Club Volleyball Recruiting: Why Tournament Location Matters

I have this conversations with parents and even club coaches every season. Occasionally it happens at the beginning of the club year as a coach is planning their recruiting season. Usually it happens with parents after the fact.

After they have finished all of their local tournaments and they are prepping for either AAUs in Orlando or wherever the USAV Championship is that year (this location also does matter a little bit).

There are usually two trains of thought when it comes to playing your qualifiers:

1. Go where you can get a bid.

2. Go where you can get recruited.

Depending on the age of your team, the make up of your team and your philosophy as a club, this might not be even a discussion you need to have. But, depending on your level of play your 16s and 17s year of club volleyball are HUGE recruiting years for you. If that is a goal for you individually or for your team as a whole, it might want to be something you consider and process through when it comes to the tournaments you choose to attend and how you go about communicating with college coaches.

"Go Where You Can Get a Bid"

This idea certainly makes sense from a club perspective. Maybe you try not to go back-to-back weekends of qualifiers so you have time to rest and practice in between. Maybe you go to smaller qualifiers in the NE or NW where you have a better chance of competing and even winning a qualifier to get that bid. Maybe you are picking and choosing the level you're competing at along with the "where" part of your qualifier search. Depending on who is competing in a certain level, maybe it's better for you to drop down? It might even be better for you to move up a level? I'm not totally sure about that, but I see enough teams do it each year that there has to be some reasoning behind it. Maybe you are waiting for the tougher teams in your region to decide where they are going before you make your travel plans? Regardless of your process in making your qualifier decisions, you're doing it with the intent and goal of getting a bid.

"Go Where You Can Get Recruited"

Now, it might not seem this way, but for the majority of teams out there this perspective can really shift which qualifiers you plan on attending. The level of your team plays a huge role in this. It's possible that this isn't even a concern for some clubs and club coaches. This makes sense because we are only looking at roughly 5% of high school volleyball players across the country are playing volleyball in college. If you are a 16s or 17s and you want to play in college, then this should be something you want to take into account. Now, for the top Open teams in the country, where athletes are getting recruited by the biggest and best schools in the country, this almost doesn't become a factor. Those athletes are getting recruited. Also, the majority of those big schools are going to be at almost every qualifier (at least for a day) to watch the athletes that are highest on their list. For the other 95% of college athletes across the country, this might be something to consider.

Qualifiers are located all across the country. This is great because it creates a lot of opportunities for exposure for athletes. However, you want to make sure you are getting in front of the college coaches you want to play for. The majority of D2 and D3 schools are not traveling across the country to ever qualifier. They might be attending one or two outside of their region. This takes into account their overall travel budget. Does a D3 school in NY have the budget to fly to the Red Rocks Qualifier? Maybe? They might if they typically recruit athletes from California. There are always variables. Are schools in the upper east coast going to attend a qualifier in Philly? Probably. But probably not a qualifier in Spokane. Now, schools in the Northwest don't typically recruit athletes from Texas or the south in general. They mostly recruit from CA, OR and WA. They are usually staying local and are most likely NOT attending Lonestar or Big South. The same goes from schools, even D1 schools in Texas. They might not to go Spokane (even though quite a few Texas clubs go to that qualifier) because they can't afford it or they don't have the time. When looking at which schools you are trying to get in front of it's important to consider what their recruiting budget might look like and whether or not they are going to fly across the country to watch 1 or 2 athletes.

So what should you do?

If you are looking at some schools and your club schedule and their recruiting schedule just don't line up, you're going to have to be extra diligent. You're going to have to let them know you are really interested; otherwise they will just recruit someone closer to home. You will need to send them a bunch more film. Possibly more than you send other coaches. They will need to see you as much as possible to try and get the best evaluation they can. You are going to have to sell them on your personality. This is difficult, but completely doable. You might really have to consider going to camp. Taking that extra flight to visit in the fall to watch a match and see camps, might be necessary. You are going to have to be extra persistent in your communication and really think outside the box. Most importantly, you're going to have to be a really great fit for the staff. If they don't believe you can help them win matches, then all of the extra work probably isn't going to pay off. But the extra work can payoff if you are targeting a school where you are going to be a great volleyball and athletic fit.

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