Thank you all of the awesome information on your website, I am learning so much. Which I need to do because I’m writing from Canada and I’m completely new to the US recruiting process. I’m wondering if you would be able to give some advice on volleyball recruiting to your neighbour to the north? Here are my questions:
1) We have send a video to a number of Div 1 colleges. My daughter has received a handful of emails back saying that they are “adding her to their recruiting list”. What does this mean? I number of them have also made the comment that they can’t talk to her until “Sept 1st of her Junior year”. We are in Canada, so we don’t use those terms, but I know that means grade 11 (she is currently in grade 10). Is this a hopeful sign or do many colleges just send this as a form letter?
2) She was invited to call one of the schools (which she did). What does a coach want to hear from a potential player on these calls? Does this indicate a strong interest from the school or is this pretty standard?
3) Approximately how many “recruits” are placed on recruitment lists?
4) The analytics on her Youtube page show me the most coaches have not viewed the video. Is there any way to compel a coach to watch the tape? If they don’t, should we just remove them from our list of target schools? Or do coaches just take their time because they are inundated with emails?
5) There are target schools who seemed to have watched the entire video, but we haven’t heard from them. Are there cases where a coach is interested in a player, and have a certain player “on their radar” but don’t contact them to let them know?
6) My daughter is a setter. I checked out a few of the public videos a noted that most of the setters do not show themselves blocking. This is a huge strength for her, but would it be considered “unimportant” for a setters video? (Seems like it would be important, so I’m surprised I’m not seeing it more).
7) Are Canadians at a disadvantage when competing for spots with their American counterparts?
8) How does a Canadian get noticed even though they are not playing in US tournaments?
Okay, that’s just a few things I have rattling around in my brain. I would greatly appreciate any advice and feedback you are willing to give. I will continue to make my way through your archives. :)
Thanks,
Canadian Volleyball Mom
Always happy to help a neighbor and please see the answers below!
Here are my questions:
1) We have send a video to a number of Div 1 colleges. My daughter has received a handful of emails back saying that they are “adding her to their recruiting list”. What does this mean? I number of them have also made the comment that they can’t talk to her until “Sept 1st of her Junior year”. We are in Canada, so we don’t use those terms, but I know that means grade 11 (she is currently in grade 10). Is this a hopeful sign or do many colleges just send this as a form letter?
Each category of college volleyball will have their own recruiting rules - NCAA Division I, Division II, Division II, NAIA and Junior Colleges.
NCAA Division I schools are only allowed to send a letter/questionnaire before September 1st of a player's Junior Year (grade 11), but they can also send camp brochures at any time (and unfortunately, some collegiate programs will use the possibility of recruitment to drive camp enrollments).
Generally speaking, college coaches have a template email that they will send to any high school age player who reaches out to them. It can be hard for a family to determine if the college is sincerely interested or just following recruiting protocols. If you had included video, and the college program also contacted your club or high school coach to chat, then they would be extremely interested. Most players, outside of the tall, elite athletes, will not be able to determine exactly the interest of the collegiate programs until the club season of their Junior year.
Once college programs are allowed to communicate via email/text, then families will be able to determine interest levels - Is the college program sending you regular updates? Asking about your season? Inviting you to campus for a visit? Or, do you rarely hear from them, even after you update them?
2) She was invited to call one of the schools (which she did). What does a coach want to hear from a potential player on these calls? Does this indicate a strong interest from the school or is this pretty standard?
This is a good sign - Because of the sheer volume of talented recruits, college coaches are only going to invite players to call whom they are very interested in. Believe it or not, having conversations with multiple 16 year volleyball players is not high our our enjoyment list as college coaches!
3) Approximately how many “recruits” are placed on recruitment lists?
Depends on the category and budgets of each collegiate program, but it easily numbers into the hundreds. Finding talent is easy - It is filtering talent to secure the best possible player for the program which is the challenge.
4) The analytics on her Youtube page show me the most coaches have not viewed the video. Is there any way to compel a coach to watch the tape? If they don’t, should we just remove them from our list of target schools? Or do coaches just take their time because they are inundated with emails?
For college volleyball programs, the later spring is the absolute busiest time of the year; even more busy than the fall season. In the spring, college coaches are traveling to watch recruits, they are training their indoor team full time (same hours of training as the regular season), they are traveling with the team to play in spring matches, they are probably engaged in community outreach and fund raising activities, they are hosting recruits on campus, and, if they also are responsible for a beach volleyball program, then there is that entire program's time commitment.
All of this piles up to make quick communication sometimes very slow. Not hearing back from a collegiate coach quickly would not concern me, but the low view rates of the YouTube video would. This is a broad statement, but college coaches will view every video they get and in a timely manner (remember that college coaches are competing for that perfect fit, and being late in recruiting a player because the coach waited a couple of weeks to view a video is not going to happen); they may only watch 30 seconds or they may watch it 5 times in a row, but college coaches watch video like it is Netflix. Maybe, the coaches are truly too busy to watch?
At this juncture, I would not remove any school from your list just because of the nature of spring volleyball combined with your graduation year. As you move through your Junior year, and back and forth communication occurs (or doesn't occur), then you can start to remove programs from consideration.
5) There are target schools who seemed to have watched the entire video, but we haven’t heard from them. Are there cases where a coach is interested in a player, and have a certain player “on their radar” but don’t contact them to let them know?
Absolutely! Often times, college coaches know they will have a certain number of scholarships but not know exactly how they wish to use they scholarships (in DI). So, they will build up their recruiting database, and then drop athletes as they work through the Junior year of club volleyball. Each collegiate coach has their own protocol for recruiting.
6) My daughter is a setter. I checked out a few of the public videos a noted that most of the setters do not show themselves blocking. This is a huge strength for her, but would it be considered “unimportant” for a setters video? (Seems like it would be important, so I’m surprised I’m not seeing it more).
Your video is your first best vehicle to showcase strengths - If blocking is a strength, then that should absolutely be included. If a program runs a front to back 6-2 offense (a setter and opposite player are subbing in for each other every 3 rotations), then blocking is not important. I can't say how may collegiate programs run a 6-2 offense, but from watching DI Volleyball on television, it seems the majority still run the 5-1 offense, where the setter will play front row.
7) Are Canadians at a disadvantage when competing for spots with their American counterparts?
No - College coaches recruit talent. If a player has the talent to make the team better, she will be recruited. That being said, players from bigger cities are easier to recruit than from the countryside, USA players are easier to recruit than international players and native English speaking international players are easier to recruit than non-native English speaking players. Because of the common border and language, recruiting Canadian players does not present a barrier (unless the coach really hates the accent or is just too darn lazy to jump through a couple of protocol hoops).
8) How does a Canadian get noticed even though they are not playing in US tournaments?
Video, video and more video....and, come south to play in a USA tournament. There are enough very large northern USA club events (either USA Volleyball or JVA/AAU Volleyball), that Canadian players who wish to be recruited by USA colleges, really need to participate with a club program that will play in at least one club tournament in the USA.
If your height and talent is fantastic, then college coaches will come see you play but your video has to illustrate that your talent merits the travel. Most college programs don't have the budget or need to travel to Canada to recruit solely from a video, because the same talent can be found at any of the large club events being held every weekend from January 15th to April 30th!
Okay, that’s just a few things I have rattling around in my brain. I would greatly appreciate any advice and feedback you are willing to give. I will continue to make my way through your archives. :)
Glad to help and I believe the collegevolleyballcoach.com archives can provide some additional direction!
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