College Volleyball Recruiting: Where to Begin
As a former college coach and recruiting coordinator I can say that the “fit” between the athlete with the school is the most important outcome and should be the focus for every recruit. Whether you are a Division I prospect…
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Continue ReadingAs a former college coach and recruiting coordinator I can say that the “fit” between the athlete with the school is the most important outcome and should be the focus for every recruit. Whether you are a Division I prospect or looking at DII, DIII, NAIA, and even two-year schools, it is important to find a school that makes the best sense for you. Establishing and maintaining communication and doing your homework will certainly help the process result in a satisfied decision. As most volleyball athletes have a good idea what level they will play at and even perhaps a short list of schools by their junior year, for younger athletes, the start of the recruiting process can seem daunting if you don’t have the right guidance or know where to begin. Here are 10 tips to get the process going.
1. Play A Lot of Volleyball
Play, play, play. Play a lot of volleyball. The best way to improve your skills is to play. Additionally, the more you play the more you will determine whether or not you want volleyball to be part of your college experience. Being a college student-athlete takes a lot of time and commitment when considering all other elements of college related to academic responsibilities, social opportunities, and any other activities your college choice will have to offer. If you are able to establish the work ethic and balance throughout your high school and club career then you are good candidate to be able to handle what is expected and required at the next level.
2. Know The Rules
The various college governing bodies (e.g. NCAA, NAIA, etc.) have several guidelines in place for coaches regarding communication, contact, dead periods, official visits, and formal offers. Be sure to know these rules as you get started with the process. One of the biggest gaps to close for those early in the process surrounds the rules. The more you know the better off you will be. Further, there are rule changes often so keeping up-to-date on that language will be to your benefit. Searching online for volleyball recruiting rules should result in some current information for you regarding what college coaches can and cannot do and the associated timelines related to recruiting. Also, rules for NCAA DI, DII, and DIII are different from each other while NAIA and two-year schools have different rules information all together.
3. Fill Out Recruit Questionnaires
Most schools will have a recruit questionnaire posted on their website. I encourage you to take time to fill this out for the schools that you are interested in, even if you are not sure you would actually attend that school. As their are volleyball athletes all over the country it is tough for college coaches to see all of them play. But, if a coach has an athlete in their database it is in their best interest, if possible, to try to follow-up and see each athlete compete so that they can get a true and real-time evaluation of them. Knowing that an athlete is interested in their school is a big part of the process. Then it becomes about whether or not the skills and intangibles (e.g. work ethic, attitude, grades, etc.) meet their needs. Additionally, questionnaires are typically developed to ask specific information that the program is looking for about prospects. As you fill out and submit this information it then gets loaded into their database of recruit information and is updated as the process moves forward. For schools that have scholarship money to offer recruits, I encourage you to have in the back of your mind whether or not that is a priority for you or if you are willing to “walk-on”. Walk-on situations are essentially when a recruit agrees to enroll in a school (if admitted) and joins the team without a scholarship being offered. These opportunities are often ways that athletes create experiences within the programs they are most interested if scholarship availability is limited and at times can lead to these athletes receiving a scholarship later in their college careers if available and earned.
4. Write Your Own Emails and Letters
It is really important to understand that college coaches are not recruiting parents. College coaches are recruiting future student-athletes. Therefore, it is imperative that the athlete is doing the communicating. Coaches need to have that direct experience with the prospect in order to get a full evaluation of the individual off the court. A big red flag and deterrent for college coaches are helicopter parents that choose to insert themselves into the process when they should not. Certainly, there is an understanding that this is a big deal and making the right choice can be tough to do on your own as a teenager. So, the best use of parents is in preparing for your communications (e.g. what types of questions to ask, etc.), evaluating the information you have gained, and helping you to stay the course. Writing your own emails and letters is also a great opportunity for your personality to come through, which is important so that coaches get to know you as a person and not just someone they have seen play volleyball time and again.
5. Send Film
Any time I received information from an interested prospect I immediately wanted to see her in action. Whether a skills or game clip, any opportunity to see the individual and her movement patterns, skills, and athleticism would give us, as a coaching staff, an indication of her ability to play at our level. With recruiting today being so competitive at every level, learning about an athlete’s ability to play early in the process is ultimately what will impact the nature of the process going forward. It is best for the coaches and recruits to know early what the potential is to be recruited to each school to which the recruit contacts. Prolonging a process that does not really have a chance of going too far will save everyone a lot of time and effort. Film helps to answer some of those initial questions. My suggestion for film is to include raw game action. I always liked to see the athlete playing with her teammates, in a competitive situation, and in the context of her rotating around the court. As skills tapes will help to pinpoint and highlight specific movements and mechanics of which there is value to a college coach, they are also limited in what they provide because these often are very controlled situations. Consider developing film that has a bit of skills and then actual game action. I’ve always felt that the best platform for film was a link that directly accessed film posted online. A platform such as YouTube made it very easy to access and share with other staff.
6. Use Your Network
Hopefully you are in situations with your high school and club teams that have coaches who are knowledgeable of what recruiting entails, are familiar with the rules, and have some level of a network among college coaches. College recruiting rules do not prohibit college coaches from contacting high school or club coaches. Leveraging your coaches to help with communication early in your process (before your junior year especially) will help to keep things moving at a good pace. The communication between these coaches will most likely be focused upon your skill set, potential, and you as a person and teammate. It is important to understand that your coaches will undoubtedly be asked to represent you in those conversations so developing great relationships with them is in your best interest. Further, using your network to help you determine the appropriate level for yourself is also very important. Your high school and club coaches have most likely been around you the most on the volleyball court and therefor would have the most objective opinion and knowledge about your skills and abilities. Having truthful conversations about the appropriate level for you will help you be efficient with your recruiting efforts overall.
7. Make Some Campus Visits
Even though you may not have a narrowed list of schools early in your process, make some visits anyway. You are allowed to request and schedule unofficial visits with as many schools as you would like to see. The more comfortable you get with that process the better off you’ll be in your ability to be yourself as you step on campus, engage with coaches, and hang out with potential teammates. Further, as each school is different from the next, visits should spend ample time learning about academic programs, available resources, and anything else that represents the overall culture for student-athletes and not just the volleyball program. Also, be prepared for these visits. I can recall frustrating visits when the recruit was not prepared, limited her engagement and communication, or when her parents drove the process. Visits are a great way to learn what you like and don’t like about schools (e.g. housing, size, facilities, etc.) and what you want your full experience to be at the next level. You are investing time and money to make visits happen so it is in your best interest to use these opportunities to your advantage.
8. Research School Resources
Coinciding with making campus visits, do some homework about the school prior to your visit by searching online, learning about their programs, and preparing some questions about what you learn. If you know what academic field you might want to study, it is in your best interest to try to arrange a meeting with someone representing that area. These individuals around campus are the experts of their courses offered and degree requirements and can speak to how all of that will work with being a student-athlete. Not all schools will have clear relationships or even great communication between the athletics staff and the academic departments around campus. It is never safe to assume that just because you are a student-athlete that faculty will accommodate you. Having some of this knowledge might be helpful. Additionally, be relaxed and confident when given the opportunity to have conversations with various athletics, academic, and administrative personnel. As mentioned before, the more you engage in these experiences the better off you’ll be going forward in how you engage and knowing what you would ultimately like to gain from the visit. One important piece of information to find out is each school’s admissions standards. Some colleges will require higher levels of achievement regarding grades and test scores than others. Knowing these standards early in the process will be helpful.
9. Attend Summer Camps
One of the best ways to get to know a coaching staff and their current student-athletes is to attend their summer camps. This certainly can be expensive and challenging if schools you are looking at are a good distance away from where you live. However, the biggest benefit of attending their camps is so you get to train under their guidance and teaching directly. These opportunities will be great indicators of their coaching style and type of volleyball they play, provide extended time around campus, perhaps allow you to play among and against other recruits, and usually will allow for some socializing among the current team that will help you learn more about the program’s culture.
10. Be Patient
I encourage you to approach recruiting as a process and a journey. Every recruiting experience is different for each athlete. Let the process help you develop the full range of information needed for you to make the best decision for yourself. As mentioned at the top, the fit is the most important aspect. The college coaches are looking for athletes that best fit their program and their needs, so each recruit should be approaching this with the same mindset. The more you communicate and visit with various coaching staffs, the more you will know about what matters to you. From my experience helping athletes with this process, as they continued to develop the list of priorities they knew they wanted at the next level, this led to easier sorting of schools (e.g. yes, no, maybe) with a small group eventually emerging for them. Ultimately, you are in control of this process until a school tells you “no”. I encourage you to take your time. Additionally, opening your search criteria will undoubtedly create more options for you, some perhaps very exciting and that you may not have considered at the beginning.
Good luck with your process. Do your homework. And most importantly, be yourself.