The Volleyball Tryout Evaluation Form, Category by Category

At 12U, cut the form to serving, passing, athleticism, and coachability, and score the serve as in-or-out rather than by zone. Most 12s are mid-transition from underhand to overhand, so placement scores mean little. By 14U the full eight categories apply. At 16s and 18s, add discrimination inside the categories you already have: shot selection under a set block, out-of-system attacking, and serve-receive from jump-float serves, because at that level everyone passes the easy ball.

Run the form in one of two formats, or both. The per-player sheet is the format above: one page per player, the eight categories as rows, an evidence note beside every score. Use it at stations and for the players your callback decisions hinge on. The compact roster sheet flips the layout: one row per player, the categories abbreviated across the top, a whole court's group on a page or two. Use it when one coach is watching wash play across a full court and wants every OH candidate comparable at a glance.

The roster sheet gives up the notes column, and "shanked 3 of 8 in serve receive" is exactly the note that settles an October parent call, so keep per-player sheets for the bubble. The downloadable pack below includes both formats, plus a team sheet that totals each row automatically and a draft board that ranks the group from the scores.

The form is half the system; collecting and tallying it is the other half. On paper, plan one runner per court collecting sheets each rotation, and budget a late evening adding totals in a spreadsheet before callbacks. Scored digitally in Rizzler, each coach enters scores at their station and the ranked list builds itself as the tryout runs, so the coaches' meeting starts from a sorted board instead of a stack of paper. The Team Tryouts workflow handles registration, check-in, station scoring, and offer tracking for up to 300 players on the Club plan, and the volleyball evaluation template ships pre-loaded, editable on Pro and Club to match your club's categories. That is hours saved between the last serve and the first offer email, which is exactly when club directors have the least time. Pair the form with the tryout drills that make each category visible, and see the volleyball tryouts page for the full workflow.

Six to eight. Fewer than six and you can't separate positions; more than eight and evaluators stop filling in rows by mid-tryout. The standard eight are athleticism, volleyball IQ, serving, passing, setting, attacking, blocking, and floor defense, with two or three observable skills inside each.

Use 1 to 5 on paper and 1 to 10 in an app. Five points is fast with a pen; ten points separates a large field better when tapping is as fast as writing. Either way, define what the middle number means per skill before the tryout and calibrate evaluators on the first few players.

Same form, different weighting. Score everyone on all eight categories so you can compare across the field, then weight setting and IQ for setter candidates and passing and floor defense for libero candidates when you rank by position. A separate form per position makes cross-position comparisons impossible.

Paper works fine under about 25 players with two or three evaluators. Above that, totaling sheets becomes the bottleneck: a 60-player club tryout generates over 1,000 individual marks. Digital scoring totals continuously and lets you sort the field between sessions, which is when cut and callback decisions actually get made.