'Hectic, crazy day' begins Wisconsin's recruiting search for next elite players (2024)

It’s just about time for the college volleyball version of speed dating.

Beginning Saturday at 12:01 a.m. coaches can reach out and make direct contact for the first time with players completing their sophom*ore years, the 2026 recruiting class.

Unlike the recruiting process in sports like football and men’s and women’s basketball, where things often play out over a year or two with players routinely reporting offers and commitments on social media, the volleyball process frequently plays out over a few often frantic days or weeks.

“It can be a crazy day,” said University of Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield.

That goes for both coaches and prospective players as they try to bring order to the chaos.

For the record, Sheffield will not be making any calls at 12:01 a.m. Rather, he and his staff will reach out to roughly 12-15 prospects, starting with an email to try to arrange a convenient time to set up a Zoom call with a player.

“It can be kind of hectic for the recruits if they’ve got 20 or 30 schools trying to call them when there’s no planning ahead of time,” Sheffield said. “Players don’t know who’s offering them scholarships or even who’s calling them. The schools have no idea if there’s interest on the player’s part.

“It can be a hectic day, but it’s an energizing day, for sure.”

Sheffield is looking to put together a class of four or five players, all front row attackers. He could see getting two outside hitters, two middle blockers and a right side.

“We’ve got pretty good depth in our back court and the setting position, so we’re targeting front row players,” he said. “We didn’t spend a lot of time on setting or (liberos) in that class, with what we’ll have here at the time.”

As it turns out, the strength of the 2026 class appears to be front row attackers. According to Prep Dig, a national recruiting service, 17 of the top 18 prospects are front row players, with only setter Genevieve Harris of North Carolina breaking things up at No. 4.

It’s not unusual for attackers to lead the prospect rankings, but last year seven of the top 19 were setters, including Wisconsin recruit Addy Horner, who also plays the right side. In 2024 seven of the top 15 were not attackers, including setters Izzy Starck (Penn State) and Charlie Fuerbringer (Wisconsin), who were ranked 1-2.

Sheffield and his staff were out in force from mid-February to the end of April, attending tournaments and practices and gathering information on recruits. After a dead period for the month of May, they got a chance to get one last look at seven of the top 40 players who attended camps in the past week at the UW Field House. They included outside hitters Layli Ostovar (No. 9 Prep Dig), Gabby DiVita (No. 10) and Haley Burgdorf (No. 40) and middle blockers Lynney Tarnow (No. 6), Brooke Harwood (No. 23), Ella Andrews (No. 25) and Kendall Northern (No. 26).

At least some of them are sure to receive phone calls this weekend, but that list was still taking shape late in the week. Those who do receive calls will be ones who the coaches have determined can be impact players at the highest collegiate level.

“I know that there are some really talented athletes and some driven competitors in this class, like there are in every class,” Sheffield said. "We don’t call the same number of people every year. We’re not going to take somebody just to take somebody.

“That’s one of the beauties of the (transfer) portal. If they don’t have high-end talent, potential, skill, character, inner drive, we’re not just going to get a player on the roster in that class just because we have a scholarship. We have no problem holding off and going in a different direction.”

At the same time, Sheffield recognizes that determining the career path of 15 year-olds is an inexact process. He doesn’t have to look far to find a couple examples of players far surpassing expectations.

“After her sophom*ore year of high school nobody had Dana Rettke being a first-team All-American her freshman year,” he said. “Anybody who says that is lying. Yet, look at what she became and what she was right out of the gate.

“What about a Sarah Franklin? At this point she was so far off of everybody’s radar as a sophom*ore. There will be plenty of players that don’t get a phone call from us or we have no idea who they are that will turn into elite players.”