You might have seen something in the media about the P4 conferences agreeing to pay athletes directly. I've had a few conversations with some of these coaches and I plan on having more in the next couple of weeks. Here is what I know so far! College athletics are changing. It's an exciting time, that's for sure. There are also a lot of unknowns. I will try and get as much information as I can to share here with everyone! It's happening! It's not a myth or something that

No one likes losing. Most of us that play a competitive sport are just that, competitive. Losing is hard. It's draining mentally and physically for both players and coaches. I don't know any college coaches that are trying to lose either. Some teams have bigger hills to climb than others. It can sometimes take years to build a college volleyball program, make it better and improve their record. Typically good things don't happen overnight.

*This is a free post. To get access to more than 200 blog posts giving you updated insight on the recruiting process, please consider becoming a PRI Blog Pass subscriber I have been brining up this topic and these podcasts I recorded 3 years ago in my web trainings helping athletes get ready for the June 15th contact date. You can listen to both episodes below! Be sure to check out some of my other resources and subscribe to the PRI Blog Archive so you can get more tips,

When I was growing up it was "8 Minute Abs". That's all you needed, 8 minutes a day and you could have washboard abs. It's a great idea, but most people still have to give 8 minutes a day to something that they are not necessarily otherwise inclined to do. "You don't need to work out everyday for hours to look and feel your best," the ad said. Unfortunately there is a certain kind of discipline that you need to "look and feel" healthy. We are always, it seems, looking fo

*This is a free post. To get access to more than 200 blog posts giving you updated insight on the recruiting process, please consider becoming a PRI Blog Pass subscriber There are typically two things that get setters in trouble during the recruiting process. First, many teams are NOT recruiting a setter in any given class. Identifying this can be extremely difficult unless you have someone asking those specific questions (someone like myself). I have several athletes tha

Resilience - get back up when things don't go your way. That's the definition. I took a little bit of freedom with focusing it in a little bit. But that is basically what the word means. There are a lot of other perspectives out there on what this word means, but if they don't include the "getting back up" part, then they are just wrong.

*Podcast episode recorded in May of 2022 *This is a free post. To get access to more than 200 blog posts giving you updated insight on...

*This is a free post. To get access to more than 200 blog posts giving you updated insight on the recruiting process, please consider...

I'm not against 3rd party camps in any way. I just want parents to know what they are getting into before hand. Whether you choose a "Combine," "Showcase" or one of the club college camps over the summer, you run into a lot of the same issues. Let's go through some of them...

*Originally Posted 3/20/2024 What should your mindset be going into a tournament weekend like Indy, Triple Crown or any other qualifier? Indianapolis is always one of my favorite places to go. Plenty of restaurants downtown and usually some good food trucks outside as well (although that didn't happen this year). If needed, there is always Steak & Shake to bail you out in a pinch; Mint-chocolate chip. Anyone else? I get to stay at my favorite Bed and Breakfast with Breakfa

This past weekend in Orlando was a good trip. It felt like a quick trip because of my late flight in on Friday night and my early flight back Monday morning. It was still a good trip though. I got to spend a bunch of time at various courts throughout the weekend. One benefit of traveling more than I have in past years is that I get to see my teams play more!

*Originally Posted December 8th, 2023 I'm not great at remembering peoples names. Athletes I can almost always remember. Several times I would be texting my assistant during a visit, asking her the names of the parents that were on the visit with the athlete. Conversations really help. Interactions really help. Connecting the parents to the athlete always helped me: Jim and Pam = Suzie I could work backwards sometimes. Regardless, it was something I really had to focus

Triple Crown is such a great tournament. I know that there is a qualifier prior to this weekend now, but I don't think that changes anything. With TC being opening weekend for D1 coaches and because it combines most of the talent from across the country, it really is a top notch event. It's a crazy three days for me but I enjoy going each year.

It's a good thing and a bad thing all at the same time. Limiting your college options is both helpful and discouraging.

I'm a big fan of honesty. I think it's important. You have to be able to trust people. If you can't trust someone then they can't really help you. That trust goes both ways for athletes and college coaches.

*Originally posted 10/25/2021 Okay, so maybe "addiction" is a little bit much, but hopefully you'll get my point as we get going here. One of the biggest hooks (it seems) with online recruiting services like NCSA, SportsRecruits and even University Athlete is the ability for them to send you a notification EVERY TIME a school visits your athletes profile. This is great if you want to keep up with traffic and see almost all of the interactions on your athletes profile. Even

I forget regularly that not every club has someone like me working for them. Many clubs have "recruiting coordinators" that help with recruiting, but usually these people have full-time jobs somewhere else; they have administrative duties at the club; or they also coach 2 teams for the club. Not that any of that is wrong, but it's different when I can spend 12 hours in the gym talking to college coaches, parents and athletes vs. other recruiting coordinators that aren't tra

*Originally posted 3/15/2021 Two things before I start this... 1) I will always stand by the notion that a "better fit" is substantially more important than playing at a "higher level"

I talk to almost every team at every club I work with about scholarships. It's kind of a lot of information. I also spend a chunk of time talking about scholarships on my online program "So, You'd Like To Get Recruited?" Scholarships are a foundational piece of knowledge that is necessary to understand the recruiting process. I talk about this a lot because not every athlete is going to get a full-ride scholarship. Surprised by that? I hope not.

"Why didn't Nora play volleyball at 12s and 13s?"