Emphasis on recruiting makes walk-on tryout more difficult

The Ball State men's volleyball team is set to hold its walk-on tryouts this week, a process very familiar to assistant coach Kevin Furnish.

Furnish was a walk-on at Ball State, where he graduated in 1991 after a solid career. Men's volleyball walk-ons aren't as prevalent now as they were during his time because of recruiting, but the Cardinals look for new players in tryouts every year.

“Back in those days, we had a history of pulling guys out of classes or off the basketball team and getting walk-ons that way,” Furnish said. “We haven’t seen that as often, even getting someone out of walk-on tryouts has become more rare, but we still try.”

The walk-on process dwindled with today's emphasis on recruiting in college athletics.

In the past, coaches were able to keep up to five or six players, making it more likely to find a player that could make an impact. Furnish, for example, led the nation in hitting percentage (.430) in 1989. He ranks in Ball State's career top 10 in several statistical categories.

Then-coach Don Shondell discovered Furnish among several others. Current head man Joel Walton said there is only one tryout scheduled for this year.

“We would recruit that way; we would tell kids, 'If you come to this walk-on tryout we’re going to keep a set number of guys from that tryout and add them to our training group,'” Walton said. “We used to have anywhere from 20-30 guys come to walk-on tryouts.”

Recruiting today targets ability and potential, making the try-out more difficult for those seeking to make the team. Roster sizes have also decreased.

Back when recruiting wasn't as important, coaches looked for natural athletes to try out that they could convert into successful Division I volleyball players.

Although the Cardinals don't currently have any players that were walk-ons, Walton still looks forward to the opportunity to check out students who think they have what it takes.

While the recruitment process has changed, what is sought in a walk-on athlete hasn’t. Walton still looks for young, athletic players that his coaching staff can build up and can make an impact at Ball State.

“Very rarely will there be a guy who comes in and is a very polished player that somehow we just missed in our recruiting process,” Walton said. “Our recruiting process is a very thorough system, and it’s hard for somebody to slip through those cracks.”

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