SportsRecruits

NCAA DIVISION 1 AND DIVISION 2 VOLLEYBALL COACHES CAN CONTACT ATHLETES STARTING JUNE 15 AFTER AN ATHLETE’S SOPHOMORE YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL. THIS INCLUDES EXTENDING VERBAL OFFERS, ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS (SUCH AS EMAILS, TEXTS, INSTANT MESSAGES, ETC.) AND PHONE CALLS ARE ACCEPTABLE AT THIS TIME.

The NCAA is responsible for enforcing its volleyball recruiting rules, which mandate when and how coaches can proactively contact athletes. At the Division 1 level, most communication is permissible starting Sept. 1 of an athlete’s junior year in high school. At the Division 2 level, communication is allowed starting June 15 before an athlete’s junior year of high school.

However, many volleyball recruits are in contact with coaches well before those dates—some even get offers as early as 8th grade. If your family has ever wondered how this works (and if it breaks the NCAA volleyball recruiting rules), we explain the various ways volleyball recruits and college coaches start communicating with each other before the recruiting rules allow. And with volleyball recruiting starting earlier each year, it’s become incredibly important for volleyball recruits to start communicating with college coaches as soon as possible.

Look at the average height, club experience, approach jump and position-specific skills of college volleyball players to help determine which division levels athletes qualify for

One of the most difficult aspects of the volleyball recruiting process is determining which division level an athlete should target based on her athletic talent. The good news: There are some key stats that college coaches look for when evaluating volleyball recruits. For example, at the Division 1 level, the average height of an outside hitter is 6’0”, with 53% of D1 outside hitters at 6’0” or taller. Only 13% are 5’9” or shorter. Additionally, coaches expect D1 outside hitters to have, on average, an 118-inch approach jump. Furthermore, D1 coaches want athletes to have experience competing on an open-level club team, the most competitive club division.

While these are just averages, they paint a fairly clear picture of what a D1 recruit looks like for that position. Based on college roster data and a survey of college volleyball coaches, we’ve compiled a series of guidelines that illustrate the average qualifications volleyball recruits should fulfill at each position for every division level. For families who aren’t sure which division level their athlete should focus on, these guidelines provide a great baseline to get them on the right track.

Nearly 1,365 colleges could offer athletic scholarships to talented volleyball recruits

For most families, one of the biggest draws to competing on a college volleyball team is the allure of getting a volleyball scholarship. And over 1,300 schools at the Division 1, Division 2, NAIA and junior college levels could offer volleyball scholarships, depending on how well-funded their program is. Though Division 3 schools don’t provide athletic scholarships, they do help connect athletes with other forms of financial aid that can pay for a portion—or all—of the cost of tuition.

At the Division 1 level, volleyball is considered a headcount sport, which means that every scholarship is a full ride to the school. D1 teams are allowed to provide a maximum of 12 full-ride scholarships to talented volleyball recruits. At the other division levels, coaches can divide up their scholarship dollars however they want, usually giving the most money to athletes who have the potential to make an immediate, positive impact on the success of the team.

Get the attention of college coaches by competing on a club team and attending prominent club tournaments

There’s increasing pressure for volleyball recruits to start the volleyball recruiting process earlier and earlier. According to our survey of college coaches, D1 coaches begin searching for talent the earliest of the division levels, with the majority starting when prospects are in 9th grade. For coaches in power conferences (think: the Pac-12, Big Ten, ACC), coaches scout out talented 8th graders, as well as freshmen in high school. D2 and D3 coaches reported that they begin evaluating recruits in 10th grade, and the majority of junior college coaches kick off their evaluations in 11th grade.

Because of this trend toward early recruiting, there’s a lot of pressure on volleyball recruits to become experts in the volleyball recruiting process at a young age. This means young athletes and their families need to understand how to:

• Communicate with coaches
• Prove their NCAA and/or NAIA academic eligibility
• Create an attention-grabbing recruiting video
• Find and attend the volleyball tournaments where college coaches will be
• Get the club experience coaches expect of volleyball recruits

College coaches know if they’re interested in an athlete after the first 25 seconds of her volleyball recruiting video

volleyball recruiting video is a compilation of an athlete’s best plays to showcase her volleyball skillset. While only 3–5 minutes in length, volleyball recruiting videos have to pack a punch, as college coaches use recruiting videos to determine if they will reach out to a volleyball recruit—or move on to the next athlete. In fact, most coaches say that they can tell within the first 25 seconds of a recruiting video if they are interested in that athlete or not.

Creating a volleyball recruiting video is both an art and a science. Based on the athlete’s position and strengths, there’s a certain set of skills that she must include in her video. How those skills are put together and what games the volleyball recruit decides to showcase are really up to families and club and high school coaches. 

The most common ways for college coaches to evaluate talent is at National Qualifier tournaments and multi-day club tournaments early in the year

There are a few major club tournaments that volleyball recruits must attend if they want to get recruited by volleyball coaches. National Qualifier tournaments take place almost every weekend in March and April. These tournaments decide which teams get a bid for the Junior National Championships, and they attract the most talented club teams. College coaches know that when they attend these events, there will be hundreds of elite volleyball recruits to evaluate, all in one place.

Volleyball recruits should also try to participate in multi-day tournaments at the beginning of the year. The biggest tournaments usually take place over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and President’s Day weekend. At this point in the year, the college volleyball season has concluded, and college coaches are really ramping up their recruiting efforts. They typically haven’t spent much of their recruiting budgets at this point, and they are very interested in scouting out new talent.

Get the scoop on the top volleyball colleges in each division and review a full list of colleges that offer women’s volleyball

With more than 1,800 college volleyball teams across the U.S., it can be overwhelming to start the college search process. To provide families with a good starting point, we’ve compiled a list of all the schools that have a women’s volleyball program at each division level. We also analyzed top college volleyball ranking websites to compile a list of the best volleyball colleges at each division level.