Ellie Van Namen’s phone rang. Gretchen Hunt, head coach of Bethel University volleyball, was calling. Van Namen, at that time a senior at Calvin Christian High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, had reached out with game film and an interest in Bethel via email several weeks prior.
“Why do you want to come to Bethel?” Hunt asked her. “What do you like about it?”
Van Namen said she wanted to keep playing volleyball and to get outside of Michigan, so Indiana was a logical choice. Not too close, not too far. Plus, Bethel isn’t far from the University of Notre Dame, so the big school-adjacent experience was a factor.
Hunt then informed Van Namen she was the head coach at Bethel University in Minnesota, not Indiana.
“I blacked out after that,” Van Namen said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s so embarrassing.’”
Still, Hunt continued pursuing Van Namen, now a junior setter for the Royals. Van Namen came for campus visits in January and February of 2023 and committed soon after, despite being recruited by six other schools and receiving offers from five of them.
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At every collegiate athletic level, including in the NAIA, athletes can receive financial scholarships for their commitment to the team. Except NCAA Division III.
Some consider this an advantage to Division III. It’s considered a purer form of the sport; kids are playing because they want to. But this creates challenges for recruiting athletes, especially those on the fringe of Division II.
Programs have to adapt their strategies to compensate for a lack of financial incentive for their prospective athletes. Smaller private schools are common throughout Division III, and especially in Bethel University’s athletic conference, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).
This year Bethel University has seen a significant increase in its freshman class of athletes. The football and volleyball rosters, in particular, have the most total freshmen since 2020.
Football’s 47 freshmen this year and total roster size of 120 are both the highest totals since at least 2015. Volleyball’s roster of 21 comprises 11 freshmen, the largest percentage since at least 2015.
For football, it’s possible that the number of freshmen is a result of the increase in total roster size. In terms of percentage, the 39.2% of freshmen is only slightly higher than the 37.4% mean from the past 11 seasons.
In that time though, rosters have held from between 93 to 109 players, so this year’s 120 is a significant jump. Significant enough to add a new island of lockers in the locker room.
One technical factor contributing to this roster growth is NCAA Division I’s implementation of a 105-player roster limit, effective this season. The low-end Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) – essentially high-Division I) – players trickle down to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), or low-Division I. The low-end FCS players then fall down to Division II, leaving more Division II-level players for Division III colleges.
Another factor: after the class affected by COVID’s extra year of eligibility graduated at the end of last season, head coach Mike McElroy knew he had to make up for it.
“We essentially graduated two classes,” he said. “This year had to be a big year.”
But with no scholarships affecting recruiting caps, Division III offers the chance for flexibility when more players are interested in Bethel. McElroy simply sought good players; out of that came 47 commitments, plus several transfers.
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Division III rosters also see much more turnover than other collegiate rosters, which can again be attributed to the lack of scholarships. Players commit partially for sports, but especially at private, more expensive schools like Bethel, academic opportunities draw players in too.
Players opt to student teach, focus on nursing clinicals or simply enjoy life as a college student outside of their sports.
Plus, extracurricular opportunities are more accessible at smaller schools, so players can explore and commit to interests other than sports halfway through their careers. The freshman volleyball class of 2021, which had 1o players, graduated five last year.
However, this can lead to high commitments as well. Both Hunt and McElroy keep their missional philosophies at the forefront of recruiting visits. McElroy estimated during the three-to-four hour junior days, where players come to campus in the summer to experience the program, coaches talk about football for just 25 minutes.
“I don’t want to take on guys that don’t know who we are and what we are,” McElroy said.
The emphasis on the Christ-centered life at Bethel is a recruiting technique both coaches learned from McElroy’s predecessor, Steve Johnson, who coached for 35 years before retiring after the 2023 season.
“Steve was big about being like, ‘this is what Bethel is,’” Hunt said. ‘“We want to really tell you who we are, so we’re not sneaking it in on you at the end.”
It’s an effective strategy. Sara Scherber, one of the 11 freshmen on the volleyball team, said being at Bethel for visits felt like home. A welcoming environment from Hunt, complete with a hug after her first visit, certainly helped.
“The Christian community is great, the volleyball team is great, the coaches are great,” Scherber said. “So I think everyone, everything, was just checking my boxes.”
While other nearby MIAC universities – Hamline, Augsburg and Northwestern-St. Paul – also recruited Scherber, it was the emphasis outside of just volleyball that sold her on Bethel. For most recruits, the biggest factors in choosing schools are team success and immediacy of playing time – how soon they’ll get off the bench.
But Hunt consistently emphasizes the importance of every role on the team. Only six can play at a time, but each player feels crucial to the team’s success – part of the welcoming environment. All of that combines with an environment where Hunt, as well as McElroy, seek to develop and grow players, both on and off the court and field.
“That piece definitely steered me more towards here,” Van Namen said. “It’s the honesty and openness Gretchen has with everyone. She doesn’t hold anything back.”
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Still, the biggest factor in Division III recruitment strategies remains the lack of scholarships.
“It’s more difficult and it’s easier at the same time,” Hunt said.
First, why it’s easier. Other divisions commit financially to their players, so they feel restricted to recruit based on on-field talent. Division III, however, allows flexibility in balancing recruitment based on talent, chemistry and overall team “fit,” although that’s not a term Hunt prefers.
This brings up what makes it more difficult: roster management.
No scholarships means no hard offseason deadlines for player commitments. However, some Division III schools place “artificial” deadlines on players in order to make up for this. But it’s unwanted pressure for those relying on financial aid.
“I think it’s unethical to tell someone, ‘We don’t know how much it’s going to cost for you to go here, but you have to tell me this week whether you’re taking a slot,” Hunt said.
When a player receives offers from several schools, especially private schools, he or she needs to see financial aid packages from each school to make a final decision. A school might have a highly competitive, appealing athletic program, but if the finances aren’t feasible, the player needs to know that. It’s yet another factor among proximity, team success, immediacy of playing time, academics, extracurriculars and school culture that a player has to consider.
Recently, Bethel released a new clear tuition plan where the total price of attending is no longer muddled by merit scholarships and aid within the university. McElroy feels this helped his recruiting numbers since families had a better idea of Bethel’s cost earlier on.
Outside of finances, Hunt and McElroy both find roster management difficult given how easy it is to overrecruit. They know the value players can add regardless of their on-field talent.
Sometimes Hunt wishes she could offer roster spots to 20 players, simply because she sees each of them adding their own value. But a roster of 30 people isn’t necessarily ideal for practicing.
Similarly, McElroy has to balance finding players of value and ensuring the team is small enough to be known individually. Knowing 95 guys is much easier than knowing 120.
“Protecting the locker room” is McElroy’s priority when finding players, but he’s always looking for those willing to grow as well. Ultimately, though, it’s dependent on their commitment to McElroy’s culture.
“I think the biggest fear whenever you bring in a lot of [new] guys is, ‘will they adhere?’” McElroy said.
While football’s depth chart is primarily sophomores and older, this year’s volleyball team is relying on immediate performance from several of its 11 freshmen. Scherber averages 2.4 kills per set through 13 games this season and does it with the second-best hitting percentage among Bethel starters.
Middle blocker Chiara Houser plays regular minutes rotating with junior Peyton Howie.
And setter Sophia Rubio has taken a crucial role averaging 10.4 assists per set – the most in the MIAC. She fills in for Van Namen who suffered a foot injury just before this season’s first game.
Hunt expects each to continue contributing for the rest of the season, the same way that McElroy expects to develop each of his freshmen into contributors for the next four years. But for each player, it all begins with phone calls, regardless of what school they think they’re talking to.
