What Do You Need to Do to Stand Out to College Volleyball Coaches?
What Separates Recruited Athletes From Everyone Else
Featuring insights from Allison Roberts and Susan Forbes
Once athletes understand the recruiting process and the different division levels, the next question becomes a lot more personal: what actually makes someone stand out to college coaches?
It is not just about being good enough to play at the next level. In most cases, coaches are watching a large group of athletes who are all capable of competing at a similar level. The difference often comes down to what happens when things are not perfect.
Q: What separates the athletes coaches pursue from the ones they do not?
Allison Roberts:
“There is no single formula for getting recruited,” Allison says. “Every college coach is looking for something slightly different.”
And while ability is always the starting point, she emphasizes that most athletes at a given level are already within a similar range of skill, size, and athleticism.
“At the end of the day, there are a lot of athletes who can physically do what you do on the court,” she explains. “So what actually makes someone stand out are the intangible things.”
That is where coaches start paying closer attention to behavior, body language, and how athletes respond in real time.
She shares an example from a recent tournament where a coach noticed a player who was not even on the court that much, but stood out immediately because of how she carried herself.
“She was on the sideline the entire weekend, and she was completely engaged,” Allison says. “She was cheering for her teammates, running down loose balls, and staying positive the whole time. A college coach next to me literally said, ‘She’s awesome.’”
In another situation, a coach was evaluating a player who had to switch positions unexpectedly due to roster changes.
“Her role changed completely that weekend,” Allison explains, “but her attitude never did. That actually made the coach more interested in her, not less.”
For Allison, those moments matter because they reveal how an athlete handles adversity.
“Coaches want athletes who respond well when things do not go their way,” she says. “They want players who are coachable, who compete for their team no matter what, and who do not change their energy based on their role.”
Q: How are coaches evaluating athletes beyond highlight film?
Susan Forbes:
Susan agrees that film can spark a coach’s interest, but what happens beyond the film determines whether that interest grows.
“When a coach comes to watch you in person, they already like what they saw on video,” she explains. “Now they are looking at everything else.”
That includes how an athlete behaves between points, how they respond after mistakes, and how they interact with coaches and teammates.
“Coaches are trying to understand who you are as a person and a teammate,” she says. “They are not just watching your skills. They are watching how you carry yourself.”
Susan also points out that recruiting is increasingly about trust and efficiency for coaches.
“At the higher levels, coaches are very protective of their time,” she says. “They are not going to spend hours on every freshman or sophomore. They are trying to identify who is worth investing more time in.”
Because of that, consistency and honesty matter.
“When a coach sees accurate film, a complete profile, and a player who shows up the same way in person as they do on video, that builds trust,” she explains. “And trust is what leads to deeper recruiting interest.”
Q: What actually makes a highlight film effective?
This naturally leads into one of the most common follow-up questions: what should actually be in a highlight reel, and what turns coaches away?
The conversation continues as the experts break down not only how to create a highlight video, but also what coaches are actually looking for when they hit play.
The Bottom Line
Standing out is not just about being the most athletic player on the court. It is about how you compete, how you respond, and how consistently you show up when things are not going your way.
Or as Allison summarizes:
“There are a lot of athletes who can do what you do physically. What separates you is how you act when the game is not going perfectly.”