Sophomore Year
In your second year of high school, the recruiting process begins to pick up pace. While important to play and excel within your high school volleyball program, in recent years it has played a secondary role in overall college exposure for the high school athlete. The club season now plays a more important role for college exposure and therefore, choosing the right club volleyball program for you as an athlete is vital. We are pleased that you have chosen ST7 as your club, and we will do everything in our power to proactively support you and your recruiting process.
This is the time to sit down with those who are most important in your life and discuss your goals within the recruiting process and begin to list the programs that you may have interest in. This group of people may include your family members, and club director. While it is important to remain realistic when setting your goals, it is also important to not limit yourself at this point in the process. Give any college programs that you have interest in a chance, let them decide if they are interested in you. For example, if you are 5’4” and done growing, we would not advise you to send a letter to the top five programs in the country claiming your desire to be their next middle blocker. However, we would suggest you send out a letter of interest to a top program with your desire to be a defensive specialist.
It is important to understand that college programs will receive hundreds to thousands of emails and letters of interest every year. Typically, college recruiters will be honest with you as to their level of interest. Take this information, not as an end but as a beginning. This information will help you to focus your recruiting process on programs that are a better match for you. The goal at this point is to begin to focus your process and get onto a college program’s recruiting ‘list’. Once you make one of these ‘lists’ college programs will do their best to get a look at you. There are several ways that they may seek to get a closer look at you including asking for your tournament schedule, requesting that you attend a camp, or through a recruiting video.
While it is important to take a proactive approach to the recruiting process this year, remember there is still a lot of time left. Continue to seek the best training, develop as a player, and maintain an exemplary GPA.