<p>Now that July 1st is right here, I have an etiquette question: Let's say an athlete who has already committed to their 5 Official Visits before July 1st - and these 5 visits are all to their top choice schools - now has to talk with other coaches recruiting them. What should they do in the following scenario? When other coaches who they are still communicating with, and who mention inviting the student on Official Visits to their schools, contact them, etc. after July 1st, is the best thing to do to just disclose that they have already committed to all of their Officials? However, "if anything changes, I will let you know?". That seems to me to be the right thing to do. Would that be the prudent thing to do? </p>
<p>Do Official Visits that have already been set, confirmed, etc. occasionally get cancelled by the hosting school? If so, then how does the athlete "play it safe"?</p>
<p>personally, I wouldn’t bring up the topic of official visits unless the coach does first. It just seems a bit presumptuous. but I agree that, if offered an OV by a coach other than the ones you have already committed to, you should tell the truth and let them know that you have already selected your OVs</p>
<p>I have no idea about the second part of your question.</p>
<p>Leapinglizards - Thank you for getting me to re-read my post! I have since edited it - hope that I might be a bit clearer now?! </p>
<p>I should have mentioned that these other coaches have already been openly mentioning Official Visit invitations in both emails and on unofficial visits. They have the academic info, etc. Otherwise, you are right - that would be very presumptuous. These coaches have clearly indicated that they intend to issue OV invitations.</p>
<p>Knowing that your daughter already has her top 5 schools, I would think it best to tell the other coaches that she has already commited to her five official visits and that if anything changes, she will let them know. I think it would be highly unusual for a coach to cancel an official visit, especially for a highly sought after recruit. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Relax and enjoy!</p>
<p>In the worst case: you take the 5 officials, and then realize that you actually love school #6, I don’t think there’s anything (NCAA rule) preventing you from paying for your own visit to confirm that you actually really love #6. </p>
<p>Also, don’t feel that you have narrowed your choices to the 5 you’ve said yes to. You may change your mind about sticking with the visits as time goes on, or you may love the first visit you make and want to cancel the rest. Or you may discover latecomer school #6 and want to cancel #5 and substitute #6. That’s OK. This is a big decision, and while it’s not “nice” to say no once you’ve said yes, it’s also what might need to happen in order for your child to make the best decision possible. Coaches understand this. They may still lean on you to visit, even after you’ve made up your mind, and you may find yourself being very abrupt about saying, “Really, I don’t need to visit. I know where I’m going next year.” </p>
<p>It’s best if you can cancel trips BEFORE the coach has bought your plane tickets. Coaches are pretty good about saying “I’m buying your ticket today. Are you good with that?” It’s not very cool to cancel the trip once the usually non-refundable ticket has been purchased, so watch for that.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that your D can make an unlimited number of “unofficial” visits to DI & DII schools. (There is no visit restrictions at all for DIII). So if travel expense (transportation, hotel, meals, etc.) is not a problem for some of the nearer to home schools, you may want to make “unofficial” visits to those and save the “official” visits for those farther away.</p>
<p>There is no way to really play it safe.
Official visits do indeed get cancelled. </p>
<p>Even committments have not been honored on national signing days after what a player thought was a great official visit. A LOI never turns up to sign. </p>
<p>The student athlete does not have any guarantees until they sign on the dotted line of the LOI. Then the player is only “safe” at school for a year.</p>
<p>Unscrupulous shenanigans only hurt the recruiter/program, so cancelled officials, committable offer being turned upside down, or scholarships being pulled are not common/likely. </p>
<p>The athlete will always have to show progress towards a degree along with achieiving “the standards” the coach desires in their sport, not only in high school, they have all four years of college eligibility.</p>
<p>so… there are some school that my D is not interested but send us love calls. (Those schools academic level is even below my D’s academic level.)
If she’s not interested in those schools, it would be better to say no directly to them, right? or do we still need to save those schools for the safe school list?</p>
<p>I would make sure to keep at least a few safeties in the mix, schools she would be happy to attend. These schools should be safeties academically, athletically and financially. You never know what will happen in the recruiting game. My daughter is going to apply to our state flagship and a couple of other financial safeties, just in case.</p>
<p>^^^riverrunner - good advice, and thank you. Good to know it is not the worst form to cancel an OV (definitely before a plane ticket has been bought - that would be awful!!), to replace it with another, as long as plenty of notice is given, I imagine. Lots to think about - particularly when some of these choices may well pan out into nothing other than a (hopefully) enjoyable weekend. Just because you get the OV invitation does not necessarily mean they are going to support your application, as we all know. Quite a journey…!</p>
<p>I think one of the tricky parts of recruiting for our kids is saying “no”. They will ultimately be saying no to all but one coach. And they will say no to people who have been extraordinarily generous to them with their time, money, praise, and so on. This is a unique situation where your child will have to grow a thick skin and stay focused on what this really is about: finding a school, a team and a coach. They are going to feel like they are being rude to adults who have been nice to them. This is strange for our kids, but you should remind them that the coaches go through this every year, they are used to being told “no” and their feelings will not be hurt as long as you don’t lead them on longer than is necessary for you to made a decision.</p>