My Kid Has No Interest in the Recruiting Process . . .

She Just Wants a College to Make Her a Scholarship

Offer by Watching Her Play . . .Now What?

By: K.W. Abbott

Athletic recruitment is a process. If you are fortunate enough to have college coaches who are interested in your kid, the next step is your kid reciprocating. . . Especially if your kid is younger than a junior in high school. According to NCAA rules college coaches are not allowed to reach out directly to you or your child (besides sending camp information) until they are juniors in high school. Any communication from college coaches have to go through your kid’s club or high school volleyball coach or director. Not only that, but if your younger than a junior in high school athlete calls and leaves a message for the coach, the coach cannot return the call. So guess what that means? Your kid has to be proactive on all fronts in communicating with college recruiters. Kind of difficult if your kid wants no part of calling coaches , e-mailing coaches, or visiting colleges. She just wants to play! What should be an exciting college recruitment journey becomes pure misery!

Don’t be mad at or frustrated with her though! She is just not mature enough to understand the importance of the recruiting process. And quite honestly, most 14 and 15 year olds are not really thinking seriously about college . . . they just got into high school for heavens sake! At the same time you as the parent don’t want your kid to blow a potential scholarship opportunity by being passive during the recruitment process . . . so what do you as the parent do? HELP KEEP YOUR KID RELEVANT UNTIL THEY ARE MATURE ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THEIR ROLE IN THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS!

This will require your active participation . . . oversee the following:

*Don’t force the phone calls if she is really fighting you about it

*Have your daughter use e-mail to tell any interested coaches or schools she is interested in the following:

- her season volleyball schedule and then the week prior to each match or tournament, remind the coaches of her upcoming tournament

- updates on any individual volleyball accomplishments

- updates on any team volleyball accomplishments

- her volleyball resume

As far as college visits, you can certainly reach out to the college coaches as the parent to set those up, but make sure they are schools that: (1) invite you for a visit first; (2) have your daughter’s college academic program; and (3) your daughter is interested in visiting.

Believe me, your daughter will come around and all of the grief, frustration, and extra work will be worth it when she secures that scholarship! Just keep talking to your daughter. . . not at her. Keep giving her constructive advice and encouragement . . . not attacks and destructive criticism. Continue to encourage her to work hard at being the best. You all will be just fine!

College Visit Questions - Volleyball Coach

What Questions Should I Ask Volleyball Coaches on my College Visit? 

By: Krystal W. Abbott

You have been invited to visit a university as a college volleyball recruit.  It is always a great idea to have a set of questions written down that you want to ask the college coaches that you will meet with on your visit. Certainly, you will have your own personalized questions that are pertinent to what you want to know about the university and the volleyball program.  Here is a starter list that you can build upon during the course of your visit:

Coaches

How many scholarships do you have available for my graduating class?

What positions are you looking to fill with graduates from my class?

Where am I on your depth chart (i.e., am I a top, middle or low level recruit)?

Have you already extended offers to anyone from my class?

When you are scouting hitters (i.e.) what is it that you are looking for in a scholarship recruit that makes you think "she will fit in well here?"

Do you have a deadline for when you are trying to fill those scholarship spots?

Do you foresee athletes from my class seeing much playing time?

Do you have a number of players that you red shirt and how do you determine whether to do that? Is that decision made upon making an offer or later on?

How do you travel to tournaments (i.e., bus, fly)?

Do you have a set group of starters or do your starters fluctuate from game to game?

How long have you been at the university?

What is your volleyball playing experience?

Have any volleyball players from the university gone on to play in the Olympics or professionally?

What would be a typical day for me during the volleyball season and during the off season?

Does the entire team travel to games or is there a limited number of players that travel?

Have a GREAT visit & GOOD LUCK!

  



Volleyball Commitment

Volleyball Club Commitment . . .

Not Your Daughter’s . . . YOURS!

By: K.W. Abbott 

Does your daughter want to play club volleyball on a national or regional level? Before you insist on your daughter being committed to the sport, you need to ask yourself if you as a parent are committed. Club volleyball on a national or regional level is not a recreational, a couple of one hour practices a week, games located up the street situation. This is a serious time and financial commitment that you as parents must be COMPLETELY COMMITTED to seeing through:

*volleyball tuition expense ($2,000 - $3,000)

*travel expense to tournaments

 *lodging and meal expense during tournaments

 *volleyball equipment and uniform expense

*travel expense to practices

*2 -5 day out of town or in town tournaments

*5 - 9 hours per week of practice, conditioning , and skills training

*additional group, semi-private or private sessions

Are you tired and broke yet?? Can you hang with the volleyball agenda on a national or regional level? Are you on board?? It is not for everyone; and if you as a parent cannot support your volleyball player through this 6-7 month journey, then don’t. If you have no way of obtaining the financial resources to fund this journey nor the time to make sure your volleyball player is an active participant on her team, then don’t do it! Everyone will be stressed, broke and unhappy out and it will be a miserable experience for everyone. EXCEPTION . . . There is always and exception isn’t there??

If your volleyball player has collegiate level potential and they love the game and want to play in college, you as her parent need to find a way to make this volleyball experience happen for her. You can only do what you can do, but more of an effort needs to be made to make their volleyball dreams a reality. If volleyball is your’s child’s ticket to get into college, the time and financial commitment is worth trying to work out (i.e., fund raise, car pool, get other friends and family involved, etc.). It takes a village, right?? Have no shame! It is your child’s future after all . . . So side out for village volleyball and the rewards for you and the rewards will be plentiful for your volleyball player and will be more than you could have ever hoped for!

Volleyball Video

To Film or Not to Film

By: K.W. Abbott

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like needing to film my daughter playing volleyball. I don’t want to have to lug around a camera and stand there catching footage. I want to just sit and enjoy the match. Some parents . . . especially dads . . . like to film their daughters play. And if that is what you enjoy doing, then great! Go for it! Typically, unless you as a parent are just trying to capture your daughter’s volleyball moments by videotaping their matches to preserve as keepsakes, the purpose of filming your kid is a job with a purpose . . . proof to submit to college recruiters that your kid is good enough to play for their university! Well, the club volleyball coaches tell us that if your kid wants to play college volleyball that we need to get some game footage, skills video and other visuals to send to college recruiters. I say that its not a requirement all of the time as an effort to get your kid recruited. It is, however, necessary in most cases. Here is a guideline to follow:

To Film

*The college that your student athlete
wants to attend does not come to your
club or high school tournaments

*Your student athlete is not a Division
1 caliber player

*Your student athlete is not a starter AND
does not get much playing time at tournaments

*If a school your student athlete wants to attend
requests film

Not to Film

*Your student athlete is a Division 1
caliber player AND she is on the
volleyball recruiting radar

*She is a starter and/or gets a
significant amount of playing time

As you can see, filming your child or having some video to send to college coaches is necessary most of the time. If colleges know about your daughter and have an interest in filling a position on their team that your student athlete can fill, they will come to tournaments and film your daughter themselves for their review and discussion with the other coaches on the team. If they don’t, you must make them aware of your daughter by communicating with the coaches via e-mail or phone and by sending them her volleyball resume so they can know her stats and learn more information about what your daughter could possibly bring to their program. Reading a volleyball resume is one thing, but seeing your student athlete perform in match situations is what has the most impact on a college recruiter’s decision about offering a scholarship opportunity to your daughter to play volleyball at that school. If the coaches don’t know about her and don’t have an opportunity to see her play she will not be recruited.

You must be proactive in the recruiting process. You cannot expect to sit back and have the college recruiter spot your child in a sea of girls at a volleyball tournament. Of course there are exceptions, but typically that is not the case. College recruiters come to tournaments to see certain girls they have on their list . . . who are on their radar due to the proactive work you and your student athlete have done to get that coach’s attention. Of course they look at other girls they do not know about who perhaps will get on their radar, but it is great to be on the radar before the coach gets to that tournament your daughter is playing in. That coach will be more focused on your daughter because his or her purpose is to see your student athlete play. So generally the answer is . . . TO FILM!

Volleyball Club Commitment

Volleyball Club Commitment

Club Volleyball Commitment on the

National and Regional Level . . . The

Parent’s . . . Not the Kid’s!

By: Krystal W. Abbott

Does your daughter want to play club volleyball on a national or regional level (i.e., travel)? Before you insist on your daughter being committed to the activity sport, you need to ask yourself as the parent: "am I committed?" Club volleyball is not a recreational, a couple of one hour practices a week, games located up the street, situation. This is a serious time and financial commitment that you as parents MUST be COMPLETELY COMMITTED to seeing through:

* volleyball equipment expense;

* uniform expense;
* travel expense to practice;
* travel expense to tournaments;
* additional semi-private, private and group session practices;

* 5 - 8 hours per week practices, conditioning, and skills training;

* 2 -3 day out of town tournaments 2 - 3 times per month;
* meal expense;
* lodging expense; 
* volleyball tuition expense . . .

Are you tired and broke yet? Can you hang with the volleyball club agenda at the national or regional level? Are you on board? It is not for everyone; and if you as parents cannot support your volleyball player through this journey, don’t do it! If you don’t have the financial resources and the availability to make sure your volleyball player is an active participant on her team, don’t do it! Otherwise, everyone will be stressed out, broke and unhappy and it will be a miserable experience for everyone.

EXCEPTION - There is always an exception, isn’t it!! If your volleyball player has collegiate level potential and she loves the game, you as her parent need to find a way to make this volleyball experience happen for her. You can only do what you can do, but more of an effort needs to be made to make her volleyball dreams a reality. If volleyball is your child’s ticket to getting into college, the time and financial commitment is worth trying to work out (i.e., fund raise, car pool, get other friends and family involved). It takes a village right? Have no shame! It is your child’s future after all . . . So side out for village volleyball and the rewards for you and your volleyball player will be plentiful!

Choosing the Right Volleyball Club

By: Krystal W. Abbott

There is a laundry list of factors to consider in choosing the right volleyball club but who has time to interrogate a volleyball club coach or owner with 100 questions? What you first need to do is determine what YOU want your child to get out of the volleyball training. If the objective is exercise and for purely recreational purposes, then all you need to know is that the lessons are affordable and at a time and frequency that fall in line with your schedule, the facility is conveniently located, and the coaches have some experience as former players or in their length of coaching other athletes. 

If your volleyball athlete is more serious about playing volleyball at a higher level (i.e., your athlete has a desire to play varsity high school, collegiate and/or high performance team volleyball), you still don’t need to ask 100 questions! It’s real simple . . . if the answer is "yes" to the following 6 questions, then the club is worth trying (note that the cost is really not an issue because the more competitive clubs all pretty much charge about the same amount compared to others in the same geographical area):

1) Does your club participate in open bracket tournaments?

2) Do you not only offer 2-3 days of practice per week, but do you also offer other types of training (i.e., skills training, conditioning, weight training, group sessions, semi-private or private sessions, etc.)?

3) Are your coaches either former collegiate players or do they have extensive experience in coaching volleyball athletes?

4) Does your club have staff who actively participate in helping the volleyball athlete in their college recruiting efforts?

5) Does your club have athletes each year who are recruited to play college volleyball?

6) Is this a winning club at tournaments?

Even though you may get "yes" answers (followed by more details hopefully) to these questions, that does not necessarily mean that this club will be the right fit for you and your athlete . . . that’s why I said "yes" answers warrant giving the club a try. If is it a good fit, great! If not, rest assured that there are several other clubs in your area to choose from.

Volleyball Conditioning

Volleyball Conditioning

Volleyball Players Hate to Run!

  

By: Krystal W. Abbott

If your volleyball athlete is serious about playing volleyball at a high level whether it is on a regional club team or on a national club team (i.e., they have a desire to play volleyball in college or at an Olympic level), you must encourage them to do more than the coach required practices. They must get in great athletic condition. This requires RUNNING AND WEIGHT TRAINING. This can be done on a routine basis on their off-volleyball practice days. They won’t want to do it! They may fight you on it! They won’t want to listen to you as the parent because you know nothing about volleyball . . . yeah right! If you need your athlete’s volleyball coach to help back you up on this advice, I am sure they will. Excellence requires extra effort. If your athlete is fine with playing recreational volleyball and is only doing it for fun and exercise, then pushing the running and weight training is not necessary. For the more serious volleyball players, it is a must. Gentle and persistent encouragement to engage in this additional training will be more effective than nagging! Your last resort should be a back handed threat: "well, since you are not willing to work hard to achieve your high volleyball goals, there is no reason for me to work hard to make these payments totaling thousands of dollars for club volleyball." Let’s see how much your volleyball athlete wants to pursue his or her high level volleyball goals now!

Get Your Volleyball Athlete Recruited

　
By: Krystal W. Abbott

In a perfect world, your potential collegiate level high school volleyball player will some how miraculously be discovered by a slew of college recruiters and they will all find out when he or she is playing so they can come observe their level of play. Then they will just love him or her and you will have tons of college recruiters knocking at your door begging your daughter or son to join their volleyball program. Well, the world is not perfect and that is not at all how it works! Getting your child recruited can be summed up in one word – Proactivity! Once you have identified the 30 or fewer schools on your recruitment list, go to each of the university websites and find the e-mail addresses for each head coach, assistant coach, associate coach and director of volleyball operations for each of your listed universities. Put these addresses into a group e-mail data base. Have your athlete send a group e-mail introducing him or herself and attach their volleyball resume with all of their contact information, volleyball stats, high school and club experience, and academic and extra curricular information. Then, whenever your athlete does something worth reporting to a college coach (i.e., local newspaper acknowledgment, a tournament win, you tube video link of some volleyball game footage, pictures, etc.) send it in the group e-mail addressees. This will save a lot of time and will give your athlete nationwide exposure with the click of the "send" button. 

The key is that you must be proactive in helping your athlete market themselves and in helping to give them exposure to their identified college coaches. Once you have your tournament or high school game schedule, send that to the college coaches so they can mark their calendars and make an effort to see your athlete play if they are interested. No coach will ever know about your athlete unless you tell them and show them! Take action and be proactive in your athlete’s journey to being a recruited college volleyball player!

Volleyball Recruitment

Volleyball Recruitment

What Universities Should be on My

"Recruit Me for a Volleyball Scholarship" List

　

By: Krystal W. Abbott

Narrow down the number of schools of interest to your athlete to no more than 30. The narrowing down process really depends on what you are looking for in a university. Some of the factors to take into consideration when choosing this list of schools are as follows and not necessarily in this order:

1. The ranking or level of excellence in a particular major or degree program

2. Volleyball program record

3. Division I, Division II, Division III or NAIA university

4. In state or out of state

5. Climate

6. Ease or difficulty in traveling from home to the university and vice versa

7. The financial burden of traveling from home to the university and vice versa

8. How aggressive or lack luster is the recruiting effort by the university

9. Turn over in coaching staff

10. Turnover in athletes

11. Academic requirements

12. College entrance exam score requirements

13. Coaching style and dynamics of the program

14. The financial commitment if a full scholarship is not received

15. The size of the university

16. Whether the university is in an urban, suburban or rural area

17. Ethnic diversity

18. Demands of the volleyball program

19. Playing time during their freshman year

20. Gut feeling about how your college athlete will fit in at the university

Identifying the core group of schools that you want to stay connected with about your volleyball progress is the first step in the journey to being recruited by a college coach. Take your time and form a solid list. This exercise is not just about the question of "what school would want me?" It is more about the question of "what school do I want to go to?" With the requisite talent, attitude and admission requirements, you can write your ticket and have your pick of any school on your list.

Club Volleyball . . . Is it Worth the Expense?

Club Volleyball . . . Is it Worth the Expense?

Club Volleyball . . . Is it Worth the Expense?

　

By: Krystal W. Abbott

What is club volleyball? There are thousands of volleyball clubs country wide. They are programs which allow your volleyball middle schooler or teenager to play volleyball during the winter, spring and/or summer months. Volleyball season is in the fall so the clubs allows volleyball lovers to play during the off season. Certainly, if you want to use the volleyball clubs for the spring/summer camps they offer or for the local tournament teams your child could be a part of, they are definitely worth the expense. The cost is reasonable (i.e., approximately $150.00 for a period of weeks of camp and approximately $500.00 for participation on a local tournament team). It is when your child wants to participate in state or national volleyball tournaments when you as parents really need to assess the value of club volleyball participation.

State and national volleyball team participation will run you between $2,000.00 and $3,000.00 for one club season (i.e., approximately 10 tournaments) . . . and that is just for the volleyball tuition! That does not include travel, lodging and meal expenses you will incur for these 2 and 3 day out of town tournaments . . . which will run you another $3,000.00 to $6,000.00! So, UNLESS you have unlimited discretionary income and/or you don’t have a problem spending this kind of money for several years, this is my advice to you . . . ASSESS WHETHER OR NOT YOUR CHILD HAS A LEGITIMATE SHOT AT PLAYING COLLEGIATE LEVEL VOLLEYBALL AT A DIVISION I OR DIVISION II UNIVERSITY BEFORE YOU SIGN YOUR CHILD UP TO PLAY ON A STATE OR NATIONAL CLUB VOLLEYBALL TEAM. Division III colleges do not offer athletic scholarships.

That assessment can be made with the assistance of middle school, high school, recreational and club coaches. If the answer is YES, then the investment in club volleyball at the national and state level is definitely worth it. College recruiters make it their business to be present at club volleyball tournaments in search of new talent. That is also the best opportunity for them to do recruiting since their volleyball season with their current college athletes is over. The five figure investment will be well worth the six figure return in the form of an athletic scholarship. Otherwise parents, club volleyball on the national or state level is ill-advised. There are several other less expensive avenues to exhaust which would give your child the volleyball experience without going broke while doing it.

Got Volleyball?? Side Out!!

Got Volleyball?? Side Out!!

Got Volleyball??  Side Out!!

By: Krystal W. Abbott

Does your son or daughter want to play college volleyball?  Follow these ten steps and you will be good to go!

1. Make an honest assessment about whether or not your child is or has the potential to play college ball. Talk to the coaches if you are clueless about it.

2. Help them create a volleyball resume with all of your contact, statistics, honors and volleyball accomplishment information. A photo should also be on the resume.

3. Network with your child's high school and club coaches and find out what assistance they will provide contacting college coaches and arranging for them to see your child play.

4. Help your child send out his or her volleyball resume electronically to at least 200 different college coaches.  Send an electronic copy and a hard copy to the coaches of your top 25 university choices.

5. Obtain a copy of the "NCAA Guide for the College-Bound Student Athlete" athttp://www.ncaa.org/ so that you can become familiar with the rules, the eligibility requirements, NCAA Clearinghouse registration and the college recruitment requirements.

6. Establish a profile on Universityathlete.com and Recruitingregistry.com. Doing this will let coaches know who you are and that you are interested in playing college ball.

7. Try to attend summer college volleyball camps; especially at any universities your child is particularly interested in.

8. Notify college coaches, from the universities your child is most interested in attending, of his or her tournament schedule. If they are interested in your child on paper, they may come to see him or her in action.

9. Once you know that your skills are on par with where you need to be statistically (no later than your junior year in high school) a skills DVD with some game footage should be put together in order to showcase your child's volleyball abilities to the college coaches.

10. Check the college volleyball team websites where you are interested in attending and look for a Recruit Profile form. You can fill that out with your basic information. While on the website you can also look at the current team,  see how many juniors and seniors there are (graduating folks), see where you may fit in, and see where the coach may have needs.

Other helpful sports and recruiting volleyball websites are as follows:

www.ncsasports.org/recruiting-tools/volleyball

http://www.berecruited.com/

www.prechamps.com/college-volleyball-recruiting

http://www.collegevolleyballcoach.com/

http://www.prepvolleyball.com/

There you go!!  Good Luck!!