<p>July 1 = the first day division 1 (and maybe 2, too?) coaches can call recruits for most sports. And it's just a few days away now!</p>
<p>I, personally, am so excited as this is when you really get an idea of how interested coaches are, by how soon they call.</p>
<p>Basically this thread is for thoughts, concerns, questions, and stories about the upcoming tidal wave of recruitment we elite high school athletes are about to endure.</p>
<p>Any comments?</p>
<p>My advice: </p>
<h1>1. Don’t be too discouraged or worried if you DON’T get a lot of calls on July 1. My S, who ended up being offered likely letters at multiple Ivies and a scholarship from a non-Ivy D1 powerhouse, didn’t hear from all the schools interested in him on the first day or even in the first week of July. And he wasn’t offered an Official Visit to the school he eventually chose until August. We held out the one last OV slot, stalling a few very good schools in the process, in the hopes that they would come through and they did.</h1>
<h1>2. If you are getting calls and offers of OVs, enjoy the fruit of all your hard work!</h1>
<p>My daughter has had a couple of coaches ask for the best time to call her on July 1st. She will be at a training camp, so there is no telling if she will be available to take calls, but she gave them possible times, based on the camp schedule.</p>
<p>Good luck to all the young athletes, I hope your recruiting seasons goes smoothly!</p>
<p>Good advice, 3Xboys.</p>
<p>For one thing, coaches can only call recruits once a week. From what we could figure out, they distributed their recruiting list over the week so that D would get calls from the same constellation of coaches every Wednesday, for example. (You can return calls any time you wish, of course.)</p>
<p>Also, coaches have their own systems for working through the recruiting list and often divide the list among the coaching staff, so some names probably don’t come up until later in the summer. For some coaches, July is their only month of “vacation” from their sport and they may start the process a little later; others just aren’t as organized or aggressive about recruiting. This is also somewhat sport dependent. It is always OK to email coaches and let them know that they are your first choice, or one of only a few schools that you would really love to play for. The coach doesn’t want to waste his time working on kids who are in love with another school, especially if you are at the top of your sport, and he knows you will have your pick of schools. </p>
<p>If you love HIS school, and you are a match, this saves everyone a lot of time and effort. Send some well-worded emails to a select few coaches if you are serious about a short list of schools, and say so. You don’t need to share the names of the schools with each coach, but be clear that you are very focused in your interest in playing in a certain league, if that’s the case. </p>
<p>Be honest: don’t send out a sincere “you’re my first choice” to 10 schools. This will catch up with very soon. If you aren’t sure you are a match for the league you’re most interested in, then you will also need to strengthen your relationships with athletic “safety” schools. Don’t overplay this, just be cordial and not dismissive or belittling of programs you think you are too good for, but may need if Plan A doesn’t work out.</p>
<p>OK, back to the World Cup…</p>
<p>^^^riverrunner, you ALWAYS give the best advice!</p>
<p>Of note too</p>
<p>several coaches our student is talking with–are going to be out of the country–</p>
<p>one D1 coach is overseas right now–and wont be in the US July nor the following week–and has told our student as much–a nice heads up–and that our kiddo would see/hear from the coach later in the month of July.</p>
<p>Another D1 coach will be around in the US the first week or two of July and then leaves the country…that coach has the transcipts etc and said their first mtg with AdCom is mid July…</p>
<p>I appreciate reading it goes differently for each athlete so if July 1 and even the first weeks of July aren’t a deluge of OV offers etc–at least we aren’t worrying as much…</p>
<p>What’s also been interesting is how these things vary from mens and womens sports…</p>
<p>For example–we know of students - opposite genders-- looking at the same schools and the coaches’ personalitys and communication vary–not only in tone and frequency–and also kinds of informaitons–ACT/SAT2 score cutoffs, etc etc</p>
<p>Its an adventure</p>
<p>July 1 can be a very exciting date for the athlete. It can represent a validation of all the hard work leading up to a moment of time where a college coach explicitly recognizes all those hours/days/weeks/years of effort. But it is an artificial date with significance that is really fleeting.</p>
<p>And dont think that most college coaches are ignorant of the significance of July 1. (Most college coaches are masters of manipulation when it comes to recruiting hs players.)</p>
<p>Speaking as a parent of an athlete, July 1 was indeed an amazing date the phone calls started early in the morning and continued throughout the day. Proud parents we were; watching as our hs student fielded calls from prospective suitors; answering questions with the aplomb of a politician at a news conference. We even put charts up on the fridge! </p>
<p>And, jumping ahead, the school he chose was not one of those 7/1 calls!</p>
<p>Recruiting is a process. And, if there are no calls received on July 1 there is no significance in that fact. There are a myriad of reasons for not hearing from a coach on July 1 (some coaches are busy; some coaches may have spoken to your athlete in a camp the week before; some coaches are simply more aggressive [organized], etc).</p>
<p>I would put absolutely zero stock in a call (or no call) on July 1 (you have no idea if coach called 1, 100, or 1000 other athletes that day).</p>
<p>I would keep my eye on the goal of the recruiting process: finding which schools are the right fit for me? (I happen to believe that there will be more than one perfect fit.) I would remain open to all possibilities throughout the recruiting process. Schools which you havent even dreamed about may surface not on July 1 but much later. I would use the opportunity of these contacts to make my student/athlete research each potential match (ah, the internet makes it so easy).</p>
<p>I would not commit to anything on July 1 (commit to nothing in the heat of the moment); that includes Official Visits and scholly/roster offers. I would thank the coaches profusely, have a series of questions ready if needed, write down what was said (so you can remember in case you need to get materials together (e.g., transcripts to admissions to approve a visit), and keep a cool and level head (that goes for July 1 or any other time your athlete has conversations with coaches).</p>
<p>I would also not, as a parent, speak with a coach at this point. If the coach calls your home phone, I would simply take a message; no conversation, no questions, nothing more than take a message. This part of the recruiting process is between the athlete and the coach (there will be a time for parental involvement just not during the courtship dance). I would, however, really press my athlete to tell about the conversation both out of curiosity and because the athlete is seriously overmatched by the recruiting process/coach so we can offer advice and counsel. Also, as a life experience, every time the athlete speaks directly to the coach during this recruiting process without parental filters is essentially another job interview (I mean, youre not going to go to a job interview with him/her are you?).</p>
<p>On final comment sit back and enjoy the ride; you worked hard to get to this point and earned the right to be exhilarated!</p>
<p>^^ Stemit
All great points</p>
<p>our student-athlete is away all summer–training/competing…</p>
<p>Faxes with transcripts/scores etc have gone out to several prospective coaches/schools- however not all potentially under consideration…</p>
<p>So if we get calls to the house-- we were going to share our student’s cell phone #–in the event they issed it on the revised resume/stats sheet…
We sent our student off for the summer with a spiral ntoebook to jot notes, and questions from a thread here on CC-- for handling phone calls… being organized will hopefuly help when it comes to recalling who said what…</p>
<p>I hope all the student athletes with sites on the 7/1 mark, experience very productive phone calls~</p>
<p>Football coaches for D-I/DI-AA are allowed to call once between 4/15 and 5/31. Such a tease… yet, many coaches host and attend camps and showcases over the summer, talking face-to-face with prospective athletes.</p>
<p>Coaches can’t call again until 9/1 of Sr. year… and at that point, it defalts to the once/week timeline.</p>
<p>Our experience mirrored post #2. D did get some calls on 7/1, but I think one reason she didn’t get as many as we thought she might was that many coaches in her sport go away on vacation in early July. Nationals for track happens late June, and in August the coaches have to be back to work and run their pre-season cross-country training camp, so July is when they take off.</p>
<p>Also, since D had been very proactive and had already been on about 10 unofficials and had been in e-mail contact with many other coaches, some coaches may have decided to focus on calling other kids that day with whom they hadn’t spoken yet.</p>
<p>I’ve cited this before on other threads, but it was helpful to have read an interview with the father of Jordan Hasay, one of the best high school distance runners ever. They anticipated the phone ringing off the hook on July first, but it didn’t. I think she got only seven calls. I was shocked to read that. In the end, the schools that called her were the ones in which she had demonstrated interest, and frankly were ones that would fit her talent level. I’m sure every school in the country would have have wanted her, but she might have also suffered from being too good in a sense. Unless you were the coach of a well-known running school of or near the caliber of the Univ. of Oregon, you probably didn’t stand a chance getting her and wouldn’t have wasted your time calling.</p>
<p>What’s OV?</p>
<p>official visit</p>
<p>Is July 1st for rising juniors ?</p>
<p>nope, rising seniors</p>
<p>Stemit’s post mirrored our experience. My son received calls from interested coaches of which only a couple schools he was truly interested in. My son was polite, respectful and kept the communication line open for further discussion for all schools. He wanted to learn more about some school/coach before making any judgements either way, because frankly some of the schools he didn’t know much about. In my mind, July 1 became the starting day for my son to step up and handle the coaches calls, initiate his own calls and manage adult situations. Yes, there was some nagging (isn’t there always!) on our part - “did you follow up with college X?”, but July 1 really did change the parent/child dynamic. </p>
<p>As it turns out, the school that he is going to was not on his radar and he wasn’t on theirs as of July 1. He was being recruited by other Ivys. A lot happened in July, August, Sept last year for us. Visits, offers, friends committing…all of this stuff will happen around you. You will see lesser athletes/lesser students committing to schools you are interested in, and you will scratch your head and wonder “what is that coach thinking”. Forget about it, and keep moving forward. Keep your son/daughter focused on their goals, and be patient. When the right school, coach, situation comes along, you will know it. As a parent looking back at last July 1, I would suggest managing expectations with your son or daughter. It can be a very stressful at times, and it can be hard on your family relationships. Stay positive. Good luck.</p>
<p>EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT thread!!! </p>
<p>My son received 2 calls yesterday (July 1), but did not receive calls from several coaches that have shown great interest and have been highly responsive/interactive to our inquiries. I would be highly surprised (though anything is possible) if these coaches didn’t call, there is simply no reason to not call, as it would represent wasted effort on the coaches’ parts. I also noted to my son that one of the schools that did not call just saw him at camp the 4 days before (June 27-30), so why would they call the next day, what would they talk about? I’m not sure if my son is disappointed because he is currently training at camp, so it was hard to read him on the phone (he’s a poker face, with a poker voice). I wasn’t sure what to make of it all, so I started my internet research, and here I am on this thread.</p>
<p>I think Stemit is dead on in referring to this whole thing as a PROCESS. I will make sure that my son reads this thread, and stemit’s post in particular, because it really puts the whole thing in perspective.</p>
<p>One little bit of “wisdom” that I have given my son regarding his “heart’s desire” of schools, that I will share here, is that “you don’t have to be the first one that they call, you just have to be the last one that they call”</p>
<p>Once again, thanks to everyone on this thread for sharing their experiences and opinions!!</p>
<p>BTW, I note that I don’t really see a single dissenting opinion here, that July 1 in fact SHOULD be given great significance.</p>
<p>One of the schools I was very interested in didn’t call me until the second week of recruiting last year. I didn’t wind up choosing that school, however.</p>
<p>Don’t be worried if they don’t call immediately. Some coaches prefer to not rush recruits- they don’t want to just be “another call” in the first few days, when you’re overly excited/rushed/etc. and probably can’t hold a decent conversation because you’ve already talked to ten other people in one day. It all depends on the coach and his/her recruitment methods.</p>