Is Nebraska to Blame for Early Recruiting Issues in Volleyball?

According to the leading volleyball recruiting site, there are eight freshmen that have already committed to play volleyball in college. Three are committed to Nebraska - Kennedi Orr, left, Lindsay Krause, center, and Alexis Rodriguez, right. It was June 18, 2009, when the headline in the Lincoln Journal-Star read, “Twins are Youngest Players to Commit to NU.” And with that, the public was made completely aware of the fact that Amber and Kadie Rolfzen had committed to be Huskers about two months before starting their freshman year at Papillion-LaVista South. To put that into perspective, the earliest anyone had committed to the Huskers prior to that was when Jordan Larson committed shortly after the end of her sophomore year at Logan View. The Rolfzen twins topped that by two years. Nationally, a lot of people like to point to that as the opening of Pandora’s Box when it comes to recruiting players at such an early age. Ever since, Nebraska has been pointed to as the instigators in the race to recruit kids as early as possible. Is that fair? Probably not, but it all depends on how you look at it. If you’re looking for someone to pin this early recruiting on just based on circumstantial evidence, though, Nebraska would certainly look guilty to the novice inspector. As of today, according to RichKern.com – the leading recruiting database for volleyball in the nation – there is just one 8th grader who has committed. That’s Mckenna Wucherer who has committed to Minnesota. Nationally, there are eight 9th graders committed for indoor volleyball in college. Three of those are headed to Nebraska – libero Alexis Rodriguez of Sterling, Illinois, Kennedi Orr of Eagan, Minnesota, and outside Lindsay Krause from Skutt Catholic. Currently, there are five players committed to Nebraska that have not finished their sophomore year. The recruiting world has changed a lot since Larson pledged to the Huskers. For those keeping track at home, Nebraska is now up to 14 commits from the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 classes. Some of those commits are walk-ons, but NCAA rules only allow 12 scholarship athletes per year to be on a Division I volleyball roster. And, let’s not forget that Nebraska has offers still out there to players within the that four-year range, so the number could easily increase from 14 in the coming months. Of course, given the current state of transfers – and other forms of exits from a program - in the college volleyball ranks today, over-recruiting has become somewhat common. That’s basically a school offering more scholarships than what are available because there is an understanding scholarships will free themselves up via transfer or other means. Because there are realistically only a few more openings for scholarship players that are currently in high school at Nebraska, it shouldn’t come as a shock that scouting 8th graders would be worth the Huskers’ time. So, while Husker assistant Kayla Banwarth did check in on 2020 recruit Kalynn Meyer of VCNebraska at the Abbott Sports Complex on Sunday, she also spent a fair amount of time watching Nebraska Elite’s top 14s squad, which features some of the best 8th graders in the state. Yes, big-time college programs are legitimately recruiting 8th graders. Or, at the very least keeping very close tabs on them. That’s the reality of the world we live in. And Nebraska, as one of the best programs in the nation on an annual basis, is always going to want to be in a position to get the best players. It’s the nature of the beast. And based on the fact that Nebraska very well could have commitments from the best attacker, setter and libero in nation in the Class of 2021, Nebraska is not only a leader in the recruitment of young kids, but is the best at it, it would appear. But before you deliver a guilty verdict on Nebraska being the poster child as to why volleyball needs to change recruiting rules, look a little deeper into how we’ve gotten to where we are today. Yes, the commitment of the Rolfzen twins to Nebraska before they had even gotten to high school was a watershed moment that changed volleyball recruiting forever. I would ask, however, how that process could have gone any other way. As 8th graders, the Rolfzens were already 6’2 and could jump-touch over 10’0. They had the strong body types and they had the “it” factor most athletes only dream of. It took about two minutes of watching them – even at that age – to know they were special and had what it took to compete at the highest level. Conversely, going back to the Journal-Star article from eight years ago, being a Husker was what both Amber and Kadie had always dreamed of. The Rolfzens committing to Nebraska before their freshman year made sense because the Huskers obviously wanted them (who didn’t) and they obviously wanted to be Huskers. But then, a funny thing started to happen. Suddenly, it became OK to court kids in 8th and 9th grade. There’s a big difference, though, between locking up big-time talented kids in that age group that are within an hour’s drive of campus and canvassing the country looking for them. The commitment form the Rolfzens was the Nebraska doing the first, other schools leaped right into the later. As things tend to do, the race to recruit young kids then got out of control very quickly. And it’s gotten us to where we are today – where everyone is watching the 14s court looking for that incredible talent that they can get to before the next coaching staff. It’s why Banwarth has to be watching the top 8th graders in the state, because she knows over the course of the next couple months those same 8th graders will be traveling around the Midwest getting all kinds of exposure in front of all the big-time colleges. If Nebraska (or Creighton or Omaha for that matter) isn’t showing an interest in the state’s top 8th graders but other big-time schools are, well, that opens the door to potential rivals. Consider the latest in-state product to commit to Nebraska before starting high school – Krause. Before you point to her commitment as another sign that Nebraska is recruiting kids too early, you should know that Iowa offered her after her 7th grade year – a full year earlier than when she committed to Nebraska. When other schools are coming into the state and offering players before they’ve even started 8th grade, can you really say Nebraska needs to back off on how early it is looking at and offering kids? If you really think any major college coach wants to be spending their time watching 14s volleyball and taking phone calls from 8th graders – and trying to hold meaningful conversations with them – and filtering through the bazillion emails and highlight videos they get sent from 8th graders, you’re crazy. Perhaps the Rolfzen commitments to Nebraska were the starting point for really young kids pledging to colleges, but to say the blame for the state of today’s recruiting trends in volleyball should be blamed on Lincoln is laughable. The truth is that the blame should be shared equally among all coaches, programs, the AVCA and NCAA for not addressing the issue earlier. Fortunately, it appears that is starting to happen and there is good momentum taking place to slow down the process and maybe – just maybe – middle-school kids can start worrying about high school before college again.