February 18, 2013

NCAA Division II and III College Volleyball Recruiting

A double shot of NCAA Division II and Division III college volleyball recruiting questions:

Hi Coach- thanks for your advice. I have also bought your book- big help. My question is about my daughter who is in her junior year - class of 2014. She has a lot of response from our email efforts pointing them to her video and profile (6'0 OH hitter). Mainly from D2 and D3 schools. I would consider her a good but not D1 player. My question is how and when to ask coaches where she stands on their list? Some have been following her since last year- some have recently expressed interest. We were thinking of taking visits soon as well. I assume we should ask prior to taking a visit. Some of these schools are far away. Note our motive is to find a smaller, good academic school where her volleyball can help pay some/all the cost. Any help would be appreciated. T.W.

Thanks for the compliments and glad you enjoy Inside College Volleyball.

D2 and D3 tend to recruit a bit later in the process.  I think it is always a good idea to take a few visits, if for nothing more to get comfortable with what an Unofficial Visit entails.  I would not get 'serious' about the visit just yet because there is still a lot of time left on the clock, especially with all the coaching changes, and rosters changes which happen each season.

I suggest you continue to focus on your outreach program and also keep reaching out to mid major and lower DI's; keep all potentials in play.  There are a few 'lower' DI's which can offer a nice collegiate playing opportunity and the accompanying full scholarship.

Don't worry about getting a ranking of where your daughter stands of the lists of D2/3 right now because many of the coaches won't have that list settled for early Juniors.  Again, the D2/3 ranks recruit a bit slower than DI, so they like to keep their options open to see what PSA's may come available later in the process.

In conclusion, keep working the recruiting process, keep communicating, and take a couple of 'local' visits just to get comfortable in the Unofficial Visit process.

Coach Matt

Coach - Another Question - How likely is that a D2 or D3 school would make an offer if they did not see you play live assuming they have been in regular contact (ie they are not a a tourney/ or are to far away)? Do schools make offers just from video? Thanks again.  T.W.

It is rare that a program would make a scholarship offer just from video, unless it was a late senior recruit situation and the program was desperate to fill a roster position.  This is the challenge of D2/D3 (budgets) and one reason most D2/D3 rosters can tend to be more 'local' than DI.

1 comment:

  1. here's what I would do:

    1. Determine the BEST fit for your daughter academically first, be it D3, D2, D1.

    2. look at the longevity of the head coach there & the overall success of the program.. you don't want to go to a program which turns over coaches every other year ...been there, done that... not a good environment for the players...

    3. since you are being objective, the chances of a good D1 program are slim... a low D1 program might give her some playing time or she might end up as a practice player.. in both cases, what are her chances of scholarship?

    4. D2 might be a good middle ground if she has the skills.... chances of a scholarship are better and she gets to enjoy college life apart from volleyball

    5. Private D3 would be able to offset an athletic scholarship with other means of scholarship

    there are some top D3 programs that would beat some low D2, and some high D2 programs that would beat low D1s...

    Academics first

