<p>My son had 4 classmates in his '11 HS graduating class who were confident they were ‘in’ at Harvard as recruited atheletes sometime between summer preceding senior year, and fall of that year (football, hockey, LAX & sailing). Everyone knew about it… before the issuance of likely letters and official admissions decisions came down.</p>
<p>Another of his classmates will be doing a PG year at Exeter this fall, but has just verbally committed to Dartmouth for the following year. I read about it in the Herald & on ESPN Boston yesterday. A few weeks ago, I read about a rising senior player from a geater Boston area public HS committing to Brown for football. It is not uncommon, at least from what I have seen/heard.</p>
<p>Here’s the Brown QB commit announcement from last month… With all the Prep schools in New England, these articles regarding Ivy commitments are published regularly on the ESPN Boston site. </p>
<p>Obviously, it’s prudent to wait until a Likely Letter is in hand (maybe even moreso with low roster team sports), but if a student athlete has the talent, test scores, GPA and class rank to be in an A band or B band for team sports where there are multiple slots available… he can likely feel pretty confident a coach is willing and able to secure him or her as part of that recruiting class.</p>
<p>Thanks MaryOC. I guess what we’re looking at here is a verbal commitment as the ESPN article states. I agree, this is usually solid, but as with all athletic verbal commitments, isn’t binding on either side. I’m far away from New England and Ivy recruiting is rare in our neck of the woods so maybe that’s why this local player’s early announcement is so surprising to me.</p>
<p>I suspect the small minority of Ivy recruits who are left disappointed after October 1st …holding the proverbial bag of poo, if you will… fall into one of these two categories:</p>
<p>1) Exemplary academic candidate with ‘good’ athletic abilities; bumped by an exceptional athlete/impact player (greater value to the team) who has finally met the minimum criteria with a 3rd or 4th sitting of the SAT/ACT late in the game…and/or who has really turned on the gas in the first half of senior year with regard to grades</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>2) Exemplary academic and athletic candidate who falls into a an unfortunate senior slide, or who is somehow involved in a moral hazard</p>
<p>Since those candidates seem to be the exception, rather than the rule… I trust the majority of Ivy athletic recruits can be confident with what has been communicated to them by a coach throughout the recruiting period for their sport …provided the coach has an accurate and updated depth chart and has done his or her due diligence with AdCom.</p>
<p>That being said… I would always advise folks to err on the side of caution and humility… and keep it close to the vest until the likely was in hand ;)</p>
<p>Compared to track and crosss-country, football and soccer coaches at Ivies recruit early to get the cream of the crop. The timeline is totally different for the large-team sports, even though the junior year visits are all unofficial.</p>
<p>The Ivy League is also one of the stronger leagues in college soccer. In 2010, they sent 4 teams–1/2 the conference–into the NCAA post season tournament.</p>
<p>fwiw, our student had all that and got some emails from the coaches that were all about how our student was going to be an integral part of the team…(in July)
and then in Sept…that particular school wasn’t heard from again.</p>
<p>I’d advise my student to not annouce, nor cease recruiting–its only July…</p>
<p>At least one Ivy finished its 2012 recruiting for women’s soccer in April of 2011. (This is according to the AC in charge of recruiting.) Several 2013s have already committed to top programs such as UNC and Stanford.</p>
<p>I think any coach saying they’ve got their recruiting class lined-up (committed) in April for the following fall is just trying to say in an easy way to the athlete they’re talking to that the coach is not interested in them.</p>
<p>I mean their recruiting of the high school class of 2012. </p>
<p>
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<p>For high-profile sports such as women’s soccer, active recruiting starts very early. For example, Stanford women’s soccer already has verbal commitments from eight (8) members of the high school class of 2013.</p>
<p>well high school sophomore kids may have said they are going (committed) to Stanford, but Stanford will not even consider them, in any sport, until Junior year grades/SAT’s.</p>
<p>pacheight, I think you’re hitting on the part of this that makes me most uncomfortable.
I worry that coaches may be saying things to athletes that sound very much like commitments, and saying them to more players than they have room for. What do they have to lose, except their reputations, and even then, they can hang it all on admissions and say they thought a recruit was a go, until, inexplicably, admissions denies them. It’s to a coach’s advantage to hang on to the strongest pool of recruits for as long as possible, then cherry-pick, once they feel they’ve seen the entire recruiting class.</p>
<p>And please know, I’m not singling H out, just using this example, and for all I know, they NEVER overcommit, but are sometimes misunderstood. Just raising the question.</p>
<p>Last year the Stanford coaches told several top recruits they were “in” and these ladies rolled the dice on the restricted early action…Dec 15 they were Denied…not even deferred! It was a mess.</p>
<p>Coaches may think its all good–yet admissions admits.</p>
<p>In our house–while we expected the LL after our student verballed on the OV in Sept…we didn’t breath easier until that LL arrived and felt even better Dec 15…Our kiddos school plays very much by the rules…the pre-read was done in summer…</p>
<p>I do know that a woman who will play soccer for P–had verballed in spring her Jr year…and I wondered how this could be with NCAA recruiting rules
and one kid verballed to Stanford for baseball in spring Jr year. Both student will attend those schools this fall.</p>
<p>Players are told again and again to ask the coach what kind of support he or she can give them in admissions. They are also told to find out the percentage of recruits who have been admitted in recent years. Of the 2011 recruits in our area, we are only aware of one who had an offer revoked. (Her play had deteriorated so this was no surprise.) All of the other verbal commitments came to fruition. If a college coach gets a reputation of not getting players admitted, that will hurt him or her. Word gets around. Players talk and coaches talk. </p>
<p>I mentioned Stanfords recruitment of 2013s. It should be made clear that these commitments are not quixotic gestures by rec league players. Six of the eight have been to multiple national team camps. The coaches have seen them all play. These are all players that the soccer team wants. One reason that players make verbal commitments early is that womens soccer only gets 14 full scholarships to split up among team members. Coaches will tell a recruit that if she commits now, the coach will give her $x, but if she waits there will be no money left. Of course, none of this is binding. That is where reputation comes in. If a lot of recruits do not get in or you have a lot of transfers, red flags will be raised.</p>
<p>^doesn’t happen. you’re miss informed. And Stanford never said “in”. it would have been something more like “my top recruits have always gotten in but the final decision comes from admissions”…I’ve never heard of a Stanford coaching leaving out that last part: “BUT the final decision comes from admissions”</p>
<p>A Stanford coach can’t promise admissions, and I’ve never heard of a documented case where one did, only admissions can promise!</p>
<p>still a lousy situation because “have always gotten in” sounds pretty darn solid.</p>
<p>Coaches don’t offer before they go to admissions, a 2012 offer is obviously more solid than a 2013 because they’ve gone to admissions with grades and scores. As I’ve stated before, nothing really changes. If admissions and the coach promises in July, the likely letter will come in october. For football at least, and from what I’m hearing for soccer as well.</p>
<p>In Ivy league football this is how you get the best players, the best players help you win ivy championships. Ivy championships = donations, and big ones.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth… the same recruit appears on the below list of other 2013 D1 recruits (rising Juniors who likely haven’t taken official SAT’s yet), along with a Stanford commitment:</p>