Recruiting

1. CREATE YOUR RECRUITING EMAIL ADDRESS

Create a separate email account that you use only for college recruiting, College Board and college applications. Both player and parent should have access to this email. We recommend a name like this: JaneSmith2022@gmail.com Choose a password you can all remember.

2. UNIVERSITY ATHLETE PROFILE

This is the profile many college coaches use to find you at major tournaments. This is a must for any player who wants to play in college. Don’t wait until the last minute as your free registration will take a few days to be processed. Register now for University Athlete. Make sure you add your tournament schedule, your personal contact information (not your parents) AND ALWAYS include a coach or club contact. When coaches can’t contact you, they can contact your coach.

3. MAKE A COLLEGE SPREADSHEET

 Successful recruiting requires organization. Make a spreadsheet of your top colleges and keep track of who you email and their responses. 

4. REGISTER ON COLLEGE TEAM WEBSITES

Go to the college website and find the recruiting questionnaire. Fill it out. Coaches use this to find specific players. 

5. GET VIDEO

Coaches need video to make sure it’s worth their time to come see you play. Take video at tournaments or hire a firm. Keep it simple. No crazy music or fancy graphics. Just two minutes of you looking awesome to capture a coach’s attention. Have full game video ready in case they ask (edit out the downtime). A YouTube link is fine.

6. EMAIL COLLEGE COACHES

Email coaches a link to your video and invite them to come see you play at a tournament. Email coaches before every big tournament to tell them you will be there. Always include grad year, jersey number and a club coach contact. (See sample letter) Make notes on your spreadsheet to help you keep track.

7.  GO TO COLLEGE CAMPS

Start attending camps your 15s or 16s year. See the campus, interact with a college coaching staff, and play alongside other recruitable athletes.

8. BUILD A RELATIONSHIP

Keep in contact with coaches, and update them on your accomplishments. (All-state honors? Did you win a qualifier?) Once you are allowed to start communicating with coaches after sophomore year, don’t be afraid to ask coaches where you stand. They will respond to you or your club contact with more information.

SAMPLE COLLEGE RECRUITING EMAIL

Subject Line: Jane Smith, #5, Class of 2021 (Make sure you include useful information on your subject line)

Dear Coach (Name Here) (It’s a good idea to email both the head coach and assistant coach, who is often the one who oversees recruiting)

My name is Jane Smith, and I’m a 5’11 outside hitter for East Coast Power Volleyball 16-Carolina National Team and a 2021 recruit. I will be playing in 16-Open competition at the Northeast Qualifier in Philadelphia on THESE DATES, and I’d like to invite you to come see me play.

Here is a link to my video. You can also find more information about me on my roster and team page, which includes my season schedule. (Include these links) 

Add some brief detail about yourself: I’m a strong all-around player with a 9’6 approach touch. I’m also a strong academic student and would like to play for your program. I have filled out the recruiting questionnaire on your website. (If you are contacting a very high academic school, you can include additional academic information like SAT, ACT scores, AP or IB curriculum etc.)

I hope to see you at the NEQ. 

Jane Smith, #5 (Sign with your jersey number)
JaneSmith2019@gmail.com (use your player email, not your parents)

You can contact my club recruiting staff at this email.
Email: ecpowervolleyball@gmail.com
(Make sure you include the club email so the coach can contact us if needed)

WHAT IS RECRUITING VIDEO?

Video is essential in the recruiting process. Recruiting video can show a few minutes of game play, skill drills or a full match. Players send their video links to college coaches. This helps a college coach decide if he or she wants to come see you play in person. Coaches make very quick assessments based on video so it’s important that you send video that shows you at your best and doesn’t waste their time.

DO’S…

• Do put your best hits, digs, sets or saves in the first few seconds of your video
• Do send coaches links to both highlight reels and full match play.
• Do tell coaches your jersey number and position so they can find you in the video
• Do add your jersey number to the text box below the video in YouTube, Vimeo or whatever service you use
• Do send coaches full match video and let them know the time stamps when you are playing

DON’TS…

• Don’t add music of fancy graphics to your video. Keep it simple. Most coaches listen with the sound off.
• Don’t expect a coach to watch the entire video. Keep your best moments at the beginning.
• Don’t send a video that begins with serving. Unless you have a spectacular serve, coaches can’t learn much about you from a serving video. Coaches want to see you move. If you have a great serve, send the coach match play that includes you serving.

COLLEGE RECRUITING DURING TOURNAMENTS

Travel tournaments are an important component to college recruiting. Here are the three things you should plan to do before, during and after a travel tournament.

Before the tournament
Invite college coaches to watch you play. Read more about this below.

During the tournament
Take video that can be shared with college coaches. Coaches want to see video of you playing strong competition. Video from travel tournaments is typically stronger than video from local tournaments.

Before or After the Tournament
Schedule time on the way to or from the tournament to visit nearby colleges. Even if you are not interested in the school, a visit to any college campus to help shape your thinking about your college goals. 

COLLEGE COACH LISTS

During the week before any travel tournament, go to the tournament website and look for a list of coaches that have RSVP’d to attend  or who have attended the tournament in the past. Note: Many college coaches are very slow to RSVP for tournaments, so sometimes last year’s list of coach attendees is a better guide for which coaches will be attending that tournament. 

Now, send emails to college coaches and invite them to come watch you play at the tournament. Use the tournament RSVP list as a guide, but if your favorite school is not on the list, email them anyway. The coach may be planning to attend but hasn’t RSVP’d — or maybe he or she will decide to attend when s/he sees that you will be there!

Use our sample college recruiting letter to guide you.

RECRUITING VIDEO

Recruiting video is a must if you want to play in college. When you email college coaches to come what you play, you should send them a short video link. Many coaches only spend their time at tournaments watching players who have sent a a video link. They are seeking out many players and they  don’t want to waste their tournament time finding a player completely unknown to them.

Use travel tournaments — where the competition is the strongest — to film your matches. Many  tournaments offer video services so check out the tournament page in advance. But video is not tough to do on your own. Bring a tripod with an iPhone or iPad mount or use a regular video camera and take video. Talk to your teammates and share the burden of recording your matches. Chances are your player is very skilled at editing her own video on her iPhone.

The value of video from a travel tournament is that coaches know you are playing good teams. A block or ace serve against Texas Advantage, Triangle or Tribe is much more meaningful to a college coach than the same play against a local team.

COLLEGE VISITS

Travel tournaments are a great opportunity to visit college campuses. Every player should plan to visit at least one school before or after your tournament.

Even if you don’t think you are interested in attending a particular college, we encourage you to visit as many schools as you can to help your daughter get a sense of her priorities in college. During my daughter’s sophomore year attending MAPL-Raleigh, we visited Elon University and Duke University. Neither school was on our list for college, but that trip sophomore year had a huge influence on my daughter’s college recruiting goals going forward. Did she like the feeling of a new modern campus or did she respond more to old beautiful architecture? How important was the surrounding town to her? Could she see herself spending time in the campus library?