College Volleyball Walk On

My 2012 setter is enjoying the recruiting ride but I can see her having to make some big decisions soon. 

She plays for an upper third team on the open national level and has an offer from one and interest from a few other D1 schools as well as some D3’s that there is no way we can afford. Her dream school contacted her yesterday wanting a conversation about walking on (school for ’12 are all gone). 

This is probably the highest level vb school that has looked at her, and it has all the majors she is interested in. I am inclined to support her in finding out what she needs to in order to make an educated decision. The setting situation is there would be two jr setters when she arrived and one is a very elite player.  

Here are the questions I am thinking she needs to ask. Are there others?

1.       Are you planning to bring other walk on for 2012?

2.       What do you see as daughter’s role on the team?

3.       Providing she is a contributor is there a chance for scholarship in 2013?

4.       Do you honestly see her having a chance to play on the court and in what circumstance?

5.       What would you do if this was your daughter?

6.       If another 2012 recruit you have already offered bails, would my daughter be in line to receive monies? Where is she in that line?

The other question I have is how do we know that the coaches will tell her the truth and that circumstances will not change? We just finished a horrific experience with a baseball coach and our son. Moved half way across the country and found out he had been lied to in regard to number of recruits brought in, his role, opportunity and potential. Has since left the program and is finding a place to play at a lower division because of the one year sit rule. A victim of the NCAA and the former coach’s unscrupulous behavior. 

There are definite risks here that she will have if she would decide to follow this path. Any help or insight you can give is appreciated. I love your blog. C

With the accelerated time frame of NCAA recruiting, I guess I should not be surprised that schools are presenting walk-on opportunities to the 2012 class.  As I have written about in past posts, I would be very leery of accepting or pursuing a walk-on position, even at her dream school, as a junior. 

Your information and observations are correct and you should follow-up on the Dream School, if for nothing else than to provide a point of comparison versus other schools.  What concerns me about walking on at high level VB schools, is that these schools can recruit very talented players each year, and these very talent players can well be more talented than any walk-on player, thus making it near impossible to ever move onto a scholarship or even onto the court.

My initial reading of your email information leads me to believe the D.S. sees talent in your daughter and believe she could contribute as a practice player and an emergency back up setter.  Because of a returning elite junior setter, your daughter will probably not see the court, especially with another junior setter there.  Best case scenario, she gets onto the court her third year in college, assuming this elite level program does not scholarship a top flight setter in 2013 or 2014.  Maybe 2 years of elite level college training and playing spring ball, she can outshine a stud incoming recruit, but maybe not.

This situation merits that your daughter pick this school because of the school (majors, location, pride, campus, food court, etc.) and be OK with shagging balls for 4 years in practice. 

There is nothing other than the word of the coach when it comes to any future with the program or not.  As you learned with your son's terrible experience, coaches will say what they need to say to lock up players.  Whether is is scholarships, playing time, role on the team, ingredients in the pizza, all you can do is hope they are telling you the truth (and college coaches are very adept at selling their version of the truth).

I believe your questions to the coach are correct, and for kicks, let me answer them as most typical college coaches would in caps for each question, to see how close I come to the D.S. answers?

In closing (see my typical answers below), I would caution you to commit to a walk-on spot this early - Let the 2012 recruiting cycle play out longer, because the setting position takes a bit longer to work its way through the scholarships.  There is still plenty of water in the bathtub for the 2012 recruiting class and there are many good schools which need or will shortly need setters.

Coach

1.       Are you planning to bring other walk on for 2012? We are looking at a couple of other players in other positions, but we don't anticipate adding another setter walk on right now.

2.       What do you see as daughter’s role on the team?  We want her to compete for the setting position but we understand it will take some time and she can help us in practice immediately.

3.       Providing she is a contributor is there a chance for scholarship in 2013?  Of course, we like to reward walk-on players that contribute to the program but we just can't commit to anything now.

4.       Do you honestly see her having a chance to play on the court and in what circumstance? We would not offer this walk on opportunity if we did not feel she can help us.  Her ability to play depends on how she transitions to the college game and what the team needs.

5.       What would you do if this was your daughter? We have a great school and a great volleyball program so I believe this is a wonderful opportunity to be a part of Giant State U.

6.       If another 2012 recruit you have already offered bails, would my daughter be in line to receive monies? Where is she in that line?  We don't anticipate any of our 2012 PSA's backing out of their commitment and should a scholarship come open, we would look at what our team needs at that time.  I can't really say where she is in line because she is an incoming freshman setter and has not transitioned to the college game.