"The NBC Series" is a re-posting of select volleyball articles that were published in the NBC Camps newsletters from 2008-2010. Every summer, I reflect on my life-changing 13 years of my time with NBC Camps. Because I will not able to publish new blog material until late August, these auto-postings will be up weekly for some throwback reads. The articles have been edited and updated as needed for 2014.
So You Want To Play College Volleyball...
First published April, 2010
START CONTACTING COACHES!
If you are one of the incredibly skilled players who catches the college coach’s eye and has already been
recruited and offered a scholarship – good for you!
Unfortunately, that’s not the case for 90% of us.
Any college
sport requires serious commitment and serious work
before you even look at that letter of intent. You need to be ready to market yourself as an athlete and a personality that will fit well with the
team you are trying to make.
Coaches won’t even bother bringing you onto the campus for a practice if their first
impression of you is poor. This impression is established immediately through
your communication skills. You have to remember that college coaches expect to
coach
adults, therefore, we are
looking to recruit athletes with mature qualities such as honesty, mental
toughness, and respect.
Here are four active steps to help propel you to the forefront of any college coach’s recruiting list.
1. Do your homework.
Research ahead of time what area of the country you’d like to live in, enrollment sizes, urban vs. rural, private
vs. public, the majors you are interested in, and be honest about what
divisions in which you can potentially compete.
NCAA Division 1 is definitely
the most competitive; NCAA Division 2 and some high level NAIA Division 1
schools are comparable, and NCAA Division 3 and lower level NAIA schools are very
similar.
Every school has a different balance of athletics, academics,
on-campus social life, and local attractions. It is important for you to have
at least a general idea of “your perfect college.” Once you’ve established some
parameters, find all the schools that fit your description. This is your
foundation.
2. Create your personal profile.
There are a lot of recruiting agencies and companies that can do this for you, but it’s not really necessary
to have them put it together. We see so many profiles that they tend to blur
together anyway.
You want to be organized and professional, but you can do this
by putting together an athletic/academic resume on your own, or with the help
of your school college counselor.
Be sure to include: your name, contact
information, GPA, SAT/ACT scores, community involvement, academic honors,
athletic honors, years of volleyball experience, kinds of experiences,
positions played, height, weight, standing reach, block touch, approach touch,
recent statistics, and any other athletic info you have available.
3. Have film available.
You are so fortunate to live in a day and age where information is constantly accessible through the internet. No
regular person could put up videos online when I was in high school. Now it’s
simple and free to just copy the link to your YouTube account where a coach can
see your skills. It’s also more convenient for the coaches, instead of giving
them a DVD they have to find a player for, and time to watch it.
You need to
make at least four kind of videos. Different coaches want to see different
things; if you make all these options available, it will be easy for us to find
what we’re looking for. You should have a full match film, a partial match film
(1-2 games is enough), a highlight reel from matches, and a skills video from
practice.
It’s best to set up the camera in a wide angle so it captures the
full court. If you can also include a short introduction video where you speak
directly to coaches about your strengths, it shows your communication skills
and personality in another light.
4. Make the effort in the details.
Communicate to the coaches what you are looking for in a college: kind of playing style and goals for your volleyball
career, also what major and vocational career you're interested in pursuing. Say
things like, "I am definitely interested in the Journalism emphasis in
your Communications department," and "My beliefs match up well with
the doctrinal statements at your school," and "I'm really looking to
become actively involved with (name a variety of the programs you found that
the school has)."
You want to communicate that you will be a good fit for
their school and their volleyball program. Be professional, but be
approachable; make sure all grammar and punctuation is correct, and include
contact information for your parents, coaches, high school counselors, and
yourself. Communicate that you would like to talk with them over the phone and
eventually visit the school to meet the team and tryout.
Yes, college visits can get expensive. But after your initial contact with coaches,
you can begin to narrow down your top choices to two or three schools. You really
do need to visit all of these schools, meet the volleyball teams, observe the
coach’s style, stay in the dorms, and sit in on classes. A website cannot do
justice to the actual feeling you experience while on campus.
And remember, you want to be marketable. High grades and SAT scores are always more
attractive to coaches because they know you have the probability to succeed in
college level academics. Earn as many scholarships as you can through
academics, community service, and local organizations. Be the well-rounded
person every coach wants to add to their program.
