<p>I've seen some mentions of recruits participating in practices on official visits. Are there rules re this and do they vary from DI to DIII? If it is done, is this what a recruit should expect or will a coach let the recruit know ahead of time?</p>
<p>Strictly forbidden at the D1 and D3 levels… only somewhat permitted at D2.</p>
<p>I have never seen or heard of such a thing. The only exception would be a summer training camp or something similar where prospective students attend. But then it’s usually the case that the older students are “coaches” in a limited way.</p>
<p>Happens with offseason “pick up games” in some sports…not really a practice but invaluable for someone to see the prospect actually play with current players. Good for the recruit also, they get an idea of the level of play.</p>
<p>S participated in an informal way at both DI and DIII schools. Maybe they shouldn’t have done that, but there was no evaluative component on the coach’s part.</p>
<p>My son has lined up four visits so far, two official and two unofficial. One of the official visits, a D2 school, has asked that he bring his things to participate in a practice. A D3 school who has offered an unofficial has said in their letter that he cannot participate in any practice. The D1 schools haven’t mentioned anything at this point.</p>
<p>On kind of a related topic, my son is in HS and plays on a summer elite team. A local D1 university’s coach has two high school-aged summer teams in this sport (JV and Varsity.) During the course of the tournament, both of the D1 coach’s teams TROUNCED S’s team. Totally unexpected. Know why? Coach brought all of his incoming college freshmen and placed them on the rosters of his two high school-aged teams. I have no idea if it was legal or not (NCAA-wise), but it sure was unfair!</p>
<p>If your talking about basketball and a YBOA/AAU sort of tournament, then it’s leagal. As long as he’s not coaching them, or something like that. Idk about other schools.</p>
<p>For swimming, on the official visits, they do practices led by the captains. The coaches arent allowed to watch.</p>
<p>My rower watched practices from the coach’s launch but did not get in a boat himself…</p>
<p>D1 recruit cannot participate in official practice…however, the coaches can and certainly do WATCH how the recruit acts, observes, answers questions, and participates on a social and interest level…and the coaches certainly do ask the hosts on official visits if they think the recruit will be a good fit…so there is alot of info the coach and players take in and evaluate on a potential teammate, without ever seeing them practice officially on the day of the visit…</p>
<p>and if the coach invites the recruit to observe an “optional” early Sunday morning practice, please advise your child to get up and go. It’s not optional, it’s a test.</p>
<p>d2’s can have players “try-out” but strictly forbidden in D1 and D3.</p>
<p>D III’s often tell recruits “some of our players are playing pick up games why don’t you come over”. This is done in Spring & Summer in basketball.</p>
<p>Good advice on the optional - there is no such thing as optional on a recruiting trip - do everything and participate to the fullest. Also good advice on the behavior during the trip - assume that everything you do will get back to the head coach and be a part of his decision.</p>
<p>D2 was asked to “observe” early morning practices on Saturday mornings at D1 schools when she visited. We made sure she attended. Not really an optional thing!</p>
<p>In some sports at the D-I level, if a coach wants to get a look at an athlete, he will invite him to a summer camp at the school that is not open to the general public (they may be technically open to the public as required by the NCAA, but in reality often called “elite” camps or something like that and are run like invitation only camps). Every athlete has to pay their way, but they get exposure to the school/players/coach and the coach gets to see the athletes perform on his turf. Of course, not every college is big enough in every sport to support a summer camp program.</p>
<p>What Bessie said is exactly what happened to my son last month. He was invited to a prescreened rising seniors invitational 1 day football clinic at an Ivy league school. There were about 250 participants. Very intense day, totally all evaluation. several kids were made an official offer to play for the school that day, and luckily for him, my son was one of them. he said yes a couple days later and is in the process of having an early-read from admissions and FA.</p>