Managing Club Volleyball and Recruiting

Hi Coach,

You have been very helpful in your guidance. I have a question regarding my daughter and her club team. 

She is a senior playing 18u club (6'OH/RS- we have played club for 6 years). She was on the 2s team but due to the lack of players on the 2s team was moved to the 1s team. The 1s team is very good.  Several have committed to D1s already and all will play D1 or D2. I would consider my daughter a good player but not D1. 

We have had a lot of success getting interest in her. My question though is at the last tournament we had a coach come watch but she did not play. This is very concerning since I feel we are missing opportunities. We have tournaments these next 2 weekends and we have several coaches contact us to say they will be there to watch her. I have emailed the coach in advance so she knows when coaches will be coming. How do I handle this? What should I do? 

I hate to burn any bridges at the club since my younger daughter is on their 12-1s but I feel that exposure should come before winning at this stage. 

Help!

Thank you - T

Thank you for your compliments and glad to assist.

As your daughter was moved up to the 1's team because of a club decision, and as many of the 1's team has already committed, and as she is a uncommitted senior, you absolutely need to communicate with the Director and Coach your concerns/expectations.

I would request a meeting, away from the practice time/matches, where you can sit down in a quiet environment.  In a relaxed manner, share with them that you would like to have your daughter receive some segment of playing time each match to assist in college coaches evaluating her for their program.  You are not asking for her to be a starter, you are not asking for her to play in every game - All you are requesting, because she was moved up to the 1's team by their decision, is that she get some playing time each match.  This is a very reasonable request in light of her complete situation.

The key is to preface this conversation by saying you wish to meet away from the court, in a quiet environment, just to touch base about a few items - Many times club coaches/directors expect all heck to break lose with lots of drama when it comes to parent meetings.  I think if you keep things low key, keep things logical and offer solutions which fit, then it should work out well.

Also, college coaches are very good about evaluating talent in warm-ups and attack lines; so, make sure you let your daughter know that she should be going full tilt in warm-up and attack lines because this is when college coaches are taking notes.  I have done this many times, when I was recruiting a good player who struggled to get playing time because the other players were elite top 20 program recruits.

Good luck!