Star Volleyball Athlete from Stony Point gets another shot at D1 career

Madison Monahan, one of the top  volleyball players from North Rockland High School, began her recruiting process in 2015 as a sophomore. She worked with Chicago-based recruiting service Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) throughout her recruitment. When the recruitment process began, NCSA helped Monahan with committing to play at Palm Beach State College, a junior college in Florida.

It all started there in 2018, when Monahan’s uncle, Barry Kramer, who had known about NCSA originally, reached out to them in attempts to grow Monahan’s career – despite getting injures she suffered during her senior year at NRHS. But no injury was not going to let Monahan stop herself from excelling towards her dreams of playing Division One. One of the first to reach out to Monahan through NCSA was Amable Martinez, the head volleyball coach for St. Francis.

She was invited to watch one of their games when she was a sophomore at Palm Beach State and eventually pursued her undergraduate career with St. Francis.

“We went to a tournament in Washington D.C. and there were about seven head coaches who were watching her team,” Monahan’s mother, Rhonda, told the Rockland County Times. “All of the players who were also top notch players were asking how she got so many coaches to visit, and it was all through NCSA, what a ride!”

However, before Monahan could even begin her D1 career, her season was shortly canceled due to COVID. The Rockland County Times asked Monahan if she could give any advice to athletes who are having a hard time jumping back into their sport post-COVID. “It’s finding that spark again. It’s finding that spark that really got you loving the sport and got you into the sport, you just have to find that again,” said Monahan.

After completing her undergraduate degree at St. Francis, Monahan was very eager to get back on the court. Fortunately, she had another year of eligibility due to COVID. Additionally, hoping to begin pursuing her master’s degree, Monahan once again turned to NCSA to help her find the right opportunity.

Now, after connecting with college coaches at Radford University, she will be finishing her career and earning her master’s degree there starting in July. Throughout her recruiting process, Madison sent over 700 emails communicating with college coaches on NCSA and received over $170,000 in scholarships from the three schools she attended. If it weren’t for that tenacity Monahan might have never made to the top of the sport, but holding out hope has helped her reach the next level.

For more information about NCSA, you can visit: www.ncsasports.org

  North Rockland, north Rockland athletics, rockland county, Sports, Stony Point, volleyball, volleyball star