<p>Like all other things, your mileage may vary. My kid was 16 for her OV’s. </p>
<p>I was honestly less worried about any coach interactions with her about salesmanship or money or whatnot than I was about who was hosting her for visit. </p>
<p>At one of her visits, she was offered large quantities of alcohol and brought to a frat party. Fortunately she was amart enough to decline. She also did not end up going there, mostly because she got impression that would be standard, typical team bonding activity and she was bot into it. </p>
<p>If we were confised in least about money offers, my H and I would have contacted coach. It was very clear what was being offered. In terms of playing time, coaches will always say one thing and then do whatever they see fit duing season that they think will benefit the eam. Regardless of it mom or dad are sitting in meetings at unofficials or officials.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your input. Keep if coming. My son has traveled by himself so the travel isn’t an issue. He will just be 17 when he starts his OVs. It’s interesting to hear how many of you have gone to the OVs because all of the people we know who have been through this have stayed home. Oh … What to do!</p>
<p>My high school senior son went on four OV this fall, but three were to high academic D3 schools and one to a high academic d1 that we had already visited and met with the coach at least once. None of the schools provide athletic money for his sport or even merit scholarships for academics. All are “meet 100% need” schools only. Several did financial aid prereads over the summer or I worked with the NPC’s online and called the FA office with questions. These OV’s did not include meetings about $, so it was easier to send my son without a parent.</p>
<p>My son went on his OVs (Ivies, for rowing) alone. No coach mentioned the possibility of parents going, but nor did we inquire. Just now, I asked him if there were any parents on the officials and he said it appeared that all the boys travelled by train and plane solo. No parents anywhere that he noticed …</p>
<p>Not the same because ours were unofficials, travel not paid for by the school, but the schools seemed to expect to see me with our son, and when he met with the coaches, I was there. I think OV’s are different, though.</p>
<p>For parents who are considering attending an OV it is important to keep in mind that the coach is in charge of the OV. Many coaches will give a brief presentation with a question and answer session afterward for both the parents and recruits at the start of the OV. Coaches understand that parents can influence a recruits choice of schools which is why successful coaches will encourage communication with the parents of highly ranked recruits. If the coach did not want parents present then a presentation would not be scheduled. If a parent wishes to attend these sessions then by all means go. If you want to ask the coach a question keep it short and try to ask only about the topics the coach has presented. After the sessions is over you can tour the campus, tour the town, or look at housing if that will be an issue.</p>
<p>Some of the best advice we got on this topic was from a prior post on CC that stated the OV is for fellow team members and coaches to see if THE RECRUIT is a good fit for the team. The coach already knows the recruit has the right times, performance, stats or they would not be putting the effort and expense into the OV. The OV is a great time for the recruit to demonstrate they are independent, confident, and motivated young adults who can make their own decisions. Finances were ‘off limits’ at my kid’s OV - probably unique to our particular situation.
As parents we adopted the philosophy with recruiting coaches that we would speak only when spoken to, and would answer questions only when asked but most of those were ‘chit chat’ or OV drop off logistics - that was it. ALL communications went through our kid and I think the coaches appreciated that.</p>
<p>I totally agree, swimdogmom. It seemed like a test to see if athletes would fit the team and if they could handle themselves with maturity. Money was never discussed there.</p>
<p>^^ No - the COACH told my kid that this meeting with him at OV was not to discuss finances. A couple of important points for our particular situation: this is a mid-major D-1 university with less than full scholarships for this sport; and two, that half the team has no scholarships at all so we feel privileged that our kid got some scholarship money as well as reduction in room and board.</p>
<p>My DD did only one OV, at the Ivy she will be attending. There were only five recruits there (including DD), all of whom are now officially the recruit class (each got an LL). For what it’s worth, each one of the five had at least one parent there and many had two.</p>
<p>The timing is probably different for every athlete, but are most of these situations EA/ED or RD? I’m not sure if OV will be a big part of the picture as it seems a verbal will need to happen by spring of junior year to secure a slot at one of my D’s top choices. What is the earliest people can expect to get a financial pre-read? Is this date the same or different for Ivy, Stanford or other D1 schools? As long as all scores are in, spots have been offered and cleared through admissions is it reasonable to ask for a financial pre-read BEFORE any type of verbal commit? Thanks. I’m just a little confused on the timing and feel like OVs will be happening too late to have much of an impact. @ Heights was this the case for your D? Did she only go on one because she was already verbally committed? Thanks for any input. I have been going on unofficial visits, but trying very hard to blend into the background and let my junior D handle all the conversations with coaches.</p>
<p>This very much depends on the program. For my D’s OV, parents were expected to attend and they were included in the program. There were separate activities for the parents and the recruits pretty much stayed with the players the majority of the time.</p>
<p>As for financial discussions. For our OV, all of the players were long past committed by the time the OV rolled around. Most had been committed for over 12 months.</p>
<p>^FA pre reads are only as good as the info provided to the FA officer. FA will be based upon the income/assets in student’s senior year. Most families have a better feel for their income/assets later in that year rather then earlier.</p>
<p>So, if you are getting reads based upon earlier periods, those reads have a diminished chance of being accurate.</p>
<p>The FA aspect can be very, very tricky - especially for those who have a small business or fluctuating assets (e.g., stock).</p>
<p>Rose55 timing of OV seems to vary significantly by sport and situation. In our case my son had applied to several D1 schools RD, most applications were still pending and coaches offered OVs at the start of spring semester to interest my son in their program. </p>
<p>He had not committed to any school prior to his OVs, but he was requested to tell the respective coaches if he was interested or not within a few days after each visit. Our experience was that for D1 track, (but not Ivys) recruiting and OVs keep going well into senior year. (Probably because there is very little athletic money to go around and coaches are interested in securing an athlete that is willing to attend a school on academic vs. athletic aid). </p>
<p>OVs were offered even by schools that had no athletic dollars available, which may be why parents were welcome at our sons OVs, they knew parents had to love the school too, since we were likely paying.</p>
<p>Summer Senior Nationals and Junior Nationals would be a good time for you to try to talk to a coach. At last year’s summer Junior Nationals many college coaches were there and many did talk to parents.</p>
<p>Question after reading Swinkidsdad’s message. How approachable are these coaches, especially at the Ivy League and division 1 programs?</p>
<p>I know it depends on the coach’s personality and situation at the time, but I am asking about this in general terms.</p>
<p>I would imagine that they are hard to approach, not because they are mean or grouchy people, but because they probably have hundreds of athletes with parents coming up to them asking about getting OVs and LLs. If I were a coach, I probably end up hearing the same story about an amazing son from parents who believes their child should go to the said college or university. It would make me kinda crazy if I have to read that many emails and talk with so many people who are not actually ready, academically or athletically. But then again, I am not a coach so I don’t know what it is really like.</p>
<p>I am asking because parents and athletes seem to make it sound like it is not that hard to approach these coaches. Is it really that easy? Can I just walk up to a coach and ask him or her to consider me for the team? Then would that coach be welcoming to my request?</p>
<p>The first thing you and your child need to do is read up on NCAA and through places like this on rules of recruiting and conversations with coaches. There are rules in place. </p>
<p>For example, we could visit a local Div 1 college and tLk to coach on his campus for a good amount of time in junior year. Same coach couldn’t come up to D at a club event during the event, but after all games over could talk to her. </p>
<p>There are dofferences between athlete contacting coach, amd when. Phone - athlete could call coach before senior year but coach couldn’t call back. Email okay. </p>
<p>The easiest way for most athletes to initiate comversation is by email. Send a resume as well as introduce yourself. If the coach likes what theynsee, they will comtact athlete. </p>
<p>A certain a,ount of persisitence is good. So is learning to deal with inevitable disappointment from coaches. Some coaches are great communicators and others are not. The coach may not have an assistant or have a bigger workload than another. </p>
<p>All contact, IMO, should initiate between student and coach. I am not a big believer in parents contacting them, particularly early in game. </p>
<p>Depending upon sport, season, and program, there is a lot to learn. How old is your child. Dvader?</p>