Junior Year
Junior year is one of the most important times in the recruiting process. Hopefully, you have been proactive over the past two years and contacted the programs that you have interest in. Athletes should continue to work hard during the high school season no matter the level of play around you. Continue to get ready for a big training winter and the club season that will follow.
Step One:
Register with the NCAA Clearinghouse at www.ncaaclearinghouse.net this is the Eligibility Center for the NCAA which certifies if you are eligible to play NCAA Athletics because of your academics. This site should answer any questions you may have about being or becoming eligible to play in college. As part of the process, you will need to submit current transcripts, available ACT or SAT test scores, and pay a fee for registering. It is important that registration occur during your junior year, because you want to stay away from the build-up of registrations that occurs late in the senior year or the incoming freshman summer when there is a rush of registrations. Typically the NCAA gets swamped with documents/registrations for football players from big name programs and they will receive priority over volleyball players.
FYI - per NCAA rules, you can practice for a certain number of days without NCAA Clearinghouse Final Certification, but you cannot compete or travel.
A new component of the NCAA Clearinghouse is the Amateur Certification. The NCAA has removed the responsibility of determining a player's amateur status from member institutions (colleges/universities) - for USA athletes, this is merely a formality and you just answer a few simple questions. For International student athletes, you must be very careful and specific about how you answer the questions on the computer, mainly because of volleyball cultural differences.
Step Two:
Apply for the SAT / ACT on a national testing date sometime between Jan - May.
Step Three:
Your junior year is also a good time to create and highlight video to send out to various college programs. Hopefully your skills have developed and you might want to think about creating another video if you already have one from your sophomore season. Whatever the case may be, it’s really important that you are proactive in getting your information out to college programs. A video is one of the best ways to catch the attention of a college coach. Your goal is to get on their list of athletes to see during the club season.
​Step Four:​
Create a list of schools that you are interested in. We suggest that you categorize the schools or create some system for ranking the schools. This does not mean it’s your final list but it gives you a good foundation to use during your junior season. Continue to be proactive and send out emails and formal letters to programs that you have interest in. Most college programs are done with their season by the second week of December, but they also enter into a dead period. Your goal is to get your information into them so that when the quiet period is over, you are in their system of players to watch. When their season is over, college programs immediately begin thinking about recruiting for the future.
As you enter your junior year of club, it’s important that you’re always working hard. You never know when a college coach might be watching. Although you might know that a certain club match means little, a college coach is only focused on how you play. Therefore, it’s vital that you’re always working hard and presenting yourself well. Coaches look for more than just technical skills. They are evaluating on your interaction with your teammates, leaderships skills and potential abilities.
As you get deeper into the club season, college programs might begin talking more in depth with athletes and parents. They might also discuss the option of taking an unofficial visit. Basically they are asking you to pay your way to visit them on campus. You should take this time to see where you rank with the schools that you are interested in. If they are interested in you and they want you to visit, then we suggest that you take the unofficial visit, if it's financially feasible.
Step Five:
As the club season comes to a close, you need to re-evaluate where you stand and how the process went over the last club season. You need to determine what schools are still actively recruiting you and where you rank now that the season has ended. If you aren’t satisfied, look at contacting new coaches that are at a different level of play, size, or type of school and send them your recruiting information.