A male tennis player, now a high school junior, will be applying to NESCAC and similar Division 3 academic superstars next fall. His academic achievement outshines his athletic prowess. He will be a solid, typical applicant for that level of college. He loves tennis; he has played since he was five years old, playing five or more times a week year round since he was nine. It is a huge part of his life. He is a good player on his school team but not at the top of the county and not nationally ranked or anything.
If he wants to try out for the team, should he contact the coach during the admissions process, or wait until he has been admitted and then contact the coach? Are there walk-ons at NESCAC level tennis teams? Or do you need to contact the coach early?
Could it actually harm his application if he contacts the coach and the coach isn’t interested?
I appreciate any thoughts based on personal experiences from anyone familiar with this process. The world of college athletics is all new to me!
Unlike track, where a person can join the practice and compete depending on how he’s practicing, tennis teams are likely to be limited in size based on courts. If this person has a shot at getting on the team, talking to the coach now is important. It could not hurt, it might help, and even if he doesn’t get the coach’s support, he’ll be better positioned as a walk on (if they take any) than if he waits until after acceptance. Coaches have a certain obligation to recruits, so are unlikely to bump one for a walk on, especially one who was not on their radar.
If he isn’t playing USTA tournaments, most likely his only chance at joining the team would be at Hamilton, with a slim chance at Connecticut College. The top NESCAC teams rival mid level D-1’s.
He can submit a “sport-specific recruiting form.” From that point forward, the coach will serve to guide his inquiries. This would be preferable in all ways to a “walk-on” approach.
@TheGreyKing If he also plays some USTA tournaments, he will have a UTR. He can go to the Universal Tennis website and look up his UTR and the Power Ratings of the schools in the NESCAC to give him an idea of his chances of playing for any given team.
Williams, Bowdoin, Amherst, and Middlebury are in contention to win the Div III Championship each year and have teams comprised of players with UTRs ranging from 13’s to the mid 11"s. Hamilton’s team has a UTR spread of 11.03-8.82, while Conn’s team has a spread of 10.3-8.63…
(A UTR in the upper 12 to 13 range corresponds to a high 4 star to 5 star junior rating, while many of the mid 11’s were 4 or high 3 stars in high school.)
If he is not currently playing USTA tournaments, he may want to begin playing local tournaments so he will have a UTR when he begins to reach out to coaches this summer.