DD #1 done, now DD #2 for College Volleyball

Hello Coach

 

I like your blog, I check it on a regularly.You helped me get through the crazyness of getting my first daughter a full ride scholarship to a D1 school, again thank you very much.

 

Now on to daughter #2, not having as much luck with her, she is an outside hitter. At 6'0", she is a great hitter with awesome arm speed. The problem is at the tournments last year a lot of coaches came to watch her play and unfortunatly her team is fire and ice, mostly ise when college coaches are there. We had 2 very marginal setters and the better of the two quit before the big tournments, she couldn't buy a good set. It was eather pushed way to far out, or on the net , 10 off the net, she just had to work way to hard to get something good to hit.

 

 Her senior year has started, my plan for her is to keep getting video and keep sending out letters to coaches, so far I have sent out over 181 letters to D1 schools. Last weekend I went with my wife to watch my #1 daughter at a  weekend tournment. The four schools that came to play her team I had sent letters and video to and had not gotten a reply. As my wife and I watched the games we noted that our daughter (#2)  was as tall as and a better hitter than most of the outside hitters on those teams, they just had better setters. I told my wife that I was going down to tell the coaches the folly of there ways, she would not allow it! 

 

Daughter # 2 has had a few walk on offers, saying that maybe later a chance for scholarship. Is that realistic? If a coach has a walk on playing with the team, he already has that player, he will use future scholarship spots to bring in new players and not give it to players he already has, right? What is the probability of getting a scholarship after walking on a team. If I am paying for college than why play at all, you go to college to get an education. The nice thing about the scholarship is it is paying the way. My daughter loves to play, but if I'm paying maybe play intramural volleyball.

 

I don't know . . . do you have any insight?

The joys of college volleyball recruiting…..Thank you for the compliments with daughter #1 and I hope that Inside College Volleyball was also a resource!

Two items I believe are worth noting:

1)  This is the slowest time of the year for NCAA DI Volleyball recruiting, as I have mentioned in previous posts; college volleyball coaches are playing possum.  They may well have a scholarship available, but they are waiting to see how the current collegiate season shakes out.  They may well believe they are done with recruiting, but stuff always seems to happen - Injuries, academics, boyfriends, job changes, etc.  All of these will add up to scholarship opportunities presenting themselves after the current season.  I know this first hand, because I always have DI coaching friends contacting me in the winter/spring about available seniors.

2) NCAA Division I Volleyball may not be the best opportunity.  NCAA DI is a business; scholarship or not, if a player does not produce up to the desires of the head coach, then that player is subject to having her scholarship removed.  I believe that NCAA DII is the best combination of athletics/academics/experience available in women's college volleyball.  With DII you can package out the scholarship sources and can often reach near to a full scholarship. The great thing about packaging the scholarship, is that if the athletic scholarship vanishes (player gets cut or walks away from game), they only lose that segment and will keep all the other support.

My suggestion for your PSA is to stay patient and recontact the 181 schools (remember there are over 300 NCAA DI schools) come later November, as to set the table for the start of the active recruiting season.  In addition, you should take a close look at NCAA DII programs, as there are some great opportunities to play high level volleyball, get a quality education, enjoy being a student in college, while being on scholarship!

As you may well have read, I am not a fan of the walk on scenario, especially the walk on to scholarship scenario.  Too many variables and as you say, why pay full load and manage all the demands of DI volleyball?

Coach