What I Learned Updating The Illinois Class of 2025

The Prep Dig Class of 2025 in Illinois has been updated with somewhere around 200 athletes listed.  How does this list come together?  What's the story behind it?  I have it here for you! 

The Process

Whenever I go through a rankings update I take the current rankings, transfer them to a spreadsheet and instead of red ink, it's red text where I know I need to make changes.  From there it is a deep dive into rosters on club websites, AES, All State lists, club social media pages, past articles I've written, cross checking information on our Prep Dig site - point being I want to make sure that this is something I do not take likely.  Athletes are able to claim their profile in our “Player Prospect Index” where they can control their own information.  For the Class of 2025, this will be extremely helpful when committing to your future school.  Athletes can add their college to their profile as well as make any changes.  On our database, the majority of college coaches are not concerned about the number of the ranking, but are looking to see where athletes are playing club and if they are already committed. 

Athletes Marketing Themselves Marketable

I cover athletes all over the country.  I have done rankings updates in multiple states as well as nationally.  I am so impressed with how these athletes have marketed themselves in a positive way.  This is kudos to the club coaches, high school coaches, and parents who are mentoring these athletes.  I will always double check information as well as look for highlight videos and will type into Google, “First Name Last Name Volleyball”.  For 90% of these athletes, their name is linked to a recruiting site, Hudl, or some type of highlight video that popped up right away.  We have nearly 200 athletes in the 2025 Illinois class alone.  Now think of this on a national level with college coaches.  Seriously, great work to the athletes and those mentoring them in their ability to market themselves. 

The Changes

At this point, there aren't a ton of changes in regards to rankings.  However, we did add over 50 athletes in this update which all of them don't automatically go at the end.  Some of these athletes are coming into their own and have found the right spot whether it be a certain position or club that has led them to success.  There are also athletes who have gone on to be successful in different sports.  One athlete in particular I found very interesting is MaTaia Lawson MaTaia Lawson 5'7" | OH Andrew | 2025 State IL who was a standout outside hitter/DS for 1st Alliance who is now one of the top softball commits in the country from the Class of 2025 - she's heading to Texas. One thing about Illinois compared to most other Midwest states is the insane amount of depth.  I don't like to always base everything off collegiate level, but Illinois will have 40-50 D1 commits from each class.  There are athletes playing at high academic schools across the country.  The variety of schools that these athletes are choosing are so exciting.  

The Additions

I'll be the first to admit, we miss athletes on rankings updates.  It happens.  Whenever I add athletes to a rankings update I will often think, “How did I miss this one the first time around?”.   This 2025 update, I wanted to search for athletes outside of Chicagoland.  I was able to see HP Illinois 17s play at a couple events, Illini Elite has plenty of athletes who are the best in Central Illinois as well as the rest of the state, and there are also athletes playing club outside of Illinois.  I'll check with others in volleyball around the state to see who I need to know about.  One who jumped out was Hinsley Everett Hinsley Everett OH Norris City-Omaha-Enfield | 2025 State IL who plays club at Evansville United and preps at Norris City-Omaha-Enfield who is a very physical attacker and a potential steal at the next level. 

And So Much More To Add…

Heading into summer there will be plenty of events for more coverage of these athletes.  What is exciting about the Class of 2025 is that many of these athletes will be making their college decisions soon if they haven't done so already.  There is one more high school season left with so much promise to follow whether or not they continue with volleyball at the collegiate level.  This has been fun to track the Illinois Class of 2025 with plenty more fun moments to report.