When it Comes to Playing in College, Staying Home is Probably Your Best Choice

If you have a pulse, you have heard the phrase that, "the grass is always greener on the other side." It's a saying which literally dates back thousands of years. The poet Ovid in his “Art of Love” about 2,000 years ago said that “the harvest is always richer in another man’s field.” In the 1500s, a Latin proverb cited by Erasmus of Rotterdam was translated into English by Richard Taverner as "The corne in an other mans ground semeth euer more fertyll and plentifull then doth oure own.” (The corn in another man’s ground seems ever more fertile and plentiful than our own does.) Finally, a song recorded in 1924 by Raymond B. Egan and Richard A. Whiting proclaimed, “The Grass is Always Greener in the Other Fellow’s Yard.” I've wanted to write this article for quite a while now, and this seems like the right time to do it. The aforementioned phrases seem appropriate when it comes to volleyball recruiting in Nebraska. Yes, this is the hot bed for talent. There is no better state in the continental 48 states at producing talent on a per capita basis than Nebraska. Schools from across the country flock to our state to pull players away to feed their programs. To an extent, that's a good thing. But, has the allure of playing Division I volleyball made the grass seem greener in places where it really isn't? The hard truth is that it has. While the growth of volleyball has been awesome on a national scale it has also led to an undeniable fact that the Division I level of the sport in college is very - VERY - watered down. There were 336 Division I volleyball programs in 2018 and a lot of them - and I mean A LOT - were very, very bad. Very bad. This might be the part where you call me crazy, and that's fine. You won't be the first and certainly won't be the last. But, let me hit you with some knowledge quick - the truth is that Nebraska's top two Division II programs - Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State - are better than probably a good 200-225 of those Division I programs. Put another way, if you put Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State into any non-Power 5 conference at the Division I level, they are easily in the top half of those conferences and likely contending for an NCAA Tournament berth on an annual basis. Just remember, last year Wayne State beat Iowa in a preseason scrimmage - and with all due respect to the Wildcats - that was an average Wayne State team last year. Now, you want to know what's even more crazy? You take the top NAIA programs in Nebraska - Midland, Hastings, Concordia, Bellevue - those teams could hang with half of the 336 Division I programs in the country. The teams Midland and Hastings have had the past few years could have legitimately competed for a non-Power 5 Conference championship. If you think I'm crazy, there's probably a simple explanation for it. You simply haven't gone and watched a local college volleyball match lately, have you? Give it a try and then convince me I'm wrong. Like clockwork, every year there are a handful of really good high school players that leave the state of Nebraska and go to low-end Division I programs across the country, maybe play in front of 200 fans a night more than 500 miles from home and after a few months cut bait and either quit the sport or transfer back to a program back home. It happens all the time. All. The. Time. It begs the question as to why really good players would want to go to a really bad program far from home. I suppose it's the allure of being able to say that you're a "Division I athlete" or that your daughter "committed to a Division I school" and that sort of stuff. But, frankly, it's a trap. It really is. Now, don't get me wrong here. For the record, I'm all for the Kyla Swansons of the world to choose Illinois or Raegan LeGrand and Elle Glock to choose a national power like USC in the heart of Los Angeles. I totally get that. A chance to play in the NCAA Tournament every year, compete for a national title. Heck ya, that's a good choice. Going to a school that has never been competitive, has never come close to winning a conference title and is not playing against good competition and is more than 500 miles from home ....... well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Oh, and those really bad Division I programs - they own you just as much as the national power Division I programs do. Forget coming home much, getting much down time or social time. And certainly don't expect to be the Big Woman on Campus. Of the 336 Division I programs last year, take a guess how many of them averaged more than 1,000 fans per home match. Go ahead ...... I will wait. The answer - 54. Now, let me remind you that Midland University averages over 1,000 fans per home match. Last year when Washburn played at Nebraska-Kearney, the attendance was 2,119. A total of 1,354 watched Wayne State play Northern State. You see where I'm going with this? Check out some of these scant average home attendance figures for Division I programs. Missouri-Kansas City - 290 Villanova - 227 Rutgers - 353 UNLV - 394 San Diego - 675 Louisville - 803 Arkansas - 624 Alabama - 575 My point here is that some of the best volleyball players in the state need to get it out of their heads that Division I programs are the pinnacle. They are not. Here is Nebraska we are blessed to have three great Division I programs. Nebraska and Creighton regularly get the best players in the nation. And, they regularly get a couple players each season from Nebraska. If you're not getting a chance to play at Nebraska or Creighton, why in the world would you not want to be a part of what Matt Buttermore is building at Omaha? Huge, beautiful arena, first-class coach, a chance to write history at a program that is on the cusp of being a NCAA Tournament team and that all your friends and family can watch you play at. And if you aren't getting a chance to play at Nebraska or Creighton, why wouldn't you consider playing at Wayne State (did I mention that they just added Beach Volleyball and will be traveling to all the warm-weather locations for tournaments in the spring) or Nebraska-Kearney (did I mention their new TERAFLEX court and huge attendance). And don't scoff at this - but before you consider an offer to some place like UT-San Antonio or The University or Maryland-Baltimore County or something crazy like that, go watch at NAIA local match and tell me that's not great volleyball in a great environment that would allow you to have a social life, good athletic-academic balance and to compete at a high level and for national championships. I bet you'll be surprised at what you find if you get out to a local college match. One of the biggest mistakes kids and their parents can make is thinking, "oh, I could play there" without ever having watched a match in person. Give it a try. And remember, coaches are always trying to recruit players BETTER than what they have now. So, don't watch and thinking, ya, I could make this team. That's not going to cut it. Go to a match, watch it and ask yourself if you could start at that program. Because, if you're at Wayne, Midland, Kearney, Hastings, etc., and you're starting, then you're a helluva player. As an example: At Wayne State, they have outside hitters like Katie Stephens (an all-time great at Papillion-LaVista) and Kelsie Cada (best all-around player in the state last year). They've got a former all-state setter in Rachel Walker, they've got a handful of former all-state players for the back-row, they've got front-row players touching 10'5 and so on. Can you do that? Can you compete at that level? At Kearney, that roster is loaded with a who's who of former all-state players like Anna and Maddie Squiers, Josie Cox (who was part of one of best North Platte teams ever), one of Grand Island Central Catholic's best players ever in Emma Benton, Bailee Sterling of Kearney who came back after a year at Northern Colorado. The list goes on and on. How about Midland? Heck, just about anyone can go play at a NAIA school, right? Wrong. Better put your big girl spandex on to play NAIA around here girl. You want to be a libero at Midland? Gonna have to beat out Taliyah Flores for that - good luck. You want to set? They've got two of the most accomplished high school setters of the decade in Hope Leimbach and Bree Burtwistle. You want to be an attacker? Better be jump-touching 10 foot or pretty darn close to it. Oh, and by the way, incoming freshman Maddie Wieseler - she turned down a chance to play at Nebraska to play at Midland. True story. She wanted to play, so she chose the Warriors. It's not much easier out at Hastings with big time players (and former all-staters) like 6'2 Hastings St. Cecilia grad Lucy Skoch - who is a left-handed kill and block machine, 6'1 Emily Lenners of Freeman, 6'2 Marlee Taylor of Sandhills-Thedford, setters like St. Paul stud Claira Thede and Millard South's Jaisee Stinson - who was one of the best all-around female athletes in the state during her high school career. At Concordia, Bellevue and other NAIA programs it's the same story. Now that there are new recruiting rules in place at the Division I level, those programs aren't able to really start recruiting kids until the summer before their junior years. That means this is the perfect opportunity to get out and get to know your local NAIA and Division II programs during your younger years. Go watch them play. Get to know the coaches. Follow their accounts on social media. Because, once you take an honest look at the Division II and NAIA programs in our state, you'll see why those schools are the PERFECT choice for 90-95% of you that won't get the chance to play at Creighton, Nebraska or Omaha.