<p>If a school that has been giving nothing but positive, encouraging messages up until that point, but does not get in touch in July or issue an OV invite in July (even though they previously said they would), can you assume its pretty much over with that school...even if the athlete's times, academics, etc would stack up very well with the school?
Should a recruit continue to try to get in touch with the coaches (with emails and phone messages) and find out of they are still on their list or not? I feel like the recruit deserves an answer one way or another so they can move on if need be....or would this just annoy the coaches? Do some schools not get gear up until later in the summer, and do some still send out OV invites after July?</p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t assume it’s over. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes things that can be taking place, vacations, coaches changing positions, etc. that could be responsible for the lack of communication.
I think it would be fine to send off a note expressing that you’re still interested in the program</p>
<p>Mid August was when things really started up for my D. She received 13 calls in a two day period from coaches that she had been in email contact with early in the spring/summer. She was convinced on July 1, that nobody wanted her! As it turned out, she had way more OV offers than she could legally take and most of those didn’t come until after transcript/test scores were sent and reviewed (mid august)</p>
<p>Varska is right about coaches being on vacation (or at the Olympics) right now.</p>
<p>Tell her to keep sending those emails expressing her interest.
Many schools at this point don’t have their OV calendars set up yet. </p>
<p>bummer</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. D did email mid-July to give new academic info, thinking that might at least prompt a response but did not. Any thoughts/opinions on when she should call or email again if she still hasn’t heard anything (mid-Aug, last day of Aug, first day of senior yr?)…bearing in mind that she won’t really have anything to update. What exactly do you ask anyway…“do you consider me a recruit? do I still have a chance for a visit invite or have they all been given out?”
The confusing part is that she has 3 invites that came weeks ago and they are pressing her for a date. The schools are OK and wants the visit if she doesn’t get others, but if her top 3 come through with an invite than she doesn’t want to waste everyone’s time.<br>
Sigh. We should have known this wouldn’t be so simple!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>she can call/email the coaches of those schools she is interested in and has had conversations with and tell them she has a number of OV offers but would really like their school to be one of them. If she has OV offers from schools in the same conference, this can get a coach to act. In our case, one Ivy was dragging their feet a bit until D told that coach she had 3 other Ivy’s that wanted her for an OV. Within days of that phone call, she had her OV lined up.</p>
<p>As far as the 3 schools that are pressing her. She should be honest and tell them she is still trying to narrow down her choices.</p>
<p>dtchgirl,</p>
<p>My two cents…If this is your #1, CALL (no email) the coach now. I’ve read too many situations where the coach has left the school or something happened to the recruiting coach. Whatever the case may be, you need to know where they stand. You want to talk to the head coach, and know they are just as interested in you as you are in them. You will learn more from a conversation than an email. Emails have their place,but I think this deserves a phone call to get the communication back on track.</p>
<p>As far as the other schools go, solidify your relationship with their coaches and schedule those OVs. Regardless of what happens with the school in question, keep moving forward with your plans & goals.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Totally agree with Fenway, CALL - and if you can’t reach head coach, I think you can also try the assistants. (At least in my D’s sport, one of the assistants was usually the one coordinating recruiting.) Don’t be afraid to ask direct questions, they are expecting it. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. Things are moving forward a bit. D emailed the one remaining assistant coach whom she had not met this spring and briefly introduced herself. He emailed her back within a few hours and they have time set up a time to talk and he mentioned getting her there for a visit. He apologized that with all the coaching turnover, travel, etc some recruits probably weren’t getting the attention they deserved. I told D that before the call she needs to keep her goal/objective of the call in mind, and that direct questions and clear communication is better for everyone. (ie, am I in line to get an OV invite? if so can you tell me the dates? can I reserve a date now? if not, when can you let me know if I will get an invite?)
She also called the other school at the top of her list that had said in an email she was a top recruit, but had not called her. They were also positive and encouraging and set up a time for another call.
If she can get these two nailed down for OV dates, then she can fill in with others and/or know which ones she just needs to let know she can’t commit to a visit date at this time, and likely won’t be able to.</p>
<p>dtchgrl,
My D is in a very similar situation. She had called and talked to a couple coaches that are the top choices. They had said encouraging words and gave verbal invites. But we have not seen anything in writing. So today, I told her to write again and specifically said she wants to know if they are planning to invite her out as she needs to make other arrangements. We also went ahead with 2 other schools that had sent out dates and get things rolling further. I’ve never thought this recruiting process would be so confusing and taxing. I don’t want to stress her out, but she is still a naive 16 yr old who thinks that if a coach has been contacting you, he is interested in you and she is afraid of saying things too direct. I understand that the kids need to be in charge and doing the communication themselves. But they are at a disadvantage here. These coaches have years of experiences and the simple things they said could give a 16-yr old a lot of hopes. It does not help that she thinks every coach she talked to is nice so we are not much further in our elimination process. We can’t even decide between D1 and D3!</p>
<p>Our kids sound a lot alike! It took a long time to get any sort of preference out of her…everything is always “fine” and she seems to go a lot on how “nice” the assistant coach is on the phone! I’ve pointed out to her that is the LAST thing to base a decision on…we’ve seen this summer that the assistant coach situation can be a merry go round.
Now that I"ve got her over (at least somewhat) the fear of picking up the phone to call, the next hurdle/learning experience will be when she has to start telling some of the “on the bubble” schools that she won’t be taking a visit. Sigh</p>
<p>I think it’s especially hard for our generation of kids raised on texting to learn to pick up the phone and CALL, but I think my son has now learned that there is no substitute… a school that I thought was a perfect fit for my son’s ability and academics was not responding to a mailing and an email. Now that my son has phoned him, we are in a steady dialogue and he has faxed in his pre-read info. </p>
<p>Before he makes calls, he has also learned to jot down what points he wants to make or questions he wants to ask and to remind him to LEAVE HIS NUMBER (also hard for the cell phone generation to remember 
)</p>
<p>We just came back from an unofficial visit where the coach very generously gave some general advice which included: Be persistent, because some coaches are not at all good at recruiting. </p>
<p>I’m hoping my son will save some of what we are learning in the recruiting process for when he goes to look for a job in four years!</p>