On the Radar: Interest picking up for Mitchell

Editor's note: July marks the opening of the "live period" for college recruiters in most sports. Douglas High enters the 2008-09 school year with the the potential to field one of its most highly-recruited classes of senior athletes ever. As part of a weekly summer series, we'll be looking at some of the Tigers' top recruits and at the recruiting process in general.

Lately, Douglas senior Megan Mitchell has been having a lot of strange phone numbers popping up on her phone's caller ID.

"It's gotten to where the phone rings and I think 'Hmmm, I wonder which part of the country this is going to be from,'" Mitchell said with a laugh.

Not that it's a bad problem.

Ever since the college recruiting period went live on July 1, Mitchell " a setter for the Douglas volleyball team " has been talking with between one and three college coaches a day.

Her options, for the time being, appear wide-open is garnering serious attention from about 125 schools, including 20 Division I programs.

She's received about 20 invitations to walk-on to programs like Villanova, Auburn, Georgetown, New Mexico State, UNC Charlotte, UNLV, Yale and Loyola Marymount but ultimately she hopes to haul in that coveted athletic scholarship.

"It's all kind of overwhelming," Mitchell said. "That first week a lot of people were calling but it's kind of settled down for now.

"They call just to introduce themselves and to ask if I have any questions. One coach just called to say he was interested."

All this attention started coming in for Mitchell during her junior season, a breakout campaign during which she registered 596 assists, 34 aces, 110 blocks, 65 digs and 51 kills. She earned first-team all-league honors, helped her team to a league title and regional runner-up finish and was arguably one of the best all-around players in the state last year.

At first, the attention was mostly through indirect contact like the mail and through club coaches.

"I started calling around at the end of last season, because before July of your senior year coaches can't call you," she said. "I think the majority of coaches just want to be honest about their program and what they are looking for and they want you to be honest with them."

After taking about a month off, Mitchell launched straight into the club season with Capital City Volleyball Club.

"You go from January straight through the end of June," she said. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth it. Club volleyball is a great experience because you get the added playing time and you get to meet and play on the same team with a lot of the other players in the area. It's a good thing."

She struggled through a rough weekend during the first tournament of the spring and initally thought that her stock had gone down.

Once the recruiting period went live, though, things picked back up.

Division I interest has been primarily from the east (Campbell, Holy Cross, Cornell, Princeton, Temple, Bucknell and Providence, to name a few), but a few western schools have weighed in (Northern Arizona, Portland).

"Only 10 percent of colleges (nationwide) are west of the Rockies," Andy Mitchell, Megan's dad said. "So unless you are a top prospect, you need to look east."

Megan Mitchell has been taking a number of trips this summer to get an idea for different college campuses.

"I recommend touring different campuses to get an honest idea of what the school is like," she said. "I wanted to look at some more rural areas so we went to North Carolina and Colorado. All the schools we saw were really nice and the areas reminded me of home."

This week, she is touring New York, Connecticut, Rhose Island and Massachusettes to get the feel of some more urban campuses. She'll be visiting 11 schools and talking with four coaches.

"At this point, I'm looking at a lot of Division II schools," she said. "It's about finding the right fit, where you're going to get the best academics and where you'll be able to play.

"The level of play doesn't concern me as much as the school itself."

Mitchell said her advice to anyone else looking to play at the next level is to simply work hard.

"You always have to be putting out your best effort," she said. "That's the best thing. If you're doing that, you don't have to worry about who is watching."

- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.