July 1 passed for swimmers Q&A on recruiting trip and getting invited

Athletic Recruits
21

@needscaffeine – I think that’s a tough call. Barring unforeseen circumstances, e.g. he gets arrested while visiting or the other guys on the team are totally unlikeable, at both weekends the coach will likely push to get him to (verbally) commit to applying ED to that school before he leaves to go home.

How big is the gap in terms of his interest in the two schools? If his preferred school is preferred by a lot, I think his best course of action is to visit that school first and try to seal the deal that weekend. First, there’s a small but greater-than-zero risk that if he goes to the preferred school’s later recruiting weekend, a faster swimmer in his event(s) (if there is such a swimmer – I have no idea how fast his times are relative to the team’s/conference’s best times) could commit to the school at the earlier weekend, resulting in the coach being less enthusiastic about supporting your son. Second, it’s safest for the coaches to commit to supporting kids who are most enthusiastic about their school, and whom they think are definitely going to apply ED (i.e., not change their minds after the verbal commitment). If your son attends the earliest recruiting weekend, loves it and is sure it’s the place for him, it will make a significant impression on the coach when your son tells him right then that this school is his clear #1 choice and that he will apply ED. Put another way, if it’s a strong preference he might want to do everything he can to wrap it up quickly.

If the two schools are pretty close in his estimation, with a slight preference for school #1, he might consider visiting #2 first. He can go there and see what he thinks. It might help if he is clear in his own mind prior to the trip that he will not verbally commit to #2’s coach until he also visits #1, as it might be tempting to do so if the visit goes well and the coach goes on and on about how badly they want him. Kids aren’t used to this sort of flattery/pressure, unless they’ve bought a car at the dealership. He should tell them whatever he needs to tell them to string them along until he visits #1 (hopefully soon thereafter) and then he should make a quick and final decision.

We’re in the midst of a similar process. It might be helpful if someone who’s been through this weighs in here.

22

Thanks Asleep at the Wheel. This gives us a lot to think about. I’m not sure he has a very strong preference anywhere right now. It’s hard to get much out of him. I don’t know that he would be ready to commit to anywhere on the spot (if indeed he is offered the opportunity.) I am hoping visiting the schools will make him narrow things down. Good luck to you. It is quite a process.

23

Glad to see this thread. My D is undecided about swimming in college. She has had 1 D3 unofficial visit, which was great. Coach was amazing. Swimmers she randomly met super welcoming. She could swim D3 for sure, probably D2, but not D1. If she decides D1, she will likely take up rowing instead. She is totally enmeshed in HS swim right now, such that she has not done much on the college application front.

On to my question: how important is it to contact D3 coaches in advance? Can’t she just apply and then contact coach if she gets in and decides to swim? Her academics are above 75% level at every D3 she is considering, so I don’t know that she needs the bump from the coach.

24

Booajo
You are right, she might not need help to get admitted but by contacting the coach your daughter might get invited to an official visit where she can get a feel for the team,the school and how she might see herself fitting in on campus
This experience can be priceless as team chemistry etc can be instrumental in her wanting to swim or not
good luck

25

needscaffeine
Yes, it is quite a process putting it mildly. Your son should attend both visits with an open mind to explore/learn about the university and the chemistry of the swim team. My child went through this process last year and I know exactly where you are coming from. One piece of advice that I can offer is that once your son has his heart set on a school he should communicate that to the coach. Someone told this to my son once and his quote to the coach was “if you can help me be admitted here I’ll swim for you”. Feel free to PM me with any questions you may have and I would be glad to answer them.

26

Keep in mind that by applying ED you may forfeit any merit aid or financial aid. Read the fine print carefully. Frankly, I don’t understand the benefits of applying early decision.

27

@Booajo There is no down side to contacting a coach. I agree with the comment regarding overnight visits. My daughter only went on one visit, but I think they can be very helpful. I think it’s good for admissions to know she intends to swim. Most of the swim coaches my daughter spoke to made it clear they give admissions a ranked list of swimmers they really want. As I said - that can’t hurt.

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The only downside is it is another (somewhat painful) task for my extremely shy daughter. Oh well, I’ll mention it to her once.

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Booajo-- I get where you are coming from as my son is really reserved too. This process is pushing him outside his comfort zone. But the coaches with whom he has spoken have been very outgoing. S has some key questions for coaches that get them off and running and he doesn’t have to say a lot! Also they are talking about swimming, which both coach and he are passionate about so at least there is common ground. Good luck!

30

My daughter passed on most of the overnights. She, too, can be shy and is not great in new situations. On the other hand, she had to field phone calls from coaches and swimmers at her prospective schools and I think it was good for her to go through that.

Meeting with the coaches ended up being important to her. She had some key questions (as I’m sure every swimmer does) and used these conversations just to make sure it would be a good fit for her. It also helped her to compare programs (there were no striking differences except for one school). One swim program seemed like it would have been a poor fit for her. She would not have known this if she had not met with the coach. She met with 5 coaches altogether between spring junior year and summer before senior year. And did one overnight with a team. She ended up enjoying it but was not anxious to do another.

In the end, her choice of school was based on other parameters outside of swimming. But, it was good to know she was going to be with a coach and a swim program she would most likely enjoy.

You are right - it is all a lot of work, especially for a shy kid.

31

Thanks, all. I am afraid I don’t even know what “NESCAC” means, but I’ll google it … :slight_smile: We’re going to visit a school next week and dd promised to email the coach. I think planning isn’t our forte. It’s really hard to get all these ducks lined up…

32

It means New England Small College Athletic Conference. There are some very helpful parents on this board with swimmers at those schools if you have questions. I would definitely try to set up a meeting with the coach if you are planning to visit a school. The coaches my son has met are generally friendly and love to talk about swimming and their schools.

33

@sirila – Whether planning is your forte or not, it needs to become one. Your daughter may miss out on all sorts of wonderful academic and swimming opportunities if she doesn’t put in the relatively small amount of work to make this happen.

I’d echo the comment(s) above. She should email the coach, sketch out a few things about herself – where she’s from, academics (GPA and test scores), and times in her best events. Tell the coach that you all are visiting and that she’d like to meet him/her. Almost always the coach will be very happy to meet with her.

34

AsleepAtTheWheel is right, it does take some work on the part of a swimming recruit (and parents) to make the opportunities happen. That was an eye opener for us for sure. S had to do a lot to get official visits at the schools he was most interested in (e-mailing coaches, updating them with time improvements, talking to them at meets, in some cases doing an unofficial visit first). It was not easy to get him to do those things to say the least. He is quiet and would rather not engage. However, as a previous poster said (I think it was swim4school) there is a lot of noise out there surrounding coaches and the recruits need to make sure they come across as very interested in the school.

As far as club swimming, I think the big state universities often tend to have club teams. I would look at a school’s webpage to find out. Good luck!

35

Agree 100%, no matter the sport. If the player isn’t aggressively pursuing the coaches, they had better be world-class.

And they better commit to being seen as much as possible, less so in timed sports, but team sports especially. My son had been seen by an assistant twice, who gave him a good report. But then he was sick on a prospect day, and they said “no thank you”. But he was too miffed to pursue additional prospect and walk-on days, he was offended. Whatever, don’t try, then don’t play. No college team, no matter the level or division, is going to hunt down players, players come to them (again, barring world-class).

Club teams very much vary. The club team in my son’s sport is uncommunicative, and he has reached out to them in person and by email and they aren’t contacting him. He has no idea when their tryouts are. He probably will change sports therefore. (for reference, he has played the sport with college players the last two summers, so he was at a D3 level at least)

Conversely, the club ice hockey team required freshmen to sign up in summer before they attend, and tryouts are a week before classes start (so they have to be on campus early). Very very organized.

I think if your child is looking for a club sport and is not committed to a college yet, look into the program. Many club teams travel to different colleges, but just have a smaller commitment that is much more manageable, especially if your child is an engineer or other tough major.

36

@sirila I know a few swimmers who chose to attend D1 schools and swim club teams. They really enjoyed the experience, and for them, it was just the right amount of intensity. My daughter is a D3 swimmer, but did check out some club teams, and each and every one was welcoming. Perhaps she lucked out!

I know it’s a lot of work, and requires some organization, communication, visits, etc. You have received a lot of good advice! I’m sure your daughter will have great options in the spring. Good luck to you.

37

Y’all – thanks, tons.

It’s not just the kids who get discouraged. dd wrote what I thought was a really great letter and sent it to the coaches of 10 schools she’s interested in. She’s barely a D3 swimmer, not faster, and 8 of the 10 schools she was interested in are D1 schools, only not just “d1” but evidently uber-D1’s (maybe they all are).

The thing is, her academics was and is driving all this but her, I dunno, “inner manatee” or something, basically requires her to be in the water everyday even if she’s not super-fast.

The letters she got back were just so dispiriting!! And so, the comments from you-all are helpful in clarifying what’s going on from the noise to the purpose to the structure of these teams within the University and the team’s “sidekick”, possible “club teams”.

Her letter was intended to elicit some sort of response like “great, it’s wonderful you’re interested in our school, we can see your academics merit it. And while your swimming isn’t team-speed the team practices with twice as many kids as are actually on the team; the others are part of “club-swimming”, not team-swimming. We hold tryouts for the club team on asdf and most of our kids swim asdf so you do/do not fit in there…”

Anyway, that sort of thing. A little positive or encouraging and explanatory of the lay of the land.

I guess we’re sort of the only ones out here clueless about all this. I am not an athlete at all and have never played a single sport ever. dd must have been switched at birth. But also I guess, reading about other kids who are not really outgoing, I realize that dd isn’t gregarious and in truth I must not be either. Not about my own I guess. So we don’t know what’s going on. That letter was intended to ask: where can I find a place for me? Instead the letters were all, with just one exception (which we’re visiting next week, not because anyone invited her but just because) of a very explicit “don’t call us, we’ll call you only we won’t”. They were gratuitously information-less. Not a single one mentioned the existence of a club team much less whether or where they might be the more appropriate place for her to look.

So in the end she and I both just felt like crying. It really felt like she would graduate from high school and have to stop swimming. If she were to filter her applications according to where she wants to go for academics, there would be no place for her to swim at school.

I guess this sounds just really stupid to you-all because by definition you’re, or at least your kids are, pretty much focused on competition. But when you’re not, this felt very discouraging to the point that I’m having a hard time getting dd to agree to apply anywhere.

Anyway, thanks for the tips. The collegeswimming.com website was unbelievably helpful. It evens ranks her in-state and nationally; so interesting! You can stick in the academics scores and then see how kid “fits in” (last so often!! lol) – it’s really, really helpful to see where she’s close or even in the middle of the pack and where she’s just lapped on paper! This is exactly what I needed: THANK YOU!

Next I’ll try googling “club swim school”. These schools should know that this aloofness by the swim coaches has turned dd away from applying to some of these schools. And she’s the kind of kid academically they come after. So they have elbows not knowing what arms are doing. But that’s really my point, in fact the elbows are explicitly disjoint from the arms, seemingly.

38

Sirilla
Yes the process is confusing and very eye opening to say the least .But asking questions on this site and reading past posts over the years can give you most of the information that you will need to feel less overwhelmed
If you share some swim stats, academic scores etc we might be able to help give you some guidance with regards to school options
Unfortunately, the coaches at the Div 1 level are not connected with the club team and are there to build the best swim team they can
They receive hundreds of emails and most do the best they can to respond but they obviously reach out to those student athletes that will improve their team
Club teams are generally run by students and are totally separate from the Varsity program
On most schools websites there will be a contact name for the captain of the club swim team
You can email them about your interest and questions with regards to practices, meets and general student participation
Try and enjoy the process
There is no doubt that a perfect mix of academics and athletics can be found with some perseverance and due diligence
Best of luck

39

Just as a clarification, varsity and club swimmers do not practice together. The coaches are giving an honest assessment as to whether she is a fit for the varsity team. The coach has nothing to do with the club team.

If you go onto a college’s website, look for student clubs. It is usually under the heading of “Student Life” or something like that. Your daughter should be able to find it. There will be a list of clubs, one of which might be swimming. These are student run clubs. Your daughter can email the President of the club and introduce herself, ask questions, etc.

If you post some of her times and what she is looking to study, the helpful folks on this forum might be able to make some good suggestions as far as varsity teams go.

Good luck!

40

@sirila – I agree strongly with @VMT’s advice. You should post her best times in her two or three best events and some sort of sketch of her academics. Or you can PM them to a couple of the folks who’ve posted good notes on this thread. Many of the folks here have done a ton of homework on schools, of all stripes. And we’re parents of swimmers, most of whom are also very good students, so to a great extent we ‘get it’, and would be very happy to offer suggestions.