<p>Ok after coming off of football recruiting with our son last year we are now facing the college search again with our daughter, a junior. She is hoping to play field hockey at the college level and is looking for a good D3 fit. Has anyone had experience specifically with field hockey that can share insights/advice?</p>
<p>I’m in the exact same position, so will be interested in the responses you get.</p>
<p>Did the Juniors just play at Disney and will they be at the upcoming NIT? Are you from states that are known for field hockey dominance (PA, NJ)? Are your club teams helpful with recruiting?</p>
<p>Is she a junior now?
My daughter who is a senior in hs now went through the recruiting process. We were told junior year is was too late! How schools begin the process sophomore year! Nevertheless my daughter went to a showcase in June, and a couple of camps at schools she was specifically interested in over the summer. She ended up being recruited at 2 schools…waiting to hear. No early write, etc. here. She will hopefully play D-3.</p>
<p>I know of superstars who committed early in junior year and I know others who didn’t commit until January of senior year. The camps before senior year were especially helpful. Don’t lose heart. In any case be in really great shape for pre-season or tryouts.</p>
<p>She is participating in futures now and also starting a winter skills clinic which has college coaches involved. She has emailed a few coaches already and we we are visiting a few schools next week. Just wondering if schools really search out prospects from those who attend their camps and do field hockey coaches have any pull with admissions. I would imagine they do not get tips such as the football coach does.</p>
<p>D visited both D3 and D1. Those coaches were honest about whatever their relationships were with admissions. Two of those D3s were safety-match. Another visit was at a higher ranked school, where she was geographically desirable (but decided the distance was too far). In the end, if you can, early decision can help to settle things out. And a rolling admissions D3 safety can be good for sanity. </p>
<p>There’s great advantages to working with the coaches at these clinics! You become more than just a name on a list of emails. You can also add admissions visits and tours to show your interest.</p>
<p>Thanks MOM 22039 we’re hoping the connection with coaches at the clinics will be invaluable too.
I feel a little more comfortable having been through football recruiting with our son but in his case football connections were made through emails and highlight films and attending their one day prospect camps. so we were able to pick the camps of the schools he was interested in and go from there .
There are some schools that have one day clinics but they are far away but still within driving distance. Where did your D end up? DI, DIII and how did it all work out?</p>
<p>D is with a D1 team with a group of girls that she loves. She played for a club team that plays many tournaments and she may not have targeted this school if she hadn’t played in a miserably cold tournament in her soph year (and each year thereafter). They saw her at Disney junior year and stayed in touch. Then summer camp. She also did Futures, Focus, and College Connection among others. As I write this we are on our way to a tournament for our younger, so we may be doing the recruiting thing again some day. (BTW, we never had a good video).</p>
<p>missswan:</p>
<p>Have not posted for some time, but thought I would pass along our experiences w/ field hockey recruiting.<br>
One daughter playing D1 and another played D3. D1 timetable much more accelerated but both experiences had similar elements.<br>
First and foremost we utilized the “broken leg test” throughout, ie if you are injured and can not play, will you still be happy at the school?
That said, we then did the recruiting piece at the same time as the overall college search. When planning a visit, D would email fh coach in advance and ask to stop by and introduce herself. In almost all cases, coaches would accomodate. D would bring a one page fh resume and one page academic resume to leave with coaches.
Both D’s agree that the most important part of the process is attending the summer camp at the school(s) she was very interested in. Coaches have 3+ days to really evaluate the players. Coaches will see you at Festival, College Connection, etc but the camp time was invaluable for evaluation. D1 coaches like to have their recruiting lists completed soon after camp is done as they then begin to focus on their own upcoming season. D3 plays out through the fall of senior year. (D1 daughter received the good news August before her senior year. D3 daughter first met her eventual coach mid-November of her senior year.) So it can vary quite a bit.<br>
At the outset, the onus is on you to reach out to the coaches.<br>
Be honest about your D ability, ie where have her teammates, a year or two ahead, gone and how do their abilities match up with yours?
Hope this helps and good luck.</p>
<p>I play field hockey, I’m a junior probably playing D1 and I’ve been on contact with multiple coaches starting late sophomore year. I’ve been to many national tournaments since my freshman year, some with my club and some through Futures that you need to be selected for. I email coaches before every one. This is pretty much the timeline for D1 and not being committed yet I feel a little behind as I have multiple friends who have been committed for months. However, I will be attending Junior Days all spring.
The first thing you should do is ask the coaches you’re talking to if there’s an upcoming Junior Day where you can visit and meet the coach and stuff. If she’s going to NIT in about two weeks (I’m assuming she’s U19) then you can email coaches about that, too (except I don’t think the schedule has come yet, I know I don’t have mine yet). I’m not going to College Connection or Focus this year because I hope to be committed by then, but she should definitely go to those and email coaches before them with her schedule. If she’s not with a club that’s going then I think you can join as an individual. Definitely go to camps, they’re the best for recruiting definitely. I’m also going to a one-day clinic that happens to fall over my spring break.
Definitely keep emailing though, if you don’t show them that you really want to come to their school then they’re not going to come to you. Try to visit sometime this spring and have a meeting. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Hi Sleeplessinbost and Babydoll : We just got back from a whirlwind college tour visiting colleges where play may be possible and others school of interest without field hockey.
D emailed coaches ahead of time and met with all the coaches she contacted (3) . They were gracious and honest about their expectations. Definitely will need to attend the summer camp of the one school or showcase, College Connection for the schools that don’t run their own camp. All schools were D3 but different levels of play.<br>
D does not have the opportunity to play on a club team, there are none here, but does play Futures. She is participating in a skills clinic run by college coaches. She feels the level of play at the clinic is not competitive enough but I thinks she should use the time to make connections and seek advice from the coaches present.
Sleepless - what is the level of play of your daughter who plays D3?
Thanks for the input!! :)</p>
<p>Our daughter was fortunate to play for a D3 team which was ranked in top 10%. I would say that level of play would be competitive with the bottom 3rd of D1. Definately refer to the D3 rankings to see where your schools of interest lie.
Hope this helps</p>
<p>My D is a HS senior who will play field hockey next year at a D1 school, so we just completed the process.</p>
<p>We didn’t do summer field hockey camps at her targeted colleges and paid a price for that, maybe missed out on some great opportunities, so make sure your D does that.</p>
<p>What I think we got right was in her training. If you look at the top D1 Field Hockey recruits, many of them we given one-on-one skills training, often by a parent (mom mostly) who also played Field Hockey.</p>
<p>We didn’t have that option, but were able to find top college and post college players thrilled to do private lessons, which we arranged for my D and her field hockey friends. </p>
<p>The cost of this is reasonable when compared to the cost of a trip to Disney or Festival. We paid about $30 a lesson for two hours when there were two or more friends in the sessions. We held them in our backyard, on tennis and basketball courts, and on school
sports fields.</p>
<p>Even if your D is a Jr, and will be going to some summer camps this year, it’s not too late
to do this. </p>
<p>I’ve gotten to know a handful of college field hockey coaches through this process, even with our bone headed lapse of not attending the college camps. When they are looking at that field of ponytails, the one thing besides hustle that stands out is skills. </p>
<p>If your D gets ten, twenty or more hours of one-on-one instruction from a competent coach, she will stand-out. If she also has decent grades and test scores (3.5gpa, SAT/ACT 1800/27). She can be recruited at a top DI or DIII school. Good luck.</p>
<p>I just finished the recruiting process. I started late too, during the summer before Junior year, and I definitely felt like I was left in the dust. </p>
<p>That being said, I’d been playing on club teams for several years, so I already had some contact with coaches. One of my teams was actually coached by the Dartmouth coach and players during the off-season, so I got to know that team really well. </p>
<p>I did the National Festival in Arizona this past fall and our team did very well; I got a lot of calls from D3 schools. However, if that’s not an option, I know that a lot of playing venues (in my area, at least) host tournaments every month or so, and will take single players to add in with the other teams. </p>
<p>I think that club definitely helped my networking, but nothing was more developmentally helpful than the US Futures program. My site is coached by the UVM coach, and she does a wonderful job. Six hour practices really add a lot to your game! I think the coach can really effect the level of play at Futures though, so if you don’t like the in-state sessions, you could see if you could transfer to another site, like I ended up doing. </p>
<p>Because I couldn’t meet the coach of every team I’d like to play for, I sent out emails with my resume, etc, and a video. In the end I was recruited by several D3 schools in Ohio, a few in Maine, and by two D1 schools. </p>
<p>I don’t think that every player needs one-on-one instruction (although it sounds heavenly!). Dedicating time during the week to practice basic stick skills and playing whenever possible are all one needs to do to improve my leaps and bounds. Instead of doing an ab workout at the gym, for example, I got down to the basketball courts and practice my stick work and hits. </p>
<p>If your daughter really wants to play at college, she definitely can.</p>
<p>Thank you sandiego and mellowdown for your great advice. Congrats to you Mellowdown, did you decide on a D3 school?</p>