Husky Volleyball was born in the fall of 1999. At the time there really was no junior club volleyball in the northern half of Connecticut (and really just 1 club in the whole state!). Since then, the number of junior volleyball players in the state has easily more than doubled and Husky Volleyball now has more NERVA junior players than any other club in New England. I'm not saying this to brag about it, I'm actually humbled by the experience. Every year we've worked harder to be a better volleyball club. We've continued to provide our coaches more training opportunities than any other club, we've provided all of our players with more opportunities to play every season. We want to deliver the best experience possible to each player during their club season. We are "all in" to help you achieve your volleyball goals - but just as important we are "all in" to make this the most fun you can have playing the sport you love. You'll make new friends from other teams and meet some great coaches.

Opening The Den in the fall of 2013 was just our first step in a whole new adventure. I can't lie (I'd be setting a bad example if I did!), it takes a lot more work to run our own building. The good news is that it's so much easier now than our first year at The Den. Now we have so many opportunities open to us that weren't available when we were renting all of our gym time at other facilities. We're just starting to scratch the surface. I'll always welcome your suggestions for new programs and offerings (we've already implemented some great ones!). We continue to invest very heavily into the program to provide the best experience possible. That investment is comprised not only of a great facility to train in, but it's also an investment in time. It's time that we spend planning our season, time we spend training our coaches, time that our coaches spend training our players and lastly, time we spend evaluating all of our efforts!

One thing that's more of a challenge for a large club is communication. We've always done a pretty good job with our website and Facebook page, but I miss the days of knowing the names of every single player and parent too. I'm a lot older now (and that means my memory probably isn't what it was back in 1999), but I've had the pleasure of spending more time than ever getting to know our (much larger) volleyball family. I think we balance out being a pretty large club that maintains a small club vibe.

I do know that other clubs may be trying to define what we are, what our philosophy is and how we run our club... but I'm here to tell you that you should ask us directly! I can tell you for sure that winning is completely unimportant to us, our success is a by-product of our philosophy and process. We don't provide any sort of sales pitch, we're upfront and we tell you what we do, how we train our coaches and what you can expect this season. One criticism that we have not heard is that we promise one experience and deliver something different.

I'd like to open communication with you, especially if you're undecided about playing Husky Volleyball this season.

If for any reason you played last year and are going to take this year off from playing Husky Volleyball, please feel free to contact me personally to let me know how we could make this a better experience for you this year. We'd really like to have you back! Sometimes players feel that moving to another club can provide them more opportunity, but make sure that you actually have that opportunity. If you check the New England team rankings last year you'll find that if you take out our top ranked team at any age level that our 2nd, 3rd, 4th and even 5th ranked teams finished higher than other clubs #1 teams!
Did you play for another club last year and are thinking about playing Husky Volleyball? Feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have.
Are you brand new to Husky Volleyball? You may have read all you can on our website but still don't have a good idea of how it all works. Please email or call! I'd be glad to go over it with you.

I'm looking forward to our best season ever and would like you to be there with us. One thing that I'm fairly certain of... if you invest the time, we can help you achieve your goals.

Pat Ryan
Director, Husky VB
patryan@huskyvball.com