The going gets tough for high school athletes hoping to obtain one of those elusive scholarships. And once the going gets tough, we can then assume that the tough get going. By the way, you are "the tough" in this scenario.

What we're trying to say is that it's important for you to take the initiative to market yourself as early as your sophomore year: compete in tournaments, attend camps and showcases, and visit colleges that interest you. Sending recruiting videos to coaches is also an important step.

We're not going to kid you, though. All that hard work still might not pay off. There are less than 50 NCAA sand volleyball programs that offer scholarships at all, and within those programs, full scholarships are rare.

Sand volleyball is what's called an equivalency sport, meaning that each program has the equivalent of six full scholarships that it can split between its players. This means that most student-athletes only receive partial scholarships and oftentimes must rely on other forms of financial aid.

As the sport grows, more sand volleyball scholarships become available. That still doesn't mean it's easy to land one. Nabbing an NCAA sand volleyball scholarship means that you have to work hard, compete hard, and study hard.

We don't know if anyone's told you this, but…you can't play college sand volleyball if you don't get into college. Shocker, we know.