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"Ask The Coach" with John Speraw
John Speraw is the Head Coach of UCI's top ranked men's team.
He has also coached and was a National Champ at UCLA!

Question: What do you look for when recruiting high school players?
Answer: The first thing a coach notices when recruiting is the physical abilities of a player. How big is he, how high does he jump and how hard does he hit. Those types of physical attributes are what are easy to observe when walking from court to court during large tournaments. They are eye catching. The second thing is to try and evaluate a physically talented player's skill level. Now that you know he can jump and hit, how well can he pass, set, dig or serve. After determining that a player has the physical abilities and the skill level to eventually compete at the NCAA level, the next thing is academic performance. I say this frequently, but if a player wants to increase his options to play at the collegiate level, he must improve his academic abilities as much as his volleyball skill. With poor grades, there are some schools that can get you in, but there are fewer of them than ever. In order to give yourself a good opportunity--study hard. Finally, I like to talk to a coach and the parents to find out more about the character of a player. The athletes we bring in will represent not only the volleyball program, but the university as a whole. That can be a large responsibility for a player whose behavior is questionable.

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