NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

For four years I have worked with athletes on a daily basis as a member of the Recruiting Coach department here at NCSA. An important component of my position is to teach each student-athlete where the best opportunities lie and how to target realistic, but challenging options. Geographic location is one of the first factors we consider.

For most sports (including volleyball) there are a lot of options on the East Coast. The concentration of schools in the East is much greater than the West. The sheer number of opportunities on the East coast dwarf the number of West coast options. Unfortunately, I encounter a lot of girls from the West Coast who only want to look at options in California. This can be incredibly limiting. This is also the case for many Florida natives, although it usually has to do with college costs because of the Bright Futures program.

I strongly encourage you (the athlete) to open up to different areas of the country. If your goal is to play volleyball in college, you will have a much greater chance if you do not limit your search by geographic region.

One benefit for those on the West Coast is that East coast schools tend to like the West Coast players! For the most part the high school talent level on the East Coast is lower overall than in the West, Mid-South and Midwest. Eastern schools really like to go after student-athletes from these areas if they are open to it.

The other side of this story is that Western (especially California) schools are also difficult to be recruited by. There are so many student-athletes from other parts of the country wanting to attend West Coast schools and a lot of in-state students want to stay there. The talent pool in California is also really loaded! It is great that the volleyball is high level, but that also means a lot more competition for roster spots and scholarships at these popular California schools. Not to mention the skyrocketed price tag for out of state students to attend California schools. These schools are in high demand.

If you are recruited by schools on the West Coast, then great! If you aren’t getting the interest you were hoping for, if won’t hurt to open up to some other geographic options. With so many East Coast schools to choose from, you should be able to find the level of competition you are looking for, high interest from a coach, and of course the academic environment that fits you.

Here is a video of Coach Bob Chmiel, former Recruiting Coordinator for Notre Dame and Michigan Football programs talking about the subject.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 11:33 am and is filed under Athletic Scholarships, College Volleyball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.