 Hey, what's up you guys, welcome back to my channel. My name is Coach Coco, and I love volleyball. So much so, my channel's full of tips, tricks, hacks, and everything you can ever need to know about volleyball. So today, it's finally here. Oh my gosh, you guys have been asking for this forever. Forever. Today I'm gonna talk to you about what to start doing if you wanna play volleyball in college. Let's get right into it. Now, you guys have talked to me so many times about wanting to play volleyball in college, how to play volleyball in college, the process, not understanding exactly how to get into it. So today I thought I would provide you with some factual information so that way you know how to start the process of college recruitment and what to do when you wanna play. So if you need a notepad and a pencil or paper, make sure you get that now because I'm going to be spilling this tea because I want you to know because when I was playing volleyball in high school, I personally thought that the college recruitment process was a little bit tricky. I thought that there was a lot of things that were known and not known because I didn't play club in high school, but I wanna make sure that you give you every opportunity that you can to both chase your volleyball goals, dreams, or anything you want to do. So if you don't already know my volleyball story, I'm gonna link that in the card above so that way you know exactly my experience. But I want to provide you with proper resources so that way you can grow your volleyball career. This video is sponsored by Captain U and this is a great, great, great resource. If you are looking to wanting to play volleyball in college, they can really work with you and try to connect you with some volleyball coaches. That way you can find the team that fits best for you. And we're gonna talk about that today. You should start thinking about recruiting in high school, especially if you're very serious. Freshman year is the earliest. However, many, many, many players start getting recruited their sophomore and junior year. Now, if you're a late bloomer, like myself, nothing wrong with that, then you can wait until senior year if you so happen to just start at playing volleyball in your senior year. You still have a chance and you can still try to go for it. Just giving you some tips on when and that scale from ninth grade to 12th grade is when they start getting recruited the most. So when you're thinking about the college recruitment process, most of them start getting recruited around that sophomore, junior year. What that means is the most scholarships they're given around that sophomore, junior year, especially if you're looking to go play in college on a college athletic scholarship. You wanna look at that sophomore, junior year, but it's okay if you're a late bloomer and you're a senior or you start playing volleyball late like myself. Don't count yourself out on the race because you definitely still have a chance. Now, there's something that you guys, a lot of you know. There's a governing body of college athletics and they're called the NCAA and they have eligibility rules and different rules that apply to a lot of different sports. But I'm gonna talk about just for this video the volleyball rules that you need to be eligible to play volleyball in college. Now, in NCAA rules, there are multiple different divisions. There's division one, two and three and they all stand for something different and they are all different levels of play. So I know a lot of you guys are familiar with a lot of division one schools but don't count out division two and division three schools, especially if you want to play volleyball in college. There are a lot of different options out there. So don't think that a certain level of division one schools is that's it and that's all there is. There's division two and division three. So there's a lot of different schools and a lot of different options that you have when playing volleyball in college. Now, because division one, two and three have different eligibility rules, let's talk about some of the different things that they have that you may need to have, especially when you're trying to play. So I'm going to take you to my whiteboard because I want to write it out so you see it. So here we are at my whiteboard and I'm going to write out some differences between D one, D two and D three so that way you can be able to differentiate between the levels and understand what each one of them includes. So D one is the highest competitive level. They have national travel. They have very, very large, well-known schools. It's the largest athletic department budgets and you have to register with the NCAA eligibility center. It's required. Now D two is just a little bit different than D one. They do have athletic scholarships but they're mainly partial. It's a moderate department budget and they have regional travel. And then D three, you don't have to register with the eligibility center. The standards are not universal which means that the conference is set their own academic standards. So they don't practice as much as D one or D two or travel and they don't have athletic scholarships. So here's some of the differences. Here's a question that a lot of you guys ask me all the time. What are college coaches looking for? A lot of the things that I have shared on my videos are true to what I've been saying this entire time for high school, middle school, college. They are very, very true. When I was in high school, some of the things my coach taught me especially when it was time to prepare for possible college recruitment or you were working on becoming committed was your attitude. Now you want to be coachable. I talk about being coachable all the time. I always say be coachable. I want you to be coachable. I want you to learn how to have that great attitude and show that great attitude but college coaches are looking for that. They want somebody who's going to be a team player. Remember that when it is around that time that you're looking to become recruited and college coaches are watching your games they're looking at every single move you make. Not to be freaked out, not to be scary but they are. They're looking to see your attitude on the court. They're looking to see your moves, your placement. They're looking to see your skills. It expands beyond just valuable skill. They're looking to see you. That means when you're transitioning off of the court to sub they're watching that. When you're on the bench they're watching that. They're watching to see how you interact with your teammates and they're watching to see how you interact with the game. That means you should make sure to be vocal with every ball, talking to your teammates showing that general great volleyball attitude. Now we've talked about that great attitude that means going for every ball. That means calling mind. That means showing the skills that you know. Play the best you can and be the best you can because it's so much more than volleyball. It's attitude too and if anything I want you to have a great volleyball attitude. Thinking about playing volleyball in college you shouldn't just look at colleges that you wanna play volleyball. You have to look at the academic performance too because think about it, you're going to get a degree and that means that you're going to get a major, minor and something that you possibly will be working in for the rest of your life. So you really need to take in consideration some of the things in your personal interest. You have to remember the degree that you're choosing is something that you should be passionate about. So that means that if you like IT maybe computer science. If you like art, maybe something like art education there's a lot of different degree programs out there and I suggest you start looking at those degree programs that way you can better align the school that you want to go to with the school that you'll be playing volleyball at to make sure you're both getting fulfilled both academically and making sure that you're getting fulfilled volleyball wise. So it's important to go somewhere where you can find a place where the program that you'll be participating in is something that fulfills you because when you graduate, that's a degree you're going to have. That's something that you're possibly going to have to get a job in. And you have to be realistic because it's such a small amount of players go on to play professionally that you need to prepare yourself for afterlife after college volleyball, right? So make sure to find something that you're really passionate in. Take some time and part of the college experience is really changing your mind. Sometimes you change your mind in college but part of the college experience is kind of finding new things and finding an avenue and finding what you want to do. I personally have my degree in exercise science and I'm getting my master's degree right now but I found out what I wanted to do in college when I was a junior, I originally started something then I changed my mind and sometimes that happens but make sure to go with your academic in mind because it is so important. So I really hope that you like this video. Please like, comment and subscribe. This will be a new series so don't worry. There is so much information that goes into this that I want to be able to give you everything. So we're gonna talk more in detail in the next video. I would love, love, love if you drop some questions below to ask about the college recruitment experience, some of the questions that you have that I can better answer in the next video so that way you get all the information that you need because I want you guys to do the greatest and just do the best and you know. So make sure that you drop me some really great questions and share this with somebody who you think might be interested in learning how to play volleyball or learning about the college volleyball recruitment experience. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and go ahead and start checking out Captain U because I'm gonna talk a little bit more about them even more next time. So I'm leaving all the links in the description below so that way you can get some more information and with that I hope that you liked this video. Like, comment, subscribe and see you guys next time.