If you spend any time on one of the many Volleyball FB groups, it's inevitable that someone will ask about a recruiting service, NCSA, or general recruiting advice. I'm always amazed at two things: 1) the general advice that's given that may or may not apply to that person or may or may not actually be good advice, and 2) the number of people giving the "you don't need help" advice.
I don't think that the sometimes bad advice is ill-intentioned. I don't think people are doing it on purpose. The difference is usually advice from someone who has done this recruiting process ONCE or maybe even been "around" it a couple of times VS the person that does this 100s of times every recruiting cycle (that's me). This is something that I have mentioned several times before through social media and something I've talked about on my podcast. But this incident made me need to chat about it more.
A college coach shared a picture of an email earlier this week. I have been posting a bunch on social media about athletes and families getting wrong info and how it can negatively impact their recruiting, and this coach shared this email with me. I won't post the picture of the email, but the basic idea of the email was this:
A dad reached out to a D1 assistant hoping that the coach would give his daughter some input on how recruiting really works. The daughter had apparently been telling her father that she needed to play club volleyball to get recruited. The dad knew this to be "misguided" and was hoping that this coach would shed some light on the subject.
This is all mostly innocent, but I want to pull 3 things out of this email specifically to help educate families.
1) Can you play college volleyball and NOT play club volleyball? Sure. But in the year 2025, I don't think it happens very often. If/When it does, we are talking about a small percentage...very small. Those situations are also going to be extremely unique. An example would be a college having a local athlete in town who excelled at all the sports she played in the small town and just ended up being a good fit. Sure. That could happen. Generally speaking though, the daughter is correct. In order to realistically get in front of college coaches, you need to play club volleyball.
2) The college coach that sent me this email can't even email the parent back. This athlete, it turns out, is a freshman, and so the college coach can't respond to this email. Even a question as simple and basic as this one, they can't respond to. If the parent knew more about the recruiting process, they would know that. But they don't, and so unfortunately the coach has to reach out to the athlete's HS coach in order to get this info back to the family. This athlete is a varsity freshman who is probably looking at the rest of her team going, "they are ALL playing club" and I should be too.
3) Every sport is different. Without making too many assumptions, I would imagine that the father in this case DID play college sports. From his experience, he didn't need to play any sort of "club" sport when he was in high school. So, given the one experience they have, this is what they understand and know. Even today, the different college sports have significantly different processes and timelines that they go through. Not everyone knows this, and that's okay.
Why do I mention all of this? It seems like kind of an extreme example, maybe?
It is a little bit extreme. Is this every parent? Not by any means. But with the number of athletes that want to play college volleyball, it's safe to say that there is a lack of education on HOW the process actually works. This is something I have been trying to communicate consistently for the last 6 years. I figure this is one of a thousand parents that are at a minimum "misguided" on the recruiting process in the metroplex.
Be careful about where you are getting advice from. Also, don't judge people when they ask questions or want answers. Athletes and families need and WANT help, and there's nothing wrong with that.
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