Recruiting

[Anonymous]

New to volleyball and my DD doesn’t have any interest in playing in college but we’re curious if recruiting happens in HS or club. It seems as though most of the girls who play for her HS also play club but none are good enough to play in college. Is that the case in most schools? Our experience with OTHER sports is you only play club in HS if you want to play in college.

[FPYCparent]

Aside from truly exceptional athletes, I'd only expect college recruiting to take place during club.

The women's college volleyball season mostly overlaps the high school volleyball season (i.e., late summer to fall). So, The best that most college coaches can do during the high school season is to watch highlights (typically generated by the player using HUDL, Balltime, or access to raw video footage) ... and sent to the coaches by the player. Coaches are likely restricted from initiating contact with a potential recruit in the fall.

Without checking the newest rules, I don't think college coaches (NCAA D1, at least) can see a potential VB recruit in-person until mid-January.

Signed,
Parent of a potential recruit in the high school Class of 2026

[Anonymous]

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/compliance/recruiting/calendar/2025-26/2025-26D1Rec_WVBRecruitingCalendar.pdf
College coaches can recruit during HS season (September, October, and most of November are contact periods) but since it’s in season for college volleyball, it’s not the norm for college coaches to come to HS matches, although it does happen some times. A lot of official visits to college programs happen during the season though. That said, the vast majority of college volleyball recruiting happens during club season.

I think the reason club volleyball is popular among girls who don’t intend to play in college is that it is a fun activity and there are divisions for all levels of players. And there are some who think that having some sport as an activity is an important thing to have on a college application, and since at many high schools it’s tough to make the varsity team if you don’t have club experience playing club can be an alternative or help a player develop enough to make a HS team. Club volleyball is expensive and a big commitment of time, so I totally understand why you’d think twice about it without collegiate volleyball ambitions though.

[Anonymous]

It’s been a few years since my daughter played HS volleyball. If you didn’t play club, you were unlikely to make the HS team. This was not the case with the other sports.