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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks for the thoughtful detailed reply and info. You have been around the block. Appreciate you creating this thread and keeping it up.

If a player is on a (desired) path to play in college, what do you think are the keys to success starting at u15? Club selection, workouts, privates, etc. What does that schedule and life look like for that athlete?[/quote]
My DD is about to start her freshman year of D1 volleyball so the recruiting process was not so long ago for us so here is some of what we learned.

Becoming the best player possible is a good place to start, so all the things you mention are considerations. Picking the right club, starting strength and conditioning training, taking some private lessons, are good ideas. Fitting all this in can be hard though. If your DD is going to be a U15 next club season, I assume that's she's going to be a HS freshman?  If she is going to be playing HS volleyball, and particularly if she makes varsity at her school, it's a pretty big time commitment and can make fitting in extra training hard. Most HS teams practice or have matches every school day and often some matches or other stuff on weekends. If you are shopping around for a club, you should also be attending fall clinics at the clubs you're considering. At more competitive clubs, the fall clinics are where they are getting to know players and deciding who to take for next season - the tryouts themselves are largely a formality. So HS volleyball obligations most school days and clinics on weekends pretty much mean volleyball 7-days a week for the fall. We tried to fit in some strength and conditioning sessions for my DD during HS season but it seemed like a lot, and we ended up stopping.

In terms of clubs, there are local clubs that have a reputation for producing high quality players and so being on a team at one of these clubs can be a bit of a head start, but it's by no means required. Plenty of D1 players didn't come from top level clubs. You do want to look for a club that attends at least a few bigger tournaments (like qualifiers, AAU Nationals, the bigger JVA tournaments) since these are the most efficient way for college coaches to get to watch a lot of players in a single weekend. One caveat here is that if your DD is a libero/defensive specialist, playing on a higher level club that competes in higher level divisions can be useful. Unlike a hitter who a college coach can see how tall they are or how high they jump regardless of the level of competition, it's tougher to evaluate whether a libero can handle tough serves or play good defense against elite hitters if they are playing weaker competition.

Even for colleges that aren't super selective academically, academics are still a real consideration for college coaches. They are looking for players that can handle the demands of being a student athlete and if a potential recruit is struggling in high school, that can hurt their chances of getting an offer even if they are a really talented player.

Finally, start working on a plan for reaching out to college coaches. For all but the most elite players, it's up to the player to make contact with college coaches. When you see college coaches walking around big tournaments they are not just strolling around waiting for a player to catch their eye. They have a list of players they are there to see and go to watch them play and make evaluations and take notes.  From a player's perspective, they need to have a plan for getting on coaches' radar. This means putting together highlight videos, coming up with lists of programs your DD is interested in, and then contacting coaches.

Depending on the players age/grade, the type of communication will be different. Prior to June 15 of their sophomore year of HS, college coaches are not allowed to directly communicate with prospective players. They can come watch players at tournaments, invite players to camps, and speak to coaches/club directors about the players. So at 15s and 16s, players should be reaching out to coaches introducing themselves, giving links to video and then inviting them to come watch them play at a tournaments, but understand that the response from coaches will be pretty minimal during this time. A common strategy is to send out introductory messages early in the season and then a shorter message ahead of tournaments letting the coach know the playing schedule for the first day. Important things to know about college coaches coming to watch at tournaments are they don't care at all if your DD's team wins or loses, they aren't particularly worried about mistakes or even if your DD isn't a starter. They will notice things like how a player interacts with their teammates and coaches, how seriously they take warmups, their level of effort on tough balls, are they loud and communicating, their demeanor and attentiveness on the bench, and how they respond when they make an error.

After June 15 of sophomore year, coaches can communicate directly with players, although there is a somewhat complicated calendar that dictates exactly what type of contact coaches are allowed at various times of year [url]https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/compliance/recruiting/calendar/2025-26/2025-26D1Rec_WVBRecruitingCalendar.pdf[/url].  Once your DD is old enough for coaches to directly communicate, they might get invitations from college coaches to have phone or video chat conversations. This is an opportunity for the players and coaches to get to know each other a little bit. It's really important for your DD to take these seriously - be on time, do research about the school and the volleyball program (know what conference they are in and other basic information), have questions prepared, etc. I understand that this sort of thing is new for most of our DDs, but it's part of the process and they will get better at it the more calls they take. With that in mind, our strategy was to take a call with nearly every coach who expressed some kind of interest. Even if it's a school/program you don't think your DD would ever be interested in going to, at a minimum it is good practice and you never know if a player and coach might hit it off. Also, unless the coach specifically asks for a parent to sit in, it's usually best to let the player take these calls solo.

As they get further into the process, they might get invited for an official visit. D1 programs will invite (and pay for) the player and parents to come to campus. This is the "interview" for both players/parents and the program. Most coaches will have several meals with the family, arrange for the player to meet and spend time with the team/staff, tour the facilities, meet academic advisors/strength coaches, and do some of the more normal college tours and academic stuff. Generally, if a player is invited on an official visit, the program is seriously considering making an offer to the player so they will really try and sell the school/program.

The only platform we used was UniversityAthlete which is pretty cheap at $49 per year and seems to be the one the majority of college coaches use. It allows you to set up a profile and do some basic research on various college programs. It also allows you to see what colleges are going to be recruiting at which tournaments. After big tournaments, you can see how many evaluations were done of your player and what conference the school was in, although not the specific school. We decided against using a recruiting service and had zero regrets.

We went to a few showcases from 14s-16s but generally didn't find these to be useful as they didn't really result in any meaningful contacts from college coaches. Also, my DD never ranked particularly high on PrepDig lists, nor did she get invited to Under Armour or other similar events. While these sorts of things can be something to put on a player's "resume", I don't think college coaches put much weight in them. They are looking at how an individual player will fit on their team and don't really care whether a particular player is the 43rd or 87th ranked player in Virginia.

Another thing we did over the years was try to get to as many local college volleyball matches as possible. In the DMV, we are fortunate to have lots of schools with volleyball programs nearby: Maryland, Towson, GW, American U, UMBC, Georgetown, George Mason, and many more. Even if your DD isn't interested in any of these schools, seeing what the level of volleyball is like in different conferences can be really enlightening and useful in deciding what schools to contact. While there is great volleyball being played in every conference, understanding what volleyball is like in the Big Ten versus Patriot League, Atlantic 10, Big East, CAA, etc is important. It's also a lot of fun to go to college matches.

There is tons of information online and on social media that can be helpful. These are some of the folks I think provide the most useful information:
[url]https://www.instagram.com/howtogetrecruited/[/url]
[url]https://www.instagram.com/recruiting_class/[/url]
[url]https://www.instagram.com/numberonevolleyball/[/url]
[/quote]

This is an insanely helpful post. Thank you![/quote]

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