College Volleyball Try-Outs - UPDATED

Hello,

I am the director of an AAU club in Michigan and I am wondering when the official date for a college in the NAIA division is to tell a player if they have or have not made a team? Or when the date for official tryouts is?

I have tried looking for this information online and have been unsuccessful. Any help you can provide would appreciated. Thank you, G.C.

(Please see below for a NAIA rules clarification provided by a NAIA Volleyball coach!)

I am not very familiar with the governance of the NAIA rules, but I don't think there is an association wide rule about tryouts and making at team; you can click here to review the NAIA site. My instinct would be that each school would determine the tryout date (if they have one) and what the protocol is for determining if a player makes a team.

This information would most likely be on a school by school (program) situation and to find it out, you would need to contact each NAIA program. You can follow the highlighted link to at least get a listing of each institution which sponsors Women's Volleyball.

With NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball, we are not allowed to have any tryouts for incoming PSA's, but many programs may hold some type of tryout for current college students. NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball can have tryouts for PSA's and to this end, many programs will have their PSA's play with the team on campus visits. For NCAA Division III, I am not too sure - Maybe one of our readers who is familiar with DIII could give us some information via the Comments on this article?

I wanted to pass on this information because it tends to affect the game plan for PSA's which may be considering the walk-on route. Within the NCAA DI and probably many DII programs, the days of the open tryout are long gone. Coaches tend to be way too controlling in the acceptance of non-scholarship players to just hold a traditional open tryout for roster spots.

SAW THE QUESTION REGARDING NAIA TRYOUTS, ETC. THOUGHT THIS INFO WOULD BE HELPFUL.

SECTION C. CAMPUS VISITATIONS AND TRYOUTS OF PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

a. Individual or group tryouts may be conducted, on the member institution's campus only,

for the purpose of assisting in the assessment of athletics promise if tryouts are a part of

the general institutional policy in the evaluation and admission of students with special

talents. Tryouts, where permitted, shall be limited to no more than two days for a

specific student at a member institution.

b. No part of the travel expense, meals, and lodging of prospective students making

visitations to an institution shall be paid by the institution unless such practice is a part

of the general institutional policy in procurement of other students with special talents

and not only for the express purpose of securing athletes.

NO OFFICIAL DATES FOR TRYOUTS OR NOTIFICATION OF MAKING A TEAM.

LIKE MOST SANE COLLEGE COACHES, I WILL ONLY HOST 1-2 PSA'S PER VISIT

TO OUR CAMPUS OR TRYOUT WITH OUR SQUAD.

ALSO FYI- NAIA RECRUITING RULES

It is important to know that the NAIA does have recruiting rules; they re simple and straight forward. We do not have

recruiting calendars at this time, and we don’t have recruiting restrictions for high school PSA's.

We are permitted to contact PSA's as early as we would like to in their career — freshman, sophomore,

junior year — that is all perfectly permissible, and we can contact them at any time and as many times as we

think is appropriate in order to recruit the student to our institution.

In the case of junior college PSA, we can initiate contact with a two-year college prospect once that student has

completed the academic year in which he or she is charged with their first season of competition by the junior college.

NAIA coaches are restricted from initiating contact with a prospective student at another institution. However, if we are

contacted by a student who is attending another institution, it is our responsibility to send a letter in writing to that institution

within 10 days letting them know of the contact. After you have sent that letter to that institution and can reasonably believe

that letter has been received, then you can continue the conversation with the student.

GOTTA LOVE THE NAIA! Hope this info assists you