Perhaps I am misreading but it seems like recent comments are along the lines of “the swimmer is not fast enough, targeted poorly, and should have focused on slower teams earlier.”
Yes. I agree with that. I do not see anything constructive coming from these comments, though. The OP has presumably figured this out by now, and at this point there’s very little they can do to change the situation.
The OP is not the first parent to misjudge their kid’s recruiting potential and they certainly won’t be the last. It can be a painful process, figuring this out, and I see no reason to add to that pain.
Not directed at OP and maybe less relevant to swimmers and other individually timed sports where you can look at objective stats, but for any readers thinking about the recruiting process, it is critical to get your athlete outside of his/her immediate competitive bubble to see how they really stack up. I still remember my daughter coming back from a Stanford camp and remarking that she was out of her league in physicality and skills compared to a lot of participants – and she was starting on a HS team that would end up at the state championship in the big school division in a hotbed state. We were also at baseball camps with my S where it was clear that some participants had rarely, if ever, seen pitches over 80 (it was almost dangerous IMO for some kids to be there). These events really allow you to rank stack your kid if you can put away your rose colored glasses.
I’m not sure why you think my posts wouldn’t be helpful to future readers involved in a similar process who want to understand “the intricacies and technicalities of seeking to be a swim recruit at academically selective North American/Canadian colleges.”
As far as the most recent post, if short-term meet results are critical to getting offers as described by the OP, the summer strategy seems backwards from the perspective of someone who has decades of experience in endurance sports training and periodization strategies.
Is it true that NESCAC is changing the pre-read start date across all schools/all sports to 1st Aug? Wouldn’t it impact their ability to seek earlier commitments?
the natural conclusion would be that at least a few recruits are likely to commit at other D3 conferences/schools including Chicago, John Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Swarthmore etc
The flip side is that could also open up more spots amongst NESCAC teams, and give her a shot at improving her times in two US meets over the summer. That argument maybe more applicable with teams which are currently missing a head coach (Amherst, Wesleyan).
For D24, is still head down focusing on 2 meets and attempting to clock PBs
That seems to be the case although I haven’t heard it from a coach. I hope to soon. Your D should ask the coaches she in contact with, it’s a good reason to reach out to them.
Yep, and the July 1 already puts them at disadvantage compared to many peer D3 schools, as well as some overlapping D1 schools like some in the Patriot league.
Are you concerned your daughter won’t pass the pre-read? Her grades and activities seem to be well into the ‘qualified’ for the top schools. Many will pass the pre-reads but the coach doesn’t have enough spots for them all. IMO, your daughter will pass the pre-reads and the question will be if someone who is more on the lineacademically but is higher on the swim recruit list passes the pre-read and the coach offers the spot to her. Of course, that same swimmer could pass a pre-read at another school that is higher on her list, thus opening a spot on your daughter’s list.
I think the downside of an Aug 1 date rather than July 1 is if a coach at another school, without a certain date for pre-reads, offers her a spot and won’t wait until after Aug 1 for an answer. She’d have to make a decision based on what she knows at that time.
your assessment is spot on, after the next 3 meets D24 will have a clearer picture of where she gets pre-reads (indeed, we’re fairly confident she’ll pass at those schools), and more importantly offered strong coach support.
Despite NESCAC changing it’s pre read schedule, Middlebury is already done recruiting, and we can reasonably expect more NESCAC schools to follow suit before their actual pre-reads. But their delay will still face other schools being able to make definitive offers earlier.
Definitely a dynamic situation with many moving parts between schools and between divisions, not to mention schools where the head coach has yet to be hired!
In your case, that month’s delay in the pre-read could help. It’s a little more time to improve times in the event a higher ranked swimmer doesn’t pass the pre-read.
Also some recruits who are offered spots at non-NESCACs are going to take the bird in the hand and not wait/take the risk for NESCAC pre-reads/final decisions.
Posters really shouldn’t be discussing another recruit by name, their times, consistency, other factors relevant to that person’s athletics. Yes, I know there was a short feature in SwimSwam, but still, just doesn’t seem proper. I would be very upset if my kid was mentioned by name online.
Further…way too much talk about current times. Swim coaches look at times AND upside/potential to improve (has the athlete weight trained? mental determination?) AND character and raw athleticism/physical attributes (height, weight, hand and feet size, torso ratio, arm length, etc.)
Yeah, it would have been better for the OP to anonymize the info rather than calling out the swimmer by name. I’ll edit my reply post to do that. I have done that recently from the get-go in my discussion of current UChicago, Harvard, and Brown swimmers’ times. (If anybody wants to look the info up, it’s easily found though).
Current times is one metric of several. Tracking progress on Swimcloud can be enlightening as many/most recruits have outstanding times going back well before 11th-12th grade.
Middlebury is not done for class of 2024 but if you all were told that then it could be an issue with times. But I still don’t understand the logic of coming to the US, having an intense practice schedule and then hoping to drop time at meets. Kids typically are not getting best times in May and June, no one is tapered.
there are few consistencies throughout this journey, but certainly one which everyone consistently advised was to ask the coach and listen thoroughly. In the case of Middlebury, the answer was resoundingly clear, and specified that the requested zoom call would be strictly to discuss walk-on opportunity because the recruiting was done. everyone is free to understand that wording their own way, D24 decided to move on and focus on several other discussions that could lead to getting a recruit spot.
D24’s logic for coming to the US and Canada over the summer is 3 fold, all of which we agree with and support as parents:
meet college coaches in person and visit schools where she would potentially spend the next 4 years of her life
continue to train over the summer which is what she does every year, and do it with a strong swim club, whilst experiencing both US swim competitions & campus life, and US society altogether
Attend summer school classes, which satisfy her academic interest
as an aside, D24 dropped times in June/July 2022, and hopes to do the same in June/July 2023.
I hope she enjoys her time in the US and deciding if US schools are a good fit. My daughter really liked all the camps and summer tournament she attended, I think in part because she wasn’t really being recruited or looking toward being recruited. They were just fun.
Just wanted to add this about the recruiting process:
Recruiting isn’t only about finding athletes who have the best times, score the most goals or pitch the fastest. It also involves getting to know the recruit as a person, if they are a right fit for the culture of the team, as well as a right fit for the school. It’s almost like dating. This is why many start the process early, and coaches will tell you that their recruiting class may be full at this point. They developed relationships with athletes early on and tend to honor those relationships even if someone with better stats comes along.
My dd was talking with her college coach regularly for over a year before she committed the summer before her senior year. That’s why it’s considered a “process.” Coaches want to be certain an athlete is a great fit for their team and school, thus decreasing the chances of transferring out or quitting once they are on the team.
