Recruiting Roadblocks - Competition in Your Position

This dynamic has really shifted over the last couple of years. Not only are you competing for roster spots and scholarships with athletes in your own class, you are also competing with athletes outside your recruiting class.

In general this has always been the case. When I was recruiting a libero in the 2016 class, then plan was to recruit someone that we thought could be the starting libero for the next 4 years. That meant that we weren't really going to be looking to scholarship a libero until the 2020 class. Those athletes we were looking at in the 2020 class for that position were competing against each other. What ended up happening though was we fell in love with a 2019 libero and giving her 3 years of scholarship. Those athletes in the 2020 class we were recruiting, weren't just competing against athletes in their own class, but outside as well.

This can happen with athletes specifically in the setter and libero positions. I think it can happen with pins and middles as well, but not as often because those positions are typically being recruited every year. But it does come into play when it comes to looking at your potential playing time at the college level. If a school grabs an athlete in the class before or after you that can seriously challenge your opportunities for playing time (that's a good thing) but it might change your outlook on what you're getting yourself into. Setters don't typically like to be behind another setter in the class before them. This is why college coaches usually separate their setter scholarships and get one every other year.

The other factor now that is having a major impact on high school athletes is the transfer portal. It's not just unsigned seniors that have to compete against athletes in the portal, it's juniors and even sophomores to some extent. When it comes to colleges communicating their needs for the current sophomore class, they are communicating what position they need for that fall, but what they don't know is whether or not they will get a transfer to fill that need or an incoming freshmen. Sometimes they might be replacing a future senior, 3 or 4 year starter, and so they might really need an incoming freshmen. It depends on how their scholarships are broken up by class and other variables. The point is though, you aren't just competing for roster spots, of which there are limited amounts. You are competing against athletes outside of your grad class as well.

Should this demoralize you in anyway? No, it shouldn't. Competition for your position is fierce across the country at all levels. That hasn't changed. We may have added some variables to the mix and it certainly didn't get any easier. Just understand that your variables for wanting to play at any level are numerous. Make sure your list starts out big and that you are doing everything you can on your side to stand out and communicate with college coaches as much as you can. You have to put yourself in front of college coaches. Very few things happen by accident, if at all.