<p>Spent time today looking at frosh in student’s sport–now on teams of schools our student is looking at…
and googling to find times/stats.</p>
<p>All helpful.
Thanks CC parents</p>
<p>Had coffee with a parent the other night who advised</p>
<p>be sure the kid’s get sleep
keep folders
parent should stay in the background and let student do the talking
if its a second visit–have the student go alone
don’t attend the practice with the student
Be sure the studant can naturally maintain natural weight restrictions if applicable</p>
<p>^ I don’t necessarily agree with parents not attending the practice.</p>
<p>I’ve been watching practices for many years while D2 has been participating in practices. I have a different perspective from watching than my student does. My perspective is helpful to D2 in forming opinions of coaches and practice methods. Discussing the practice afterward was helpful to D2 as well.</p>
<p>^^^ I guess this really depends on the sport and your child and I guess whether you’re referring to a school team or a club team. I can’t imagine sitting to watch my sons’ football or baseball practices (or any sport he has played) or my daughters’ field hockey, basketball or lacrosse practices. They wouldn’t want me there and I know high school coaches don’t want parents watching and scrutinizing their practices.</p>
<p>While my son was not recruited, he did speak to the coaches prior to his choosing school. The sport, while he loved it, was secondary to the final decision. This said… </p>
<p>I would have had son check into the school’s previous records of recruitment (i.e., do they over recruit?) and ask what percentage of students supported as recruits were eventually cut. I’d also have had him ask more specifically (especially in S’s case) about walk on opportunities. If you know they usually only keep a dozen or so of freshman on the roster but they’ve recruited 15, well… there ya have it. Also, I would have looked closer at the current roster to see how many openings of the position were actually going to be available the following year and if possible, looked back at previous rosters to see what the attrition was. If there is only one senior graduating from kid’s position and yet, they’ve recruited 3 or 4, I’d ask where on the coaches list the kid might fall. </p>
<p>And lastly, especially if your kid is looking at a degree in lab heavy subject (like biochemistry or something), I’d have had him ask how many people with this major are currently on the team, especially as a current senior headed to graduation. All I would have had to do is check the current class schedules to see that the majority of labs are scheduled for the afternoon (1-4 slot), and so being on a team with away contests mid-week makes it really hard not to miss class depending on the sport, to say nothing of daily practice. And along that line, I’d want to know how supportive the faculty is of athletes in general. But I wouldn’t ask the coach this, I’d be asking other students on the team. But if you’ve got a team of let’s say 40 or so and only two are science majors… well, the short answer is: it can be done, but not by many.</p>
<p>How do you know about recruiting history and if they over recruit?</p>
<p>Recently I spent several hours looking at athletes times and googling to see where they are now…
and also in reverse…l;ooking at rosters and where student-athletes came from…</p>
<p>Is there a better way?
And how do prospective student-athletic recruits know if a coach over recruits…</p>
<p>fogfog, do you mean just the Ivies? The LL system keeps everyone pretty honest because when that moment comes, admissions will NOT issue lots of likely letters, but just the amount they and the coach have agree comprises the recruiting class for the sport. </p>
<p>Most recruits are told something like this: “Admissions will review your file. If they decide to write you a likely letter, they will only do so if you commit to attending our school.” (The recent documented exception to this is TheGFG’s daughter who did not have to commit to receive a likely. Very unusual, over-the-top outstanding student/athlete.) </p>
<p>For usual Ivy recruits, the likely letter is more of a LOI in that the student will cease all other recruiting activities once they receive the LL, and will attend. It’s a gentleman’s agreement, requiring trust on both sides.</p>
<p>Regarding watching the practice, I hope I didn’t “mess up”?! The coach twice invited me to join them, so I did…wasn’t my plan, but after it being mentioned twice, it seemed OK…oh well, it is what it is…! Must move on…:)</p>
<p>I’ve told D’s story in other threads, but I should probably briefly comment here as well. What riverrunner says is accurate, but before the Ivy offered D a LL she had already declined 3 of the schools she visited officially. So the Ivy knew they were only going to be “competing” with one other school she had yet to visit. Also, while D was a solid candidate, I honestly don’t think she was over-the-top great in either category. She had noticeable weaknesses both academically (SAT II’s and AP scores) and athletically (several poor seasons). My guess is that this particular Ivy was not having such great luck in recruitment at the point they made her the offer!</p>
<p>Well… I don’t really know about all sports, but son’s has a self-reported national database where I can search by school for the past four or so years and compare to roster. Yes, it’s self reported, but I can also look to see if the kid who self reported was on the roster and if not, did he still attend the school (found thru student search on website). And depending on the history of the sport and the completeness of their website, I could go back and look at rosters for almost a decade in most cases and get a good sense of attrition from the program, which tells me whether or not the team is a cohesive group and positive experience for most. Worth noting, however is that most schools son ever looked at were DIII and those that were DI were definitely not going to be a place where he’d play a sport for the most part.</p>
<p>TheGFG, thanks for that clarifying statement. Taking nothing away from your daughter, this does illustrate that there isn’t a cookbook for this stuff. In any given sport, in any given year, the “market” for recruitable Ivy athletes may drive strange things to happen. By January, if an Ivy team doesn’t have full roster, they may offer a likely with no strings attached. On the other hand, if a sport is full of talented recruits, those who are willing to commit early may end up with a spot, while those who “hold out” get something other than their first choice. I would say if your child really knows which school they want early in the game, and they are given a chance to commit, take it. If not, give things some time. Like TheGFG’s daughter, you may have lots of choices later. Very hard to predict. We didn’t have the nerve to wait beyond October- my daughter “knew”. This isn’t always the case, though…</p>
<p>Good thoughts here. Good summations!</p>
<p>So with July 1 approaching, we are updating our resources…etc…</p>
<p>How about you…what will you do to be ready for July 1…?</p>
<p>Help your athlete understand what they want out of their athletic experience in college … would they prefer to play a ton at a lower level or to be a sub on a higher level team or even a scrub on a national-be-seen-on-TV team? All are valid choices … and one I’d recommend athletes think about.</p>
<p>Best advice bar none came from a Division III coach of a very highly ranked tennis team. He told my son, “Choose the college as if you weren’t going to be playing tennis.” He wanted my son to be happy with his college choice whether he were playing tennis or not. Very wise words that cost this coach my son as a player. My son took that advice and in the end decided not to play competitive tennis in college…</p>
<p>momfirst3, my son followed the same advice, so he’ll probably not run for a team in college, but join a club instead. I’ve heard there are some incredibly fast runners in this club, so he should still do well.</p>
<p>fogfog- a very timely “bump” for this thread! Every email my daughter is getting now makes reference to July 1st…can’t believe it is actually coming up…yikes!</p>
<p>July 1st will be here before we know it! How do you plan on dealing with the contact for kids who will be away? Our plan so far is to contact coaches before my daughter leaves, telling them she will be at camp and that she will see them at Nationals. She doesn’t really want to be distracted by phone calls at camp. (Actually, I think it is more that she is nervous, but that is her story and she’s sticking to it!) How are others planning on dealing with phone contact when the kids are away? I am definitely open to suggestions!</p>
<p>Hi fishymom,
I’d say write down the contact info for the coach, and any comments he might make, especially for schools you haven’t heard from before. Your child can call back when he gets home. </p>
<p>Sooner or later your child will have to say “thanks but no thanks” to many of these coaches. Some coaches who call your house will be from schools your child will never consider attending: wrong state, wrong league, and so on. If you already know you’re going to hear from some schools your child doesn’t care for, it might be good to know if you can speak for him while he’s away, just to save uncomfortable conversations later.</p>
<p>I’d like to add one thing: don’t be afraid to tell coaches that you’re not interested in their school, just because you’re afraid of how they’ll react. Personally, I never really envirioned myself at one of the schools where I was recruited, but the coach was really nice and kept calling me every few weeks. I liked talking to him, but I never really told him that I just wasn’t as interested in his school as I was in my current school (Carleton). Fortunately, he was really understanding when I finally made my decision (turns out he’s actually a Carleton alum…who knew?!?), but I felt terrible, because the whole time I knew I should have made it clearer from the beginning where his school stood.</p>
<p>Edit: riverrunner beat me to it. I second what you said, though!</p>