How Can Athletes Utilize a Rankings Update?
Throughout Prep Dig, March is a season where there are plenty of rankings updates around the country. Our goal at Prep Dig is to update our rankings two to three times a year in each state. The ranking is more than a number, the key word in this I always like to emphasize is “Update”. How can athletes and coaches best utilize a rankings update?
What Goes Into An Update?
I have done rankings updates since 2018 when I first started at Prep Dig with Prep Dig Wisconsin. The thought of ranking athletes was scary, I thought it was essentially trying to take a test to see if I would get the rankings “right”. There is no answer key, this isn’t a test, rankings are simply a tool. We provide one of the larger databases in volleyball where in my most recent update there are 199 athletes in the Iowa Class of 2027 alone. The Class of 2026 in Wisconsin have over 350 athletes listed. I will do a deep dive into rosters on AES, club websites, All State lists, even a simple Google search to see where players are at in terms of their club volleyball. Are there players we miss? Sure. Are these rankings subjective? Yes. However, the update can be a useful tool for athletes and college coaches.
Updating Information
Claim Your Profile! Keeping up to date on club changes can be quite the journey for our scouts. I usually see the most club changes from the 15s to 16s age group. This is a huge help if athletes are able to claim their profile and keep their information up to date. This allows for our Prep Dig scouts as well as college coaches to keep up to date in regards to where athletes are playing club. For many of our juniors and seniors, athletes can also update when they make their college choice. Between updating club teams and college commits, this allows for athletes to be in control of their own information. When talking to college coaches, they aren’t looking at the number of rankings, they are more so looking at who is committed and where the athlete is playing club.
Player Profile Example:
Using Your Player Profile In The Recruiting Process
Many athletes have a recruiting profile attached to emails that they send to college coaches. I encourage athletes to do the same with their Prep Dig player profile. When an athlete is written about, the article will be tagged to their profile. This doesn’t just go for articles, this is any picture that we have in our media gallery of this player as well. This will list other high school and club teammates. Athletes are also able to upload highlight video as well as academic information as college coaches are able to use this as a search tool.
This Is a Process
I had a parent ask me where do I even start at some of these big tournaments. Great question. I will bounce around to different courts, but January to Presidents Day I will watch a lot of the 17s. Presidents Day to the beginning of April I’m watching a lot of the 16s. The start of April until nationals I am watching a little bit of everything, but I’m trying to watch a lot of 15s as they head into what is typically a breakout year for their sophomore season. The reason why I am waiting on 15s is because that age group progresses so quickly. Seeing 15s in January versus seeing them in April is so different. From a 15s rankings update to a 16s ranking update we are typically adding our largest number of players. For the Iowa Class of 2027 update, there are 75 new players. We see more players as they start to have more success at the high school and club level. This isn’t a solo job either, when I do a rankings update I am checking in with others on athletes and what their range would be and also checking on information that needs to be updated.
