Volleyball Recruiting

[undVBfan]

It's possible UND didn't have a presence, but it's also likely they were there. If I ran into any of the staff in Target I'd put it 50-50 I'd recognize the head coach and less than 1% I'd recognize the new assistants. Coaches there would be looking at 17's and 18's for the diamonds in the rough that others missed as well as the younger divisions for early recruiting, so if they were there they would be all over the place and easy to miss. There is also lots of volleyball to be watched with USAV, AAU and JVA organizations and they can't be everywhere.

I'd like to see a local/regional flavor to the lineup and I suspect any coach would as well. Regardless, I wouldn't put too much on a dad not seeing someone from UND at the tournament. I haven't met him yet, but I'm pretty sure Coach Nguyen didn't get where he is without looking everywhere for talent. 

[petey23]

18 minutes ago, undVBfan said:

It's possible UND didn't have a presence, but it's also likely they were there. If I ran into any of the staff in Target I'd put it 50-50 I'd recognize the head coach and less than 1% I'd recognize the new assistants. Coaches there would be looking at 17's and 18's for the diamonds in the rough that others missed as well as the younger divisions for early recruiting, so if they were there they would be all over the place and easy to miss. There is also lots of volleyball to be watched with USAV, AAU and JVA organizations and they can't be everywhere.

I'd like to see a local/regional flavor to the lineup and I suspect any coach would as well. Regardless, I wouldn't put too much on a dad not seeing someone from UND at the tournament. I haven't met him yet, but I'm pretty sure Coach Nguyen didn't get where he is without looking everywhere for talent. 

All the Coaches and staff are very apparent by their apparel. They make it a point to be seen, especially by the kids they can't contact yet. They also write recruting evaluations. i am just saying he said there was talk among the coaches and parents that they thought it was odd that UND wasn't represented at a pretty big recruiting event in their backyard while every other school in our conference as well as major programs had their coaches and staff there.

[jdub27]

1 hour ago, undVBfan said:

I'd like to see a local/regional flavor to the lineup and I suspect any coach would as well. Regardless, I wouldn't put too much on a dad not seeing someone from UND at the tournament. I haven't met him yet, but I'm pretty sure Coach Nguyen didn't get where he is without looking everywhere for talent. 

In the time or two I've heard the new coach speak about his expectations, he's made it clear he is looking for area kids that can compete. I doubt he's just saying that because it sounds good. He seems to know how to build a winner.
Guessing it might take a while to build the local profile back up and also build some Midwest connections, but there is probably a good opportunity to play early at UND which could be helpful. Would still expect to see players from outside the area. Looks like FDU had a few players from Italy on their roster last year. Don't know what that area of the country is like for volleyball but guessing there is a lot of competition with the amount of schools out east.

[petey23]

3 hours ago, jdub27 said:

In the time or two I've heard the new coach speak about his expectations, he's made it clear he is looking for area kids that can compete. I doubt he's just saying that because it sounds good. He seems to know how to build a winner.
Guessing it might take a while to build the local profile back up and also build some Midwest connections, but there is probably a good opportunity to play early at UND which could be helpful. Would still expect to see players from outside the area. Looks like FDU had a few players from Italy on their roster last year. Don't know what that area of the country is like for volleyball but guessing there is a lot of competition with the amount of schools out east.

Texas, California, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Indiana seem to be the main feeders for college.

[NewUndFan]

I see another foreign player was signed from Slovenia  Definitely going to be a new look for the team!   

[SiouxFan100]

1 hour ago, NewUndFan said:

I see another foreign player was signed from Slovenia  Definitely going to be a new look for the team!   

I would like to think that this is encouraging. Won’t know until the season starts. Nice to see that there is action with the recruitment. Would be nice to make volleyball a thing again.

[NewUndFan]

2 hours ago, SiouxFan100 said:

I would like to think that this is encouraging. Won’t know until the season starts. Nice to see that there is action with the recruitment. Would be nice to make volleyball a thing again.

Agreed 

[Ilvund]

Wasn’t the point of hiring him to recruit locally because the Tupacs brought in too many out of region players? Now the whole team will be foreign and have zero connection to America even. Seems weird. 

[undVBfan]

How do you know he isn't recruiting from the region? There are only so many players from the region who can play D1, and those who can play next year are already signed - of which we got 2 from ND (Tupac recruits), 3 if you count Tessa Washington from NDSCS/Wisconsin. Tessa looks to have signed April 2025, played at NDSCS last season, and is now listed on the 2026 roster.

Right now he's finding players that everyone has missed, which basically means looking overseas. Any serious recruiting of locals right now would be for kids playing 16s/maybe 17s and couldn't be here for at least a year, likely two. And that's if we can get them, our record of the past few years doesn't make it easier. 

I haven't met the new coach, but I can all but guarantee he'll take all of the studs from the region he can get, once he can get them 🙂, but talent still trumps region.

[iramurphy]

11 hours ago, Ilvund said:

Wasn’t the point of hiring him to recruit locally because the Tupacs brought in too many out of region players? Now the whole team will be foreign and have zero connection to America even. Seems weird. 

The point of hiring him was to get this program turned around and win the conference and get into the playoffs. Recruit the best players, regardless of where they are from, but hopefully get the best kids from the region that are capable of accomplishing those goals. 

[NewUndFan]

13 hours ago, Ilvund said:

Wasn’t the point of hiring him to recruit locally because the Tupacs brought in too many out of region players? Now the whole team will be foreign and have zero connection to America even. Seems weird. 

I dont remember anyone complaining that Tupac didnt have local talent.  I just heard people were not happy about not winning.  I dont care where the talent comes from, long as they can win!  

[Dustin]

I would love to see UND dominate regional recruiting more than anyone, but to get on regional radar, UND probably has to build from outside the region first, since everyone currently from the region knows that VB at UND has not been good in 8 years.  Show what can be done in Grand Forks, and the region will respond.

[petey23]

On 3/17/2026 at 10:43 AM, petey23 said:

Have a friend whose daughter is a D1 volleyball prospect. Played in Minneapolis last weekend in a huge qualifier which drew teams from all over the United States and college coaches and staff from all over the country. I am told UND had no presence at the tournament which seems strange. Literally every Summit League team was represented along with major schools like Nebraska, Notre Dame, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc.

Rinse and repeat in Kansas City last weekend?

My friends daughter isn't allowed to be officially contacted yet but "most" coaches can get around that a little bit by personalizing camp invite letters and letting the athlete know they have seen her tape and maybe bring up how well she or her team played in a recent tournament. She has received many of these invites from Summit league an other midwest schools. My friend showed me the invite she received from UND and lets just say it was generic and underwhelming.

I hope I am wrong and maybe he is recruiting for the next couple season for a quci turnaround but you do need to think about 2028 as well and establish some local connections.

 

[gfhockey]

Has Chavez made a good hire yet? One could argue softball but we are holding down last place in summit

[The Sicatoka]

3 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

Has Chavez made a good hire yet? One could argue softball but we are holding down last place in summit

Eric Schmidt is waiting in your office for you; he ain't smiling.
Dane Jackson says he'll be stoping by later with Matt Smaby.

[iramurphy]

1 hour ago, petey23 said:

Rinse and repeat in Kansas City last weekend?

My friends daughter isn't allowed to be officially contacted yet but "most" coaches can get around that a little bit by personalizing camp invite letters and letting the athlete know they have seen her tape and maybe bring up how well she or her team played in a recent tournament. She has received many of these invites from Summit league an other midwest schools. My friend showed me the invite she received from UND and lets just say it was generic and underwhelming.

I hope I am wrong and maybe he is recruiting for the next couple season for a quci turnaround but you do need to think about 2028 as well and establish some local connections.

 

I have found that when there is a promising athlete in any sport (friend, relative, neighbor, someone in your community, it’s worth sending that coach an email and let them know that in the event they weren’t aware, there is a prospective athlete whom you think would be worth getting to their camps so they might evaluate. 
Previous VB coaches, BB coaches, FB coaches all responded within 24h with a note of thanks. Send the new coach a note and mention that a couple kids had hoped to see UND staff and are interested and UND was a school they were hoping to hear from. Every once in awhile they might get a kid who they hadn’t been aware of. 

[iramurphy]

54 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Eric Schmidt is waiting in your office for you; he ain't smiling.
Dane Jackson says he'll be stoping by later with Matt Smaby.

I think they would have better luck waiting at Judy’s. 

[gfhockey]

3 hours ago, The Sicatoka said:

Eric Schmidt is waiting in your office for you; he ain't smiling.
Dane Jackson says he'll be stoping by later with Matt Smaby.

To be fair Jack had Berrys playas and it was an easy hire from with win

 

schmidt only has one year and I believe we got spanked in 2nd round of playoffs and was 7-5 which I consider a bubbaisk season