How To Get Lost in the Shuffle with Your Volleyball Recruiting

There are two really good ways to get lost in the shuffle of the crazy and chaotic recruiting process.

1) Don't update college coaches on what club team you're playing for

Every year around the end of October I will start getting emails from several different schools for athletes that no longer play at one of the clubs I work with. Is this a huge deal? For me? Not really. I am always happy to pass along that info to those athletes and then I let that coach know that she is no longer at "said" club. This is where things go wrong for the athlete potentially.

Now that coach and program are thinking about whether or not that athlete let OTHER schools know she was moving clubs and not theirs. Now that coach might be thinking that she is no longer interested in their program. Because if she was interested, she would have let them know she was moving clubs, right? If the athlete has been reaching out and communicating with the staff, this is usually NOT an issue. But if you're NOT communicating with that school, they tend to potentially think in the negative. Not always. But when January rolls around and they are watching and evaluating athletes, they are potentially thinking about how this athlete was at a new club for 5 months and didn't bother to update them with that info.

This is WHY consistent communication is KEY in the recruiting process for all athletes at all levels.

2) Don't Update your University Athlete Contact Info

College coaches use UA almost exclusively to collect info. It's almost a crutch in some ways. I could text a coach an athlete's contact info directly and they will still go into UA to see what their email address is. It's a little comical, but it's reality. That's why updating your contact info in UA is so important. If that info isn't correct, that means that potentially college coaches are trying to send you info and you're not getting it. Or they are sending emails to a "recruiting coordinator" or high school coach that never checks their email.

"We've been sending her info for months and she hasn't ever responded to us in anyway." That's the reasoning college coaches will use to move on to or focus on other athletes. That will happen as early as Triple Crown.

The great news is that "getting lost in the shuffle" is completely preventable. Does it take some work? Yes. Does it mean that you are potentially reaching out to schools yourself and NOT hearing back from them? Yes. Bottom line - that's a part of the process right now. Getting on board with that will make your recruiting process smoother.

Control the parts that you can control. Don't get lost in the shuffle of your volleyball recruiting.