My DD 21 is making waves on her hs softball team. I have no clue how good she really is but i hear from the coach and athletic director that is incredible on the field. As a sophomore, I dont know what to expect from her and I am in no position to evaluate her myself. Honestly before this year I never considered her very good at softball, i thought it was just a hobby (so you all know I haven’t been pushing her her whole life).
The idea of becoming a recruited athlete has popped into my head. So if she was that good, would people have been reaching out to us already? Or is that something you need to pursue. I am assuming that if she hasn’t been scouted she isnt as good as I think but I have no clue how any of this works.
She is an incredible student, in NHS, Italian HS and NEHS. Her average is about 101. She is also an excellent Harpist.
Could you please educate me and or point me to a thread addressing this?
Thanks!
Often the good softball players play on a local or regional team in the spring and summer. Some of them travel to national tourneys. Perhaps others know if the scouting happens at HS games or from these other teams.
@CheddarcheeseMN I told her to express to the coach shed like some information on summer leagues/clubs
Google is your friend. I know nothing about softball, but I expect in all sports the athlete has to make an effort to be recruited. In my opinion it is important for the parent to be as educated as possible about the process.
By us, the kids who get recruited for baseball and softball are the ones who play year round. They’re not always better athletes than other kids, but that’s how they get noticed. There’s a place in NJ run by Jack Cust. Costs thousand’s of dollars a year, but that’s where all the recruited athletes play, and they hold recruiting events.
D3 recruiting is another option, and the coach would definitely be the right place to start. Our coaches are always very helpful if a kid expresses a desire to play beyond high school.
Assume from your name you’re in NY? Google Diamond Nation. Jenny Finch runs the softball end of things there. My son played briefly and had teammates from NY, CT, PA - you name it. People traveled hours! I think more and more of these places are opening up in the Northeast where you can’t play outside year round.
@OP Why is it a dumb question? You don’t have knowledge or experience about this situation so it’s really smart to ask for help.
@Riversider I guess i felt sheepish about asking for fear of sounding obnoxious!
I have an acquaintance, let’s say. This lady’s daughter is the end all and be all of HS basketball. She is always bragging about this school and that school calling her about recruiting her daughter. I dont want to ask her anything! So that kind of led me to believe you had to be scouted and hounded to play in college.
@NJWrestlingmom I will look into that!
For baseball, the elite boys play summer ball. Some even play year round. It’s expensive, time consuming, and for some sucks all the love out of the game. My son just dropped summer ball this year because he actually wanted a normal summer with downtime. That said, travel ball is pretty much the only route to D1, no one really recruits off the high school Fields. Perhaps softball is different, but I doubt it.
@murray93 thanks for your input!
My daughter was a recruited softball player and has been a 4 year starter on her NESCAC team. To give you some benchmarks: she was an All District player and 3 year starter in HS in a big state/big school environment for a team that made it to the State Championships 1 year and always made a deep run in the playoffs. She played on a summer travel team (actually 2), but that is not where she got noticed. My suggestions:
Objectively assess your kid:
- What level of competition does she play at. It is one thing to play for a "big" HS say in the states of California, Texas or Florida vs playing for a private school league in a small state.
- What are her stat's/achievements (offensive and defensive).
- Go to some showcases/clinics where you can compare her vs other aspiring players
Expose your kid:
- Very few college coaches go to HS in season games unless it is some superstar recruit that lives near the school because of overlapping seasons.
- Most scouting occurs in summer/fall travel ball play, and in showcases and clinics. Our D did not play for a "national elite" travel ball team, nor was she a phenom, so her exposure based on travel ball was limited. In those settings, coaches are focused on the "name" teams and kids already on their radar by reputation. We had much better success sending her to specific academic showcases and specific college clinics that had multiple coaches of schools she was interested in attending. A good one is Headfirst.
- That having been said, she probably needs to play travel ball to get the high level game experience and a level of softball credibility.
- Put together video of her, both live game and controlled skills (hitting, fielding, throwing, pitching)
Contact Coaches
- Make a list of schools that fit her academically and athletically.
- Fill in those schools’ recruiting questionnaire
- Email the coaches with both an academic (transcript, honors/awards, test scores if any) and athletic resume (stat’s, honors, who she plays for) and a link to video (the video is really important).
- Note which showcases/clinics and tournaments she will be playing in the next few months
Sophomore year is not too early to make the push. In fact pushing after junior year may be too late.
Best of luck and I didn’t mean to sound too negative. Those are just the realities! My son is also a musician and the whole travel experience has allowed him to realize he loves music more than baseball. Thankfully he is still able to do both, the baseball is just at a more casual level now.
In addition to @BKSquared’s points, familiarize yourself with the NCAA softball recruiting rules and timelines. Softball is one of the sports with the most restrictive rules of engagement (enacted in 2018) and unlike some other sports, early committing in softball has actually decreased. Good luck.
http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/resources/recruiting-calendars/2018-19-division-i-and-ii-recruiting-calendars
@Mwfan1921 great info! Thanks.
@BronxBaby, I have no clue about softball so I will leave only a quick thought: take anything you hear about recruiting from someone with experience in your D’s sport with a grain of salt and anything you hear from someone with experiences in other sports with two grains of salt.
Every sport is different and so is every experience, but getting feedback from people who have been through softball recruiting is the best. From there, you can use CC and Google to verify and adapt the advice to what you want.
Best of luck!
Don’t sit back and expect coaches to find your daughter because the coach just happened to see a high school game. Recruiting is a two way street. You have to go out looking for schools too. If you can’t evaluate her level of play, ask her current coaches where they think she’d fit it - top D1 program, mid D1 level, or very uncompetitive school (which are FINE too). Then look at her academics and see which type of schools fit for her. She might be better off at a state college in the mid-size group with a team that wins about half their games. She might fit in a very small private school that plays regionally.
On most college athletic sites, there is a recruiting questionnaire to complete. This lets the coaches know you are interested in them and they might start looking for you at tournaments or camps. The hs coach may also have connections. The camps and tournaments are a great way for a lot of coaches to see you at once.
You also have to decide what ‘recruited athlete’ means to you. For D1 and D2 schools it can mean a $$scholarship. At a D3 school or a very elite university, it can mean getting a boost in admissions but no money.
@twoinanddone that’s why i posted here. Like I said the “friend” I have wont stop telling me how colleges are beating down her door for her kid. This has really given me pause when I question my own kid’s ability and prospects.
@BronxBaby most parents overestimate their child’s athletic ability, but a few of us underestimate. I have been continually surprised by the journey my son is on. But that’s why it’s a good idea to get the coach’s assessment.
@cinnamon1212 I’m glad to hear all of this. I should talk to the coach myself and see what his thoughts are.
My daughter didn’t want to be recruited but decided late in junior year that she’d not only like to play in college, she wanted to play D1. Sorry honey, that ship sailed. But there were still a lot of places she could play at her level and a good fit academically.
She did get some attention after playing in the showcases (they fill out a recruiting form with their academic and sports stats), but from a lot of LACs where her grades would be fine but her athletics way above their level. A lot of kids would have like to have the help getting into those schools, but my daughter wasn’t really interested in LACs. So we had to do more of the footwork to find teams/schools more suited to her.
Ask the coaches, and if they suggest some schools, watch some of their games on the web or go in person if you live in the area. I was no expert but I’d watched my daughter play for enough years that even I could tell if she’d be competitive on a team or if the team was just so awful that she’d be bored (and there were plenty of those!). A lot of finding the right team is pure luck but you can help narrow it down. Pick a type of school -huge, mid-size, small, a region of the country, look at the team’s travel schedules. Dive in and just visit a few schools.
Have there been other kids on her team that have played in college? Start looking at teams they went to, and then judge for yourself if they were at the same level as your daughter and make adjustments from there. My daughter’s club coach became a feeder for D’s college. A one time there were 6 kids from the club on the college team.
@BronxBaby Best of luck to you and your D!