Early Enrollees Spark Reminders of Portal Traditions: Prospects Lessons to Be Learned in May

Portal Traditions: Things that prospects should watch for when the portal opens on May 1st

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Don’t get caught up in “where all the biggest names go” when the portal officially opens May 1st again. This article has become a tradition for us, and for prospects that listen to it can be one of the BEST RECRUITING LESSONS you can get. If you want to truly learn about programs, athletes, and behind the scenes of college volleyball that you will never hear at camp, at NTDP, or on Big Ten Network, follow your social media VERY CLOSELY the next 7-10 days and learn some quick human psychology and how to “read between the lines”. Because what “isn’t said” by many of these transfers will tell you so much of what you need to know about many places you are looking at for your next employer.

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Now again, for years, certain programs and certain Hall of Fame coaches would say that athletes who dared to leave a top program and “cry foul” were disgruntled former employees simply whining because they didn’t get to play enough or they lost their starting job so they transferred, and now they are “bashing a coach or program”. I’m not saying that doesn’t happen, but if any of you (and that should be recruiting coordinators that care about their athletes) should take notes like our staff does and when the stories mount up on similar programs year after year, well then maybe it’s not the young women maybe it is tendencies of a coach or staff, even if a coach is a legend or player legend or olympic legend etc.

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So this is another one of those articles that probably doesn’t make us many friends in high places, but if athletes do actually pay attention, it can make the next few weeks educational. Because we made notes when some of these girls committed to certain programs (about culture fit, playing time possibility, whether they were overrated by certain media sources, and would find a hard reality once they arrived at the program they committed to, did they have the work ethic it took to survive college volleyball, etc).

When you are rarely ever corrected or told the truth in high school about your faults as a player, it can be a very harsh wake-up when you get to college.

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Here are some cues to watch/read/listen for when you follow the Transfer Portal in May:

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1. How long were they actually there? We know “everyone says they are ready”, but if you only last a couple of months at a school, were you ready?” We can yell, take our time till we are blue in the face, but it’s not going to work; you truly should last longer than a semester or a year. Especially with the 5 for 5 rule coming.

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2.  In their “farewell to former school post,” do they thank the HC or not? Tells a lot about the relationship they had with the coaches and what they think of them as they leave. Now, also doesn’t mean it was always the HC’s fault, but I do remember a mass exodus from a large school last year, and 4 athletes, none of them thanked the coaches…..something was up with the culture in that place.

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3. Just read the message. Classy humans write classy messages. I want to point out Ava Utterback here (entered yesterday from Louisville). Now, maybe it’s because I was close to that program her entire career and followed her from commitment day, but that is a young athlete who did it the correct way. She loved the school and program and stuck around and competed and tried to move to a position to get on the court. She simply was in a very tough lineup, and when you get to a Prestige Level, the Cards are at recruiting, and it doesn’t slow down; it speeds up. She was extremely classy in her parting message, and those are the athletes who go places after their career and get great opportunities next season as well.

4. You can’t take Prep X with you to college. I use this a lot with athletes that, unfortunately, are extremely overrated by websites in club, because they play for a Big Name Club, or they grow really early in life and then stop. So they probably dominate everything when they are 11-12 and all the sites that are silly enough to do rankings at that age for $ rank them #1 and #2 in the world, but they just don’t get much better after that, but you can’t just drop that star you promoted so early and even though top schools don’t recruit them the websites still build them up and put them on every all-American list and Top 10 ranking and invite training etc. so they go to a “pretty good program” with all the expectations that come with it, but they simply aren’t that good. The problem is that those “Ranking Websites” don’t continue to support you and pump you up every day once you go to college, and those athletes have a very harsh awakening when they don’t have that special cheering section anymore, and they are just like everyone else at the college level. These are the ones that you often find blame “culture” on or were not given a fair shot, etc. These are the athletes with big names that end up going to multiple schools, but each one is down a level in prestige each time, and they don’t do much, but they get a lot of media hype still because of that “Prep X Ranking.” I actually feel bad for most of them because it’s not their fault, but they get all of the extra attention in HS, they just never had the talent to live up to a ranking they shouldn’t have had, and a college coach should have known better.

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5. Hit the Express Lane. I’ve always found it amazing how a couple of very successful programs are so good at locking down the BEST talent within 24 hours of them entering the portal. Also, no, it’s not even close to Texas before you Nebraska fans jump to bad conclusions. But, hey, maybe it’s just me who notices all of the roster turnover.

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6. Roster Turnover. Recruits don’t get upset if you go to a program and it happens to you if you don’t do your homework. How often does a program recruit over the top of recruits? Do they bring in transfers over the top of Freshman? Don’t say “well, they won’t do that to me,” ummmm, yes, it’s a business again, prepare to watch what happens to a roster this May, a very good roster. Some coaches will bring transfers in over the top of anyone.

Now, on the flip side, some programs are trying very, very hard to stick with only their recruits. Do your homework.

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7. Ask the recruits who are leaving. Use your ability, reach out, and ask them why. That is your power in this process. They will be honest with you. Then you make your own educated 

decision.

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8. What were they told? This is another one you have to read the tone and between the lines of the post. Was an athlete told one thing and then “terms changed” once they got to campus? This can happen quite often, “Oh you are Opp in club, but you want to Set, no problem you will Set for us. Day 1 well your best chance to get on the court is to play Opp for a couple years here….. Or “well you can play OH, but you really should be a DS” Or “I know we told you that you could move to Opp, but for this year you are still a MB we will talk about it in the off-season” all are realities of recruiting vs. on-campus conversations. Now, not every program, and that is why you do your homework ahead of time, kids.

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8. This is all part of growing up and doing homework. Don’t get caught up in all the stars and rankings and commentary by people who don’t know what’s going on. Pay attention to the athletes who are in your shoes and learn from what they are trying to tell you.