There are 1,537 teams registered to take part in the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship (GJNC) this week in Dallas with an estimated 19,950 athletes aged 14–17. NYC Juniors, the largest volleyball club in New York, will be well represented with five teams. It is a cornerstone event in the development of elite youth athletes across the U.S.
“The exciting part is that we’ve never had a second team from a specific age group competing,” said Doug Levine, founder of NYC Juniors. “We’ve qualified through our regional championships. [In the past] we’ve had one team qualify, but never ever two teams from the higher age groups … This is a banner year.”
Levine is referring to NYC Juniors’ 14 National and 14 Travel teams, which he said is the most exciting development. “…We’re closing the gap between our top team and our second team,” he said. “They’re getting an opportunity to see what it looks like on the national level because that is a whole different ballgame.”
Sara Atai, head coach of the 14 Travel team, said qualifying the Travel team for GJNC is a huge accomplishment. “We beat a lot of clubs’ top teams to make it,” she said. “We give a lot of opportunities to those who may not be able to afford club volleyball, through financial aid and fundraising. There are a lot of success stories.”
Over 100 college coaches from more than 50 colleges have registered to attend the competition hoping to spot the next Kathryn Plummer, the three-time NCAA Champion at Stanford and 2024 Olympic silver medalist, who competed at GJNC as a teenager. Levine said two NYC Juniors athletes in the 16 and under team are being nationally watched.
In total, 11 NYC Juniors teams are competing nationally, an increase from nine in 2024. The girls 18 age group national championship took place in April in Salt Lake City, and the 10–13 national championship was held in Kansas City earlier this week. Making it is a confidence boost, Levine noted, but the competition is a dose of reality about what it takes to succeed on the national level.
“It illuminates the fact that we’re good, but there are much more competitive teams in the country, and that’s what we can aspire to try and get to,” said Levine. “The main goal is to illuminate the fact that the top level of volleyball, in order to get there, we have some work to do.”