<p>My oldest was recently diagnosed with a torn labrium in his shoulder. He is a senior with 4 official visits set for January. Surgery went very well and his recovery is allready under way. Obviously he is in a sling for the next month-6 weeks. I'm getting advice from both coaches and former players that we may not want to disclose the injury till closer to the official visit days. I/he could really use some guidance on this matter.</p>
<p>Thanks
A very concerned dad.</p>
<p>I would absolutely counsel my son to fully disclose the injury, repair and schedule for recovery. It’s just the right thing to do. </p>
<p>Sadly, a labrum tear is not uncommon in football…and can be reinjured pretty easily, once repaired. The coaching staff deserves to know about specific health concerns… and as a parent, I would want them to be on board with the long-term plan for regained strength and range of motion.</p>
<p>Your son will probably want to be able to pick his kids up over his head one day… so his full recovery and protection should also be a vested interest of his coaches.</p>
<p>Well we met with coach of his top school today. The coach stated Labrium tears are common and he actually (coach) currently has one that he never got repaired. He stated that my son did the right thing by fixing it prior to his freshman year and that barring any delays in rehab it should not affect his recruitment. My son averaged 7 tackles per game as a DB this year and that was with only one good shoulder. Thanks for the input MaryOC</p>
<p>Good to hear the news was well received, mustangdad20. Nicely done.</p>
<p>Update:
School Number one was not concerned.
School Number two, well lets just say they didnt seem concerned but they were not very re-assuring. They still want him to attend their official visit day, so hopefully we did the right thing?
Fingers crossed everybody.</p>
<p>Mustangdad, I would think how the schools react to your sons injury would say a great deal about the kind of people they are. For example a school that all of a sudden gets cold feet or is vague might be a red flag. You are doing the right thing by being honest and I have to believe that the right fit for your son will be a coaching staff who embraces him regardless of the injury or not. The coaching staff will be a huge part of your sons life, both on and off the field. I have a D1 athlete son (different sport) and his coaches play a huge role in his life, good people and good character matter. Good luck</p>
<p>Thank you Momof2010. We actually met with school #3 over the weekend and they didnt act concerned at all in fact his position coach was mad he didnt know because he would have sent him a get well card. Your exactly right, any school that is going to have an issue with him having a procedure to ensure he is 100% for their program isnt who we want to go with. What happens when he (God forbid) Blows out his knee during a season? How would they react then?</p>
<p>Glad to hear that school #3 responded well… good sign. Best of luck</p>
<p>Recruiting update:
Son is in the strenght and conditioning phase of rehab, actually 2-3 weeks ahead of progress according to his surgeon:</p>
<p>School #1 D2 National ranked in top 5: No longer recruiting son, no information given however after re-assuring visit with recruiter all contact has seased.</p>
<p>School #2 D2 (Arkansas school) On fire for son prior to Christmas and Surger, Notified about surgery and we were advised (We’ve filled our needs at your position-2 weeks prior to scheduled official visit and after finding out about shoulder surgery)</p>
<p>School #3 NAIA school, Official visit over weekend (offer in hand) no issue with shoulder plans on playing him as a true freshman.</p>
<p>School #4 D2 (history of D2 national championships) Official visit this weekend, no knowledge of shoudler surger and this time were keeping it to ourselves due to his progress in rehab. Will updated after weekend.</p>
<p>Moral of the story is: Tell coaches regarding non serious injuries at your own risk. My son’s shoulder will be 100 percent healed before he reports to any summer camp/or 2 a day trainings. By sharing the information with his top two schools we felt we were doing the right thing. Unfortunatly recruiting is not always fair or honest. Two schools ran from my son like he was on fire after telling us he was there top DB recruit. At the end of the day we live with our decisions and feel we did the right thing. However…It has affected our son’s recruitment and his choices of schools. Word to the wise, be prepared for consequences even when your intentions are honorable.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that mustangdad, but I still feel you did the right thing. It just shows what kind of character those coaches have. You want you son to go to a place where he will be wanted and happy. I have 2 athletes, one D1 and one at NAIA school and they both found good fits. Its more important than any schools prestige, believe me!!! How would school #1 and #2 have treated your son had he injured himself upon reporting to first week of conditioning? You found out good info ahead of time.</p>
<p>So sorry to hear what happened, but I have to agree it was still the right thing. Even if you hadn’t said anything now, the coaches would have asked about his shoulder on the official visits and the result could have been exactly the same, only much later in the process and thus harder to counteract.</p>
<p>D is in a top Div. 1 program and believe me when I tell you that at any given time, half the team is hurting or injured to some degree. You want a coach who sees this as normal, because it is, and merely one short phase in a developing 4 year career. You don’t want a coach who writes you off the minute your value to him decreases temporarily. Our kids are people, not expendable commodities.</p>
<p>Thanks GFG and momof2010. We as well believe we did the right thing just wanted to share a cautionary tale for other parents.</p>
<p>Mustangdad you said it" Recruiting is not always fair or honest, especially form the coaches standpoint."</p>
<p>True story: a huge track star from our state suffered an injury playing another sport for fun. Tore some ligaments. All but one of the coaches of the schools she was in communication with cooled their interest in her. The only one who didn’t back off at all assured her she’d have a spot on their team regardless. She went there. Guess what? She fully recovered, had a fantastic freshman season, and is likely to become an Olympian. Love it!</p>
<p>Who your coach is honestly makes ALL the difference in the world. My son is a D1 athlete and struggled with some health issues last year as a freshman, guess who was the one who took him to the hospital? Coach, guess who stayed with him for hours till I could get there?.. Coaches… guess who was available for anything and texted everyday during the recovery to see how he was doing?.. Coach… Guess who was the first all american at his school in his sport as a freshman?.. My son!!! Having the right coach is HUGE!!!</p>
<p>^Agree completely. One big factor to consider is whether a coach will inspire self-confidence in the athlete or not, since that is essential to successfully compete at the Div. 1 level. My D had some injuries as a freshman and due to that and general adjustment to a much higher level of training, was not performing well. Her coach was a good guy, but had too much on his hands so the bottom of the roster got neglected. D felt like he didn’t care about her and didn’t believe in her. Fast forward a year. A second coach was brought on to lighten the load and showed much more concern for every member of the team. D is now starting to improve quickly. Says she thinks this coach is interested with her development and is looking at the long term. Big difference!</p>
<p>Completely Agree with all of the responses. We are pretty sure he’s going to sign with the NAIA program that showed so much interest in him regarding his injury. He’s a solid D2 caliber player but feels the coaches have so much invested in him on a personal level. We’ve got our final D2 official visit this weekend. We’ve not shared the injury information with them but we will obviously have to during the visit when they notice he’s about 15 pounds lighter than his game film.</p>
<p>If he got a D2 scholarship would the paperwork ask about injuries or require a physical? The athletic physical forms my son had (2 schools) all ask about prior injuries and surgeries. You can’t lie on those, especially if you are receiving $. Also, if you were giving out scholarship $ wouldn’t you lean toward the guy who hadn’t had recent surgery. I know you say he’ll be 100%, but the school has limited $ to invest…</p>
<p>Don’t make the mistake of choosing a school because the coaches invested so much on a personal level. That’s their job. They all do it to all the kids they’d like to have. They know they are competing. We “felt bad” choosing one school over another and realized that was just crazy. In the end he chose a school because he loved his recruiting coach. Two weeks later that coach took a job with one of those NFL alternative leagues. He was gone, son had commited (so to speak-D3) and turned out NOT liking the new coach and hating the school. Make the best choice for your son, NOT for the coaches that seem to like him so much. Choose the school that FITS best all around,not just for football.</p>
<p>Also, some D2 schools were very interested. One coach really wanted him, but couldn’t get him $ (the PSAC schools he was interested in (geographically) leaned 90% toward in-state students and have limited schol $) That coach had called often and made it seem like he would be in. He was offered to come out for the team, but no guarantees. He coached my sons position, but was one of the newer coaches.</p>
<p>Good luck! Hopefully the schools you’re looking at have plenty of $. We found out that some good D3 schools could come up with amazing grants and stuff…</p>
<p>We will gladly dsiclose his injury if asked and plan to during this visit. The benefit is having one offer in hand allready. This hopefully is our last visit and he will make his decision in the days after the visit. I want to thank everyone in this forum for the encouragment this injury was definatly a curveball we did not plan on during his senior season.</p>
<p>njfootballmom gives some good advice about making sure the school is a good fit. Coaches come and coaches go. By the way, our D did not choose the school with the nicest, most attentive coaches. A lot of attention could just mean that your athlete is a bigger catch for them than for another school, and after the “engagement and honeymoon” the coach is going to revert back to his normal self, lol. Better wooing doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a better choice for your son. At the same time, we’ve discussed why your son does need to like and trust the current coach.</p>