welcome to the secrets of college planning on your host anthony and today we're going to get some insight on how colleges recruit for volleyball my guest today is chris feliciano he's the head women's volleyball coach at rider university and welcome to the show thank graduated and was promptly given control of the team really wow so that that gets you into coaching pretty quickly yes or so so you had no expiration is in high school to do that at the college level it just came about during my junior year in college i you know i found that i was able to connect with kids and i switched my i was a media arts major telecommunications broadcasting and then i ended up switching to education and then during the process of working in the valley volleyball club and then just the rest is history just just kept going and i kept running with it wow so now you graduate from college you get into coaching you're the head coach there yes how long did you stay there before you ended up writing university  a coach both men and women's program from two thousand and four to two thousand and eight give or take a year it could be off and then i went over and was a volunteer at bloomfield college and then i proceeded then to receive a job as the second assistant fordham university which i was there for about four months for the season in two thousand and ten and then right or put a posting op in i was in new york and i kind of wanted to come back home to new jersey and apply for the job and instantly i got a phone call for a phone interview and it's been a real real blessing to come back to new jersey and work for our great so now how many how many years you've been a writer so i'll be going into my sixth season w let's go into high school how do you go about finding girls at the high school level for volleyball is it is it a hotbed in new jersey is it a hotbed in pennsylvania you know where do you start to start looking for these  i always tell anyone that i work with our friend of mine you always have to keep your eyes open in all locations we've had some really great volleyball talent come out of the state of new jersey league recently had the rookie of the year in the mac come out of new jersey haley r really but we know we have our eyes open although you know in all different locations a lot of it now is has been kids reaching out to us because we've gotten a lot better with been more competitive we've had a stronger standing within the mac conference but you know it's it's the grunt work to be honest with you going to the tournament you know being in the gym first one in the gym last one to leave so you're talking about eight am to nine ten pm you know grabbing a quick bite to eat you know on a concession stand and just watching kids and and seeing what for you know for your program and you know not only physically but from a personality perspective so we're watching kids we're not just watching kids in the physical bill if you're watching kids how they interact with their parents are watching kids how they interact with their coaches how they take winning and how they take losing so now what the what's some of the requirements that high school kids should have if they want to play at the college level football well each each level has a different has a different g p a requirement so that you know obviously we want good students  you know they have to be what's called the qualifier they have to meet the standard requirement by the unsuitably clearinghouse you know and before us a division one level we're looking for specifics in terms of physicality you know we're looking for athletic athletic kids that that jump a certain point you know them to match our office where our centers are put in certain balls are looking kids that know how to balance a schedule you know the reality of it is the one while it's not a job it's borderline a job sometimes you know you have to go to class or to go to lifting up to go to practice you have to go watch a b average a average you know what do these kids have to have well from my experience when i coached when i coached men's volleyball jersey city we've had some that we've had some issues where it was some compliance issues where kids have not met the grade and they have been able to play  so i've always told myself that when we recruit we're looking for kids with high g p a as you know our team last year this past semester reese had a three point five one g p a in the summer time we received our second record recognition from the inside of play for team excellence and a it's one of the things i don't want to worry about as a kid going to be eligible so we look at kids we're looking for kids you know in the high three fives you know on that point on you know a decent a c t d decent s a t s score again to make sure that we don't have those those challenges moving moving forward with their eligibility so no kids in high school do you look at the high school schedules or these kids mostly ones that do the outside activities the club teams  they got their personal trainer and that kind of stuff is it those type of kids that are you looking at or is it everything we try not to go to high school matches because the reality of it is is you have a mixture of kids that are at the high school level you have kids that you know are there for a social aspect which is ok but then you have other kids that are you know they want to be and want to you know be great so we tend to go to more you know club tournaments where we can see multiple kids you know within different time periods discipline we can going to las vegas to one of the largest showcases in the country you're talking about within five hours i'll have an opportunity to see two thousand kids will find some kids there that were billion that will be interested in moving forward so now autonomy like that how many of those type of tournaments are there throughout the wow because there are quite a way almost one every weekend really and you have you have the big qualifiers you know and you're talking about you know washington d c qualifier talking about  a qualifier of florida you're talking about you know there's another one this upcoming weekend in nebraska so there's something all the time and then you have the individual tournament the local tournaments you know where it takes place in their state and there's some good volleyball there you know at some point i think will will go out to so cal just to go to a day tournament where it will see probably twenty teams then when you know we'll take a pic yeah that's fantastic and so does play a big factor in  recruiting for volleyball i was asked this question this morning preparing to come here and i got to be i'm going to say for us yes for our level and for what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish right or does we have  currently we've got five kids or six kids that are six foot six foot or taller we just received a commitment of a kid that's six to them and another one that's already signed with us another six to kick coming in so we're looking for kids that jump high and jump high fast you know you can have a kid that's five nine five eight who's touching ten feet but it takes them longer to get off the ground compared to someone who's six to touching the same the same height so i usually will when i watch these these games on t v you always see some smaller kids like mckenna smith they're the ones that make sure nothing hits the floor and that's their personality so it's interesting because you literally walk into our gym and you'll see doot doot doot doot do know it's a new and in the look and they love it because they're just oh just a great group they work really well alex that's fantastic so now a lot of parents out there always ask you know it's all about the sport not about academics what does write a university do for those type of kids give me a give me a breakdown of throughout the year how much you have is you know when you start when you finish when the season started and give me a breakdown of throughout the year what these kids are actually going through at the college level well first of foremost in our gym our priority is student you know our athletic director has a saying we put the student athlete and we believe that one hundred percent the likelihood of kids playing professional professional sports coming out of the vision one mid major is minimal there are kids that do it and god bless them that they do have these opportunities but at ryder we want to ensure that the students have the training and the knowledge necessary to become productive members within their career for all for our scheduling when we when we are in the season we sit with our kids we make sure that they're taking the classes that they need necessary graduate on time and quite frankly have kids graduating early semester early because we really pay attention to their scheduling kelly b a phenomenal job and in assisting us making sure that their classes are where they need to be and also the other individual counsels do a great job of ensuring that they have everything that they need for graduation you know we were very structured you know what it comes down to and i tell our kids that if there's something academically that you need to do let us know ahead of time and and work with you will make sure that you know you go to that academic that academic you know whatever you know that i guess to make sure you're ok with your grades so no kids usually usually practice three times a day which i know our kids and there was if they was just a laugh which i know they love and then the second week will start toning down a little bit will go to the one practices and the last before we have our first pre season tournament we'll go to one practice i want to act as a day for the week ok and then when there's a season started no season actually will start this is usually the last week in august so a play we play we have three weeks it's called our preseason torment schedule so we'll play three torments back to all in consecutive and we'll be on the road friday saturday sunday for the first three weeks and then we'll start conference play as early as the second week of september and then when there's a season and usually a week before thanksgiving you know we we have a goal that we if they are right before once our season is over we have them meet with our strength coach for the last week do a little bit of work do you know a few a few workouts here and there but then they get their break down other winter workout program and the emphasis is let's let's make sure that our grades are where they belong and they focus on school and it can be very stressful right because right or head writer does have a regulus rigor rigorous curriculum so you know they're focused on making sure they do what they're supposed to so now once the once the break is over and they come back in january they do a volleyball when they come back to say either the last week or second to last week of january the we started right away when they came back with just lifting and pilot training this following week which was last week we did individual training where we meet with each kid two times a week for an hour piece and we just really work our mechanics you know i like this period of time because it's a real large emphasis on player development you know we have ten kids or jim right now and you know this is the first time i've been here that we've had such a high quality of talent in our gym so we're able to really hit home on a lot of miscues that we had to the season you know during while they're studying and i'm watching all the films here now and i'm i'm happy one moment i'm cringing another we're doing a lot of detailed instruction to help them develop into better players so so is there any kind of spring volleyball that they're doing yeah once we finish with the individual the individual practice is that in the february we' going to team practices which is usually three times a week and then the list three times a week in the do ploughs twice a week and then we'll end with the spring torment in mid april right before finals get ready to start and then once they're done with that will have exit interviews and we'll say hey this is what you did great this is what you didn't do so great but this is what we're going to do to make you to make this whole thing better and then in the summer time do they go and play on summer teams they're allowed to but our kids are there our kids are really focused and  really nice as last last summer we saw it when they came in they really focus on their individuality in terms of their physical illness and staying healthy eating right training when they can but more importantly enjoying the summer too because the reality of it is at the one level like i mentioned earlier is it's a lot you know it's a it's a fun filled day of different activities that you've got going under a season you know everyone needs a break every once in a while and we want to make sure that they've you playing it right or not as a job but something that they  passionate what they love to do and it seemed it seems it has seemed to work over the past couple years and so now though the recruiting process have you just finished your recruiting class for this year is that is that how it works it does it does it happen right after the season and you're finding all these kids and signing them up well we had a change in our approach this year we brought in seven kids last year and unfortunately we lost we lost a couple you know for personal reasons so we were done we  were finished and we're ready focusing on two thousand and seventeen which we're actually you know we're close with some kids but after seeing our after seeing how our season unfolded last year with lack of depth we had a whole bunch of kids hurt kids that were playing were hurt and the to play we couldn't rest them so we're we're looking for somebody sob and we've got some leads we really had some kids on campus as early as the first week back from school got a phone call yesterday that we've got one more in the barn so it will be done probably in the next couple weeks and w continue with two thousand and seventeen class and you have your combing the country the world how's it really work i'm all over the country i was supposed to go to brazil this year but right before i got ready to book my take in everything the kid that i was going to look at committed to another school thousand excited to go to brazil i've never been there and i have a lot of good friends that i work with a coach with that coach professional teams over there that put me and put me you know made me aware of this the student athlete but i didn't work out but we'll see what happens next year that's fantastic so so now are you constantly on the road looking for kids is that is that how it all starts of the you have assistants that are out there that they look for the kid and then bring you some kid says hey coach high school coaches are they calling you up or is it a little bit i got a little bit of everything but in our gym i take that away from the assistants when i was a fordham the head coach there you know was you know share the love i guess and he wanted us to do so a lot of the legwork and show him things and i think the complete opposite the reality is that the decision is going to stop with me so why let it go through so many channels only to get to me for me to say no i don't want any unnecessary work being done  my days or my days are interesting because i'm consul i have an i pad and always keep with me and constant watching film and consciously looking at looking up new kids new recruits lou reading emails making phone calls so it's our review of the reason why we've been still quick to get better is because our recruiting is leer is i'm not joking twenty four seventh's we're always looking for kids i'll literally leave here and probably have an email that i'll check out and look at a video later on tonight so so you brought up a interesting thing that a lot of parents it is film they get they have to do film for these coaches some people take the approach give the whole game some people take the approach give just highlights of certain things what's the approach that college coaches louis usually we'll know if we are interested in you within the first fifteen seconds of your highlight film and if we are than will we'll start you know we'll start processing information look at the game film so my best advice to anyone that sees a certain high school kid or a parent that sees  trying to get their daughter or daughter son recruited make sure you send highly for the oh that looks looks good don't have mistakes in the first ten seconds have them doing something great to keep the attention of the coach and make sure you send the full game f just to give them a sense of what you're what you're going through how many videos are actually coming in you get hundreds of thousands checking my email last week i had about one hundred fifty different emails not all of them had video but there are you know you're talking about a class of two thousand eight hundred seventy stuff at this point you know last week i got something from two thousand and twenty i was just like ok this is a little early but we'll put this well file this somewhere so we literally probably watch about fifty fifty films a to laugh a lot we we had a visit last week and i just i just moved my office into the gym so i brought them all and so they can see the office and within thirty seconds i've got a group laying on the ground taking pictures and laughing i've got another group in a corner imitating somebody and i've got another group on my white board drawing pictures and laughing and i literally i became over on the set right guys get out this is too much for me but what's great about it is they do that outside of the gym but when they're in the gym they work really hard and they're really really focused on on reaching reaching altima goal which is really nice and it's a hard it's a hard balance because normally have a team that's always serious or you have a team that's always always fun you know so that it's a really nice bounce with this group so now given give us a sense the parents that are out there when do you start trying to find schools at the college level for volleyball as a freshman year of high school is it senior high school when when should they start pursuing all of this well i think each level is a little different and coaching at every level that these three level in those kids are looking at schools by their senior year on the d to level their senior year end of junior year the bigger d once you know they're trying to get kids to commit as sophomores so we're right in the we're right in the range of and the software year beginning of junior year with the ultimate commit and they all signed an ally in their senior year so it's a rivera's depending on jersey i know a lot of highs coaches in new jerseys i coach club with them but i would say my connections are more out of the state right now so and club given give a sense for these kids that are watching the show  what type of club teams could they look at a very different level club teams and they like the level club team and a level club how does it work speaking politically correct they'll have to find a club that best suits their  ability the new jersey we have some outstanding volleyball clubs we also have some clubs that are there to get kids touches and to make them active on anyone and anyone that has a volleyball club i think is doing great things the reality of it is that the if the student athletes in the gym they're not doing something else you know they're they're doing they're staying healthy they're being active they're participating in a sport hopefully that they love but i think that it's like a cup of tea everyone's got to find which one they like which taste best for them and also have a travel teams the you see a lot of these club teams that are traveling all over the country a lot of those as well every club team they usually have what's called a national or one theme and then they'll have a regional team which is like there to see more of a developmental program the national teams of the teams that travel all over the place in the regional teams will do some traveling the pending on the clubs protocol but the ones are more the one seems more geared towards a high level training you know they've already mastered a lot of the skill sets at their at their age level so now we're trying to push the envelope where the two scenes are still good athletes you know on the you have a lot of really athletic kids in those groups they're still learning the game is still learning how to you know become better and be more consistent what they're doing yeah so now on the kids themselves i know assists gig skills these are all the terms that the kids need it at the volleyball level right yes is there something more important than others or they need a little bit of everything to to do well one of the one of my feelings about america and there are a lot of coaches share the sentiment is that volleyball is to specialize with with student athletes but we you know we recruit trying to find kids that are six what a shame players and we have a few of them in our gym and some kids that we are looking at now are six rotation players but you know i think everything is significant the most important skill set is first touch your passing you know if you can pass the ball you can have someone that's touching twelve feet ready to receive to take a good swing and try to score and you can't get them the ball so passing is is our bread and butter we've got a lot better with our service even i think we raised our services for senate from last year from like a one nine and this year we were we averaged to two three so it's on a three point scale so a three is a best and then zero is the worst so we were we're leaning towards almost coming getting close to being perfect better at our services goals that's fantastic well what's the what's the time that you what's  the the position that you've come in so far in the major second place their place first place i believe the last two years we were in first place thirteen of fourteen out of twenty weeks this year we were in first place all the way up into the second last season and second to last weekend of the season we lost a critical match at home versus fairfield that we played really well a fair few play really well it was one of those someone's gotta win someone's gotta lose you know so we're looking to get back to we're looking to get back to that you know main priority this spring is player development keeping everyone healthy and then we get back in in august making sure everyone is healthy and is running on a full tank of gas great well we're coming to the end of our show  usually i ask my guests what advice you want to give to the parents that are out there their sons and daughters playing volleyball and i school they want to go to college to play what advice you want to give them let them be independent that's my first thing i tell everybody the reality of it is is at some point you're going to send your child away to school and they're going to have to walk on their own two feet make sure that this is for them and make sure that they're looking at the appropriate level so many times we see kids in both directions we see kids that overreach and are unhappy because they are playing and then a lot of times you see kids that don't don't really go to where they should and they are the big fish in a small pond they were never really challenged some kids like that some kids don't and you see kids transferring all the time because of it so just make sure you know that where they're looking at is appropriate and and if it's that not only athletically but academically the reality of it is is the last forever we want to make sure that the student athlete has a degree and has a great college experience