If Your Recruiting Process Gets Quiet, Then Make Some Noise

I hear this all the time -

"It seems that recruiting has gotten really quiet lately"

"Recruiting has gotten quiet"

"Coaches seem to have gone quiet"

The explanation for things getting quiet from athletes and families is that the fall college volleyball season has started and college coaches are busy. To be totally fair, there is and can be some truth to this. The fall season is busy. College coaches do like to focus on training, film, opponent prep, travel and other logistical things. However, I do like to repeat something that gets said to me by college coaches, "we are always recruiting." Always. Recruiting is always happening. It looks different and different times of the season, but it is always happening.

Here are my 3 responses to this kind of statement during the fall season.

It's a reactive mindset

First, when I hear these kinds of statements they usually aren't prefaced with, "I've been sending texts every week..." or "I've been emailing these coaches constantly since June 15th..." What I'm hearing is that the majority of the communication or initiation of conversations was taking place on the coach side. There's nothing wrong with that really, but at some point that coach is going to stop reaching out for any number of reasons. If we were in regular consistent communication and then August 14th comes around and it all just stopped suddenly, then that would be a little different and we would work through that. But we aren't talking about that kind of situation usually when I hear this. Usually it's sporadic communication from both sides; maybe a few phone calls since June 15th, but nothing really that got us moving in the direction the athlete wanted it to go. While you do want to hear from college coaches, don't be reliant on them reaching out to you all the time. Drive the bus in your recruiting process. If you want a phone call, ask for a phone call. If you want to make a visit, ask about making a campus visit. Be proactive.

How much reaching out have you done?

Tied in with the reactive mindset idea, I often notice that athletes typically haven't done a lot of reaching out on their own to begin with. This typically goes back prior to June 15th. The reason I say that is because there is probably a lack of understanding on the college coach side of just HOW interested you are in the recruiting process. Remember, coaches are comparing apples to apples here.

Julia and Becky are both very talented liberos, playing at a high club level. Julia has been emailing and communicating her interest in a school every other week with emails and engaging on the teams social media. When Julia got on the phone with the college coaches she was really excited and could easily communicate about her WHY and mentioned wanting to come to camp and new about the overall campus and environment of the school and program. Becky on the other hand emailed maybe every month since January. Her emails were usually general and not specific to the school. When she got on the phone with the coaching staff, they really liked her talent and abilities but she didn't really know anything about the school and couldn't communicate WHY she was interested. Becky ended up not coming to camp in July and Julia did. In August Julia set up a visit for October. There isn't a huge need for the coaching staff to reach out to Becky at this point in the process.

Now, that example might be a little bit extreme, but that is some times how the process works. College coaches like to be done if they can. If they have an athlete that they know is interested vs an athlete they aren't sure about. They aren't going to wait. They are going to pursue the athlete they know is interested.

When we get to August and now September, if you have been sitting on your hands and aren't reaching out to schools to say HI or just give them an update on your high school season so far, then there isn't a lot of nudge for the college coach to reach back out to you. I hear it from college coaches all the time, "We just haven't heard from here in a while" and so they move on. Unfortunately for volleyball athletes there are too many of you out there for you to go quiet on your end. Make some noise for yourself! Yes, that part can take work, especially if things have "gone quiet" but noise is noise. If you want college coaches to pay attention to you, notice you and reach out to you, putting yourself in front of them is the best way to do that.

Too busy or just focused?

Yes, it's the fall. Yes, college coaches are busy. But as I said earlier, they still want to hear from you. They want to know you're interested. Initiating conversations as often as you can is important. There is certainly a level of overall busyness on both sides, but there is also a level of focus on the college coach side. After camps and when the fall season starts my time and energies shift into some different categories. Because of that, my time in recruiting is less. This means that I (as a college coach) need to focus my time and be as efficient as I can with my communication to the athletes we are recruiting. That means that I am probably not texting or having any phone calls with athletes outside of our top 5 or even top 3. What we are looking at potentially MORE than it just being "busy" or "quiet" is that things have filtered down to where college coaches are now focused on a smaller group of athletes and you are no longer in that group. This isn't the only time of year this happens. Plenty of athletes get emails and emails from schools all club season and then when June 15th hits, they don't even get a phone call. It's a funnel. College coaches are funneling down their list and focusing in on the top athletes.

The good news...

The good news is that this isn't the end of your recruiting. Even if things do get quiet for you, go make some noise. Needs change and new schools can come on the map as early as October looking for new athletes. Sometimes we come back to start the club season in January and things change quickly and for the better. I wrote about an athlete that started her junior year of HS volleyball with 0 offers. By the time we got to the Lonestar Qualifier she had 3 offers. Things can change quickly. Be an active part of that change! Be proactive; make some noise.

I am here to help athletes on their journey, regardless of where they are in the process. Reach out to me if you would like some guidance through this process.