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.