Managing the early College Volleyball Recruiting Season

Hi Coach,

My daughter is a  6-1” MB/RS in the 2017 class.  This past weekend was the MLK tournament with my daughter’s 17’s team playing in the 18 Open division.   There was a pretty strong recruiting presence at the tournament.  Around our court we saw mostly DII and low-mid DI, with some of the schools being ones that have shown interest.   Unfortunately, my daughter came down with a bug (night before the tournament of course) and was not feeling great, sore throat, ears plugged, temperature.  She wanted to play, and did, however it wasn’t at her best.   Not bad, just nothing outstanding.  The other thing is that she has moved to RS this club season and was a MB last year (club and HS), which is what these schools were looking at her for.  So she is still somewhat developing as a RS anyway. 

Should my daughter email these coaches and let them know she wasn’t at 100%, or is it better left alone?    I’m hopeful these coaches will see her at Crossroads, assuming they haven’t crossed her off their list after this weekend! 

Thanks so much, we are NCSA members and highly recommend it to our friends/teammates,

Mom in AZ

Great to hear that NCSA Athletic Recruiting is a positive resource for you and your family as you manage the recruiting process.

I would not make too much of the MLK Tournament - It is just bad luck that your daughter came down with a bug before the event, but she powered through for a solid performance.  At this stage in the recruiting process, coaches are taking their first looks at recruits for this year's club season.  This first look for the college coach is the yes/no - Yes, this kid can help us or No, this kid can't; and the No is more powerful than the Yes.

Because coaches have hundreds of players to look at during a tournament (and again, this is an early season event), we are looking harder at the No's because we need to eliminate recruits from our database. If a player is clearly not going to help us, then we cut them from consideration.  And this No process is not so much how a recruit played during a particular game, but rather a combination of performance, height, technique, attitude, effort, hair bow, shoe laces and stuff block cheering volume….

Your daughter being sick would not affect her height or her technique (she would still use the same technical skill sets because they are muscle memory), and by your email, she had a solid/average performance and did not play bad.

Better to set the table for the next event, rather than explain the MKL tournament.   The coming President's Day tournaments, and then Colorado Crossroads, give your daughter the opportunity to reach out with fresh video, and invite the coaches to come see her play. With your daughter switching to the Right Side, using video on your outreach will illustrate her improving ability in this new position (compared to early in the club season).

The tough part about this time of the year, whether your daughter is a So/Jr/Sr, is trying to keep the process steady, and not get pulled into false pressure that can be created in January and February.  Seniors could feel the most pressure, but there is still plenty of time left on the clock. And for non-Seniors, there is more than enough time.

Get ready for the next big event by sending out fresh video and schedule information!

The Coach