The issue though, as I said on page 1, is that what the coach says and what the student/parent hears is not always aligned.
I always tried to let my kid do the talking, even though that was hard sometimes. But I asked the coach at the program he ended up at about 5 different ways if the was really an offer, how solid was the offer, what can change this, so are you REALLY giving him an offer, etc. Iâm sure it was comical (and a bit annoying) from his point of view, but 99% sure was not enough for me to let S tell other coaches he was off the market.
And remember folks until you have the letter in your hand things can change as these threads fail to highlight but do mention. So for all those kids who some think were promised âa golden ticketâ and ended up at their second choice, thereâs likely to be a lot of disappointment which could be diminished by knowing that talk is cheap and the offer letter is the only âgolden ticketâ if in case it is.
In my mind, a promise or potential upside also has a potential downside.
The issue though, as I said on page 1, is that what the coach says and what the student/parent hears is not always alignedâŠ
Agree! That was the crux of a lot of my comments.
From my own experience with one child as a strong D1 recruit including at a top Ivy Recruit, and the parent of other good athletes/recruits, but not not nearly as strong, what we heard from coaches was typically per the school and NCAA policy, and not what the typical parent hearsay was. Which makes me take many early verbal commits with a grain of salt as to how solid of an âofferâ they really are, especially when talking about Fresh/Soph & even Jrs. as having solid offers from top Ivys. The early verbal commits I feel are sometimes part parents bragging a bit (or travel teams/coaches bragging-advertising) especially in a sport where they put a lot of time and money in with travel teams like womenâs soccer.
I am not disputing the high talent level of athlete the Ivyâs go after, or how wide of a net many coaches like to cast when recruiting, just questioning in my opinion how solid or real the âofferâ is from the schools end for the very early athlete verbal commits.
This is a really interesting thread. I think most of what I have read here applies to super gifted athletes. D1 recruited by 2 top ten ranked academic universities and now playing soccer at one (playing about 1/2 of each game) but AI was through the roof 35 ACT GPA 4.0 and a whole lot more. Did start and play every minute on ECNL team, but by no means was the star. Serious recruiting started sophomore year when ACT appeared, D2 now close to committing as Senior in Swimming. Recruiting started at end of Junior Year even though ACT 35.5 was avail soph yr. Also recruited by 3 top ten schools ( 1 university and 2 LAC). Does have great times and competes in National Events, but once again is not the very top of the curve.( AI even higher than D1). I can tell you however that the extremely good academics gets way more important at the end when coaches are trying to balance there AIs.