Day 1 Early Standouts and Notes from Florida

Day 1 Notes from Florida NTDP

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Great watching parts of Day 1 from Florida, and will have much more on this as we get busy ourselves in the office, so we will have more as we get to go watch more later on. Coaches have always said that you can learn quite a bit about the separation of top athletes when you put them in top environments together and often let them figure it out. That is why it has always been my favorite pastime to simply impartially observe these top gyms and see how athletes react when put in situations with the same or better talent. 

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Here are some notes and quick standouts from a brief Day 1 recap with plenty more to come from NTDP.

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2028’s Knocking at the Door…They might kick it down

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With a mixed event like this again and no club names, and only sometimes, you can’t tell the athletes for a while. Also, they are mixed by age and not by graduating classes. For the 2nd NTDP in a row, I think the two most noticeable stars consistently stood out.

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2028 Megan Hodges-MB/OPP T Street PPV 290- Unheard of for us to go that high with an initial PPV evaluation, but Hodges earns it. She doesn’t have a Player Profile, so we hadn’t studied her much, other than watching her dominate the Winter Series like she did yesterday. When you are a class younger and standing out in this way, you are doing many things very well, so I won’t go into the skill part, but for me, it’s the “HOW Megan dominates” that I love. She plays and does enough to have excitement and energy that you know she is out there, but never notices anything questionable or harmful in body language or actions. But her game….get ready for a real treat!

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2028 Sarah Floyd-OPP TAV PPV 295- Like Hodges, we broke the rules for Floyd, Diamond on the initial evaluation. Stuck out in Colorado, stuck out yesterday, and in this company, very impressive. SMOOTH and EFFORTLESS, Sarah makes it look so easy compared to others, and others who are outstanding volleyball players. She doesn’t have a Player Profile, yet, either, so she doesn’t have official jump #s on her, but she hits 122” so easily with an in-system set, and her athleticism makes it easy to adapt to the new setters she gets matched with in a setting like NTDP.

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A few of the others that caught my eye

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2029 Kari Knotts-OH A5 PPV 297-A5 2029 Wow! Try not to pile on what multiple people have said about Kari, as I know we are not the first to talk about her. The talent is as advertised. This young lady is athletically special and can compete with the best 3 years+ her age. You are looking at a phenom for sure. I hope the volleyball community is doing all the “other things” to protect and take care of this young star, as there will be many things ahead for her that few, if any, in this sport have faced. Nonetheless, she held her own on the court and is a treat to watch.

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2027 Pulelehua Laikona-Libero AZ Storm PPV 263—Hua impressed in FL. She was locked in and seemed to bring her trademark energy and intensity on Day 1. From the little end-of-day wash drills they did get in, she was effective and noticeable, grabbing the attention of scouts. I haven’t run into the storm for two months, so it was great seeing her live again.

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2028 Alex Knox-Setter Pittsburgh Elite PPV 270- Soft hands and sets, great control. Incredible accuracy and footwork. Powerful setter who will take chances. Needs to continue to improve accuracy. Communicated and adapted well/built rapport with new targets quickly. There has been so much growth for Knox since the beginning of the year. Will be in this talented mix next year at Setter.

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2027 Caroline Ward- OPP Academy Boiler Jrs PPV 238- Ward had as consistently great of a day as she has had all season on Day 1 in FL. Great spring in her approach, the swings she did take were powerful, passing was accurate, and she just looked more locked in and energetic on Day 1. She will be a key figure in the OPP race and should be target #1 for anyone in the Heartland.

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2027 Cora Bicknese-Libero VITAL Volleyball PPV 251- Solid day for the MN prospect, especially early during technique and early work with out of system. Again, with this being trip one for Bicknese, I was interested to see how she would stack up, and that is a very talented group of 17s. First off, I love the communication of the entire unit. Want to see how Cora’s consistency will be over the 3 days vs. this competitions and that of the whole ‘bro group, because as we have touched on this is a broad open position class, but so pumped to see one of the rookies that we thought belonged here, off to a great start.

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