<p>Yep, S's roommate was a star f-ball player on his h.s team. He got recruited by lots of small schools but wanted to go to big state u. He is now the fiercest flag football player big state u has ever seen.</p>
<p>I know SO Many walk-ons from both my generation and my kids. At large public universities and small privates. It definitely happens all the time. Show a strong desire, say you are willing to just practice with the team for starters.. work hard... and great things can happen. go for it!</p>
<p>Champagne –
This time of year can be very hard for a high school senior. College is less than 6 months away, but you don’t know where you’re going or what your life will be like when you get there. Very strange, indeed, and it’s natural to worry about whether you can (or should) hold onto the interests that have given you so much joy and maybe even a part of your identity. </p>
<p>Cheers has good advice for you if you decide to try to walk on or play club. Has your high school coach had any players go DI before – if so, you should ask him/her what your chances are and what you need to work on. Do you have access to an open gym or court that you can practice on (and guys make the best practice partners as long as they don’t resent you on the court)? Do you know of any “unsigned senior” travel teams that you could join now, not so much to be seen by college coaches, but to get a better idea of where you stand among DI candidates (viewing season begins April 1)? If decision-making is your weakness, maybe your self-confidence in a game situation is the real problem, in which case a different coach may help, and you might do better in a “smaller pond”, so to speak. </p>
<p>My guess is that if you are a seasoned varsity player who backs up 2 DI candidates, then you are probably good enough to make a club team (even at a school like Stanford) and may even be qualified for a DIII team except at the highest level (when my D was a HS senior, she probably would not have made Wash U, NYU or Emory, which at the time were the top of DIII, but the MIT coach and a few small LAC coaches sure wanted her). But without seeing you play and knowing your team, that is just a wild guess. You need to be honest about your abilities. A separate issue should also be whether you really want the DI life, which is extremely demanding. Remember that for the coaching staff, basketball is their livelihood; and a DI coach with too many losses will be summarily fired. It seems to me that you would be happiest on either a club team at a DI school, or on a DIII varsity team (if the DIII school is otherwise a good fit for you). In any event, you don’t have to decide right now – do more research, talk to coaches, keep up with your training, and when your acceptances arrive, go with your heart. It’s ok to include the opportunity to play ball among the qualities that are important to you in a college – just don’t make that the primary consideration.</p>
<p>I've just skimmed these responses, so I apologize if this has been brought up. I second the suggestion for club sports, first of all. It's a good amount of work and pretty time consuming for most sports, but it's a goal you can attain. I'd also suggest looking into a new sport in college, perhaps one that would have a lot of newcomers. The first one I can think of is rugby. It's definitely a lot different than bball, but it's a great club sport in college. Most girls have never played before, and they take all sorts of bodies to make up the team. Since few freshman have played, I think they look for general athletic ability (and probably enthusiasm!) when evaluating people for the team. I know a few high school athletes who weren't good enough to play their sports in college and ended up playing and loving rugby.</p>
<p>Like Corranged said, new sports work, too. And basketball instincts work well in rugby...especially if you ever fouled out ;) It takes several body types and combines the instincts from many sports- pm me if you want details, as I have a high level player and can tell you lots that we have learned.</p>
<p>Hi - lots of great responses so far. There are a bunch of alternative approaches ... which is best for you depends on what you want from your college athletic experience. Do you want to get onto to the best team you can even if you're the 15th player and almost never play in games? Do you want to play meaningful minutes? Do you want to be a prime player on the team? Do you need to be a player? What about a manager or a student volunteer assistant coach (which is what I would do if I could do college over again)? I'd suggest thinking about these questions.</p>
<p>Given your description of your HS experience playing D1 basketball sounds pretty unlikely even as a walk-on (top programs even recruit their walk-ons). D3 programs run the gamit from programs that are better than a lot of D1 schools to programs my local HS varsity could probably beat. One of my best friends in grad school played soccer at a D3 school as a walk-on ... he never even made his HS varsity team ... needless to say this is a small D3 school very focused on academics which approaches sports pretty much by seeing what kids show up for tryouts. It seems to me your best bet would be some of the smaller more academically focused D3 schools. One source to check out is <a href="http://www.d3hoops.com%5B/url%5D">www.d3hoops.com</a> this will give you an idea of the schools and various conferences out there ... and which are targets for you geographically and academically. As others have stated I would start with the academics and then think hoops. One last comment ... from d3hoops you can get to the team web-page for any of the teams ... and virtually all have a contact form to send an email to the coach. While we may be ale to provide some good general advice here on CC the best person to ask about a particualr school is the coach!</p>
<p>champagne4,
imo........basketball recruiting at the d1 level is stat driven. consideration is also given to the athlete's profile......size, height, foot speed, vertical jump, etc. and to the potential for the athlete to become the player the coach is seeking for the type of team they are building. many very good athletes are not recruited d1 but end up playing at other levels, i.e., d2, d3, naia, junior college. there are lots of other options out there.........start now contacting coaches. in women's basketball, the trend we are seeing is that some programs are recruiting from the junior colleges. my d chose to go d3 but had opportunities to play at d2, naia, and junior colleges. </p>
<p>we found that at the d1 level, there are very few opportunities for recruited female walkons due to the use of males in practice now. there are some women's programs that limit their rosters because of this practice too.</p>
<p>There was a spot on our evening news this week about our local state u women's team practicing against the men's team. I thought it was a novelty. Had no idea it was widespread practice. The women's team at this school has a better record than the men's team,lol. Guess that practicing helped.</p>
<p>
[quote]
my in-game decision making is terrible, I make stupid mistakes, play stupid. I don’t’t know why, I beat myself up too much during games… I think maybe considering the extent of my dreams I ended up putting too much pressure on myself; these ‘mistakes’ didn’t start happening until a few years ago…
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Have you considered seeing a mental health professional, especially if you can find one who has experience with sports issues?</p>
<p>Seriously.</p>
<p>so do you think luke and lorelai will get back together?</p>
<p>I don't know what your sport is (soccer, lacrosse?), but doubt that you've peaked at 17 or 18. Once you get into a program at a school you love (for more than sports!) you might surprise yourself and far surpass your current abilities. </p>
<p>If not, you also might find that once you are actually IN college, your priorities might change a bit, and your sport might take more of a backseat in your life than it does now.</p>
<p>I want to second poomix's suggestion about getting an outside evaluation, prefereably from someone who has no personal stake in your ultimate decision. My understanding is that DI programs are innundated with students who had significant DIII recruiting interest but are trying to walk-on at DI because they have an inflated opinion of their own abilities. Thus, it seems to me that the right question is whether you have a reasonable chance of successfully walking on at some DIII school, and if so, at what level. To answer that question, you need input not only from a talent evaluator, but also from someone who has an intimate knowledge of the DIII women's basketball scene. Once you have that info in hand, you can make a reasoned decision about what to do next.</p>