Recruiting - Field Hockey

What are you interesting in studying? Do you play indoor FH? (If so, I suggest writing to coaches and telling them which tourneys you will be playing at in the next few months. They may make the effort to watch you play and will surely give you feedback via email or through your club coach if they are interested in you. Coaches are often at NIQ’s and NIT’s ) As for spring and summer, make a list of the Junior Days, showcase tournaments, and summer camps for the schools that you are interested in an/or have shown interest. (THis is a full time job — can someone help you?) It never fails that there will be conflicts – as the colleges seem to run them on the same day so pick carefully. As for camps, you don’t always have to go for the whole time, especially if $ is an issue or you are not sure whether the school is a good match. Playing on the home turf is the best way for coaches to get to know you so make every effort to attend some camps. I made multiple lists for my daughter and monitored each carefully: NCAA FH rankings, college rankings, and college size/ majors etc… Also, I made the time to talk to parents on the sidelines to get a feel for coaching style — if you can attend college games or watch online, you will get a sense of the skill level and where you might fit in on the team. NESCAC is very competitive — try to get a sense of your playing time— scour the rosters and ask for feedback from your coaches. You want to play AND thrive academically. My daughter plays in the LIberty League, which is also very good. SHe could not be happier with her school and team. Please feel free to PM me, as I spent countless hours FH recruiting and we are very happy with our choices,

Some sites for FH rankings: http://fieldhockeycorner.com/ http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/fieldhockey/d3/nfhca-coaches

I just read that there is a proposal from the NCAA recruiting committee to adopt the lax rule for all sports except football and basketball, with the exception that there could be contact with coaches and unofficial visits after Sept 1 of sophomore year. The women’s lax coach’s association has asked to be excluded from this and continue with the new rule of no recruiting until Sept 1 junior year.

For lax, it does mean the coaches at those clinics and prospect camps can’t discuss recruiting or really anything about their teams, what they are looking for, etc. until they are juniors. There hasn’t even been a full year of this, so no one knows if the coaches are following the rule yet or not.

Daughter is currently a freshman at a D3 school and playing both FH and doing three throws for track & field. Happy to participate and lend comments via direct contact. A few quick comments…

D was offered scholarship money at four D1 institutions, all lower level of play. Remember that FH is an equivalency sport, so there’s a pool of scholarship money that needs to be divided among 20 to 22 girls. FH is a sport with VERY FEW “full rides”, so don’t get caught up into all of that madness when you hear crazy parents talking at tournaments. We got asked a lot why she turned down the D1 money…and it was because the D3 schools offered her more. Meaning, there’s all sorts of “merit aid” that D3 schools can offer to attract and sign desirable students…and whether they’re artists or athletes, they bring something to the school. So, whatever you want to call the package - scholarship, merit, whatever…all I know is that her D3 schools offered way more in the merit package than any D1 school. But it’s about more than that…it’s about the fit. Remember that D1 - even at the lower levels - is a SERIOUS commitment. D has club teammates that were devoting 6 hours a day in season to FH activities - play, weights, film, meetings, mandatory study halls, etc - and these were for teams that won 1 or 3 games in a season.

That being said, some of the NESCAC schools are big time for field hockey. Middlebury, Bowdoin - stud programs. Middlebury was the D3 national champs last year. There are highly specific athletic recruiting rules and application pre-read processes for these schools, and the merit aid packages handled VERY differently (or not even offered) than at other D3 schools. So, spend some time on the NESCAC sites and be very familiar with the fine print. But, remember this…because there are so few schools (relatively speaking) that offer FH, the pools of talent are deep at the NESCAC level. Be perfectly aware that these are smart, talented, driven, competitive players that probably could be playing at Penn, Brown, Yale, but chose a different academic and athletic experience.

Did D make right choice not playing D1? For her, yes. Maybe not for her crazy parents that were hoping for the Big Time, but we’re not out there grinding through it every day. Also, she’s a two sport athlete in two profoundly different sports, and almost no D1 programs would allow this unnatural fit…and she’s blissfully proud of being a 2-sport athlete at the college level.

Happy to help if anyone else wants to hear my ramblings!

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Also, regarding NESCAC schools, only Trinity and Connecticut College currently offer any merit scholarships.

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There are ~160 D3 FH teams; here’s this past Season’s top-20 -
7 are NESCAC teams
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/fieldhockey/d3/nfhca-coaches

Thanks for the post @lauraaswim - it sounds like you have good insight into NESCAC field hockey recruiting. Can you share how early your daughter started looking? What are the rules in general for D3 field hockey programs in terms of when they can begin communicating with athletes? I thought I read that there are no restrictions but that seems wrong. I know for lacrosse the rules just changed and there can’t be any contact until fall of junior year so I’m wondering if the same holds true for FH. My daughter wants to explore both sports because her coaches think she could play either and they have each sent girls to NESCAC in the past few years. TBH, she wants to play both but I’m not sure that will work given academic demands but who knows. Right now I’m just trying to figure out the timing!

She’s currently a freshman so it might be too early for D3 but curious what you think about the right time to begin looking.