The Recruit Visit - Meeting The Team

Meeting the athletes is probably the MOST important part of a recruiting visit. Depending on how the visit is structured and how the logistics of the day play out, a high school athlete might end up spending a lot of time with the team. In other circumstances, the athlete might only get to spend a limited amount of the time with the team. This may or may not be by design, but I would guess that most of the time it's dictated by the overall schedule of the visit. So, if you don't end up spending a ton of time with the team, it's not necessarily a negative on the visit as a whole.

When athletes would come for a visit in my program, they would almost without a doubt end up spending a lot of time with the team. Weekends during the Spring were hard to do this but we could usually make something work so that the recruit could spend time with the team. This step is really important on both sides. Ask most college volleyball players as to the "why" they picked that specific school and many times their #1 answer will be "The team." I would always ask for my teams thoughts on the recruits we had on campus. If they REALLY loved the recruit we brought in, I didn't usually have to solicit the question; I would just start getting texts from them :) It's possible not every coach is going to ask for feedback on athletes from their current players, but I would guess there is at minimum some communication going on about the teams' interactions with a recruit during a visit. It is entirely possible for a visit to NOT go very well if the recruit does not engage with the team. As an athlete that is being recruited by that specific school, this is an important step you need to focus on.

I have also seen several time where the parents have a negative impact on the visit. This can come in several forms, but one of the biggest issues is parents over-talking to coaches and answering questions that are specifically directed toward the athlete. One instance in particular I remember texting the team for some feedback about a recruit we had on campus and the first response was, "Do you want feedback on the mom as well?"

For parents and athletes, please remember that you will leave an impression with the coaching staff and with the players in that program. I know a lot of college coaches (myself included) that trusted their players and certainly weighed their feedback about athletes when they came on campus. Meeting the team is always a big piece of the recruiting visit for both sides. As a recruit, make every effort to engage and make a positive first impression on who might end up being your future teammates.

So you might have noticed that some of my blogs are running you into a pay wall. I will still be doing a blog like this each week for everyone to read. I also wanted to dive more into some specific detail about recruiting, volleyball and other drive the conversation on some other topics for everyone. These blog posts will come out at least once a week, maybe more depending on what is going on in the world :) This is only $1.99 a month and I plan on engaging with readers on a more specific way; answering questions and giving more insight into the volleyball world. I hope that these new blog can be both fun and informative! We all love this sport and many of us surround ourselves with volleyball and so I'd like the opportunity to create some more dialogue around it. If you have any questions, please let me know. You can go HERE to sign up!