[Mick]

Is there anyone here who has enough knowledge to have an opinion and is willing to share their opinion about the incoming Stanford class?

Kosty had four recruits, no walk-ons of whom I am aware. They did not recruit any liberos. Justin Lui graduated, and Matt Martinez is a senior. No other liberos are listed. They already have three setters on the team including last year's starter Nathan Lietzke, who's a very strong setter, another senior and sophomore Nathan Brouillette, who was All-Tourney at the JO's...

The first three listed below are outside hitters, the last is a middle hitter:

Nathan Clinton Played for Bay to Bay, the Northern California feeder club to Stanford (4x All American Brian Cook was from Bay to Bay). Clinton attended Amador Valley HS (CA) OH. My take is he'll be a strong practice player, with development might see the floor. Good passer, good defender.

Ignacio Brito Miami United Columbus (FL) OH. Puerto Rican native, the star recruit of the class. Puerto Rican players develop really, really early and play a lot of beach VB. I expect Brito will see some court time this year. Might be the only player from this class who does. Maybe he plays libero, I don't know.

Carson Kneisl Front Range Arvada West (CO) OH. 6'6" pin hitter (the other two are 6'4"). I gather blocking is his strong point, so he might end up on the right side as an oppo. Will need a lot of work to see the floor, which is not uncommon for Colorado area players, they just don't have the opportunities that players from California and Hawaii do.

Gray Mandelbaum Rockstar Brentwood (CA) MH. 6'8" middle blocker. MBs are like quarterbacks in football, you want to take one in every class. They take a long time to develop. Great ones are difficult to come by. Too early to tell.

The 2022 class was typical, one really strong player who plays a lot. Theo Snoey started as a true frosh, Brito is probably that player this year. Stanford graduated only their libero, Justin Lui, among their top seven players from last year, also Aidan Peters who was the first sub.

Almost as big a story is that two longtime coaches, Ken Shibuya and Daniel Rasay are no longer affiliated with the program. Ken has been with the program since 2007. He did the scouting, game-planning and recruiting for the Cardinal. Rasay did the logistics, and had a background in sports psychology. I really liked Ken, he coached my son's 18 year old club team. I think they were doing a decent job...Stanford had back to back appearances in the MPSF in 2022 and 2023 for the first time in program history (although the MPSF is much smaller than it was prior to 2021).

They have been replaced by Taylor Hammond as recruiting coordinator. Hammond assisted at UC-SD last year, before that, he was at Orange Coast College, a JC volleyball power. He was an assistant for the U. S. U21 team that won a silver at the NORCECA Pan American Cup in Havana. He played against both my sons when he was at Penn State.

Spencer Wickens is the head assistant. He was graduate manager at the Nebraska women's volleyball team. He played at Pepperdine both as OH and Libero. He was AVCA Second Team All American and All-MPSF first team in 2021. He was a four time MPSF All-Academic selection, so he'll fit right in at Stanford. He's from New York, his dad coached men's and women's volleyball at Nazareth (D3).

Both are young, most likely energetic. Head Coach Kosty has a brobdingnagian job, hopefully they can support him very well, particularly in recruiting.

[Mick]

Is there anyone here who has enough knowledge to have an opinion and is willing to share their opinion about the incoming Stanford class?

Kosty had four recruits, no walk-ons of whom I am aware. They did not recruit any liberos. Justin Lui graduated, and Matt Martinez is a senior. No other liberos are listed. They already have three setters on the team including last year's starter Nathan Lietzke, who's a very strong setter, another senior and sophomore Nathan Brouillette, who was All-Tourney at the JO's...

The first three listed below are outside hitters, the last is a middle hitter:

Nathan Clinton Played for Bay to Bay, the Northern California feeder club to Stanford (4x All American Brian Cook was from Bay to Bay). Clinton attended Amador Valley HS (CA) OH. My take is he'll be a strong practice player, with development might see the floor. Good passer, good defender.

Ignacio Brito Miami United Columbus (FL) OH. Puerto Rican native, the star recruit of the class. Puerto Rican players develop really, really early and play a lot of beach VB. I expect Brito will see some court time this year. Might be the only player from this class who does. Maybe he plays libero, I don't know.

Carson Kneisl Front Range Arvada West (CO) OH. 6'6" pin hitter (the other two are 6'4"). I gather blocking is his strong point, so he might end up on the right side as an oppo. Will need a lot of work to see the floor, which is not uncommon for Colorado area players, they just don't have the opportunities that players from California and Hawaii do.

Gray Mandelbaum Rockstar Brentwood (CA) MH. 6'8" middle blocker. MBs are like quarterbacks in football, you want to take one in every class. They take a long time to develop. Great ones are difficult to come by. Too early to tell.

The 2022 class was typical, one really strong player who plays a lot. Theo Snoey started as a true frosh, Brito is probably that player this year. Stanford graduated only their libero, Justin Lui, among their top seven players from last year, also Aidan Peters who was the first sub.

Almost as big a story is that two longtime coaches, Ken Shibuya and Daniel Rasay are no longer affiliated with the program. Ken has been with the program since 2007. He did the scouting, game-planning and recruiting for the Cardinal. Rasay did the logistics, and had a background in sports psychology. I really liked Ken, he coached my son's 18 year old club team. I think they were doing a decent job...Stanford had back to back appearances in the MPSF in 2022 and 2023 for the first time in program history (although the MPSF is much smaller than it was prior to 2021).

They have been replaced by Taylor Hammond as recruiting coordinator. Hammond assisted at UC-SD last year, before that, he was at Orange Coast College, a JC volleyball power. He was an assistant for the U. S. U21 team that won a silver at the NORCECA Pan American Cup in Havana. He played against both my sons when he was at Penn State.

Spencer Wickens is the head assistant. He was graduate manager at the Nebraska women's volleyball team. He played at Pepperdine both as OH and Libero. He was AVCA Second Team All American and All-MPSF first team in 2021. He was a four time MPSF All-Academic selection, so he'll fit right in at Stanford. He's from New York, his dad coached men's and women's volleyball at Nazareth (D3).

Both are young, most likely energetic. Head Coach Kosty has a brobdingnagian job, hopefully they can support him very well, particularly in recruiting.