Prep Volleyballers Flock to the Clubs : Amateurs: The tough competition develops skills, and college scouts are often watching.

Renee Gutierrez skipped her senior prom this year so she could venture to Texas and compete in a tournament for the San Gabriel Volleyball Club.

Gutierrez, who lives in Pasadena and graduated from Sacred Heart High School in La Canada Flintridge, figures the sacrifice was worth it.

After all, the skills she polished playing club volleyball helped her earn a scholarship to UC Berkeley, where she will be a freshman in the fall.

“If I didn’t play club volleyball, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” said Gutierrez, a setter who started playing club volleyball in the sixth grade. “It takes a lot of commitment because it’s a higher level of competition than what we play in high school. Sometimes there are conflicts with other things like the prom. You just have to make a choice.”

As volleyball continues to grow in popularity, more and more girls in the San Gabriel Valley are choosing to join the club.

Club programs, which compete under the umbrella of the United States Volleyball Assn.’s juniors division, typically begin play in the winter, near the end of the high school volleyball season.

The lure of good competition and exposure to college coaches has made club volleyball almost a mandatory supplement to the high school season for players who desire to go on to the collegiate level.

“I’d say that 95% of the scouting by college coaches is done at the club tournaments,” said Walt Ker, the women’s volleyball coach at Cal State Northridge. “A kid would have a tough time being identified if they didn’t play club.”

About 200 girls from Claremont to as far west as Glendale tried out for the San Gabriel club’s nine teams in the 18-and-under, 16-and-under and 14-and-under divisions last November.

Twice-a-week practices began in December and progressed into twice-monthly tournaments from January through the last week of June. The season concluded with the 600-team volleyball Festival in Davis, Calif., and the Junior Olympics, which were held in Florida this year.

San Gabriel’s 18-and-under team finished 14th out of 68 teams at the Junior Olympics. The 16-and-under team finished 19th out of 68.

Art Camarillo, who works in purchasing and procurement for the city of Los Angeles, started the club in 1980 with the help of coaches at South Pasadena and Ramona Convent high schools. Camarillo, 49, still serves as chief administrator and head coach of the program, but each age-group team has its own coach as well.

Camarillo remembers the days when it was difficult to round up enough entrants for an eight-team tournament in the 18-and-under division. Today, there are almost 80 Southern California teams in that division.

“The growth in popularity has been incredible,” Camarillo said. “We’ve had girls from as far away as Chino play for our club.

“We have never said that we can guarantee college scholarships, but we do offer the girls the opportunity to improve their skills and be seen.”

This year, Camarillo said all but two of the high school seniors in the San Gabriel club will attend college on volleyball scholarships in the fall. And Karen Andrews, a junior at San Gabriel High, was invited to try out for the national Elite program that serves as a feeder to the U.S. National Team.

Camarillo also runs a boys’ volleyball club, which consists of two 18-and-under and two 16-and-under teams that play from the middle of October to the middle of December.

However, the boys’ programs are competing against baseball, basketball and football for athletes and are nowhere near as popular as the girls’ programs.

In the San Fernando Valley, for example, there are four different girls’ volleyball clubs.

“Five or six years ago, the kids in Westlake, Thousand Oaks and the Simi Valley area were just starting to play club,” Ker said. “All of a sudden, things are hopping there, and their high school league is so good, they’re playing each other in the CIF championships.”

Last month in Davis, close to 6,000 girls participated in the volleyball Festival. Each team was guaranteed to play between 11 and 14 matches against teams from throughout the nation in front of an audience that included parents, family and college coaches.

Camarillo, who lives in northeast Los Angeles and has been involved with the USVBA for 25 years, started playing volleyball when he was in the Marine Corps. He helped start the San Gabriel club so his daughters would have a place to develop and patterned the program after the highly successful Ichiban club program based in Long Beach.

Participants in the San Gabriel club are required to pay $350 per season. The club holds several optional fund-raisers, including a spike-a-thon, candy sale and rummage sale to help members offset the membership cost that pays for gym rentals, travel and tournament entry fees.

“I’d like to see more minority kids who have potential become involved,” he said. “I hate to see kids left out because they have income problems, so I’ve recently talked with a professional fund-raiser who may help us do some things that will allow us to reduce the fees.

“The more kids that we can get involved, the better the quality of play will be throughout the area.”

Gutierrez saw how far San Gabriel Valley-area volleyball had already progressed during her seven years of involvement. She expects it to continue.

“The (San Gabriel Valley) area is beginning to make a statement,” Gutierrez said. “The beach clubs have always been good. Before, we never even thought about beating them. Now we do it.”