The Recap July 21-23: Class of 2027 Open Period

The Daily Recap: July 21st-23rd

Notes and Highlights from the Open Period Class of 2027

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Top Commits of period I love how things took off after the weekend. Fast and furious starting with Monday. Lots of crazy action to start the week and quite a few new schools getting in on the action, but also schools continuing to piece together classes one by one, much like a football program would. I love to see that, not everyone can sign everyone in an day, remember most programs have to work at this over time.

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1. Bo Bronson - OH KC Power Northern Iowa Red (198)

Bronson was a high end RED LEVEL prospect that was looked at by several power 4 schools and area programs. She will fit the program at UNI perfectly and have as shot at early PT. Just those solid commits that have this program so legit over the past several seasons.

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2.  Carson Caraway - OH Infinity Volleyball LMU ELITE RED (222)

Caraway was the down side of recruiting people don’t like to talk about. Brought in to several P4 camps and offers given to others in front of her. All season she was talked about as a super high ceiling and for someone still hitting their volleyball best this seems like a recruiting steal for LMU and it adds to what looks like the surprise class in the Nation. She is the value pick of the entire class and should provide tremendous upside in that conference if she continues the development she has had in the last 12 months and could leave several SEC schools rethinking their offers.

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3.  Abbie Hairrell - MB SCVC Oregon State RED (210)

Hairrell was so good at the end of the club season and reports were high from early select camps. We had her as a name to watch heading into June 15th. This is a gem for an Oregon State program needing talent and star power to compete and advance in December. Abbie should be one to help do that in a couple of years.

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4. Caroline Ward - Opp Circle City SMU Silver (241)

Ward has been a favorite of ours for 18 months now since we saw her dominate at UA Next in Indy. We didn’t hear much from her this season and hadn’t seen as much from her other than a strong showing at the last NTDP training session. Still she can be as dominant of an Oppo as there is in the class and SMU has had recent luck training that position. She gives the program the dominant 1-2 punch with Stephens in the class.

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5.  Saniya Reynolds - OH/MB Houston Juniors Kentucky Elite Orange (179)

Reynolds fits a Craig Skinner recruit perfectly. Not well known, huge upside, great first-contact and athletic. Reynolds was a middle a year ago and is already one of the best in her area at first-contact skills and she touches 10’4”. Reports of similarities to Avery Skinner (Olympian) should have everyone in Lexington fired up and should have us watching a lot more film and adjusting the PPV score.

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6.  Kate Colosky - MB - Far Out LBSU Elite Orange (176)

Colosky will add athleticism and range to the LBSU program immediately. She is strong int he block game and provides an immediate wall while her offensive game matures.

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7.  Marlee Schumacher - MB OTVA Naval Academy Elite Orange (167)

Again for Navy to add an athlete like this with immediate playing potential and her offensive skills is a definite Win for this staff. She has a chance to help this team right away and that is a value commit for sure.

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8.  Charley Moeddel - Tri-State Elite MB Xavier Elite Orange (171)

Moeddel is another one that falls into the category of impact player for Xavier. Local recruits that they kept home and she has a high potential PPV score. Has all-conference ability for sure and another that could help them right away.

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Staff Shouts:

LMU wow the Lions have pieced this class together and I have loved all of the athletes they have committed. Some of our favorite athletes from the class, several we have mentioned throughout the season as high-character kids or high-ceiling. Maybe a little raw to play early in a P4 or some that were coming on late. LMU had strong camp talent and it is paying off. They are simply putting on a clinic of how to build a winning program with “less”. Very impressive.

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SMU now listen the question on the Mustangs was “can they recruit prep stars or are they only going to be a “transfer program”. Well they have proven they can go toe-to-toe with some big dogs on some top recruits and win battles for prep stars as well. They know what they have and they also know that they don’t need a lot in the prep ranks so they aim high.

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Northern Iowa it doesn’t take much for my to give Coach P a shout because she is awesome, but I like what she has done to follow up the run in the tourney. We have this class slightly higher than previous classes meaning they have targeted a slightly higher talent level with this class (still in their prime recruiting region), but, maybe a step more talented than usual because of their success in December.

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Notes:

Still a week+ to go before visits happen so it will be interesting to see who commits now and who shuts it down and waits until visit time. Then with visits do they take multiple or do they take one and get hooked and commit?

I have stated that there is still quite a bit of “year 1 potential” talent on the board. Also remember their is the “Stanford Rule” a couple of these prospects could be spoken for, but due to the prestigious academic rule at Stanford they can’t announce until next May, even though technically couldn’t an athlete theoretically not get accepted to ANY school they are trying to get in to? So it’s very Stanford of Stanford to be the ONLY school to not let students announce their verbal until they are accepted. Like every other IVY league school let’s their athletes announce.

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NTDP coming up in Cincy next week for some athletes.

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**Also I will try and announce this a few times to get the word out, but you see the changes to the PPV on our website. I want to explain that reasoning to everyone.

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Going forward you will only see the an athletes PPV LEVEL (accept when they head to college). They will still have a PPV #, but that will only matter for the college team rankings.

Parents and athletes were getting so caught up in the # and not the concept of the LEVEL of PPV and we had way to many athletes complaining when their score would go down 1 pt. Instead of focusing on their PPV Level which is what most college coaches look at when evaluating.

Our new system will show your LEVEL and it will also show a + if you have gained points in the past month. This way coaches, athletes and site visitors can see your gains.

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We also want 2030 and 2029 prospects to know that we purposely evaluate more cautiously so athletes can move up the PPV charts with development rather than down.

We have heard from numerous P4 coaches and they have told us “we look at athletes on LEVELS when we recruit”. Just last week I talked with a coach and they said leaving camp one is better at this and one is better at this, but regardless they are both elite level prospects so you win either way.  

Coaches don’t care about #47 in the US or #54. They care about skill level.

Our new PPV level system shows that and shows growth. We were never about “rankings” and too many thought the PPV Score meant a Ranking so we are getting rid of that and simply showing the PPV Levels. Our site is NOT ABOUT RANKING YOU. It’s about helping you get an idea of your college projection. Thanks everyone.

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