Originally published in an Adam Sarancik Book

Most college coaches have similar goals, philosophies, and priorities when recruiting athletes for their program. In short, they want people, athletes, and players who tangibly have sports skills to improve their team and intangibles that fit the culture of their program. Whether on video or in person, they want to see someone who is or has the potential to be better as a player than what they currently have on their team while at the same time has the character traits to persevere through any adversity on or off the field/court and to synergize the team to be better than it thought it could be.

In the past, this process could be summarized as coaches seeking people who fit who we are and who we want to be and players who feel the same about them and their program. Unfortunately, today, this is not enough. Once coaches successfully recruit players to their program, they must re-recruit them to stay with the program.

Why? The players are allowed to be paid to play, and the services of the players are available to the highest bidder. Players who are not starters will transfer without losing eligibility to a college where they will play more even if they are not paid more or at all. Many players who are starters will transfer simply to get paid more at a program of similar quality.

This monetizing mindset of players begins in their youth. From a very early age, many players obsessively train for and play sports year-round chasing trophies and championships to the exclusion of a balanced life. The priority of athletic skill development supersedes the development in every other part of their life.

Most elite athletes today spend many, many more hours training to be better players in multiple sports than they do studying to be better students in multiple academic and non-athletic disciplines. Most will never hold a regular job nor do charity work on a regular basis. They will certainly pull few, if any, weeds.

When it comes time to choose a college, they will simply participate in tournaments or talent showcases to see what colleges will pay the most to have them play for their program. The amount of money they are willing to offer and the quality of the athletic program are, by far, the most important factors to players when choosing a college. Any consideration of the quality and fit of the academic side of the school are a far distant second, assuming the player has discerned what career they may want to pursue and that they and their parents even know how to properly evaluate a school in this regard.

To be fair, college coaches and private trainers feed this misguided approach by constantly advocating for multi-sport athletes while ignoring the reality that simply participating in multiple sports will not develop most players to be elite. To achieve elite status, most players will need to train regularly as players and as athletes for many hours outside of the sport. Furthermore, most sports programs will require that to be on the best teams a player must participate in the sport in months outside the regular season.

There are only so many hours in a day, but is there a better approach?

What if every year in high school, a student-athlete who wanted to play a sport at the highest level in college trained for and participated in that sport for four months, held a job (3 days) and trained as an athlete (3 days) for four months, and spent an equivalent amount of time in the remaining four months of the year mastering skills in and outside of school in technical areas and the fine arts and doing charity work?

Arguably, if the same dedication, work ethic, and discipline were applied by the player to this approach, they would have both the athletic and sport skills, as well as, the intangibles the recruiting coaches would be looking for. More importantly, the player would choose a college with the proper priority of academic excellence and fit to provide education and job opportunities toward a career of self-actualization and life-long happiness.

The player would also have the most persuasive intangible a recruiting coach could possibly ask for, i.e., no need to re-recruit them. They could honestly tell the coach that whether they start or play at all, they are not leaving the school because they chose the school first as a student.

Coaches talk all the time that they have many choices of players with relatively equal tangible skills, but the deciding factors are the intangibles. Is there a more powerful and potentially decisive recruiting factor than for a player to tell a coach they are not going to transfer no matter what happens in the sport?

Adam Sarancik is the Author of Four Amazon Top 100 Best Selling Baseball Coaching Books:

• Coaching Champions for Life – The Process of Mentoring the Person, Athlete and Player
• Takeaway Quotes for Coaching Champions for Life
• A Ground Ball to Shortstop – How and Why Coaches See Their Game Differently Than Anyone Else
• Teacher, Role Model, Mentor: Lessons Learned From a Lifetime in Coaching

  ]]> https://coachesinsider.com/volleyball/the-decisive-intangible-for-all-college-athlete-recruits-5/feed/ 0 122738 https://coachesinsider.com/volleyball/hula-hoop-setting-drill-with-renee-saunders-skutt-catholic-high-school-ne/ https://coachesinsider.com/volleyball/hula-hoop-setting-drill-with-renee-saunders-skutt-catholic-high-school-ne/#respond Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:23:30 +0000 https://coachesinsider.com/?p=116122 Watch as Coach Renee Saunders explains, and players demonstrate this hula hoop setting drill. Two players standing on boxes and holding hula hoops above their heads are the targets. The objective of the setters is to shoot the ball through the hula hoops. The setters are working on tempo, location, beating the ball to the spot, and setting to the front or back. The drill starts with setting in system, then progresses to out of system.

Kayla Allen was previously a coach at Vista Ridge High School (TX).

By: Rainer Martens & Robin S. Vealey

Originally Published in: Successful Coaching

Many coaches find that the most challenging relationship to manage is their relationship with their athletes' parents. This includes guardians, but we will use the term parents to represent both here. Some parents are completely apathetic to their child's participation in sports. Others are overly involved and become overbearing, both with the coach and with their child.

You need to foster appropriate involvement by giving parents clear guidelines on their roles and your expectations of them. In turn, you need to remember that parents are ultimately responsible for their children, and most desire only the best for them. Respect their ultimate responsibility for the well-being of their children by not being threatened when parents inquire about their athlete's participation.

Parents, in turn, need to respect your position. They should not interfere with your coaching unless there is reasonable cause for them to suspect that their child is being exposed to unnecessary physical or psychological risk or is being treated unfairly.

Your relationship with your athletes' parents is almost as important as the relationships you have with the athletes themselves. With a little effort, you can have parents working with you and appreciating your efforts. The key is informing them about your program and listening to their concerns. Many of the traditional problems between parents and coaches can be avoided when coaches hold a preseason parent orientation program, and then communicate clearly with them throughout the season.

Parent (and Guardian) Orientation Program

The purpose of the preseason orientation is to do the following:

• Allow parents to become acquainted with you and your assistants and to learn your coaching philosophy and objectives.
• Inform parents about the nature of the sport and its potential risks.
• Explain to parents the team policies and procedures.
• Let parents know what is expected of the athletes and of them.
• Let parents express their own concerns.
• Obtain help from parents in conducting the season's activities.

When should the meeting be held?
If you have selected your team, schedule the meeting before the team begins practicing; if not, hold the meeting as soon as possible after you've selected your team. Choose a time when most parents can attend, and invite them individually by phone, personal letter, or email.

How long should the meeting be?
We recommend a meeting of about an hour, and no more than 75 minutes. Parents may have additional questions that they can ask of you afterward.

Should the athletes attend the meeting?
You can decide what works best for you. Some think that the presence of athletes inhibits the communication between the coach and parents, whereas others believe that having the athletes present promotes communication among everyone involved. Your coaching philosophy should help you make this decision. We think it's a good idea for athletes to attend.

During the Season

After the preseason meeting, continue to commu-nicate with parents as needed. Here are suggestions for communicating with them throughout the season:

• Keep parents informed by email, a communi-cation app, a blog, or through social media, and encourage them to communicate with you when they have concerns or information of value.
• Involve parents constructively. They can fill many of the support roles outlined earlier.
• Inform parents directly and immediately if a serious problem arises involving their athlete (injury, theft, drugs, ineligibility, or other disciplinary action).
• Not all parents will care about their child's participation, nor will they all respond as you would hope, but you still have a duty to inform them and request their help.

Postseason

At the end of the season, invite each parent to evaluate you and the program. Ask them to point out things that went well and to suggest what might be improved. You can find a Postseason Parent Evaluation Form online on HKPropel. Give copies to all parents and ask them to return them to you. Their feedback can help you become a better coach.