Smack Recruiting Tips: Choosing a College

Club season is just around the corner, meaning many volleyball players will soon be receiving recruiting letters, talking to coaches, and making official and unofficial campus visits. Recruiting is an exciting process, but players, coaches, and parents know how stressful it can be. Now more than ever, coaches are recruiting volleyball players at a young age, making it difficult for players to make informed decisions about the schools they wish to attend. Here are Smack Sportswear’s tops 5 tips for choosing the right college.

1)    Don’t feel rushed to commit. Recruiting is an exciting time. Enjoy it. It is important to take your time and talk to different coaches and visit different campuses. Each visit or conversation may teach you something you might not have known before, such as the size of a campus you would enjoy or the location in which you would be happy. It is 100% okay to visit a school multiple times—especially if you live close by. Attend volleyball games, a class, other sporting events, and take a campus tour. If a coach is putting pressure on you to commit before you’re ready, it is likely not a coach you would enjoy playing under for 4 years.

2)    Do your homework. Research the school, and definitely stalk the roster. What year are the other girls in your position? What conference is the program in? How do they normally finish in their conference? Do they usually attend the NCAA Tournament? What type of system (5-1, 6-2, 3-middle) does the team run? Does the team run the same system year after year, or do they it change with different players and new talent? Are they a tall, lean team that runs a high ball? Or a smaller, ball control style team that runs a fast system? Use the internet, club coaches, and college coaches for answers. Do the answers make the school more or less appealing to you?

3)    Go to a school you would attend without volleyball. We don’t like to think about it, but things happen. Injuries, issues with coaches or playing time, getting burnt out… One great piece of advice when selecting a school is to choose somewhere you would apply or attend even if you didn’t play volleyball. What size school would you attend? Would you apply in the South or Midwest? How close to home do you want to be? What are your academic interests? Even if you don’t know specifics about majors or schools, start by making a list of things that are important to you. Maybe it looks like this: big campus, good football team, good pre-medical program, snow. Or maybe it’s more like: great academics, smaller class sizes, Greek life, good dining halls, warm weather, close to home. It can be tough, but by separating volleyball from other factors of college life, one school may stand out from the others.

4)    Get to know the coach. People say don’t pick a school based on the coach, because coaches change and move around all the time. That is absolutely true. That being said, as a player you have the right to ask questions to the coaches recruiting you. What would you see my role being? When would you picture me contributing? How do I fit into your current system? How would you develop me farther? How many girls do you typically keep on the roster? Are practices and lifting in the morning or afternoon? How often does the team do conditioning? What are my biggest weaknesses a player? What is your coaching style? Really listen to the answers, and take any criticism in a positive way. Be wary of coaches that give vague answers or don’t seem to have a clear plan for you as a player. Even if it is something you don’t want to hear, it is better to get the hard answers now than to commit to a school where things aren’t as you pictured.

5)    Pay attention to the girls. When on a campus visit, the team is your best resource. Do they look like girls you could get along with for four years? Do they seem to enjoy each other? Do they look like girls that could be your best friends, that you are willing to go to battle with each weekend during season? Or that you could get dinner with even after a double-day of practices and lifting? Ask the girls about their classes, their friends, their majors, and their overall college experiences. If participating in clubs, extracurriculars, or Greek life is important to you, do the players do that? Do they feel they have time? How do they like their dorm rooms? Remember, they have been through the recruiting process themselves, and they will likely provide you with insightful and honest answers.

 

Those are Smack’s biggest tips! Be sure to reach out to your club coach and other peers in your club who have been through the process. Good luck with recruiting and have a great club season!