Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing sport in NCAA history. The sport is exploding, and as a result, many athletes are wondering how they can earn a scholarship to play beach in college.

First, you need to identify the colleges that sponsor a beach team. Below is the most recent list released by the AVCA, separated by region:

Southwest	Midwest	South	Northwest	East	NAIA
University of Southern California	Nebraska	Florida State	Santa Clara	Stevenson University	Webber University
Pepperdine	Central Arkansas	College of Charleston	University of San Francisco	Rutgers-Newark	Warner University
Long Beach State	Colorado Mesa	Stetson	Stanford		Missouri Baptist
Hawaii	Principia College	Jacksonville University	University of the Pacific		St. Catharine
Loyola Marymount	Carson Newman	University of North Florida	St. Mary's College of California
UCLA	Lincoln Memorial	University of Alabama Birmingham	Cal State Sacramento
Cal State Bakersfield	Middle Tennessee State	Tulane	Cal Berkeley
Grand Canyon University	Austin Peay	Mercer	Cal Poly
University of Arizona	Morehead State	Florida Atlantic	San Jose State
Arizona State		Florida Gulf Coast	Boise State
Cal State Northridge		Georgia State	Oregon
University of New Mexico		Florida International	Washington
Cal State San Marcos		Louisiana Monroe	University of Portland
Concordia/Irvine		University of South Carolina	University of Utah
UC Santa Cruz		Louisiana State
		Mississippi State
		Texas Christian
		University of New Orleans
		Eckerd College
		Spring Hill College
		Houston Baptist
		Jacksonville State
		UNC Wilmington
		Coastal Carolina
		Texas A&M Corpus Christi
		Huntingdon College

As I've mentioned in this column a few times before, the recruiting process can be overwhelming, tedious and intense. But trying to get recruited for beach is an even greater challenge due to the limited number of programs and scholarships available.

You need to be highly proactive in your communication with college beach coaches, and send a ton of video updates. You should also compete at the major recruiting tournaments to receive exposure. These tournaments include: BVCA Championships, GetNoticed Showcases, HP Championships, AAU Junior Nationals and the AVPFirst National Championships. Of course, these aren't the only events attended by collegiate beach coaches--just a few of the largest.

There are many benefits to training in the sand, whether you want to play in beach in college or not. In the sand, there are only two of you and communication is key. On the beach, you face your weaknesses head-on, improve ball control and increase speed and agility. Your ability to read players and predict what will happen in the game will also improve, and your body will thank you! Not only does playing in the sand increase your vertical, it also strengthens your joints, so put your sunscreen on, get out there and have some fun!

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Kara Hill is a noted recruiting consultant and the founder of My Recruiting Solutions.