<p>Are there any top 50 Universities with girls tennis team that would be open to my situation?</p>
<p>I learned to play tennis my junior year (literally picked up a racket for the first time 3 days before varsity tryouts) but ended up making league honor roll, qualifying for states, winning the vast majority of my matches, and will be playing tournaments in the fall. Previously, I played various other sports but had to switch due to an injury scaring my parents away from the other sports. </p>
<p>Domestic players need to get a (high) US Tennis Association ranking and by virtue of that, a (high) ranking on Tennis Recruiting Net to have a realistic chance to be considered for a scholarship. What are your rankings?</p>
<p>You say you learned to play tennis (past tense) and qualified for States junior year. That suggests you are a senior. And you are going to play tournaments next fall? As a college freshman? Something doesn’t fit.</p>
<p>no im a junior this year. girls.</p>
<p>It seems you are a great all around athlete and a great competitor. Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish with your tennis?
a).You like tennis and want to have an opportunity to continue playing in college
b).You want to play on a varsity team in college
c). You want to play on a varsity team in college and hope to use your tennis to get admitted to a better university using support of the tennis coach
d). You want to play on a varsity team in college and get financial assistance for doing so (athletic scholarship or preferential finaid)</p>
<p>An average high school girl tennis player can usually achieve a and b. If you are very flexible with the university choice you might achieve c and d. To get to a prestigious university through tennis (c and d) - players in your circumstances will have to put in a lot of work next 12 months and your family will have to dump money and time into this project. You will have to possess a lot of natural tennis-specific talent so that all these efforts will not be wasted. Starting NOW you will have to practice a lot (up to 6 days/week), play many low-level USTA and recruiting tournaments where you will be competing against girls who may be average athletes of average tennis talent but who have been doing this tennis thing for years. Your goal will be to achieve as many <a href=“http://www.tennisrecruiting.net”>www.tennisrecruiting.net</a> stars as possible.
If you (rightfully) decide that suddenly start killing yourself on the tennis court during the junior year does not make sense then the following USNWR top 50 universities might take an unranked high school girl tennis player as a walk-on: NYU, Brandeis, Caltech, URochester, Rensselaer, Yeshiva
If you look beyond top 50 universities and start considering LACs then your options will greatly increase. You need to learn how to use <a href=“http://www.tennisrecruiting.net”>www.tennisrecruiting.net</a> college team search to identify weaker DIII teams that can take unranked players. Here is the current ranking list of DIII tennis teams.
<a href=“http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/Rankings/2014-15_ITA_NCAA_Division_III_Women_s_Rankings/2014_DIII_National_Rankings_-_Women.htm”>http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/Rankings/2014-15_ITA_NCAA_Division_III_Women_s_Rankings/2014_DIII_National_Rankings_-_Women.htm</a>
You can safely assume that most coaches of the teams from this list will NOT be interested to provide support to an unranked player.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have a different opinion. </p>
<p>Most high school tennis teams are coached by PE teachers who read a tennis book…or some similar background… and most average high school tennis players do not play USTA Juniors or have private tennis coaches. (Except maybe in SoCal, Texas and Florida-Georgia.) </p>
<p>College coaches are not going to use scholarships, slots, tips or whatever favors they have available for average high school players. Average high school tennis players are not the players on top-50 college rosters.</p>
<p>But you don’t need to believe me. You can check for yourself by looking at the rosters of the schools you are interested in, then cross-checking each player’s record on tennisrecruiting.net to see their level of ability.</p>
<p>Especially with the influx of foreign collegiate tennis players, it is becoming more and more competitive for domestic players to land a scholly, slot, or tip. Can an average player walk-on somewhere and end up tending to the water bottles? Sure, that is always possible.</p>
<p>I cannot think of a collegiate sport where the “average high school player” can usually achieve the goal of playing on a varsity collegiate team. </p>
<p>@fenwaypark wrote - “I cannot think of a collegiate sport where the “average high school player” can usually achieve the goal of playing on a varsity collegiate team.”</p>
<p>I agree completely. There’s one sport, though, that seems, at least superficially, to be an exception to this rule. Because there are relatively few HS fencing teams, the ratio of HS fencers to college spots is fairly high, suggesting that an “average” HS fencer could compete at the NCAA level. But, as with tennis, skilled recruits don’t come from HS programs; they come from clubs. Frankly, most “high school fencers” would have a hard time beating a good 12 year old.</p>
<p>@Sherpa, I am always impressed with your knowledge of fencing but tennis is different. There is tremendous number of women college tennis programs in this country eager to get players. Many of these teams are not much better than an average HS team. D1 and D2, NAIA and NJCAA offer athletic scholarships and sometimes they go unused.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Now you know this sport - it is women tennis. You do not have to believe me - just click away.
<a href=“NCAA - Division III Teams”>NCAA - Division III Teams;
<a href=“NAIA Teams”>NAIA Teams;
<a href=“NJCAA Teams”>NJCAA Teams;
<a href=“California Community Colleges Teams”>California Community Colleges Teams;
<p>You got me, CC. </p>
<p>My frame of reference for discussion of college athletics is D1-D3, and specifically in this case, top-50 since that is the OP’s topic.</p>
<p>Good point that some average tennis players can get on JUCO, Community College, and NAIA teams.</p>
<p>If that’s the universe of what we are talking about, I bet you are wrong that “this sport” where average high school players can play varsity at the collegiate level is just women’s tennis. Gotta be lots of other sports like this.</p>
<p>So, OP: </p>
<p>Despite the information CC has brought to our attention, which in your case is a red herring, I am standing by my advice to you. You want to play tennis at a top-50 school, you will need a decent USTA and tennisrecruiting.net ranking, and you should not expect that an average high school tennis player will be courted or offered a scholarship, slot, or tip by a coach at schools such as these.</p>
<p>OK to clarify, I play with a private coach once a week, and he’s pushing me to play lower level tournaments in the spring. i want to play tennis for the sake of gaining admission to top 50 university, not for scholarships. My numbers and other EC’s are relatively on point but I just want an extra pushing factor. I watched online videos for one of the schools @CCDD14 mentioned and I can say with confidence I’m better than the majority of their team. </p>
<p>Do you guys think if I sent in a video of myself playing it would be any help?</p>
<p>If the school awards athletic scholarships, the coach can get his scholarship selections through admissions in the vast majority of cases. I think it is rare for a coach to be able to grease the skids for a walk-on</p>
<p>If the school does not award athletic scholarships, the coach can offer his selected recruits an admissions slot he/she has been allocated or can flag the application for possible special consideration.</p>
<p>Things vary from school to school and year to year, but it is safe to assume that at any of the top-50 there may be 2-3 scholarships/slots/tips per year. You can get a sense for this by looking at the rosters of schools you are interested in and seeing how many graduating seniors there will be in the class prior to yours.</p>
<p>It is standard procedure for potential recruits to send videos to coaches in practically every sport, unless the coach has seen the athlete perform multiple times in person. Sending a video will help if the video shows better talent/potential than the competing hopefuls, it will not help if the other candidates are better. I cannot think of a situation where it would hurt.</p>
<p>OP, you seems to be pretty confident for somebody who plays tennis for 5 months:). There are many many different levels of competitive tennis and you did not see much yet. HS tennis really does not count.
If you want admission support from a D3 college coach from a top 50 ranked institution you have to:
<p>
</p>
<p>No, there would be too much risk on the part of the coach/school. You are unproven against national and international competiton who have been playing since they were very young. I think you are underestimating how competitive D1 women’s tennis is today. If you love the sport (as I do), why not try out for the club team and try to make it onto varsity the next year or the following year. That is one path to consider. Good luck.</p>
<p>@fenway*, why do you keep talking about athletic scholarships to top 50 D1 schools when universities I listed upthread all have weak DIII teams? Do you know why I do not post about baseball? This is because I do not know how many players there are on a baseball team.</p>
<p>Something tells me that the school in question is NYU. Its team has “average high school tennis players” listed on their roster. Did they get coach support for admissions - probably not. Is it possible to get some support from their coach - probably yes but it has to be earned.</p>
<p>I would add that sending a video in now, before you have ramped up your practice, would be a mistake. Get your game up to where you want it to be before sending off any video. Once a coach has seen unimpressive play, his possible interest is lost.</p>