Boy's Volleyball Recruiting Question

My 2 sons attending the [AVCA] KC showcase...really enjoyed listening to your insights you shared with the parents. 

I have 2 follow-up questions:

1) My older son just turned 18 and is a freshman in college, plays on the schools boys club team. He attended the showcase in hopes of being scouted, as he would now like to play for a collegiate VB program. He has not done the NCAA clearing house paperwork, will this prevent coaches from contacting him? Are we correct to assume we can always complete this once someone shows interest?

2) Say a coach identifies a talented prospect, yet he has no spot within his program. From your experience, do coaches spread the word by passing along the prospect with other coaches? Or do they just delete athlete.

Appreciate your feedback!



Thank you for the email and the compliments on my Recruiting Education Talk at the AVCA Boy's Showcase in Kansas City - A have a cool job with NCSA Next College Student Athlete because I get to share my experience with families and help them along the recruiting path!

As to your questions:

1)  He should start and complete the NCAA Eligibility Center process ASAP, along with the NAIA (playnaia.org) - This will be very important because it allows college coaches to quickly and accurately asses his academic standing and playing eligibility.  Since he is playing organized college volleyball (albeit men's college club), he may have burned one year of eligibility, but worst case, he would still have 3 years to compete at an intercollegiate program.  With his freshman academic status, he should have no academic transfer issues provided he has been enrolled in core classes and attained solid grades.

2) They would 95% of the time hit the delete button rather than pass along a player.  My guess is that this "pass-along" happens more in women's volleyball because of the sheer volume of players/college programs, but even this is not too often.

My direct advice is your eldest son needs to get registered with the NCAA and NAIA, get a current copy of his college transcript (including Spring Semester classes) and most importantly, generate current video to send to college coaches.  

As I mentioned (hopefully) during my Talk, if a player has the talent to make the collegiate team better, then the coach will recruit this player.  Ability creates opportunity, but the men's collegiate coaches must see video because they don't have the recruiting budgets of the women's teams!

Good luck and thank you once again for the nice email!

Coach