By Andrea Emmons
NCSA was proud to attend our first American Volleyball Coach’s Association Annual Coach’s Convention in Sacramento, CA last month. I made the trip with Sara Rode (NCSA Member Services) for the three day event. The convention featured close to 60 educational sessions, hundreds of coaches and a wealth of networking opportunities.
Sara and I spoke with hundreds of college coaches at the convention. After working with these coaches for over two years via email and phone, it was great to put faces to names. We discussed recruiting needs for the upcoming season and went over the intricacies of the NCSA’s RecruitMatch database.
NCSA’s RecruitMatch database is one of a kind. It houses all of the NCSA athletes & coaches, including specific requirements for each. We found many coaches impressed by our ability to filter student-athletes by state, GPA, SAT, position, grad class, height, weight, jump touch, etc.
As expected, we found almost every DI and upper DII coach finished recruiting for the 2008 season. Conversely, almost all other DII, DIII, and NAIA coaches were still recruiting players…and lots of them! One of the most common requests was for high academic student-athletes. For all student-athletes enrolled on the NCSA program, these coach requests will be posted in their private webpage. Overall, we received very positive feedback and NCSA was the only scouting organization of its kind to attend the convention.
One of the best parts of the AVCA Convention is that it coincides with the NCAA DI National Championships and Semi-Finals. It was a big treat to see the best teams in the country compete. It looked like Penn State would sweep Stanford during the low-key first two games, but it ended up being a battle. Stanford’s comeback in games two and three was cheered on by the California based crowd. Penn State finally halted the Cardinal efforts in game five.
Side Note: NCSA had five raffles at the AVCA convention for coaches and the winners are:
Michelle Patton – Head Coach - San Francisco State
Dan Kreiger – Head Coach - St. Andrew’s University
Julie Motz – Assistant Coach - Michigan Tech
April Birdsong Bell – Head Coach - Concordia University (TX)
Robert Mullowney – Head Coach - US Coast Guard Academy
