Boys 14 & Under Club

[Coach]

I'm a current club coach (girls) and want to start a boys club next year in conjunction with the current club I coach for. I'm just looking to gauge the interest. I would start with a 14 & Under team only (perhaps more if the interest is higher). Any advice on how to spread the word would be great!

[all for boys]

Currently, there is a boys' 14 and under group with MVP and interest has been cyclical (sometimes good, sometimes not as good). At that age, boys are still playing soccer and basketball, etc. Once they get into high school and either get cut from the other teams or, in Montgomery County, try boys' volleyball, their interest goes up since volleyball is such a great sport. So, to get more boys playing it seems like two things might work: 1) make club volleyball accessible to 12,13,14-year olds who also play another sport (that is, make practices convenient and fun and make weekend commitment level reasonable). And 2) try to start by creating a team for the 15- and 16-year old kids who try volleyball as a freshman/sophomore in high school and like it. Those kids can also try out for MVP's teams and if it turns out that there are enough to support two clubs, great!
Of those two things, the first may be more difficult. There are only so many hours in a week for sports, and since there aren't many club teams in the area, for a young team to get any tournament experience, they will have to commit to at least a small amount of travel. So it's tough to keep it reasonable and also develop a relatively competitive team. and if the team never gets to play tournaments, the boys don't get the feel for what the sport is all about (that is, a team that only does practices or scrimmages isn't going to keep their interest for very long). Also, if the pool of 14-year olds is split too thin in the area, then both clubs will lose out because neither team would be able to compete at a decent level. That might be an argument for you to join the staff of MVP rather than start a new club - quality coaches are always welcome there and if there are a lot of boys (if you, say, recruited a bunch of kids who are new), two teams can easily be supported.
Just my two cents.