What Is A "Reach School"?

*Originally posted 5/16/2022

How many schools do you have on your list? How many of those are "reach" schools?

A "reach school" for many is a school that you KNOW you don't have any business emailing. But I want to expand this definition out a little bit more. I think that realistically this classification should apply to a school where you aren't going to be in their top 25 for your graduating class. Some people might refer to this as a "2nd tier" category. From most of my conversations with college coaches, they aren't recruiting athletes out of their 2nd tier. Yes, they still might be getting emails from these schools that include camp invites, but they aren't athletes they are considering for roster spots.

I think that these kinds of schools, for athletes, should be considered a reach school.

My thinking for this comes from a couple of different places. First, figuring out the area or range where you are going to be the best fit for volleyball AND the best fit for you academically is more important now than ever. It's something that I've been talking a lot about and brought up in my blog called "Aim For The Middle."

Second, I think that an increased level of communication to athletes when they aren't a great fit for the school will be a great help in this situation. I wrote about this topic HERE. This would help identify schools that just aren't recruiting that position or ones that are realistically a reach for a given athlete. The sooner we can figure out where the reach schools are, then the sooner we can focus on those schools where the athlete is a good fit.

Now, I've had the conversation the last couple of nights with athletes and families getting ready for the June 15th contact day. One thing we talk about is how long the recruiting process is. For many athletes it could last 3 months to a year. I think that some of the year-long recruiting processes are due in part because we spent months contacting and emailing schools that were basically reach schools. When you are #9 or #10 on a list in your position, you DO get dragged along a bit. A year later you are talking to a completely different group of schools than you started out with. How different might your process have looked if you STARTED your process with emailing those schools?

One question that I have been asking myself as I see emails come across my computer is, "How many reach schools is she emailing?" Now I don't necessarily have a problem with athletes emailing these kinds of schools; go for it. I worry when I see a setter from a team that is running 6-2 start emailing mostly power 5 schools, where most of these schools are typically running a 5-1. I worry when a libero from a 2nd team is emailing lots of Power 5 schools and lots of other FBS schools. It's not that the athlete is un-talented, un-athletic or bad at her position, but it's just that there are SO MANY athletes in those positions that you're competing just to get noticed. Getting recruited can be a whole nother level of difficulty.

Talking to a dad at a qualifier this season about a similar topic, I used this example: We were standing at a 16 Open court in an area where I could easily watch 4 courts just where I was standing. Those 4 courts currently had sixteen Open teams playing between the 4 courts (4 teams on each court). I told the parent that If I was recruiting libero in that class that I could probably stand right here, watch these 4 courts and find a Libero/DS that would fit what I was looking for. Those 16 teams have a total of 32 DS/libero's on their rosters roughly. Also, remember that there were at least 2 other courts playing Open at that qualifier that I didn't need to even watch. Also remember that I'm NOT going to any other qualifiers. The idea being that out of those 32 or so DS athletes, I could probably find 1 that was going to be good enough to play for me. Now multiply that out to all of the courts at all of the qualifiers. There are LOTS of athletes in each position playing across the country. A college coach is going to keep looking until they get the athlete they want.

My advice, in the end, would be to get a really good evaluation of where you currently stand and where you are going to be a good fit athletically going forward. That's where you should focus your time and energy in recruiting. Have a couple of "reach" schools in there, that's fine. But make sure they are in the minority of your list. Remember that less than 4% of high school athletes are playing at the NCAA level (D1, D2 and D3) and that 25% of D1 rosters are NOT on scholarship.

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