<p>And don't do anything stupid on the tape. . .the athletes do watch the tapes with the coaches occassionally and my best friend in high school was telling me that this kid, who was a stud in track in high school (49.3 in the 400 - that's good for Massachusetts, haha) - sent the UMass-Lowell coach a tape of him running the 400 with the song "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly in the background. I guess the guys had a great laugh over it because it was so damn cheesy and he ended up not getting into the school.</p>
<p>EDIT: And if you still do get in with doing something like that, you'll be team ***** in no time.</p>
<p>I am going to differ about paid recruiting. I know a international basketball player who graduated from a PG boarding school without a college scholarship or a US college.</p>
<p>For $500, the recruiter sussed out four different colleges who needed 6-9, 260 pound forwards and made introductions. The player was invited to all four schools for a tryout. He got offers from three, one Div I, two Div II. He accepted a full four year scholarship to a smaller Div II school in July and left a week later to attend their summer school. </p>
<p>Most savvy US athletes don't need a recruiter--but recruiters can be lifesavers and shouldn't be wholly discounted.</p>
<p>I've coached basketball at the HS & college level for 20 years and can give some insight into D III recruiting. Beware that many coaches are under pressure from their admissions office to not "discourage" athletes who are interested in their school even if the coach knows the kid isn't good enough to play for them. This is fine in a sport like football where they can keep 80 guys and you'll have a chance to be part of the team even if you initially aren't good enough to get playing time. However in a sport like basketball you may show up at the first meeting and there will be 10 players returning from last season and 12 freshman there. If you haven't been recruited by the coach your chances of making the team are slim. Some D III schools have JV teams and this is a way to "over recruit" and still keep kids happy for at least a year or two. Admission feel that if they get the kid to enroll he may like the school enough to stay even though basketball may not work out!</p>
<p>csdad, do coaches recruit off tapes or do they want to see the players play live? I noticed that many small eastern schools have very few players from the west? Is it becasue few from the west apply or other reasons?</p>
<p>Most of the D III coaches will recruit via : 1) basketball contacts they have developed through the years (coaching friends, former players, alumni, coaches of former players, etc.) 2) players they've seen (high school games, aau, camps) 3) players who contact the coach. Obviously you usually get better players via #'s 1 & 2. Most coaches would prefer to see the player live. It is hard to judge level of competetion played against via tape. Alot of coaches love to get a kid on campus and get him in a pickup game vs. his current players. Although the coach isn't supposed to watch, they have someone watching or giving them feedback on how the pl;ayer stacks up vs. the current players.</p>
<p>I don't know much about soccer recruitment but I would think kids get more opportunity compared to basketball because it has more participants. If the player is contacting the school I'd do it before the sport season of their senior year for soccer. this way their is a possibility the coach could see the kid play and hopefully; 1) give them an honest opinion as to where they stand compared to present college players 2) help get the kid into school (if they are good enough) if they need help 3) get him more financial aid.</p>
<p>csdad, I'm almost done. I appreciate your responses.. The summer camps the colleges have...are they used for recruiting? If my son wants to go to ABC college, do you think a summer camp is a good idea?</p>
<p>Can you get a kid into the school when his gpa falls below the average for the incoming class?</p>
<p>Yes it would be a really good idea to attend a summer camp at the particular school your son is interested in! The school's coaches generally run the camp & always look for recruits there! Also I'm sure there are "all star" camps in soccer similiar to basketball's "five star', etc. This would also be good to attend. If a coach likes your son he can help get him in. The extent of this varies from school to school, sport to sport, ability of the student-athlete. This past year at our school we had a student who excels in track admitted to a top 50 academic D III school who had a lower class rank, gpa, & SAT than another student who was rejected.</p>
<p>csdad - do the coaches at the top places then talk to eachother? My best friend has 2 extremely talented soccer girls - varsity from freshman year in a 2000+ high school in a very competitive league, CYSA, but no big tournament victories largely due to changing teams a lot, which was largely due to logistics...Anyway, it's v. easy for them to do a Stanford or even Santa Clara camp, both top rated women's soccer programs. If the girls did those camps, but were targeting some other school, would the coaches of the other schools ever call the Stanford personnel?</p>
<p>The recruiting landscape for D I is very different than for D III. If a kid isn't recruited by any D I schools it is extrememly unlikely that the better D I schools would become interested. My experience with HS players I've had recruited at the D I level is that the first question recruiters ask is "who else is recruiting them" if you respond with schools which that particular recruiting views as being at a lower level than his school he loses interest. If vise versa he really gets interested. The best thing for your friend to do is to go to her daughters HS coach and ask "are they DI prospects" There is a huge difference between DI & DIII athletes, and a big difference within DI itself from the top programs to the low programs. An athlete IS NOT being recruited by a DI school if they get a letter. If they PAY for them to visit then they are considering offering them a scholarship. As far as camps go it is possible to go to say Stanford's camp, have the Stanford coaches say "well she's not good enough to play here but she could play at a Big West (conference) school, I know a coach in that conference and I think I'll call them"...this could helped by the parent talking with the camp director(alone) during registration and saying something such as "I know my daughter probably couldn't play here but I'd like some feedback as to what level, if any, of college soccer she could play"..this seems appropriate to me.</p>
<p>csdad, if you are one of the 2 best players on a basketball team with 1500 kids at a high school, do you think there is a good chance the kid can play division 3? How good do you have to be to play division 3? Division 1?</p>
<p>Depends on how good the team is. My school had around 1000 students and our best basketball player wishes he could play Division III (granted the team went 0-18 or whatever this year). However, we had back-up football players that could have started on any other team in Massachusetts and probably been league all-stars (we won states two years in a row).
If your team won a league title or something and you're one of the 2 best players that looks better than going 2-16 and being one of the 2 best players.</p>
<p>Ecliptica, yeah my questions in post 134 are too vague.
Are you running at Tulane? Did the coach ever see you? I guess track is easier--coaches can look at your times.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm running there; the coach never 'saw' me run/there's no tapes you can really send for track. Track is great for recruiters because it's so cut and dry, especially the field events (I'm primarily a long/triple jumper). You jump the distance, coaches see it, the need a jumper, you have a college. It's so simple.</p>
<p>We did the same with our s this summer. The method seems to work and gets a relationship going between the coaches and the student.</p>
<p>We are feeling much more comfortable with DIII, despite the cost, but it seems it may not be more than DI (track & field) for all but the most talented. The programs seem very student oriented and coaches are fine people, many with long tenure at their institutions.</p>
<p>The coaches we met over the summer have been the most responsive have kept in touch.</p>