I’m curious how people respond to coaches of the schools your child turned down.
One of the coaches my daughter had talked to early in the process resurfaced after about an 8 month lag. With such the significant time gap this coach wasn’t on the list she sent notes to saying she had committed to another program, nor did she do a campus visit at this particular school. After she told him she committed he asked her to what school (via email). This is the first time a coach has come back and asked her where – my hunch is they just want to know who they are competing against for recruits. Any downside?
I wouldn’t reply. The 8 month lag several things can be read into it.
But responding that you alraedy committed politely, your responsibilities to him is complete. You don’t want to be in a position where he uses your response against your future team on other recruits.
There is many resources that they easily can find out.
I would advise my kid to send a polite and short email stating where they will attend, and thanking the coach for the interest. It rarely does any good to burn bridges.
She sent a polite note back doing exactly that but not specify what college she committed to – he came back and asked her what program. He’s the only coach that’s specifically asked, all the other responses were along the lines of thanks, best of luck, keep us posted if anything changes. No one else asked where she was going.
Where you committed will become public information shortly. I see no reason not to be transparent and tell him.
After my daughter committed, even after she signed the NLI, she continued to receive recruiting calls from coaches who pointed out that she could still go to a D3 school, that they still wanted her. I hated this and felt it was unfair to the players as they already felt bad turning down some schools. One of the benefits to signing early is to stop the recruiting and the pressure of the decision, but it didn’t stop instantly.
The sports world is small so I’d let the coach know where she’s headed. He might just be curious to know what circle he’s recruiting in, wants to know where a student with her academics and skills is going so he can focus on what he can recruit. If he’s at a small D3 mid tier academics school and your daughter is headed to big time D1/academic elite, he’s going to realize that he was reaching too far. If daughter is heading to a similar program, similar school, maybe it will tell him he shouldn’t have ignored her for 8 months.
My daughter’s team just lost a recruiting battle for a player my daughter played club with to a new program in their conference (very similar school for academics). The coach is bummed as she’s recruited 5 players from this club and was excited (and expecting) to get more. I told daughter it very well could be money, as the new program is at a school that is known to give students, especially women, lots of money. It’s also an hour closer to home and the family might like that better. I think it had a lot to do with the new program having a good new (young) coach talking starting as a freshman, excitement of being in the initial recruiting class. And money.
Thanks for the feedback. It was a very similar school (size, division, academics). And you’re right - it is public. It’s on her recruiting profile and she applied ED so not like she will be changing her mind.
(sounds more like lazy/sloppy recruiting process on the part of whomever sent that email to your daughter)
My son committed to a D3 school in August after attending their summer camp. He was already on their radar. He is an academy player and was chased by a lot of D1 schools. We were looking for the best college that his sport would allow a coaches full support . He will not receive a athletic scholarship, but will get far in life with a degree from this school.Though we wont know for a couple more weeks for sure, we feel he has hit a “home run”! I don’t think he would have been on this school’s radar without the Boys’ Academy showcase.
Many folks in schools who “touch” admissions, whether through athletics, fly-in programs, etc, are asked by the institution where students they met with and had shown initial interest ended up. This helps the school define it’s peer group and assess the efficacy of its various programs.
Agree with the advice above. Answer politely with the soon to be public info. You never know when your paths may again cross and in what capacity. Sports "families " are small…
She ended up telling the other coach what school she committed to and received a very nice note back, saying he knows the coach well and she will have a great experience, etc. So all good!
On a related note, she also just got back from a showcase in North Carolina. There were a few schools she really liked on paper last year but they never came to watch her play and instead got the standard “Sorry we couldn’t watch you play, you fit our academic and athletic profile, please come to our camp.” So now it’s senior year, she’s committed, and now they all decide to come watch her play? She didn’t invite them but they showed up, and they were a mix of D1-D2-D3-NAIA. So a good lesson if you have the stomach for it: School are always looking to round out their rosters – some had injuries, some had verbals that then rescinded, and some were just later to the recruiting game. No way could I have handled waiting this long for an offer, but plenty of schools don’t have a full roster yet.