How to Get Ranked in Texas?

We often get messages from parents, players, and coaches that ask “How does one get on the Rankings list?”  While it can be a complicated answer to some, the main goal is to work hard at your craft, market yourself, and get Prep Dig scouts to your court to watch you in person, on a streaming service, or through game footage uploaded to any platform that allows it.  Let me break this down so it can help you not only get on our scouts watch list, but on a college coach's watch list also, which is way more important.  You will not get recruited just because you play club.  Clubs will not do all of the extra work for you.  You must do the extra work to get noticed!

Train hard

When players train hard and become master's at their craft, it will stand out during their performance on the court.  Hard work always showcases itself in different ways.  Anyone who has a say so with your volleyball future will want to see that hard work come to fruition with actual play.  They will not just take someone's word for how good you may be.  We actually want to see it in action for ourselves so that our evaluation comes from it.  You cannot control how someone views you, but you can control how hard you work at improving at your passion.  So continue to outwork your opposition because there are only so many spots on a college roster and they will go to someone.  So don't let someone take what is yours.  Nothing will be handed to you, so you will need to work for it.  I strongly suggest you go watch Kobe Bryant YouTube videos where he talks about his Mamba Mentality and all of the hard work that went into his training.

Market/Advertising

Everything is limited by time.  There are only so many hours in the day for our Prep Dig scouts to watch players in person or on video.  So in order for you to stand out to them, put your name in front of them. 

Do not ever feel like you are bothering us.  We welcome all of the information.  Honestly, it helps us stay efficient by having it right at our fingertips instead of having to search around for it.  Those players who stay in communication with us stay in the forefront of our minds. 

Prospect Index

Our website has a FREE prospect Index which can be used to put your information into our database for FREE and you can even upload videos to it in order to help you get noticed. Click HERE to access it and get in front of our scouts and all of the college coaches in our database for FREE!!!!

Social Media

Get a TWITTER account.  Follow our company Twitter - @PrepDig.  Yes I know our kids love pictures and video on Instagram, but Twitter is great for recruiting.  Yes it can be used for some crazy things, but lots of players use it wisely when it comes to recruiting/scouting.  Don't just think that because you have your video posted that someone will see it.  Push it out!!!!! Tag someone.  Send it to someone.  Market yourself!!!!!!! Over and over and over and over again.  Hustle for what you want.  Social media is the best place to do it!  Stay active with it. 

Video

In order to market yourself, you must have some sort of video recorded of your play.  It doesn't matter whether it is practice scrimmages, recruiting combines, or tournament play.  Nearly everyone has a cell phone with a camera on it.  There is no need to spend hundreds of dollars on a video camera anymore to record.  Upload that video to any recruiting site that you use like Hudl, SportsRecruits, Maxpreps, NCSA, or any other site.  You can also do it for free by creating and uploading it to YouTube. 

Nominate

Lastly we would love if everyone spreads the word about other players also.  In this day and age we all need help.  This world would be a better place it everyone just helped a few more people instead of just focusing on themselves.  Our sport is so wonderful because the community is always so supportive of each other.  Let's continue this trend and send our scouts some nominations of players that stand out to you.  Help this sport grow by sending a quick message.  YOU can make a difference in someone else's life just by being the catalyst that started the communication to highlight someone.  You have no idea how big of an impact you can make by just sending a quick message saying, “Hey bro!!!! check out this kid….”  It can be as simple as that and just as huge in the life of a player.  I will list my email address and all social media handles in order to send that message.  I hope you will be selfless and all nominate a few players for us to have on our radar. 

We are super proud of our growth over the past couple of years.  However, we are still looking for some more players to add to the State Rankings.  We update the State Rankings every three to four months to make sure that we stay current.  Please drop us some names of players that you think deserve some recognition for their hard work in their craft.  Not all of the players have to play on varsity for their school team or even on a top club team.  There are plenty of these wonderful players who will blossom later into studs and will be able to play college ball.  First you get on a Watch List.  Those players will be carefully evaluated to be considered for the Rankings List.  Once we agree that the skills of a player are at the level of others, we will add the player to the Rankings List.  It takes a lot of time and we truly want to give every athlete the proper respect of evaluating them well.  Some players will stay on the Watch List, some will fall off of the Watch List, some will be added to the Rankings List and some will fall off of the Rankings List.  It is a live document that keeps being edited throughout the course of the year because everything is constantly changing.  Stay positive and continue to work hard. 

You can email me, send me a direct message on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook if you follow me or are friends, or even send me a text if you have my phone number.  My email is Michael@prepdig.com.  All social media of mine can be found by searching @CoachMikeDZ.  Our company social media can be found by searching @PrepDig.  Who knows…you might just be the one catalyst to help someone get the exposure they need in order to help them realize their dream of playing at the next level.  Let us know who we are missing out on!!!!

Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite athletes.  If you have anyone you think we should watch out for, please shoot me an email with some info at Michael@prepdig.com.  Also don't forget to help these kids get more exposure by sharing our stories with your friends.  Help us help them by simply retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook.  Thanks for following Prep Dig Family!