Recruiting - Field Hockey

Hey all,
Looking for any opinions, advice, experience etc.

As of now, I am looking to play field hockey in college - I do not mind which division (if I had to, I would prefer d1 but it isn’t a deal-breaker). Either way, I am actively being recruited by a handful of d3 schools, several of which are in the NESCAC. Only one d1 school has taken a slight interest, I do not know what to do to get noticed. I know my limits, and do not even bother emailing any d1 school in the top 20. I have a few questions: how do the ivies compare to NESCAC schools for field hockey? How can I get some ivy league schools interested? Also, what do you think is the minimum SAT or ACT score I would need to be recruited by the ivies?

If you want Ivy interest, I’d say shoot for a very high SAT, high grades, EC involvement outside of FH and attend the USA FH Events. Also, if you have a Futures Site near you, that would be a good opportunity. What year are you?

I joined Futures this year - I am in the class of 2019.

Do you play club field hockey?

Yes.

My daughter is a current freshman and just starting on this path so I’m curious how actively you engaged NESCAC schools or if they found you. She plays both lacrosse and field hockey and loves both so for now she’s interested in both for college. She doesn’t play club field hockey because lacrosse is a huge time suck but she played varsity field hockey this year and will do Futures in spring.

Does it hurt her not to do club? She plays year round with a club but chose their developmental team (though they wanted her on club) due to schedule. She’s on the cusp of leaning more towards FH than lacrosse these days but she’s such a great lacrosse player that I don’t see her quitting (and we play in Baltimore so it’s a hotbed).

Thoughts on how to start connecting with FH coaches in top D3? And should she do club if we can make it work or is Futures enough?

I can directly message you about this.

@LMC9902,

The most important limitation on NESCAC recruiting is the lack of a budget for recruiting. Therefore, no one should expect NESCAC coaches to come to them. Not to say it will never happen. You might happen to live close to a coach or the coach might find funds to attend a limited number of high level tournaments. So, it is possible that a NESCAC coach will “find an athlete.” It is far more likely, however, that being recruited results from contact from the athlete to the coach. Get some tape, assemble other information that a coach might have an interest in, and contact, contact, contact the coaches. When you are done that, contact them some more. In person visits can be very helpful. You do not need to be invited for an unofficial visit, and sometimes you can invite yourself for an OV. Be very aggressive (not a jerk, you just need to push lightly and repeatedly), and things will fall into place.

I think some of the NESCACs would be happy for a recruit to have an interest in both field hockey and LAX. It’s lots of work, but can be very rewarding.

Thanks @gointhruaphase I appreciate the advice. I showed that to my daughter because she is someone who is a great communicator and has already begun reaching out to coaches (in a polite way) as a freshman. Right now she is mostly focused on coaches she has met at clinics (like a recent Middlebury one she did) but as she gets closer to junior year I will have her step it up.

Are there one or two good camps (or important tournaments) that allow girls to meet and be seen by multiple NESCAC coaches? I think next summer is a good time for that when she will be a rising junior, unless there is a good reason to do them as a rising sophomore. Thoughts?

Every year, the NFHCA (Natl Field Hockey Coaches association- I think) hosts a convention and then right after the convention there is a recruiting showcase. There are TONS of coaches attending. Google NFHCA Winter Escape. They also do a showcase called Spring Fling. I think Winter Escape will be better attended because of the timing with the convention, but your daughter would have a lot of exposure to coaches at these events.

@LMC9902, One more thought. There are very few families who thought they started the recruitment process too early. There are, however, many who wished they had started earlier, particularly if interested in floating a trial balloon with the Ivies. Here, I need to distinguish between an early start to the recruitment process and early commitments. While I have my own negative views about committing early to a college, there is a huge difference between committing to a D1 college in middle school and getting the ball rolling.

The first three steps are: 1) Assembling a list of potential colleges. Include the Ivies. Why not? Just understand that you may or may not get traction. Include all geographic regions, even those that are not preferred. Make it a really long list. 2) Fill out the on-line recruiting profiles for that long list of colleges. Yes, it will take forever, but it is going to take forever now or later (and you might have less time later). Keep an excel spread sheet of all those profiles (login information and revision dates) so you can update them as new information comes along. 3) Write the college CV. Yes, of course the GPA will change and you will add board scores. There also will be academic and athletic honors to include later. If you have a brain like mine (think sieve), you won’t be able to remember the tournament MVPs from freshman year at some later date, so do it now. It is way easier to revise than to start anew.

You don’t need to go full tilt right now. But you will appreciate later the good foundation you started now. Starting now has the added benefit of underscoring to your daughter of the importance of good grades throughout high school, as opposed to during junior year – which is a stressful year anyway.

About this time sophomore year I made a spreadsheet with all the colleges that had S’s sport, a separate one for D1 and D3. I then put in everyone’s place at NCAA’s last year, and USNWR rank. Neither of those are perfect pieces of information, but they give a rough indicator of quality of play and quality of academics, which makes the list somewhat sortable.

Using that info, S sent info to the schools that met his academic and athletic desires. He contacted 2 NESCAC schools, and both of those coaches started the recruiting process at that point, one pretty heavily. Not a single D3 has initiated contact with him (several D1, D2 and NAIA have). D3 coaches just don’t have the budget to find players. You have to seek them out.

FH is pretty limited geographically.

Thanks @gointhruaphase and @dadof4kids - very helpful. We are already in college mode anyways because my older daughter just graduated high school last year and my younger one spent a lot of time visiting schools with her - which is why she already has some strong opinions I guess!

She is already meeting NESCAC coaches for lacrosse because her high school and club coaches encourage her to check out camps and clinics for schools she might want to attend but she does want to connect with field hockey as well. For her we will need a more complex spreadsheet if she still wants to try for both - but since her list will be targeted mainly to NESCAC, possibly Ivy League and a few others like W&L, and Hopkins (for FH not lax) then maybe it will be manageable. Her coaches have great relationships with many of these college coaches already so I’m hoping they can be a big help - was that your experience? Either way, we will encourage her to contact the coaches regularly for sure!

Thanks again for the tips.

She needs to be careful mixing lacrosse recruiting with another sport. Lacrosse coaches cannot recruit now until the student is a junior.

Yes @twoinanddone I am aware of that and I think it’s a good thing. Before there was so much pressure on these kids to get recruited freshman year. At my daughter’s high school there was a girl committed to Harvard her freshman year a few years ago and many others by sophomore year. Now she has the luxury of more time to grow as a student and athlete.

From what I understand though, field hockey has the same rules about junior year. Is that true? Before junior year, I would think it best to attend camps and prospect days for schools that are a fit/target academically and try to connect in person with the coaches. My daughter did this recently with Middlebury for a lacrosse clinic they had in our area and she had a great experience working with that coach. She then followed up with a note (that the coach couldn’t answer of course) saying that she would see her at two other lacrosse recruiting events this summer, especially one that is limited to 75 girls where 5 of the NESCAC coaches will be represented. I am thinking this is the type of repeated contact that @gointhruaphase was talking about.

I don’t know the FH recruiting rules. The lax rules restrict the coaches from discussing anything with the younger kids that has to do with recruiting. No saying “you’d be a good fit for our team” or “please call me or stop by my office if you are on campus.”

Will this new recruiting style work? No one knows.

Yes, the rules about this changed last April for lacrosse. This doesn’t mean that girls below junior year can’t attend camps, clinics and prospect days with coaches however. Given that, it’s pretty easy to get access to coaches you want to connect with, especially if you go to events like Lacrosse Masters Summer of 76 where they have six coaches from top programs and only 76 girls.

These are good opportunities to learn about the style of multiple coaches and see who might be a good fit in terms of personality so that when you’re able to begin a two-way dialog you have an idea of what you want. This is our first time doing this but it’s the approach we’re taking because our daughter is someone who needs to connect with a coach personally and to have a coach whose philosophy matches well. I assume that’s the case with most athletes.

Be careful of that too! Of the coaches who recruited my daughter, I think two are still at their schools. She lost an asst coach who my daughter much preferred to her head coach. There are schools still looking for a coach in Jan for a season that starts in Feb. Even the long term successful coaches can be fired. Dartmouth fired theirs a couple of years ago (with much turmoil, much controversy), and she’d been there more than 20 years, and Louisville (finally) fired theirs this fall (started the program, there about 10 years). That cause another coach to leave his team, and the dominoes continued to fall to fill his spot, etc.

@twoinanddone of course this will happen. I’m just not sure how to combat against that even with a high level of care. In the end, one of the reasons she is looking at schools like NESCAC is because she has the academics to succeed and the desire to attend so if there is an unfortunate coach switch she will still be at a school she (hopefully) loves. Given the fact that no scholarships are given in D3, there is no pressure to continue playing if the student decides the coach isn’t one for whom they wish to play.

All you can do is work with the information you have today, right?