Hello,
My daughter is a sophomore this year and is having trouble picking her position to play this year in club. She has always been a middle blocker but was moved to right side in the middle of the season based on needs of the team. She is very good and has equivalent skills in each position.
The only problem is that she is just 6 foot and we think it will be hard for her to get a college scholarship in the middle position, even though she can jump very high and lead her team in blocking at the middle position; not that she doesn't block well at the right side as well.
We would really like to hear your opinion on this.
Thank you for your time, S.C.
The challenge is not choosing the position but rather defining the "college scholarship" - For DI, the right side players are just about as tall and as the MB, so saying that a 6 foot middle moving to the right will yield more scholarship opportunities is not really accurate within the DI ranks.
A recent phenomenon in college recruiting, is that many mid to lower DI programs, and almost all DII and other catagories, have real difficulty finding truly talented middle blockers as a result of so many players moving to RS/OH in club because they think that they are too short at 5'11"+ to get a scholarship as a middle.
The advice I would give you is to stay as an MB this year, because it is easy to move from MB to RS at a later date, and many college coaches will recruit an MB with the thought that they can always move her to the RS if need be.
As a Junior, if she is faced with this same decision, she should play the position she most enjoys because if she does that, then whatever college she chooses to attend, she will have a good experience!
Coach Sonnichsen
Just as any FYi my daughter is 6 foot with shoes on, plays middle hitter for a middle D1 school and was all conference. It does happen. She is faster than the 6 foot 3 girls on the other side of the net.
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