<p>Actually deepending on the season and sport…
the sport can be like a full time job…40+ hrs a week…</p>
<p>that is alot, then add the academics in…no wonder the kids are tired.</p>
<p>Fogfog- You, too, sound tired, do remember to take care and pace yourself as you have up to 14 months to maneuver through this process (I sincerely wish you an early LL), and need to remain strong, steady, and supportive for your daughter. I tried distracting myself by becoming the obsessive nutritionist/cook, figuring that producing omega-3 and anti-oxidant-rich meals would help her both with athletics and GPA. You can’t change what will happen with coaches, but you can load the little darlings up with phytochemicals (blueberries! beets!).</p>
<p>Protein!!! I cooked a lot of scrambled eggs at 6:30 am, and 8:00 pm for that matter!</p>
<p>fog: as a crazed parent I was peaking with stress in October. You just want it to work out for them so badly! And as some on this board remember, my D waited 4 weeks for the yes or no from admissions, and this was after she had passed on her other schools who pushed for a commitment from her. And she didn’t have a LL letter from the school she had committed to, just a verbal and it’s up to admissions.</p>
<p>So when the call came it was a fairly amazing feeling. no one in our family history had ever been a D1 recruited athlete and NO ONE had ever dreamed of attending such a selective school.</p>
<p>I’ve had the same thought, fogfog- potentially, you’ve got a lot of months of rising anxiety ahead of you. On the other hand, I’m hoping you’re coming here, asking your “freakout questions” and then presenting a calm exterior to your daughter. I know CC helped me so much during Sept and Oct of senior year. I typed questions and concerns like a mad woman while my daughter sat serenely next to me reading a text book and not doing her essays. :)</p>
<p>Agreed. What would I have done without my friends on these boards…Plus I knew nothing,my husband and I are nonathletic geek types, and only one acquaintance had a recruited child.
it was good to have a place to emote-and I am still doing it! Better out than in! And we did count the days from November 12th til December 17th.</p>
<p>Yes, those days from mid November to mid December are tough ones, with or without LL or NLI. It’s just not official until admissions says it’s official in my book. And for most it’s putting all the eggs in that one ED basket cuzz you know your child is NOT going to consider the possibility of not getting in or needing to fill out any other applications. Most of the time the kid is right! But as a mom, I worried until that Welcome to College letter arrived.</p>
<p>It’s a huge commitment. It really is like a full time job, with overnight travel. It is not for the faint of heart. </p>
<p>To touch back on the OP - coaches DO exaggerate, sugar coat and get “selective” with the information they share with recruits. Their jobs depend on attracting students who can play and WIN. Coaches do leave positions and get fired from positions all the time. Thank goodness not the majority. But it’s a good idea to at least be aware of the possibility. I think it’s smart to consider how long the coach has been there, what’s the team trend been under this coach, how’s the retention rate (how many juniors and seniors are on that roster?).</p>
<p>It’s tough to try to balance a high school senior athlete’s enthusiasm with some good old common sense. It’s all good, right? Mostly, it is. But it’s good to be a little prepared for the bumps.</p>
<p>In hindsight, I think I’d do some things differently. My child really stretched and got it. Maybe stretched a tad bit too far? But then again - maybe it was the only way. Pieces of it were amazing. Pieces of it were heartbreaking. At the end of the day - there will still be a diploma from a top notch school.</p>
<p>again, we didn’t experience any exaggeration or sugar coating from the d1 coaches in d’s sport. sorry to hear other people had a different experience…</p>
<p>vulture3,</p>
<p>your experience & thoughts read EERILY similiar to ours. We’re on pins and needles waiting for Dec 10 to arrive with the Ivy schools ED notification. Through it all, I think my son was the most calm and collected. He actually got an email from the coach about a month before Admissions Decision asking about his hat and shoe size. It was a very clever stroke by the coach. Looking back, we think that was his way of telling us everything was good. Did you experience any “signs” like that? We did not have LL, but we had previous offers from D1 schools that we could go back to with no problem. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again about this process…You’re only as good as your options. Yes, all the eggs where in one basket but I think deep down we knew he would get in based upon athletic skills and academic performance. My wife’s full time job was to help my son keep this all together, organized, and moving forward…it was no small task over the course of 15-18 months. The Ivy school he selected actually came to the recruiting party very late in our process, and they came at him very hard and quick.</p>
<p>Our consideration for coaching experience was slightly different. How long the coach has been there entered into our decision process for many other schools we considered, but this did not really apply to the school he selected. The his future coach is new, but he went to this specific Ivy school and was a recent stud/captain. We figure he will be there a long, long time. He has already had much success in his first year, and is projected to do very well this year. Plus he liked all this school’s assistant coaches very much. We found his future head coach to be clear, concise with no sugar coating. It was rather refreshing. </p>
<p>To your point, we also looked at the number of junior/seniors as well as the number of players who play his position. This is something everyone should do, and I just assume everyone does it as part of normal due diligence. You can go into detail on a program and discover some interesting things. We looked at another school, and noticed their pitchers had many arm or shoulder injuries listed in their players bios. That was a huge red flag, and we would have asked if the recruiting had gone farther…as it turned out son crossed them off the list after face to face meeting with recruiting coach.</p>
<p>You took the words right out of my mouth:</p>
<p>“In hindsight, I think I’d do some things differently. My child really stretched and got it. Maybe stretched a tad bit too far? But then again - maybe it was the only way. Pieces of it were amazing. Pieces of it were heartbreaking. At the end of the day - there will still be a diploma from a top notch school”.</p>
<p>Was your goal to leverage “sport” to get into the best academic/major school possible for your son/daughter? This was our goal. Through it all, my son kept his goal the same. He did not deviate from this goal one bit. Schools came and went, doors open and closed. It happens. He stuck to the goal and strategy. It is possible we could be discussing two different sports and two different schools, but our experiences and thoughts about the process are strangely similiar. I enjoyed your post as it brought back those Early Decision feelings. Thank the Lord, we are done with it!</p>
<p>fenway</p>
<p>A few good points here that maybe the question of "what you wished you had known/done needs to be put up</p>
<p>fogfog - We went to some big baseball tournaments with his national travel team over the last couple years. He got in front of a lot of coaches that led to a lot of interest, and some offers. It wasnt until late summer/early Fall that he attended some “special invite camps”. We probably would have done more “special invite camps” than some of the lesser tournaments on his travel team schedule. We would have done this because this would have allowed us to focus more on baseball/academic combination as opposed to just baseball only in the tournaments. As it turned out, everything worked out perfectly.</p>
<p>fenwaysouth</p>
<p>fog, this might be helpful: like fen, it was the invitational only camps and events where d was noticed by multiple d1 and d3 coaches. so other than her coach I’d say these camps and events were the next most significant aspect of her recruiting actions/opportunities.</p>
<p>of course the catch is you have to be invited to many of these events and teams (camps). But not all, some are open yet still give you the exposure…depends on the sport.</p>
<p>“In hindsight, I think I’d do some things differently. My child really stretched and got it. Maybe stretched a tad bit too far? But then again - maybe it was the only way. Pieces of it were amazing. Pieces of it were heartbreaking. At the end of the day - there will still be a diploma from a top notch school”</p>
<p>Perfectly and beautifully describes my experience. Except maybe the part about doing things differently. It worked out too well for that.</p>
<p>“Was your goal to leverage “sport” to get into the best academic/major school possible for your son/daughter?”
Similar, but I was more academically qualified than I was academically. I really needed some of the academic boost to get my athletics noticed, as I was a “late bloomer” of sorts athletically. It would’ve become much more difficult without that late push, as I would’ve had to decide if I wanted to pursue my sport or attend a stronger/better fit academic institution. Fortunately it didn’t come to that…</p>