Episode #45: Samantha Birkicht Webinar (Is Your Athlete Recruitable?)

In this special webinar edition of the Significant Coaching Podcast, we welcome Samantha Birkicht, Head Volleyball Coach at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Coach Birkicht shares invaluable insights into the college volleyball recruitment process, offering her perspective on what she looks for in recruits and how parents can best support their aspiring athletes.

We tackle the pressing questions parents often have: Does my child have what it takes to compete at the collegiate level? How can we navigate the recruitment journey effectively?

Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with expert advice and actionable takeaways for players and parents alike.

Follow Coach Birkicht and the Pioneers on Instagram to see one of the most dynamic and followed collegiate volleyball accounts in the country: UWP Volleyball Instagram.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Significant Coaching Podcast. I'm Matt Rogers. As I close out the first season of the podcast, I will be adding some great live webinar sessions with some of the top college professionals in the country. In this session, the incomparable Coach Samantha Burkett, Head Volleyball Coach at the University of Wisconsin Platteville, joined me to answer questions about the topic of how do you know your athlete is recruitable? Coach Birkett led the Pioneers this year to a berth in the NCAA Division III National Tournament, where they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, losing to eventual NCAA National Champions, runner up Wisconsin Whitewater. Coach Birkett's teams have now won 20 games for three straight seasons, and finished the 2024 season ranked number 11 in the nation. She's bright, she's She's passionate and completely down to earth, and I could not imagine a better person to talk volleyball recruiting than with her. Remember, this was a live webinar, so parents and coaches ask questions throughout. So the podcast has been edited so you can hear the questions and the answers to keep it trimmed for time. If you're enjoying these conversations, I encourage you to follow me at CoachMattRogers. com where you can find my weekly conversations with college coaches and athletes. You can read my weekly blog advising families, athletes, and coaches and administrators. And you can check out my book, Significant Recruiting, or register for the Significant Recruiting Launchpad, my 12 step virtual recruiting classes. You can also schedule a free strategy session with me at CoachMattRogers. com if you're seeking help with college recruitment. Alright, let's get to it. Here's my conversation with Samantha Burkett discussing how to know you're doing the right things to get your athlete recruited. My. Unbelievably talented guest today is Samantha Burkett. Hello, Coach Burkett. How are you? Hello. Good. Thanks. We're going to focus on five things tonight and really what I think are the five most important principles if you're trying to figure out if your son or daughter are recruitable. And Sam and I are really going to get into not only, you What that looks like, but what you should be doing from a college coaches perspective. So we want to make sure you leave here, not only educated, but feeling like we've got some wind behind your sails. that if your son or daughter is really excited about playing at the next level, we want to give you some tools and resources to get going and not have to look back. So first thing we'll talk about is understanding recordability. Then we'll get into the evaluation side of it with Sam and Sam is going to really give us some great I'm going to give you some input from my side of it as well. We're going to talk about the importance of having your child online. And I'm not talking about Twitter and Instagram. I'm talking about having a profile where coaches can come in and really learn their resume. We're going to talk about the coach's process. I think the process that Sam takes to recruit with her and her set staff, I think is really going to be beneficial. And then we're going to talk about you parents and really what a coach is looking for from a parental side of this journey, so we won't do a whole lot of messing around. We're going to get in here and get going. All right, let's jump into this. Number one, we're going to talk about understanding recruitability. So Sam, what are some of those essential qualities a recruit needs just to be a part of your program? What are you looking for in just those characteristics of a recruit? So I like to just make it simple by saying I need to know I can trust them. And I know I, Need I can train them and that's going to look different maybe for different coaches and different divisions But for d3, I know the amount of months I get to train them And so when I watch their skill tape i'm trying to figure out okay With their strengths and what they need to work on. Do we have enough time to train that how great is their? Mindset and how fast I think they'll progress just based on their growth mindset You and then the trust part is trusting that they will come in and not only protect our culture, but grow our culture. I always want our standards to rise, whether it be in performance or be in academics or be in community service or whatever it may be. There's a lot of pieces to the pie to make a program successful. And I like to just make sure that they are coming in and they are protecting what we've already built in all of those areas. And also bringing something that they would make us better in one or not all of them. And you probably say that's a huge part of why your last three years have been so successful, right? Yeah, I'm really protective over our culture. I would say I'm probably played a lot of players that I have said no to that have done really good on the other side of the net. But I have refused because I don't think I'm the right coach for them. I don't think we're with the right program for them just based on my expectations of what I'm looking for with work ethic, with what it looks like to be a teammate. Communication all of that plays a huge role. I don't like to, say anybody's like right or wrong in the way they act. I just need to make sure all those words are defined the same for me. So I always love when I hear coaches or players talk about values and they'll say oh I value hard work or work ethic, but like the definition between them, between the coach and the player is like very different. That's the trust part is trusting that they are defining words that our team values the same way. I'm going to piggyback on a word you use communication. I hear this a lot from college coaches when they're in a gym and they're watching a game, how much they're paying attention to how much that kid is communicating with their teammates, how they're communicating, how they're celebrating their teammates. victories, how they're handling the mistakes of their teammates, how they interact with their coach, what's their body language when they step off the floor. So I think those are just huge components. When you're talking to your son or your daughter about what they're doing, always be reminding them that they never know when a coach is watching. So the more they're consistent with their character, they're consistent with their communication, the more that's probably who they are, would you agree? Yeah. And I feel like I hear from a lot of recruits like, Oh, I feel the pressure to play good when you come and watch or. Oh it's because I didn't play good. That will be their answer to me. And I was like, listen, there will be a game when you put, when you are a pioneer, you will not play good. There will be a practice that you do not play good. I need to know how you react in those moments. It's easy to lead when things are good. It's hard to lead when things are hard, and so I need to see what you're like in the good and the hard. So I don't mind if you have a bad game. Because that's going to happen. So that's helpful for me to see when you have a great game and when you have a bad game. All right, let's jump to the next question. What are some of the red flags coach That make you walk away from a kid where you just I, no matter how town they are, I can't have that kid in my program. Yeah. We use the acronyms, like I need to see you at all times in our gym. So it's stand tall, eye contact and effort. And a little bit of that being off as a red flag for me. So if they're constantly dropping their shoulders after a mistake, after their team is down points or whatever, that's a red flag for me. If they are not giving eye contact and huddles to their teammates when they're encouraging them or giving feedback that's a red flag for me. If they are deciding when to give effort. So like you just said, the coach who is she'll work hard when you're here. If their effort is inconsistent based on how they're playing, how the team's playing, what the coach is saying to them, that's a red flag for me. I've crossed people off for eye rolling. I just crossed a recruit off because they were down in a game. Coach called a timeout. The team's huddled up and she's sitting on the bench, like just looking like she came up and I was like, Oh, off. And I left, I was like, not doing that. So all of those are red flags, my assistant, he has this line and he's so right he'll get asked what's the favorite part of your job and he goes, I get to choose who I work with every day. Like what job you get to choose with who you work with every day. And so the lesson I learned in my first few years is I want to enjoy my job and I want the girls to enjoy their time. And the way to do that is to make sure that we're all on the same page about What kind of behaviors we want on the team. Yeah. Yeah, I think you hit it right on the nose. And I think from a parent perspective, and I'm and I didn't say this in the beginning, but I'm the parent of a 15 year old volleyball player. She plays club she plays high school. And those things drive me crazy about her. We talk about those things and for any parents out there that anything that Sam said that you thought was minor and maybe it was, not that big a deal. Why walk away from a talented kid because they rolled their eyes. It's because Sam has so many kids to look at. She has so much volume of kids that are out there. She doesn't have to cut any corners, right? Yeah. And for me, I know at our level, they're used to being the best player on the team. And at our level winning, and you're not going to be the best player on the team. There's a lot of first for them. So they're going to be put in a higher pressure cooker in different situations that they've never been in. That's going to add stressors. So where they're at right now, they're creating those negative behaviors. Once they get to our level, that's gonna be, that's gonna, that's gonna be bigger, right? That reaction would be bigger. And so that's why, those little things make a big difference, because I feel like they're not even put into what college level is going to give them, it's a lot harder when you're not the best player on the team and when you have to win the next game, otherwise it affects if you're going to the NCAA tournament. That's right. That's right. And you have to think about those things. Do I want to have to deal with that once or let alone, maybe 100 times during the season. I don't want to have to deal with it once. And I surely don't want it to show its ugly head when we're about to go to the national tournament and play. In the top 64 teams in the country. All right, let's move on. What's the best way for a recruit to introduce themselves to you, Sam? To say, hey, I'm interested in you. How do you like to hear from a recruit? Yeah. If I had to pick my favorite, it's when they come to one of our ID camps. Just because I get to connect face to face. I get to coach them. I'm not reading through everything. Like I'm coaching, you're playing, we get to see each other, as we want to see each other. That's my favorite, but I know not everybody can do that. So the second way is through a personal email that has film. That's how I like to be introduced to them. I like to make sure that it is short and sweet. I asked, I went through these questions with my assistant too, to be like, I'm going to ask you if we're on the same page. And I, when I got to this question, he was like, no more than three sentences. We've got. So many emails. So many. So if I open an email and it's two paragraphs long, there's times I delete it. Cause I just don't have time. Needs to be short and sweet with film, only the few facts that we need to know right up front, which is like height. where you're from, volleyball club you play for and your film, phone numbers, email addresses. Yep. Yep. That's in your like signature, right? So that's doesn't need to be sent in your signature. Yep. Yep. So keep it simple. And what I think could get misconstrued with what Sam said there. And I've answered this question on recruiting panels and coaching panels many times the same way. It's not that we're indifferent. It's not that we don't care about that. Your kid is so involved and they have so much to say and they really want to get our attention at the end of the day. We don't have time to do all that we've got to watch their film and go they can either help us or they can't. And if they can't help us, we got to move on to the next kid. If we like them. Yes, we want to have that phone call. We want to know that they're in the play. We want to know that they're on student council. We want to know that there are three sport kid. We want to know what mom and dad do. But that first we Interaction that first communication. Just tell us what we need to know. I'm interested in you. I'd like to know if you're interested in me, here's my stuff, right? Yes. Yes. We say it for my staff. I say we identify, we evaluate, we close, right? This is the identifying part. So we will get to the evaluation part, but because there's hundreds, that's first identifying part, it's just needs to be short and sweet. How many emails are you and Nick getting a week? Oh, between the two of us, probably, oh man, 40 to 60, 40 to 60 for a division three, non scholarship program. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I talked to a division one football coach last week and his staff will get 400 to 600 emails a week. And if you go to the typical division one program right now, go to their, go to the staff directory on their website. They've all stopped putting their phone numbers and their email addresses anywhere online because they will not get anything else done. So they're basically saying, here's our website where you can fill out our questionnaire if you want to get recruited and that's it. We don't have time for anything else. Yeah, a lot. Yeah. If you don't think 40 to 60 emails from recruits are a lot a week, go ahead and try it. Go ahead and try to respond to all that and write your practice plans and watch the film and do all the recruiting that you already have to do and do your meetings. It's impossible. All right, let's move on. Let's get into skill and potential evaluation. I think that's a really important thing for a lot of our parents. And it's one of the big things that I wrote in my book, how important it is to really know your child's value, not what you think it is, not what you hope it is, not what your neighbor said. It's really important that you know that value before you start the recruiting process. So let's talk about some of those key attributes you're looking for. For a kid that can play at Platteville, a top 20 team in the country. If you just recruit. Two star kids. Are you the number 17th ranked team in the country? Are you a, if you just recruit kids that can play D3, can you play in the, can you compete in the top 20? No, I can't compete in my conference. You've got the toughest conference in the country. Yeah. Five of us are in the top 25 in the nation right now. I can't even compete in our conference. Yup. So what are those things that separate a kid. You're looking at two or three kids that are setters, that are outside hitters. What are the, what's those attributes that you're looking at and going, wow, that she's got a skill set that can play in our league. Yeah, I look for power. I look for body control. I look for I. Q. Decision making and I look for the read of the game. Those are the four. If I like, can I break down those four even more? And I know we will in a further question. Yes. But if I were to like put them in categories, right? Like I know we've looked at players before and that, and it all looked like the ball gets up to the center, right? Ball gets up to the center, but I know by her movement, there's like a body control, right? So it doesn't matter the results. If there's no body control behind the ball, same thing for swinging. I would hope a highlight video. You can show me like five swings that can go down to the ground. So in there, I'm looking for you have power behind the ball. You have ball control. Can you hit different shots when you're making those decisions? Can you make those decisions? Cause you have enough IQ of the game of what decisions to make when you swing past that, whatever. And then how quick are you able to read the game? And I'll be honest, that read one. Almost all of them come in and they're not up to reading the game fast enough, right? It's not like they have to have it perfectly, but once again, it's like, where are they at in that? And do we feel we have the time to get them there with where we need them on our roster? And I would say over the years, when I've sent you a player, that's probably the criticism I get back the most from you and any other volleyball coach. Number one is the style of play is too slow. It's not fast enough. Yeah. And then their reaction time, they're not reading the ball. Their feet aren't getting to where it needs to be. They're not reacting to the block or the set fast enough. Yeah. I like I'll go watch a liberal for instance. And they think it looks cool. Go on the floor and stuff like dive. And yes, I love that. You're a go getter and you're a hard worker, but what that's also telling me is you're either slow or you don't know how to read the game, right? Because you're constantly on the floor, that means your body's not in the right position. That's what I mean. Things, even though it gets to a spot or you can get the job done in certain ways, I know for us to progress you, that's going to take time. to take power. That's gonna take your IQ at a certain place. It's so funny, because it was the same way for me as a basketball coach. The more kid was on the floor that told me they didn't have control of their body. They couldn't control the ball. They couldn't control the pace. They were off balance. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. All right, let's jump ahead here. What are some of the key skill sets? By position. And I don't think you need to go through everyone, but let's just talk about hitters, setters and defensive players. Cause I think the majority of our families on our volleyball families let's just go through those three kind of, you've touched on them a little bit, but let's give some highlights to those skill attributes. Yeah. So for hitters I look for vertical, I look for versatility. So like at a highlight tape because I know that's what a lot of families like to send. I like to see their off shots. I like, I love seeing them swing line, like when they can go line. If they're a middle, I like seeing they can do a slide, an A or a three ball, a B or a one ball. I, versatility could mean that they can swing outside and right side or maybe right side middle. I love versatility, vertical. Power behind their play. So when they approach, are they think of power too is like aggressiveness, right? Like I love looking at a hitter that they have an aggressive approach. They move to the ball aggressively on defense when they block, it looks like they're attacking the block. And then obviously I look for control in that as well. So that's what I look for in hitters. I get asked the question and Matt, you've asked me this question before. Do they have to be six foot? Like how tall does the hitter have to be? That's like the magical question for us. Coaches may be different. My answer to that is I don't care how big you are. I care how big you play. So Arkansas, I'm going to say away from me. Do you want, if you want Arkansas elite eight D one last year, one player was about six foot badgers when they went far, Oh my goodness. They had a five, seven outside hitter. She was amazing. Courtney Thompson setter in the Olympics five, six, maybe. Doesn't matter how big you are. It matters how big you play. Now if you are shorter Are we looking for different things sometimes? Yes, you're still going to go against a huge block at our division So do we need to see what shots you have? Do you have a higher iq because you're not going to be able to hit over the block as much? Yes but that doesn't mean that you can't play at our i've had a 5 7 outside hitter who was first team all we act, like I'm not sure Doesn't matter. So I don't care about height. I do care about your vertical though, because that does help me a little bit more about like your athleticism. How important is that vertical for blocking for you as much as hitting? I would say they're both the same for me. Because the jumping mechanics that have a block and the jumping mechanics out of a swing vertical, it's the same. You gotta be, you gotta be able to get up on both. Even though the footwork is a little bit different, it's a slide step into a jump instead of that, that two step into a swing. Yeah, even though the footwork is a little bit different. Yep. Yep. I would say it's probably more for the approach, but, if you have a low vertical, it's affecting your both your block and your swing. Does that make sense? Yeah. For setters is a lot for me. I'm not gonna lie. It takes me a very long time to make a decision on a setter. I watch them more than any other position. I talk to them more than any other position. They're the quarterback on my team. They have to deal with me the most, right? So I need to have a lot of trust in them. So I look for IQ. I look for communication skills. I look for how well they are at leading a team. I look for their foot speed. If you want to get like technical, I look for their foot speed. I look at their tempo. Look how consistent they are with the location of the ball. And then the ones I love the most have a quick release with their hands. So if you have a quick release of your hands. I tend to really love you. And then I look like, try to find out the rest. So in highlight, quick release is big for me. Does that come naturally? Or is that from, is that typically from a kid that's been coached really well, that quick release? Is it more instinctual or is there a ton of coaching behind that? I think there's some times where it could come like naturally in that the way you started setting so that like how you build your skills, right? But I don't, it is definitely something you can train. That's not a guess. We've, we train that all the time, so we're training th our gym. Back row. I look for little movement, high platform on services defensive read, talk through that high platform. Yeah. What does that look like to a novice? Yeah, so High Platform, when I when I have passers come into our program, if they like to pass by their belly and tight there's, gosh, it's so hard here on this, I'm more of a visual, but the platform's gotta be up here, so I always say there's gotta be space between your armpits, if you are a tight passer, it just seems technically, that is the hardest thing for us to coach, to break. To build in our program. So if you come and I don't have to break and build that would be amazing like that's why I love a high platform because we've tried to Retrain that when they're in the gym. It just feels like a skill that if you've been trained with a tight platform It's it just you know, yeah it sucks. So I always say, you know a passer there serve receive there's defense in the serve And if you're asking me the serve receive for me is always my number one look if you can't serve I don't even care what your defense or your serve looks like So I go in those levels. I look for my, the best service receiver first, and then it goes to who's the next best defender, and then the server behind that. You don't want those kids in the back row that look like they're nervous. Every time the ball's coming to them. They got half. Yeah. Yeah. Or the legs. The legs always up to make the pass. Yes. Yes. That would be not great at reading, right? Correct. Settle your feet. Yep. Yes. And parents. I talked to division one volleyball coaches. As much as I talk to D three and NI and D two, and they all say the same thing, every single one of them, all right. Let's jump to our next question. Let's talk about building a competitive online presence, how much does it help you when a recruit has their film on a profile online? Amazing. Love it. I love it because I can share it with my staff too. We usually put that website within like our spreadsheet of the recruit if we like them, so we can always go back and take a look, especially if they're updating film on that same website. Film is everything for us. If I'm being honest, film is everything. We look through so many films and the type of film you do is very important. Once again, don't start your film, for instance, like you're a hitter, right? Start your film with your best swings. We don't have a lot of time. So you've got to get our attention right away. Otherwise we don't move forward. Yeah. And I teach kids this too, a minute to a minute and a half film. If you're going to make a highlight film is just as valuable as a 10 minute highlight film. If you're going to send a highlight, because that first minute and a half, if you're going to show seven, eight really good swings, show your best, show them what you're capable of and then send them some full games. It's really nice fo to see what happens when swing. How do you react t throws you a bad ball, yo you'd shank one in the ba react that next play? Bec The coach on the other side is probably calling your number for the server to serve it right back at you if you shank one, right? Yeah. Yeah. How you guys play it. Yeah. Yeah. And even not just a reaction of if you make an error, but volleyball is a game of errors, right? And so even when we do scouting reports, I say, we're not looking for that one time they hit out of bounds. The one time they hit cross, we're looking for frequencies. So that's even in the errors when you're passing. And if you shank five times, the, what I'm asking myself is the, why In the why be trained and then how long do I think that training will take to cure that? Why? So that's why we like to see errors as well, because we know you're not coming into us. Perfect. So we need to know. Okay, why are the errors happening? And what do we need to train? And what's the timeline? Do we think we can do that? Absolutely. I'm gonna I'm gonna jump into the this conversation about the online profile. It doesn't matter what you use. And CSA sports recruits field level. It doesn't matter to a college coach. Am I wrong, Sam? Correct. Correct. Does not matter. those businesses are a portal to get your information to the coach and vice versa. So a lot of these companies will charge you 1, 000 to 5, 000, 6, 000 when all you really need is their free stuff. All these companies will let you have a free profile online. They'll let you have a link, a web link. That's your resume online. If you're using that, if you're completing that profile and have everything on there that a coach needs, You now have that link that you can send to a coach So sam might get an email and she might not have a chance to read that email for a week or two weeks Yeah, but she still has that link to get you your kid So get that resume online get your film online and keep it updated Don't let six months go when you haven't touched it Because in that time, your kid has new transcripts, they have a different GPA, they have new film, put practice footage up there, put, whatever you can put up there that shows that your child is growing, keep that profile growing. And now, Sam doesn't have to keep getting emails from you if she likes you, she can go back into that profile anytime she wants, and she can see how you've improved. Yes, improving lets me know that your child has the mindset to grow in their skill. And that's a difference, right? Like I can see two people with the same things and how they grow in our program is going to deal with probably mostly their mindset, not always just what training we're doing. So seeing their progress is a huge reason why I might recruit your child. That's great. Yeah, especially if they're making huge jumps from one season to the next. I'm like, they did all that in one year? Oh my gosh, imagine. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Next question here. Does it matter if they play high school and or club to you? Yeah, I get this question a lot. So I've never been asked the high school one because everyone has played high school for me. You mean like they might not play high school volleyball? Yeah. Their high school is a mess. They don't like their coach and that's all they do is play club because they're getting more out of the club. I get that a ton. Okay. I get that question a ton where they'll go, Matt, our high school program is doing us more poor, poorness than goodness, yeah. So I have a lot to this answer. So I'm going to tell you, I have actually two sides to this side. Number one is I grew up in a family of six and if club volleyball was happening the way it is now, when I played, I don't know if I would be a volleyball player. I don't know if my family could afford it. I don't know if they could have traveled all the way to it. I don't know if they could have had the time they had to work in restaurants from like 9 p. m so like I have that in the back of my head and I never want our sport to become the sport that you can only play if you have money or right, So to that I say I will if you say I can't play club. I will never say I'm not recruiting you then that would never be a thing. I would say The other next side to that, though, is this is that you're getting like five, six more months of training, right? And will somebody who's getting five, six months more of training improve their skills at a faster rate? Yes. The answer to that is yes. And so I will not recruit you. I also don't have to take that into consideration. If your skills are at a place where I don't think you need those five to six months training, you'd still be good enough for us. Then no, but if it's not, and I know, okay, you're not getting any training right now. So you're coming to us as is right now. That might be a little bit different for me. So it's not like a half to write because I'm not ever, I will never say that because it's like a philosophy thing for me, but I also have to know what reality is right now, and I want to make sure. We see both sides of that. What about that multi-sport athlete that's playing volleyball for their high school in the fall? They're playing basketball in the spring and they're running track playing softball in the spring. I love that. I love that. Love multisport athletes. I think I was a multisport athlete. I had to play a different role as a volleyball player than I did a basketball player. I thought I learned so many different things. I love that. So if you are a multi sport athlete for me, actually, that's like a positive for me, it's not a negative. Again, if you're hearing from your club and high school coach and they're telling you need to focus year round on that team, there is not a high school coach in the country that I've talked to and I just interviewed the number one coach in the country and the number two for division two just got off the phone with a top 20 volleyball coach in division one. Every single one of them says we love multi sport athletes. They're healthier. They're less injury prone. They're better teammates. They're more coachable. They don't have shoulder issues because they're doing the same thing over and over again. So if your kid loves playing basketball, loves playing soccer, loves playing track, loves golfing, don't take that away from them. There's plenty of, there's plenty of work that can get done to improve your skills. So love that answer coach. All right. What type of questions do you like to get from recruits? Yeah. And does it say something about them, the kind of question they ask? For sure. And I will say a pet peeve of mine, this might be a personal thing, in our recruiting meetings, when they don't have questions, that's a red flag for me, actually. I'm like, is this not really what you want? Did you not read? Like for me, that's a work. Did you put in the work? Did you like come prepared? It's like a job interview, right? Did you look us up? Did you see what we're about? I want you to care. I want you to care to be on our team. So that should come with question, right? It also does tell me a lot about you. But I don't think that's ever affected me. Like their questions have never liked them. Oh, you didn't know as long as they have questions. I like love that. I love when they come with a list, like they pull out their list and they're like, yes, I brought a list. I'm like, Oh, you're prepared. That tells me everything. I'm like, you're prepared to care. So I love the questions about our team culture. I love the questions about what bonding things do we do as a team. I love what's your coaching style. I love when they ask how do you manage academics, like school work and play, because they're showing me that they understand they're not just coming here to be an athlete, like studies will be important. So I like when they say that right up front. How about coach? What's your roster look like next year when I'm coming in? Who's at my position coming back? Where do I fit? I love that shows competitiveness. I love that. I think that's important that you know that. And if you're asking that in a healthy way now I will say a red flag for me is if they're like, I want to start. And my answer to them is I, then I'm not the program for you. Yeah. And I will be very upfront with them about that because I say, I am never going to recruit someone and going to say I'm recruiting you to be number four. No, if I'm recruiting you, I'm recruiting you because I want you to compete with my one and two, like who's starting right now, because we aren't getting better. If we're trying to win a national championship and we haven't done it, then I've got to keep recruiting high level, higher level. And you came to this program because you said you wanted to win a national championship too. So if that's what you said, like we're a program who can do that because we're in a conference who can do that, right? That's right. So there's other schools where you could start, you can guarantee the start. We just wouldn't be the program or the conference for you for that. Yeah. So if those are, if the questions of play need to, cause I want to start, then that's a red flag. But if the questions of play are because they're competitive, right? Like they're like, okay, so how many are my position? What do I need to do? They just want to know what the challenge is in front of them. I'm happy to share that. I think that's great. You'd love it. Every one of my teenage clients on their cell phones has a list of questions that anytime a coach calls, I train them to go, coach, do you have a few minutes to answer a few questions? Yeah, you have it wherever they're at. If you call them when they're at target, you call them at a tournament. They are ready to ask those questions. So I love that you're preaching that and mom and dad, if you don't have that. Make sure you're talking to your kid about that. If you don't have a list of questions, just email me and I'll send you a list. I give every kid a list. And then once you see the list of questions I'll give you, you'll come up with eight or 10 more that, or you want to rephrase them. So that's great. Love that. All right. Navigating the recruitment process. Let's talk about your timeline coach, because this is a huge thing. I'm on this volleyball moms thing on Facebook. I can't tell you how many times somebody will say you've got all the time in the world that my friends, my neighbor's daughter, she's a senior, she just got an offer. What is your timeline when you start looking at recruits and prospects? Yeah, so we will look, so the summer going into your junior year, we usually start then at identifying. So like I said, we do identify, evaluate, and close. So we're doing identifying all the way up until junior year of January. In January, we start evaluation, the evaluation period. So that means that's more phone calls. That's going to be getting you on campus. This is where I say I'm looking for the intangibles of protecting our culture, right? Getting you on campus, watching you in more club tournaments, things like that. That's the evaluation. And then the summer of their junior year going into their senior year, we do our last kind of rounds of ID camps. And then we are done offering by the second week of August. So it's division three. Division three. So right now, where we stand right now for next fall, I have six committed to our program. Awesome. And that was like two months ago. So the thing you got to understand if I've got an NAI or D2 coach on, they have some scholarship dollars, they're six to eight months ahead of where Sam is because they can make offers. the summer after sophomore year. So they don't want to lose out on a great kid. They want to put some money on the table and make an offer to that kid so they don't lose them to somebody else. And then division one's evaluating seventh and eighth grade. Typically, they're pinpointing who they want to offer by the time that kid is 14 or 15. And I know you want to in your throat when you hear that if you don't know this. Because it's so crazy that we're making commitments to somebody that hasn't started puberty yet, typically, right? Still trying to figure out how to put the right foot in front of their left foot. But that's how it works. As the division gets higher, they're starting earlier and earlier. I would say the reason division three might start a little later too, is because a lot of people don't have reality yet. Like they all, a lot of times they're like, I want D1, I want D2, whatever. And so we started a little later too, because like it's, they start to see actually like where they're really at. Yep. And that's why the junior college coaches will tell you they really don't even start recruiting until the fall of senior year, because Very few kids are 16, 17 years old going, I only want to go to the local community college. So it takes time to get through that dose of reality to understand, okay, my grades aren't very good. I'm a five, four outside hitter. He's talking to me and nobody's responding to me. So great answer, coach. All right. How many times will you watch recruit play on film and live before typically making an offer? How important is it for you? Just so in your heart, when you're making that final decision, you go, we've crossed our T's we've dotted our eyes. We've seen this kid perform consistently. Is there a number? Is there a range? I do think it depends on what position they are. So hitters, it's going to be the least amount for me. I can usually tell pretty darn quick with them. Setters, it's going to be the longest. Like I said, I'm like, Oh, I need to watch you again. Oh, I need to watch you again. And then and then passers for me are the middleman of that. So for hitters, it's usually two or three times, to be honest. And that, but over maybe six months to year period, because I do to see how they progress. If they haven't progressed in six months to a year that's a red flag. Yeah. Same idea. Oh my goodness. I think as I'm having flashbacks, this last recruiting first setting, I don't know, it was like 20, I don't know. It's a lot. And then for passing, it's usually like five, six, five, six times. And you know what they've got. They've shown you they've shown you through the good and the bad over a long stretch. This is why folks the eventually the NCAA portal is going to change dramatically because it doesn't matter who you talk to. It doesn't matter what division of coach. Every coach tells me the same thing. They think the portal is extremely important. They think it's necessary for kids to have their independence to be able to move and get somewhere that fits them. But at the end of the day, the higher level coaches are getting sick and tired of having to make a decision on a kid in 24 hours because they just left LSU and they've got to make a decision on them right now or they're going to go to Notre Dame or they're going to go to Texas A& M or they're going to go to Wisconsin. So coaches want to be able to evaluate your kid over a long period of time. 12 to 18 months is pretty much the average. I want to see them grow up. I want to see their maturity. I want to see how they handle adolescence. I want to see how they handle the change in their body and their academics. So great answer coach. Okay. All right. We're getting there. When do you know it's time to make an offer or walk away from work? Yeah I think that's going to be different, right. For a lot of different in positions, different in there's some recruits where they just take a while to open up and connect. And and then there's some where it's like right away, like day one, I'm like, I am the coach for you, like me and you, this will be great. And so like when to walk away and when to make an offer changes. Now, we have set up our timeline that we are ready to go in August. I will not go past August. So we are ready to go in August to make those offers. And walking away. If I see a red flag, I'm walking away. Like I, there's so many, I don't got time. So I'll walk away. I will say every coach is going to be different. I try my best to walk away in a timely manner because. There's a lot who can play college ball, it just might not be for us. And I do not want to string them along, knowing that holding on to us might make them lose an opportunity to play somewhere else. I will walk away when it's time. The timeline of that, though, just changes on. It might change, like, how many great recruits we have that year. If I have five amazing hitters, compared to you have ten amazing hitters, The amount of time I need sometimes to evaluate who's the best, that's gonna, that's gonna change, right? I think everyone wants recruiting sometimes to be like A plus B equals C, and we can give tons of tips on how to best walk through it, and at the end of the day though it, it changes year to year, on certain things. I've always found that the kids I have to keep seeing again are usually the ones I, there's something about them. I love their character. I love their energy. I want to coach them, but there's something missing skill wise. And I keep hoping it'll change. I keep hoping. The skill will match the character and the energy and that and I've learned over almost 30 years of doing this, that's usually my sign. I should have walked away a while ago. You know what I mean? Yes. Oh, I know. I know. A strong what you mean? Yeah. My assistant will laugh at me. He's just always I know you love her. I'm like, she's just such an amazing human being. I'm like, are you sure? And, but it is. And that's the thing you got to understand parents, the coaches are all human beings. We love your kids. We love every kid we see. We hope every kid is going to knock our socks off. We're disappointed when we do have to walk away. So it's never a personal, it's usually the opposite. We're usually heartbroken. We're usually disappointed when we can't make an offer to a kid or they're just not a good fit for us. But there's a fit for all of your kids somewhere, if they want to play. And we can't forget. All right, let's get into parents. Because I think this is really important to hear this. What role do you want parents to play in the recruiting process? Where do you want them to be in this journey? Yeah. So I always actually end my meetings because I'll say, does anyone have questions? And the parents will sit there, like usually not saying anything. And I was like, okay, I need to open this door. I was like, when if you're on the team when you become a pioneer, I have way different expectations for parents, but in the recruiting process, I will actually love them involved. I love to get to know the family, getting to know the family helps me get to know the recruit. And and I'm a family person. I want your family at all of our games. I want you in our parents family. We just had a tailgating for our parents. There's like hundreds of them there and they're like all best friends. I want that good time as well. So I also think at the age of 17, I had zero clue. I don't have the experience to really know what I want in that next chapter. It's so much. You're changing your support system, your home. There is so much there to think through. So I actually love the wisdom and the guidance of the parents. Yep. So I'm all welcome. Like parents ask me questions, be involved, be on the zoom calls. The only thing I will say is if you're sending emails to coaches. Or sending phone, you can be on the phone call, but your daughter makes the phone call. You can read the email or help write the email, or read the email to help understand what we're talking about, but don't write the email to me. So when I see a parent say, oh, my daughter wants to play so and I'm like that's a red flag for me. I want to know, I want you to be a part of the process, but I don't want you leading the process. Yep, great. What are some of the red flags in parents that will make you walk away? I like have personal stories. So cause red flags happen when something personal happens and you're like that's a red, I won't like that. I'll be honest. One thing for me personally is anytime a parent asks a question in a negative way about being a mother. So like, how will you, how are you going to call, how are you coaching in your mom? And the question is like it's in a way of questioning I can do the job. When I come to club tournaments, how much they rely on you. I look at. So and how they talk to you. I actually look at you. Yeah. So if they're like, mom, I need water and I'm like, there's not even a please, I'm looking for all of that. So I want parents who have expectations for their children to be amazing human beings as well. And so I'm watching for all of those. interactions. What type of questions do you like to get from parents? I don't know if it's so much, it's a question of what I like, but also just some advice. I think parents questions about safety of the campus is really good. Mental health. What things do they have in place for your child's mental health. I would want to get to know the trainer and the strength coach as well. So if that's not on your visit, because for me, the health of our athletes, the strength coach and the trainer, that is what they're in charge of. They're in charge of making sure that they stay healthy and strong. And I would like to meet that I would make sure you meet them get to know them and make sure that feels like a safe relationship. So I would ask a lot about things that deal with health, physical, social, mental. Those are the types of questions that not only do I like, but I think parents should be asked. Love it. I'm going to give you two questions. Mom and dad to to ask, always ask the coach, what happens if my son or daughter gets sick while they're there? What is the process if she gets the flu or needs to go to the hospital? And the other thing you always want to ask is about academics. My daughter comes to you, coach Birkett, and she's got three tests and two papers do, and she's overwhelmed. She feels like she's going to flunk out. How do you handle that? And I tell parents that. That's what's going to tell you what kind of coach you're dealing with. When they have a plan for your daughter's health, and you could tell there's a plan. There's a plan for your daughter's academics to make sure she graduates with good grades that just gets through. That tells you a lot about that coach. So love those questions, coach. All right. I'm really thankful for Sam being on. Thanks everybody. Good night now. And that's a wrap for this episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, webinar edition. I'd like to thank Coach Samantha Burkett for her fantastic insight into college recruiting. If you're enjoying these conversations, Please click that subscribe button and share it with a friend. If you are a parent of a student athlete looking to play in college or a school administrator looking for help with your families, with their college recruitment support, you can schedule a free strategy session with me at CoachMattRogers. com. Thanks again for listening. Have a significant week. Goodbye. Until next time.