I thought D1 schools had very strict rules about recruiting timelines. How is this kid receiving D1 offers? What am I missing?
Basketball and a few other sports have different rules. Still, nothing can be signed before senior year so this doesn’t mean a whole lot
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Keep in mind that women’s basketball coaches aren’t allowed to initiate communication with recruits this early, but a coach can receive a player initiated phone call at any age. Essentially, a coach can always pick up a ringing phone.
Nothing to see here. These offers are verbal and non-binding. Lots can happen between now and senior year….injury, poor grades, losing ground skill wise, etc.
ETA: I will say I hope this doesn’t get out of hand…softball used to be the worst sport at early offers/commits and NCAA spanked them hard and really tightened up recruiting. It may be the only sport that doesn’t allow the coach to talk with recruits until junior year, including athlete initiated phone calls as noted above.
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I thought men’s lacrosse was that way and men’s soccer you couldn’t talk until the summer before junior year?
I guess I assumed it was a fall/spring sport difference, but it sounds like maybe it’s individualized?
You can see the differences in the recruiting guides.
Just commenting that it is probably a little more common on the women’s sports as the pool for top athletes may be a little smaller and many girls reach their top height by 9th grade vs. boys/men who can keep growing until 17, 18+ .
Not to say women will not get stronger and certainly become better players with more practice and training but they have often have stopped growing by 14-15 yrs. old.
That said I hope this does not get any more out of hand and reverses itself. I feel that these early offers are primarily to help to feed and perpetuate the push for specialization and benefit primarily club/travel teams and related coaches & trainers (youth sports travel teams is a big business). It may also be to feed parents egos to some degree as well justify the time & money put in.
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Agree 100%. I’m also admittedly a little bitter because my late bloomer daughter was shut out of a few opportunities thanks to this phenomenon. She grew more than 3 inches after starting high school and a full 8 inches between mid-7th grade and mid-11th grade.
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one of the reasons for sure why some prep school kids repeat 9th grade