure we give them opportunity to see what volleyball is about and kind of get in there a little bit.”

One of the big differences between the club team here and the club in Virginia will be travel and expenses. Instead of playing under the United States Volleyball Association umbrella, the N.C. teams will play through the Amateur Athletic Union.

“Volleyball tends to be a more expensive sport because you have to pay for an indoor facility,” Bosch said. “Going through AAU is about a fourth of the cost.

So, we’ve really tried to cut as many corners as we can so we can get more kids involved.”

The new club will also be a help to the community. It will be based in the old Elizabeth City Middle School gym and an agreement is in place that in exchange for court time, the club will help with some cosmetic improvements to the outside of the building as well some upgrades to the gym and playing surface to make it easier to do different sports.

This week’s tryout will be on Saturday at the old middle school and is for girls of middle school and high school ages. The 12U, 13U and 14U teams will tryout between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and the 14U, 15U and 16U teams will tryout between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

For  more information,  contact Bosch at Morghan.Bosch@coastalva.org or can visit coastalva.org.