No High School Volleyball - What to Do?

Hi Coach! My name is Faith and I am very interested in playing volleyball in college. I enjoy playing it so much and I always wanted to play on a team. Unfortunately, my school does not have this sport so I haven't been able to play it at school. I play it very often though for fun. I was wondering if you knew if volleyball teams or clubs or anythings in Pennsylvania. I would be extremely interested in any of them. I would also like to know  how I can become a better player in this sport and if there's anything important I need to know about this sport and the process of getting to play it in college. Do you need to let the college coach know your going to play it a year ahead? I would love to be a pro like you in this sport one day! Thanks so much!!!  F.W.

Thank you for your e-mail and I am glad to help.  First of all, I would encourage you to take some time and read through my collegevolleyballcoach.com site, as it should provide some valuable answers about college volleyball recruiting, along with training tips.  Also, if you want to be Old School, you might consider checking out my book, Inside College Volleyball, as I have captured a bunch of information for VolleyFamilies!

If you can locate a good club volleyball team, then I would not worry too much about not being able to play on a high school volleyball team, as a number of Prospective Student Athletes are choosing to skip their high school seasons because it allows them to rest in-between club volleyball seasons.

Please click here to go to your USA Volleyball Region Association for Pennsylvania (and anyone else who does not know your USA Volleyball Region, click here to see your map!), which is the group who organizes and administers club volleyball.  The bottom line is that Talent creates Opportunities for collegiate volleyball.  You will need to play club volleyball, as you are not able to play high school volleyball.  The better you can develop your talent, the more opportunities you will have to play collegiate volleyball.

The current communication protocol, is that PSA's are beginning contacting collegiate coaches their freshman year and continuing this outreach contact until they commit to a school.   Some PSA's commit as freshman, which I don't usually support, while others are committing spring of their senior year.  With a later collegiate commitment, the players are continually reaching out to collegiate programs from their freshman year well into their senior years.

As you cannot play high school volleyball and you are trying to find a club team, you may wish to consider joining NCSA Athletic Recruiting as a client family because they can greatly assist you in your outreach efforts to collegiate programs, along with dedicated volleyball information for understanding the often crazy world of collegiate athletic recruiting.

Coach Matt Sonnichsen