My Four College Volleyball Recruiting Tips I Gave My Club Players

I've found that, one of the best sources of volleyball recruiting tips and information is the free Ultimate Recruiting Guide for College Volleyball

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

I've found that, one of the best sources of volleyball recruiting tips and information is the free Ultimate Recruiting Guide for College Volleyball produced by volleyballrecruits.net.

Recruiters will offer services to parents that cost thousands of dollars with no guaranteed return on investment where alot of the work they offer to do, parents and players can do themselves at much lesser cost. 

Volleyballrecruits.net  allows you to put your profile and video in front of every college coach in the country in the most efficient manner possible.

EVERY program in the country is a registered user! (They are partnered with USA Volleyball and have all DI, DII, DIII, NAIA and Jr Colleges are in the volleyballrecruits.net database.)

A secure online player profile – To host all your information – contact info, volleyball info, stats, tournament schedule, academics, transcript, VIDEO, etc. • Unlimited video uploading - We recommend all players have a highlight reel, skills video, and some unedited footage.

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

Tracking – Analytics that show players the number of profile / video views received by which college coaches and when!

Volleyball specific recruiting guidance - Monthly newsletters about what you should be doing RIGHT NOW, and 24/7 access to our comprehensive online recruiting guide.

Exceptional support - Former college volleyball players and club coaches provide you with excellent advice and guidance.

**Read everything but pay particular attention to Chapter 4 and Chapter 5

(The Recruiting Timeline-what to do each year from the 7th to the 12th grade.)  

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

Here's a great article from USA Volleyball called Five Recruiting Tips in the VCE Resource Center

This gives great advice given from top collegiate coaches on how and what to say on the phone for players calling coaches for the first time (highly recommended) ....to advice on what parents should and should not be worried about during the recruiting process.

Here's an excerpt:

Mick Haley                                                                  Former Head Women’s Coach at University of Southern California

“Parents often get really upset by things they believe will negatively impact their kid’s chances of getting a scholarship. Two in particular: The player’s team isn’t doing well, or the college coach only watched their team play for five minutes, then moved to another court.

I can tell you that neither of those things is worth getting worked up about. In the first place, coaches tend to know exactly what they’re looking for – Is the player athletic? Can she move? Do her skills match what they need? – so it doesn’t matter if the players team isn’t dominant or if the coach hasn’t watched the player for an entire set.

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

Another great article is "Where Are You in the Recruiting Timeline?"

Phenom Magazine interviewed six current volleyball coaches, representing the NCAA, NAIA, Two-Year Colleges and the NJCAA, and asked them to identify characteristics, intangibles and turn-offs in a volleyball recruit.  The article also includes some bonus information to identify where you are in the college recruiting timeline.

Here's an excerpt:

"What characteristic immediately turns you off from a recruit?

Prima donnas; players that think they are too good to go NAIA, as if it’s a stepchild. Attitudes on the court, on the bench and off the court; how they treat their parents in public."

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

Lastly be sure to check out the article...

Volleyball Recruiting Tips From College Volleyball Coaches

Here's an excerpt:

“I have a list of 14 that I will definitely watch. They were either on our list, or they have shown an interest in us and got on our list that way. Too many kids come to these tourneys and expect to be seen. If you haven’t sent me something by email or contacted me and tell me you want to be seen, I may not see you. Too many kids sit around and wait. They think they are really good. You see how many courts are here. You can get lost in here.”

“Academics are very important. One of the things we don’t want to deal with is someone with questionable academics. Our team goal is to have a 3.5 GPA.”

“If a kid is rated here (she raised her hand fairly high) and there is a player that is rated a little lower, if that lower rated player really wants to play for us, I will go with her rather than fight 8 other schools for the highest rated player. We want young ladies that really want to play for us and go to our school.”

“Regarding video, we like video show from behind the baseline at the same level of action, so we can see how high they can get. We like highlights on a tape, whatever they can do to show the most contacts. An outside, the most swings. A setter, the most possible sets from the front row and back. Defense, a lot of serve and receive passes. Sometimes we get just defense. We also like several minutes of continuous video, but we like it where the time between serve is cut out.

"* Kids are not proactive enough in recruiting. They continue to think they will get discovered at events. ...They do not reach out to college coaches like they should. Families too often think the recruiting process is supposed to come to them.."

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

“Regarding funding, we cut and paste. It is $26,000 to go to our school. An athlete with a 3.8 or 3.9 and a 27 or 28 on the ACT can get significant academic money, around $12,000, and then we have athletic money. We like smart kids who can play. It’s very important if a kid can get academic money. “

“Kids have got to understand how important grades are in 9th and 10th grades. Bad grades in 9th grade are hard to make up. If they want to play D1, they should take the SAT in the sophomore year at least once, to get a feel for what they need to work on. A kid that has a 600 is off our recruiting list. One with a 1000 or 1200 (out of 1600) is on.”

“We are here focusing on sophomores. We look at leadership qualities. ”

“We watch to see if they are competitive but still a team player. Do they pout? In big matches, how do they react if they are losing?”

“We are here for 10th graders only. We are done with our 11th and 12th graders. We are also here to watch 14 year olds.”

“We have a list we built, that includes kids that emailed us. We look for good attitudes. I just saw a player that was a decent athlete. We would never look at her again because of the way she acted on the court. She looked like she doesn’t care if she messes up. She was too nonchalant.. We look for the fighting spirit!”

“Regarding funding, a young lady with an ACT above 29 would get a full tuition waiver. Our volleyball players on average pay only $7000 a year for a top education.”

As a coach from Central Michigan University (Division One, Mid American Conference) watched kids on her list play on one court, I asked for her insights on volleyball recruiting.

“We came here with a list of 100 to see. We use different recruiting services, plus kids who personally contact us. If they email us, they need to send video. If you don’t have video, we will ask for it.”

“We get all over. We were in Colorado, here in St. Louis. We will be at Nationals in Orlando and Reno.”

“Club competition is very important. If you aren’t on a good club team playing good club competition, you won’t be ready for D1 competition.”

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

For those who haven't noticed our Instagram account continues to receive an increasing number of follows and views from college coaches watching the video clips of our teams playing each weekend.

Posting video of our teams playing is done as an additional recruiting tactic to provide exposure for VCE players to coaches who visit our social media accounts.

Its important for Volleycats players, especially after reading the articles in the VCE recruiting resource guide and learning about the types of players college coaches are looking for... to make sure you have "clean" personal social media accounts that do not contain links or follows to questionable content (curse words, violence, videos or links to content that has "been deleted by Twitter or Instagram because of questionable content).

Its important for Volleycats players, especially after reading the articles in the VCE recruiting resource guide and learning about the types of players college coaches are looking for... to make sure you have "clean" personal social media accounts that do not contain links or follows to questionable content (curse words, violence, videos or links to content that has "been deleted by Twitter or Instagram because of questionable content).

No matter how funny you/one make think this content is, a college coach WILL go to a player's social media account to see who you are, what you like, who, how and what you communicate, who you follow along with what "public" character you portray to see if you could be a good fit for their program. A "good fit" means players who are team players, who aren't into nor do they bring DRAMA, are goal-oriented with strong ethics, good habits, and unselfish character traits. 

Don't sabotage yourself and all the work you do on the court and in class by linking to or following questionable social media content or accounts.

 (This has been an important message brought to you by your favorite club director.) 

Players have you reached out to make contact (or made plans to do so soon when court assignments or at least specific playing venues are announced.) with any of these coaches to let them know your team, Cougars Elite 17s or Tigers Elite 15s will be competing and that you hope to see them at our court or playing venue?

Important Volleyball Recruiting Tips, Articles Deadlines

Your email can look as simple as this:

Dear Coach___________, (find out the assistant coach or head coach real name)

I wanted to take this opportunity to make you aware of my upcoming tournament next weekend, The SCVA National Qualifiers. I am playing for the Volleycats Elite VBC specifically on the Cougars Elite 17s  team in the 17s Open division in Pool ___ on Friday we will be on Court --- at the___________. (By Tuesday, we should know this information.) 

I will be playing (name your position) in the #66 jersey.

OR

I am playing for the Volleycats Elite VBC specifically on the Tigers Elite 15s  team in the 15s Open division in Pool ___ on Friday we will be on Court --- at the___________. 

I will be playing (name your position) in the #66 jersey.

On Saturday I will be playing at the ________ _______ _____, court 40 at -am, 1-am, - noon

To view my full profile and video(s), simply click on the link below: or go to…..(provide a link to your recruiting profile, Volleycats Elite social media, homepage and be sure to use Coach April and your team coach as references.

Follow me on Instagram @coach_apchap to improve your game even faster!

I share alot of individual, partner and easy-to-do volleyball serving drills we do in class with my followers.

Many of these volleyball practice drills you can do at home by yourself or try at your next practice with your teammates.

If you're a B team or JV player trying to make varsity next year...your goal should be to complete 1000 reps a day of at least three of the basic skills on your own...volleyball passing, serving and setting should be at the top of the list. 

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