Volleyball Recruiting Time Line: Senior Year

The Plan

The Senior year is “crunch time” and it’s time to seriously evaluate your recruiting situation.  If you are happy with the list of schools who are still actively recruiting you, then you are in a good position. A good rule of thumb is you want to be in frequent contact with at least 7-10 schools at this point.  If you are unsure of where you stand on some programs recruiting list, you need to have a direct conversation with those coaches and just ask: Have you filled my position for this recruiting class?  Where do I fall in your list of potential recruits? Coaches are good people and will be honest with you on where you stand.

If you are not in contact with at least 7 schools, then you need to immediately get your information and video out to a new realistic set of programs.  By realistic, I mean programs that do not compete in the top NCAA DI conferences (Big 12, PAC 10, Big 10 etc.) At this point in the recruiting time-line, 95% of those schools have secured their incoming recruiting class, or are very close, so reaching out to those coaches is not a wise use of your time.  Instead focus on the lower DI, DII, DIII, NAIA or NCJAA schools.  The recruiting process in these divisions tends to be slower and where you will have the most opportunities.

Official Visit

Official visits are becoming more of a formality with the acceleration of the recruiting process as more and more prospects are verbally committing before their Senior year even begins. For those players, the official visit has become an opportunity for them to visit the campus on the school's dime while meeting current team members.

However, if you have not already verbally committed then go on as many official visits as you can. They tend to be a lot of fun and it is the one chance you will have to get an honest feel for the school and more importantly if it is the school for you!

Before a college may invite you on an official visit, you will have to provide the college with a copy of your high school transcript (Division I only) and SAT, ACT or PLAN score and register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.

Official Visit Rules:

• Prospective student athletes can only make one official visit to any given college
• Prospective student athletes can only make official visits during their Senior year of high school (any visits prior to the Senior year are unofficial visits)
• Prospective student athletes can make no more than 5 total official visits (so choose wisely!).
• Official visits can only last 48 hours.
• The college team can pay for the players travel and lodging. This is the main distinction between official and unofficial visits.
• Prospective student athletes may receive free admission to a volleyball match, but can only sit in the general seating area.
• The player’s host can be a current player on the team, who receives a set amount of money to cover the player’s expenses while on campus. It’s a good idea to request to spend time with younger players (Freshmen or Sophomores) because these people are going to be your teammates!
• Prospective student athletes cannot use the money to buy souvenirs or swag.

Some suggestions for the official visit, per The College Volleyball Coach: (http://www.collegevolleyballcoach.com/search/label/Official%20Visit

1. “Have your parent(s) accompany you on the visit - they will see things that you may miss with regards to facilities, classes, campus safety, etc. Per NCAA rules, the host school cannot pay for the transportation of your parents (unless the family drives together), but once your folks are there, the school is allowed to cover everything for them.

2. Ask to stay with a member of the team in a Freshman Residence Hall. That super nice dorm room the program showed you, could be just for Juniors and Seniors. You need to know exactly the type of room you will be staying in the next two years.

3. When you go out to eat, make sure you eat WHATEVER looks good to you! Don't be shy - the program has a specific recruiting budget and that budget is allocated to try and convince you to attend their school. Also, have at least a lunch or dinner in the school cafeteria; this is the only way to see the quality of the meals and how many healthy eating options are available.

4. While it may be fun to see a match, it is more important to see a practice (not a pre-game serve and pass, but a normal practice). A volleyball practice will show you just how that program operates. Is the coach positive or negative in a training environment, how much technical instruction is presented, are the drills play oriented or repetition oriented, do the players work hard with a good attitude or are they just going through the motions - these are all things that a match will not illustrate completely.

5. Schedule an academic meeting with the person who is in charge of academics for the Athletic Department. If you are fortunate enough to know what you want to study, make sure that this discipline is available and have the staff member lay-out the process for you to graduate with that degree. Should you have a general idea or two about what possible degree excites you, make sure that school has those academic majors available. I know of too many transfer situations where the PSA choose the school for athletic reasons and not academic reasons.

6. Research the next year's roster and ask specific questions about where you fit in. If you are an outside hitter and the team has three starting sophomores who are also outside hitters, the reality is you may not be seeing a lot of playing time as a freshman. Conversely, if the team is currently laden with senior outside hitters, are you going to be expected to be an impact player your freshman year?

7. Ask about Team Policies - While the Athletic Department may have certain guidelines about player-team conduct, each program is usually left to determine their own conduct rules. What is the alcohol policy? Are there food-diet restrictions? Is there a dress code for home or away matches? Are the players supposed to live together? Are players allowed to live off campus? Ask these questions now, because you will be living with the answers for a number of years.

8. Attend a non-volleyball event. Get a feel for the general student body by seeing something other than volleyball. There is much more to college than volleyball.

9. Find out about summer school and 5th year funding. Each school determines how it handles these two topics and unfortunately, the answers vary by sport. You must find out this information because it will have a big impact upon your summer plans and the financial obligation beyond the offered scholarship.

10. Spend as much time as possible with the younger players on the team. These are the people you will be interacting with on a very personal level for the next few years. By watching a training session and asking specific questions during your meetings, you can get a good feel for the 'adults' at the school. If you like the players that you spend time with, then you are already on your way to having a good college experience. If the Official Visit does not allow you to spend quality time with the younger players, this should be a concern.”

Signing Periods

Once you have made your decision on which school you want to attend, there are two time period when you are allowed to sign the National Letter of Intent.  The National Letter of Intent is a document which legally obligates the player to the school and the school to the player.

• The fall (or early) signing period is always in mid November, and lasts for about a week. 
• The spring (or late) signing period goes from mid April to the beginning of August, so a window of about 4.5 months.  However, during the spring signing period, once the National Letter of Intent has been issued, the player must sign and date the document within 2 weeks. 

The specific dates for these periods change from year to year, so check the National Letter of Intent website for specific dates by going to: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/nli/nli

All National Letters of Intent must be signed during these time frames.  While extremely rare, the National Letter on of Intent can be broken, as long as both the players and the school agree to sign a release of obligation document.

Once you have signed the National Letter of Intent, your recruiting process in officially over! CONGRATULATIONS!

In Summary

Your Senior year is the time go on official visits and or evaluate your situation.  If you feel good about where you are in the recruiting process, great!  If not, you need to immediately and aggressively reach out to as many (realistic) schools as possible, and be very direct with college coaches when asking questions about opportunities at their school.

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Have questions? Please contact Amanda Millard at 303-929-8587 or by email at Amanda@VolleyballRecruits.net to discuss how to we can help your son or daughter throughout the recruiting process.