Volleyball Recruiting without Club Volleyball

 Hi,                                                                                                           

    

    I started playing volleyball my Freshman year as a setter in high school and got pulled up my sophomore and I am now currently a Junior positioned as a defensive specialist. Where I'm from volleyball isn't all that popular so I didn't know about any club programs. But I love the sport and I'm always willing to do whatever it takes to become a better player. I have attended clinics and training sessions with the Women's Volleyball Coach here at our Community College. This year i have tried looking into club teams but none are in my price range, and I tried out for a teams 18u because they didn't have a 17u and unfortunately I didn't make the team. I do have a list of schools that I like, mainly for their academics and location, my favorite school( academically) is a lower D1 school and I would love to be able to play volleyball in college.    

     So my question are: 1) Will it be to late for me to try club next year( my senior year) and get recruited? 2) Will a college even be interested in me since I don't have that much experience under my belt and didn't make a team that i tried out for? 3) When do coaches start recruiting? 4) could i possibly send film from one of my training sessions and film from my high school season instead of club? 

Thanks, A.J.

No wasted salutations…..questions answered!!!!!

1)  Because you are a Libero, and with the much slower recruiting timeframe specific to that position, it is absolutely not too late to be recruited as a senior.  In fact, a large number of collegiate volleyball programs (from DI's to JC's) will commit/secure their Libero/Defensive Specialist recruits in the winter/spring of the player's senior year.

2)  College coaches recruit talent, not teams.  If you have the talent to make a collegiate team better, then that coach will recruit you.

3)  For your position, it tends to be the senior year (as noted above) - I would venture to say that with your limited club experience (which has an impact upon your skill level simply because of the significant number of touches upon the ball club players enjoy), that you would probably be a spring of your Senior year recruit.

4)  Absolutely send film from a training session from this spring or summer.  I would not send High School video from this past year, because it will be 'old' - Better to send film from the Senior season of high school.

I encourage you to stay mentally strong and keep working the recruiting process.  Any number of quality college volleyball players come from non-club volleyball background; not every high school volleyball player has the geography or economic means to make club volleyball a reality. 

Just focus upon your skill development and outreach to college coaches…..and be consistent (and patient) with both of these avenues.  

The World Famous College Volleyball Coach