Episode #135: Karrah Davis on Recruiting

🎙️ Trust the Process: Recruiting, Patience & Perspective with Karrah Davis 🏐

In this episode of the Significant Recruiting Podcast, Matt Rogers continues his conversation with Karrah Davis, Head Volleyball Coach at the NCAA Division III University of Dubuque — one of the great young coaches in college volleyball today.

Coach Davis brings a rare and valuable recruiting perspective shaped by every step of the journey. From being an All-American student-athlete at Dubuque, to learning the craft as a graduate assistant, assistant coach, and associate head coach, she never skipped steps — and it shows. In just her first two seasons as head coach, she’s led her program to a 50–15 record, back-to-back NCAA Division III National Tournament appearances, and two trips to the Round of 32.

In this conversation, we dive into:
 🏐 How she evaluates volleyball talent
 🎓 What recruits often misunderstand about Division III opportunities
 🧠 Why patience, perspective, and coachability matter more than rankings
 📈 How waiting your turn can actually accelerate long-term development

This episode is packed with insight for recruits trying to find the right college, parents looking to support without oversteering, and coaches helping athletes navigate the recruiting process with confidence and clarity.

🔗 Learn more about Coach Karrah Davis:
 👉 https://udspartans.com/staff-directory/karrah-davis/104

🎧 Explore more episodes, tools, and recruiting resources:
 👉 https://coachmattrogers.com/

Significant Recruiting Resources — Take the guesswork out of college recruiting with Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes, sport-specific Recruit’s Journals, and the Significant Recruiting Launchpad. Practical tools to help families research schools, stay organized, and build a smarter recruiting strategy. Learn more at CoachMattRogers.com.

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Welcome back to The Significant Recruiting Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rogers. I wanna start today's episode by wishing all of you a happy and healthy holiday season. I hope you all get quality time with your loved ones and have safe travels if you're traveling this week. In part two of my conversation with Coach Kara Davis, head volleyball coach at NCAA Division three University of Dubuque. Coach Davis shares an in-depth look to how she views recruitment and the importance of being patient and how she builds her program. I tell parents, coaches, and young athletes all the time that I became the best version of myself as an athlete when I was about 25 years old. Three years after my college playing career ended. The reason was perspective. After college, I immediately became an assistant coach. For the first time in my career, I was teaching the game instead of just playing it, I started to truly understand what my coaches had been stressing all those years when I was a player. And ironically, I found myself playing at a much higher level because I finally understood the game as a teacher, coach Davis has experienced success for many of the same reasons, And to the outside observer, she may look like an overnight success. She didn't skip any steps, though she gained four years of high school playing experience. She then had four years of college playing experience, then learned as an assistant from a great head coach, and she later earned her opportunity to take over the reigns of the University of Dubuque program. For years, the NFL worked the same way with quarterbacks. Young quarterbacks would sit behind seasoned, grizzled veterans, learn the system, understand the processes before being thrown into the fire. Those days aren't as common anymore at either the pro or college level, which is why Coach Davis should be lauded for her patience and commitment to the journey that shaped her into the coach she is today. I speak to this directly for all athletes and parents listening, as hard as it is to wait your turn, it's often the waiting that allows you to become the player and the person you've always hoped to be. I can't imagine a better role model for that philosophy than coach Kara Davis. If you're a recruit trying to find the right college, a parent trying to support without oversteering or a club or high school coach, helping athletes navigate their options. This conversation will give you real insight. No shortcuts, no promises. But real perspective. And as always, if you want to take ownership of your recruitment journey, I want to help you With that, you can find my book significant Recruiting the Playbook for prospective college athletes along with the new Volleyball Recruits journal@coachmattrogers.com. I wrote both books to help take the pressure off families while keeping the focus on what really matters. Absorbing the journey, not skipping steps and following a simple process that creates leverage and ownership and results. Alright, let's get into it. Here's my recruiting conversation with Coach Kara Davis. Coach Great. Conversation about your coaching background and your philosophies. I love it. I love your energy. But I also love your humility you want it to be collaborative. And I see all of it and how you coach. I wanna talk about recruiting a little bit. Because you talked about your love of the game in the first segment. And that you're still a gym rat. You still love playing. As a recruiter, do you find yourself recruiting the kids that have similar characteristics to you? I think so, for sure. Yeah, kids who just really wanna be around the game for another four years and hopefully beyond that, hopefully I have a lot of kids who wanna keep playing afterwards. Just. In the community and whatnot, and against me and with me, maybe after graduation. But yeah, I think kids who just wanna be in the gym and just wanna learn about volleyball and being a good teammate, like those things are super important. Yeah. Yeah. I love that too. I was one of those people you had to throw me out of the gym. You had to turn the lights off to get me out. So I love, it's, and it's hard to find these days. It's hard to find kids that just love playing and as long as there's a ball, there's, they're excited. Have you figured out who you are as a recruiter yet? Have you started to figure out how you recruit, how you close? How you go after kids? What's that look like? I think it's continuing to evolve, but I was the recruiting, recruiting coordinator for the last couple years, and then now I'm still want to be in control of recruiting and then we'll maybe give it up to my assistant in a couple years. But I really just wanna continue to be that, at least the second point of contact, so that I can get to know 'em, they can get to know me, they can ask those important questions about the program. I can ask. More important questions of if we're, if they're gonna be a fit for us. Yeah, I think it's evolved. It's still, overall, it's still the same process. Id some kids talk to 'em in person if possible, otherwise email, get a phone call, go in, get 'em to campus and kind of figure out what they need to see and what their timeline is and all. It's just, there's a lot of pieces, but yeah. Yeah, I think it's continued to evolve, but overall, the same type of system I've been using, we get coaches get so overwhelmed with recruiting these days because email is so prevalent now. You have voicemail, you have texts, you have social media. Is there a platform that you like communicating with recruits? Honestly, I love getting a personalized email, and then I'll usually respond back and say, Hey, do you wanna set up a phone call, get some contact info, and then go from there. It's hard to keep track when there's like the 12 different recruiting services you could be on the right field level of sports recruits, all the X, Y, Z it's hard to remember that. I check those frequently, but I in my email 24 7, so yeah, that's. The easiest for me, and then usually go into a text message after that. Yeah, or a phone call. Just the quickest way to communicate with me. It gets rid of all the garbage and it, you can focus on just that direct line of communication. Definitely. Yeah. I'm with you there. Are there times when you, and I'm sure there's lots of times when you get a kid's film and you're like, it's not there. How do you handle that? Yeah. It's not my favorite thing to do, yeah. You wanna crush a kid's dream or tell 'em they're not good enough, but I will usually tell them that we're looking for X, Y, or Z, or. Maybe were full in their recruiting class for their position. I'm not gonna lie to a kid if that's not the situation, but just try to give them some pieces that they could improve on and just say, Hey, we're, I don't think it's gonna be a fit. And to go ahead and move on. Just, yeah. So we don't waste each other's time. Yeah. And I and I don't think there's enough of that, to be honest. As hard as it is, it was hard for me too. Yeah. It was a crusher for me. I was the same way I knew how hard it was for me to get to college and have a uniform with a college jersey, I don't wanna burst that kid's bubble either, but I teach kids. That's a blessing. If a coach is willing to give you feedback, that's a win for you. Yeah. If a coach is willing to say, Hey, I wanna learn more about you, I want to start the recruiting process, that's a win. If a coach says, Hey, I don't think you're a great fit for us, this may not be the spot for you. That's a victory for you because now, like you said, I don't have to put any more time into that school if they're not interested. I need to mo put my energy towards everything else. So for sure I try and teach coaches that. Be honest, and the kid might not feel that as a victory right away. But they're gonna really appreciate that They don't have to worry about their energy being in that place. So I really appreciate that. When you talk about University of Dubuque to kids what does that profile look like that you want academically, athletically, personality? Wise, what do, what kind of kid do you want at Dubuque? Yeah. A kid who really values getting a great education while also getting to play the sport you love for another four years and just understand what a blessing that is. Not, there's a huge percentage of kids, like we just said, that aren't going to even make it at the D three or NIIA level and just getting to play in college is incredible. So I think, yeah, kids who just. Really love that game and like selling, I guess going back to selling the university more so is that the community here is incredible and that we're looking for kids that want to be more than just a volleyball player, who wanna get to know people on campus who want to have a really full experience and kinda, you can be. I think the great thing about D three is that. You're not, there's not a ton put on you, but you can take it as far as you want. So we're looking for kids who wanna take it really far. Yeah. So I guess trying to find those kids, like we were talking about kids that just are gym rats and wanna have the whole package, so it's looking for some pretty, pretty good humans, yeah. For you, you've got so much a kid should be excited about. I think I read this somewhere where like 80% of college athletes. Will never compete at the national level. It's a crazy number. So the fact that you've done this twice in two years your kids have experienced this multiple games each year, that's such a great thing to look at is you're doing something right. And you also, and that's what I loved about being on campus. I hadn't been on campus in 25 years. Yeah. It's a beautiful campus. Yeah, it's incredible. The facilities, I don't think people know that. Yeah, forget your beautiful court that you guys play on and that, I love the round that you play in. But the brick buildings and the the character, it's so very epic and what you'd want it's campus to look like. So that's really cool too. Yeah. Let's talk about playing time reality. 'cause I don't think I can talk about this enough to parents and recruits. And you've talked about it already a little bit, but how do you explain the difference between being recruited and being ready to compete? Yeah. I think we try to be really transparent with where I think they're gonna fit in, into the program. Whether they're gonna maybe compete for a starting spot, whether I think they might be playing a lot of JV and then traveling with the varsity. Or I think they might need a couple years on JV to continue to develop. I try to give them that idea and then I'm like, Hey. Yeah. This could change based on how much you improve over the summer, how much our returners improved. So I just try to give that general idea and then just really talk about Hey, you guys were all big fish and now you're coming to a top 50 programs. So everybody here is the big fish and we're. All competing to push each other, but just I think it helps that we really treat our JV super developmental, and it's not like JVs second class by any means. Like we're doing the same drills, we're trained in the same amount. We're playing as many matches as I can get on the schedule for them just to continue that development of. Getting practice reps are so awesome, but it's really hard to simulate the pressure of a game and the mindset you need and yeah, how you're gonna react in certain situations. So really trying to get them as many reps as possible. I think that has been a really great selling point for us to be like, Hey, you might not be starting right away, but you're gonna be getting a lot of reps and then you're gonna travel with us and get to see what it's like to compete at this level, and maybe you're gonna get some backup minutes and that kind of thing. As a former All American outside hitter. I'm gotta give you some props here 'cause you were a stud. Are there two or three things that you're looking for when you're evaluating outsides? I would say their vision. Of the other side of the court and talk, talk a little bit through that. What does that vision mean to a novice that's got a kid playing volleyball and doesn't understand what that vision really means? Are they hitting the ball and putting it in smart spots based on the defense? And are they scoring points, especially when it's outta system and there's a double block up in front of 'em? In system, a lot of people can look great. But can you see the block in front of you? Can you utilize it and hit high off it? Can you hit around the block? Can you hit around the deep, can you hit where your body's not facing? That's a lot of stuff we continue to develop. But if you already are doing that at the high school and club level, then I'm, that's really gonna catch my attention. Is it hard to teach? 'cause I've not done a lot of volleyball teaching. I've watched more volleyball than I should. Because my daughter played club for seven years. Is it hard to teach that in terms of, 'cause I've got the footwork, I've got the setter setting the ball to me, and I've gotta, in that step and a half i've gotta figure out where the blockers are, where the space is at the floor, how am I gonna hit it? Is that hard for you to teach? And how do you go about teaching that? Yeah. A ton of reps and a lot of specific drills, but one thing that you said that is probably the other most important piece when I'm looking at hitters is their ability to get their feet to the ball. The step close, the last two steps is really important in the approach and getting your feet all the way to the ball so you can jump straight up and down and get your highest reach and hit around the block and all that stuff. But I'd say, yeah. It can be hard to teach. Just you have to be really intentional if you're just going up and mashing balls for the fun of it. Not trying to look and see if you can see some shadow from the blockers or if you have a high ball and have time to get your eyes on the other side and then back on the ball. That's pretty advanced, but we're looking for things like that, to continue to develop that vision. But you just have to be really intentional and you have to, I, there's not many times that we're hitting in our gym without a block on the other side, just, that happens very little in Match. Sometimes we're doing some of it with just to work on connection with our setters and middles. Yeah. System stuff, but a lot of times there's a blockers on the other side of the net just so that we constantly have to look for it and we're trying to, we put a lot of emphasis on trying to tool the block, just getting us to buy into that really high risk and high reward. We design a lot of drills that if you're, if you do X, Y, or Z, you're gonna get plus two for this situation or plus two for this to really try to emphasize those things. But it's definitely difficult to teach. It takes a lot of reps and intentionality. Yeah. Where are you at with the analytics with that, because I would imagine. A good chunk of the time, you want your hitter swinging. Because of the odds of a block going out of bounce or getting through a F finger or getting through space. Or, yeah. Where are you at with that in terms of how you want your hitters thinking about power versus that vision and analytics part of this? I think it's a really fine balance. Like we wanna be aggressive all the time, but being aggressive doesn't always mean swinging as hard as you can. Sometimes that means right. Throwing it off the side of the block with your hand or tipping it right over the block. 'cause their setters playing super far down the line or it's just the situation changes and you don't see the same thing there. You see it a lot of the, a lot of different things, and you'll see 'em frequently, but it's like. There's so many different situations. I'm sure that's the same in basketball, but like just trying to know what's the right thing to do in each situation and recognizing those situations and those patterns early. We'll we do a lot of. Film and scout on what their weaknesses are on defense. So we're gonna try to abuse certain things and that's gonna change opponent to opponent. So I really want us to be taking those big swings and not being shy, but also sometimes a tip can be really aggressive. Just, I just, we just don't wanna tip when we're scared, we just need to have a plan for it. And that's the biggest piece, is the being aggressive, but being smart about it. At the same time, when does that happen? When hitter, when a hitter gets past that fear. And. They're the vision's there can score however they want. Does that happen at a certain point? Can you see it as the coach that they're starting to get it? Yeah. You can really it's, it takes them putting in a ton of reps and a ton of trust. Knowing and the confidence. Let that to do it every time and know that. Hey, if I make a error, I'm still a great player. Or if I, yeah, if I fail a couple times, it's gonna benefit me in the long run. So a lot of it has to do with their mindset. A lot of times they're physically capable of it for a long time, but getting them to break through and trust it is a process, and some of it's trusting your teammates to cover you and know that if you get blocked our defense is gonna cover us, and give us a second attempt. Or knowing that if. You make an error. It's not the end of the world. As long as you have a plan and you're being aggressive, then yeah. Nobody on the team's gonna be mad at you. So just getting us to really buy into all of those pieces. Yeah. Yeah. Usually the phys physical part comes faster than the mental part, right? Yeah. I'm a Bears fan, and I got abused by Aaron Rogers for most of the last 15 years, there's just something about his composure in the pocket. And I'm starting to see it. What's the young lady at Nebraska Harper? Harper Murray. Harper Murray. She's always been a unbelievable, 1% athlete. But there's just something about watching her play this year. There's d there's difference. It's almost like she's seen the future when she goes up to swing. Yeah. It's when you've done something, it, I can't remember what it's called, but you've done it so many times, right? You can it before it happens. Yes, you really can get to a point where that happens. So I think maybe she's played enough volleyball where now she's in that flow state and she just yeah knows the next move before it's gonna happen. And it'd be nice to get all. All of my kids on that page and I have some that are, but it takes long time. Oh, you do? Yeah. You just have to play so, so much volleyball. You have to see it so many times before your body can recognize it and before your body can do it like so. Yeah, I think that's the hard part for a 16 and s year old to understand is. You just have to do it so much. It doesn't matter how good or how accurate you are. But then there's that whole nother level of understanding what's happening on the other side of the net, where the space is. How that defense is playing you. Yep. Was there a point in your career as a player where that kind of clicked, where you, like I, I know I can score anytime. And you gotta make one heck of a play to stop me. I think my, in the middle of my junior year that happened for me. Just, I think it was the culmination of, I finally played enough volleyball and I started to have a lot of success and more confidence and just, yeah, my IQ grew a lot, coach. How much of that is learning how to be comfortable with failure? So much pretty much all of it, I'd say, like just being willing to make that mistake and be like, now I need to recalibrate and make a different mistake and kind of figure it out from there. I think just, yeah, buying into the process of. People, if you fall down, you gotta get back up. That's the same mindset of, you're gonna make errors and figuring out how to deal with those and that it's okay. And I think your teammates telling you, you got the next one and hey good shot. And hey X, your feet we're really good there. Or whatever. Just giving those like technical and or tactical feedback of good job or we see you doing, we see you trying to work on that. Like just trying to give that feedback and positive reinforcement. Yeah, I think that makes a difference. How much. Are you going back to the well with high schools and club programs that are teaching that culture of support? And go after it be aggressive. We got your back. Yeah. Are you finding those pockets in your recruiting and go going back to those programs? Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of great programs around. So I think definitely trying to go back to the places that, do it really well, but also yeah, venturing out and seeing who else is doing things well and getting to know other people too. So trying to, yeah, keep that diversity, but also yeah, also go back to where, people where it's working. I guess why change it? So many parents struggle with where to send their daughter and what club to go in. Where are you at with that? What kind of advice do you give to parents that ask you about clubs and how do we get the club? I would say go somewhere where you're gonna get an opportunity to play. Don't go somewhere where you're gonna have, there's gonna be 12 kids on the roster and you're only gonna get to play a lot in practice. Like making sure that you are, you're paying a lot of money to, to play club ball, so making sure you're somewhere where you are gonna get developed. And look at places who have experienced coaches and who are picky about who they let coach, and do they do anything to develop their coaches or they just pick people that are like, here, run this team? Is there any kind of system for that? Is there, do they have club philosophy? Like similar to when you're looking for a college program, do you wanna join this group of people? Are they good humans? There's just there's, the club world can be a bit of a mess, but there's also so many good things about it. Just trying to find a place that feels like you fit in and like you can see yourself growing and developing in a positive environment. I think those are the biggest pieces. It's so hard for families these days 'cause oftentimes you go to a tryout and the person that's gonna be coaching you isn't there. Or they haven't hired that coach yet for your 16 ones team and so there's so many challenges that go into that. And for sure, I wish they'd tweaked some of that, but. Oftentimes it's just, it's money. We gotta have more teams and we got 20 teams. But it's hard to find more than six coaches that, yeah. I'm gonna, my A DH D's gonna come out a little bit. I keep forgetting to ask you this question 'cause it's one of the things I enjoyed watching your team play, and I think it's good for parents and recruits to hear this. The ball never seems to hit the floor against your defense. Yeah. You know what I mean? I i've watched, I watched so much volleyball and the ball just couldn't, could not find a hole. What are you doing to teach that dynamic of not letting the ball hit the floor? That pit drill that we talked about earlier. Yeah. Just the never say die attitude. If we can touch a ball, we can dig a ball and we should be able to touch every ball in the court. Not individually, but with our system. So I think just one we do a good job of training 'em, but two, it's just. These kids just know how to work. Like it just, I, they work so hard and they want to win so bad that they'll do it at any cost. Sacrificing their body or whatever it may be to get the ball up, like they're gonna do that and just to, they're just unselfish players who wanna keep the ball going so their teammate can get a kill. It just, yeah. And it, that all starts with our libero who is in the gym and. Never satisfied with where she's at. And I think a lot of the team fellows that mentality, 'cause she's a great leader and when some of your best players work the hardest on the team, that's always a great sign, I think and a great role model to look up to. And yeah, had some excellent defenders this year. It's easy to recruit those kids that just. Never seemed to quit. It's those kids pop off the floor and catch your eyes so much faster, don't they? Yep. You talk about work ethic, but I'm gonna pick your brain a little bit more 'cause. Every volleyball coach I watch the spacing's a little bit different. How they guard the blocks, how they guard the space on the floor. What's your philosophy on that, on where you're spacing, where you want your spacing to be? Defensively, you're talking? Yeah. Yeah. So we are, it all starts with our blockers. Depending on the system we're facing, we're, either gonna have our middle, follow the middle, and then they're gonna have a far distance to go to the long string or, and then they're gonna be a short distance to close the tempo ball to the short string, yeah. Or we're gonna be in a reed blocking situation where we're, it's more like a zone, like in basketball. Like you're responsible for this, and this. Yeah. And then we. Our defense back court defense depends on the system we're taking. With our block start blocking in line, if it's high over the block, our middle back should be able to run it down. They're outside to dig the hard driven balls. Our ERO is digging as much court as she can. She can take under control. If we hear her call it, she's taking it. We got our off blockers, our front row players picking up the short stuff. You are so good at that. Thank you. You really are. It's, you don't see, oftentimes you'll see the blocks, but then the middle will give up on the dink. Your kids do such a good job of going up in blocking and then getting back in position to get that dink. How much are you teaching that. It's sometimes I don't think we're great at that, so thanks for saying that. But I think we just, I thought that was so impressive. We just, I think they were really locked in on it. And they knew maybe that was something that their players were looking to do a lot to get us. Sometimes you do that to get one of the best attackers o on a rhythm, they have to dig the first ball and then transition to kill. So just yeah, knowing that's something that they wanna do. Yeah. Or just. Yeah, it's a primary responsibility. You're not blocking, you're picking up the tip. It just, I think we hammer it in quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool to be good at that. It's, there's just certain things watching your team play that there's just there's little things that you're like, man, I don't see that very often. How you guard the donut hole, how you guard the deep corners, how you guard the lines. It's, it is just you, there's a lot of things that your kids just really grasp at a high level, so it's fun. Thank you. I've kept you way too long. I'm a, I want you to leave with, give two pieces of advice. Okay. One to parents. You're in a room with 300 parents and you wanna know one piece of advice about how to get their kid recruited. What would you tell 'em? I would tell them to just support their children at all costs and to have them to really encourage their kids to lead the conversations with college coaches and just reach out to people that you're interested in. Do your research beforehand and just, yeah, that you have to reach out because there's so many recruits that if it's not, that you're not good enough, if we didn't reach out to you, it's that we just haven't seen you yet. Maybe yeah. Yeah. Encouraging them to reach out and be a great communicator I think is really important in the recruiting process. Take the lead. Yes. Mom and dad don't take the lead. Athlete takes the lead. Yep. Do your research, make sure that school has what you want. Make sure you know why you're interested in that school. Yep. And then communication. Yep. Yeah. Don't give up. Send a couple emails if you have to. Leave a voicemail, if you have to. Yeah. Do you want all your kids to set up the visit through you or are you comfortable with kids setting up visits through admissions or would you, do you prefer that it's through you and your staff? If they set it up through admissions, then I. We will find out about it and I'll see 'em on campus. But if we communicate about it first, then I'm gonna make sure that we're available as well, so that you don't show up to campus and we're out recruiting or we're on the road or whatever. So it's always easier to set it up with me, but I wouldn't be like, yeah, it wouldn't be out. Give you some time. Give you some time to build it into your schedule. Yeah, it's definitely easier that way. Give a piece of advice to that young lady that wants to play in college. Not so much how they should go about getting recruited, but Yeah. What they need to be working on to be able to even think about playing at your level. Yeah. I think you need to be in the gym as much as you have access to on the court and as in the weight room as well. Like the control, the things that you can control. That, that physicality piece is something you can control if you have the resources to it, obviously. Hitting the weight room, getting your nutrition in line, those things that can take you to the next level. I think the sooner you can get on that the better of an athlete you can be, become there and just, yeah. Do it at 110%. There's things aren't worth doing unless you're giving your best effort. Like you're just wasting your time if you're not. Work as hard as you can and see where it takes you. Yeah. You can't really say you're committed to playing in college if that. If your garage door at your house hasn't seen a volleyball, hit it in a while, right? Get out there and get work on your serve. Work on your passing. There's so many things you can do to build your routines up and right. Watch volleyball, increase your iq. We have so much access to good volleyball now. I used to be able to watch two matches a week on Big 10 Network when I was Yes. So right. And yeah. And now you can watch basically every match. So every match. Yeah. Take advantage of those things and don't just watch it, study it like coach, you're awesome. Bill, so excited for the University of Dubuque. So excited for your staff and your athletes. You're just doing great work and you're a special person and I admire you and I'm thrilled that we have you in our profession. So if you ever think about getting out of it, you call me first. Will do. That wraps up part two of my conversation with Coach Kara Davis, head volleyball coach at the University of Dubuque. If you're a recruit or a parent or a coach listening, the message here is simple and it's powerful. Don't skip steps. Coach Davis didn't rush her journey. She played, she learned, she watched, she taught, and when the opportunity came, she was ready. Not because of timing, but because of preparation. That same approach is exactly what she looks for in recruits today. Patience, self-awareness, coachability, and a willingness to grow. Recruiting isn't about chasing the fastest path or the loudest outcome, it's about finding the right environment, commitment to development, and understanding that perspective comes with time and experience. When athletes embrace that mindset, everything changes their conversations with coaches, their confidence, and ultimately their options. If this episode helped reframe how you're thinking about the recruiting process, I encourage you to take the next step and get organized. You can find my book significant Recruiting the Playbook for prospective college athletes along with the new volleyball recruits journal@coachmattrogers.com. They're designed to help you slow the process down, take ownership, and stay focused on what truly matters throughout your journey. Thanks for spending time with us today. If you found value in this conversation, be sure to share it with a teammate, a parent, or a coach who could use it. Until next time, stay focused on what you can control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.