Drew
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Peer pressure pushes volleyball coaches to recruit phenoms like Rylee Gray earlier and earlier
Rylee Gray might have driven to her first college visit if only she had a license.
Two months after her 14th birthday, she walked out of Elkhorn Ridge Middle School on a Friday morning in November — long brown hair over a long-sleeve blue shirt — and found her parents in the parking lot.
“I’m nervous,” she said.
Mom and dad were, too. But remember, they said, it’s the coaches who have to win you over, not the other way around.
Her email itinerary for Nov. 4, 2016 — “Creighton University welcomes Rylee Gray” — showed a full slate of tours and meetings, starting at 1 p.m.
A decade ago, the idea of recruiting eighth-grade girls would’ve appalled college coaches. Now they swallow their angst and rush to the middle-school courts, worried that the costs of resistance would exceed the benefits.
“We don’t like it,” Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “We don’t think it’s good for the athletes. We don’t think it’s good for our programs. However … if you don’t start showing interest and giving them appropriate recruiting love and potentially putting offers out, you lose them.”
Said Iowa State volleyball coach Christy Johnson: “It’s an arms race to see how quickly you can secure players.”
Sounds like something Nick Saban or Urban Meyer might say, right? But human biology generally pumps the brakes on their ambition. At 14 and 15, boys are a long way from physical maturity. Girls are closer to finished products, especially now that they’re specializing in one sport earlier and — with the guidance of their clubs — training harder. Before they ever crack a biology book (or dissect a frog), Nebraska coach John Cook identifies future Big Ten stars.
“How many ninth-grade boys do you know are going to be studs?” Cook said.
Rylee Gray is a stud. Six-foot-2 and still growing. The kind of kid who can stuff block and chew gum at the same time. A 4.0 student who, according to her club coach, can “take crap as well as anybody” and hold serious conversations with adults, as if she’s a peer.
But recruiting tests maturity. In eighth grade, Rylee consistently walked the line between being 14 and being a blue-chip prospect. She’d practice four hours a night and fight shin splints. She’d film home videos playing air guitar and make silly business cards. She’d open stacks of letters and get the princess treatment on college visits. She’d experience moments of stress and pride she’d never felt before. All before her first day of high school.
Had no idea how crazy the world of volleyball recruiting is, but this is becoming more and more commonplace. Girls being identified in 7th and 8th grade and making commitments before they even get to high school. Its a big deal whenever football coaches offer players this young because its so rare, well volleyball is seeing this on a regular basis! Just crazy to think these coaches are relying on building their programs on the premise of evaluating 13 and 14 year olds
Rylee Gray might have driven to her first college visit if only she had a license.
Two months after her 14th birthday, she walked out of Elkhorn Ridge Middle School on a Friday morning in November — long brown hair over a long-sleeve blue shirt — and found her parents in the parking lot.
“I’m nervous,” she said.
Mom and dad were, too. But remember, they said, it’s the coaches who have to win you over, not the other way around.
Her email itinerary for Nov. 4, 2016 — “Creighton University welcomes Rylee Gray” — showed a full slate of tours and meetings, starting at 1 p.m.
A decade ago, the idea of recruiting eighth-grade girls would’ve appalled college coaches. Now they swallow their angst and rush to the middle-school courts, worried that the costs of resistance would exceed the benefits.
“We don’t like it,” Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “We don’t think it’s good for the athletes. We don’t think it’s good for our programs. However … if you don’t start showing interest and giving them appropriate recruiting love and potentially putting offers out, you lose them.”
Said Iowa State volleyball coach Christy Johnson: “It’s an arms race to see how quickly you can secure players.”
Sounds like something Nick Saban or Urban Meyer might say, right? But human biology generally pumps the brakes on their ambition. At 14 and 15, boys are a long way from physical maturity. Girls are closer to finished products, especially now that they’re specializing in one sport earlier and — with the guidance of their clubs — training harder. Before they ever crack a biology book (or dissect a frog), Nebraska coach John Cook identifies future Big Ten stars.
“How many ninth-grade boys do you know are going to be studs?” Cook said.
Rylee Gray is a stud. Six-foot-2 and still growing. The kind of kid who can stuff block and chew gum at the same time. A 4.0 student who, according to her club coach, can “take crap as well as anybody” and hold serious conversations with adults, as if she’s a peer.
But recruiting tests maturity. In eighth grade, Rylee consistently walked the line between being 14 and being a blue-chip prospect. She’d practice four hours a night and fight shin splints. She’d film home videos playing air guitar and make silly business cards. She’d open stacks of letters and get the princess treatment on college visits. She’d experience moments of stress and pride she’d never felt before. All before her first day of high school.
Had no idea how crazy the world of volleyball recruiting is, but this is becoming more and more commonplace. Girls being identified in 7th and 8th grade and making commitments before they even get to high school. Its a big deal whenever football coaches offer players this young because its so rare, well volleyball is seeing this on a regular basis! Just crazy to think these coaches are relying on building their programs on the premise of evaluating 13 and 14 year olds