Behind The Wisconsin Class of 2023 Updated Player Rankings
The Prep Dig Wisconsin Player Rankings for the Class of 2023 have been updated (and I’m going to hide under a rock for a few days. Just kidding). Player rankings are something we do not take lightly at Prep Dig. …
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Continue ReadingThe Prep Dig Wisconsin Player Rankings for the Class of 2023 have been updated (and I’m going to hide under a rock for a few days. Just kidding). Player rankings are something we do not take lightly at Prep Dig. We do our best to collaborate among the scouts with countless notes from events we’ve been at over the past few months and do our best to provide the best list possible. The Class of 2023 has been in an interesting position the past year, and we are still catching up on seeing these athletes compete. Here is a bit of a timeline of what goes in behind the rankings.
January and early February are where I spend most of my time wrapping up the 17s and 18s. They have more tournaments, qualifiers, and I know I won’t get to see them play much once March rolls around. I start to really focus on the 15s and 16s level at the beginning of March so I can get to know the teams, the athletes, and who these athletes are. By the end of a club season, I typically know if athletes had a great game, if they just had an off match, and I have a grasp of who they are. In the summer, the scouts and myself spend time at camps, summer leagues, high performance, and plenty of other events where we see kids compete. The high school season we typically get to see 20 to 30 teams in one place, plenty of matches, and a full post season to see what athletes are rising to the top when the stakes are high. Even after all of this time watching athletes across the state, we still miss ones where we either have them ranked too low or not even ranked at all. There are top 20 athletes in the Class of 2021 and 2022 who were nowhere on the radar as Freshmen and Sophomores.
With the challenges that Covid provided to everyone this year, we didn’t get to watch any club matches from March through June, but we saw a lot of highlight videos, but no “real” summer of leagues, camps, and competitions besides some of the Prep Dig Events we hosted as well as other smaller camps and leagues across the state. The same can be said about the high school season with teams playing to limited fans, having no fall season at all, very small quads (if that was allowed), and the state tournament being spread across four different sites. Our showcases have helped immensely with seeing some of the top athletes in the state under one roof, but we are still playing catch up with this class.
Through everything this past year we have added over 40 players to the rankings. The transition from the 15s to 16s year is very drastic. We see more players, some athletes switch positions, and others just start to figure it out. The countless repetitions are paying off and usually the 16s year is when it starts to click. Once that happens, athletes tend to really flourish.
But my ranking dropped drastically?
With adding 40 athletes into our database, there are always plenty of athletes who are moving up because they were previously unranked. We don’t move athletes down, we move athletes up, and some have made drastic improvements in the past year in order to move up. We will continuously be evaluating players and sharing their story to the rest of the volleyball world through our content and social media.
Will my ranking affect my recruiting?
Our rankings are used as a tool for college coaches and spectators as a means to know where athletes are in regards to graduating class, position, high school, club, and commitments. For most colleges we receive feedback from, they appreciate being able to look at our rankings and see where athletes are playing club and if they are committed. We’ve had unranked player receive Division 1 offers. Your ranking does not determine who you are as an athlete, a teammate, or your potential.
We are excited to get in a gym for what in hopes will be a season full of matches in 2021. Breit Nelson, Rachel Kass, and myself will be seeing as much as we can. We are volleyball nerds and enjoy sharing pictures, videos, and content about the Wisconsin volleyball world. We truly are rooting for you!