It will be interesting to see how all of these positions get filled in the coming months (especially OSU’s HC position). Hopefully the various schools can have someone in place and make an official announcement well before Summer Nationals. Last year, Brown’s selection of Alex Ripa was announced just before SN and he was not allowed to have official recruiting meetings there due to a technicality.
I agree with BrooklynRye that what will matter is how much support the new BC coach gets from the admin. For teh most part, success seems to beget (recruiting) success, and AFAIK, BC has been a perennial back marker even in the smaller ACC tournament.
A non-sequitur but one that’s top of mind since a few people have written to me about it via PM recently…
- For the NCAA Eligibility Center, we noted the clubs that my daughter had trained with over her high school years
- For the question about if we ever paid an org (a club), we replied "Yes" and stipulated it was for "Use of Facilities" (I think that's the category that best describes the arrangement)...and stated what our club fees/dues were for the season.
- I'm pretty sure we answered "Yes" for the "has athlete ever competed in event with official timing/scorekeeping" question (assuming that NACs count as having "official scorekeeping")
Since her amateur status on the portal now shows “Final: Certified”, I assume we did things correctly. I will say it is confusing (and I think much more tailored to the “big money” sports like football). Note that while some have questioned the need for registering in their junior year of HS, doing so is required for those who will be going on Official Visits at Div1 schools their senior year. Or it least it was in our experience (I assuming because an athlete can only go on so many OVs and the OVs have to be logged with NCAA).
@BrooklynRye @stencils I hope that BC chooses to give athletic scholarships for Fencing. It appears with the money being put into athletics and the building going on that at some point Fencing will benefit. Our experience has been that if BC wants you to attend - as a student or an athlete- they will make it difficult to say no.
Was alerted to a change in recruiting rules via another non-fencing-centric thread.
Two key takeaways:
- Fencers can now take OVs as early as Sept. 1 of Junior year of HS
- Athletic department staff cannot be involved in a fencer's unofficial visit until the same date
Source:
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/division-i-council-adopts-recruiting-legislation
Many colleges start at the end of August. Given the limited time of most high school juniors, will it no longer be possible to visit a school, say between August 21- 23, and meet with prospective coaches and teams? This new rule does not seem to correspond to the actual start date of colleges or the commencement of junior status (also late August for my high school student).
Perhaps it’s a moot point if meeting with coaches and fencers on the first day of classes is a bad idea. Clearly I am trying to squeeze days out of stones over here. Any advice on this would be most appreciated.
Hmm. That is an excellent question. I think the safest thing to do would be to ask the coaches in the programs you’re interested in NOW — or maybe even the NCAA directly. Remember when they gave some leeway to fencing around when talks were allowed at SN? Maybe they’d do the same this time around…especially if your fencer is in the first round of those affected by new regulations.
I’m going to PM you an idea.
@fencingmom - My recommendation is that you make the time to make unofficial visits earlier in the process. Official visits are cool, save some expense, and are nice talking points, but the goal is to get to these campuses, inject a bit with the facilities and the team, and to meet with the coaches. If you are on the list for official visits, you are already in a pretty elite group of potential recruits. Coaches will make the time to meet with you. Just reach out.
@SevenDad – you’re right, new rules do not go into effect until September 1, so before then unofficial visits can proceed as before.
@BrooklynRye --was not looking to save on expenses but just trying to find the time when high school isn’t happening and colleges are in session. Have to keep the grades up! We saw a few schools in February (no coach meetings intentionally – just trying to assess schools on their own), and was hoping to squeeze in a few more before the frenzy of recruitment season (with coaches at this point).
What about seeing schools in the summer?? Not a good idea?
We visited schools in all seasons, sometimes meeting with a coach, sometimes not. Sometimes, as you point out, it’s just good to walk around the campus and get a feeling for the school and its surroundings. Obviously, individual coaches vary in their schedules, but I know that some will meet with you during the summer. Also, of course, you have Summer Nationals at which to meet with coaches and can always visit any campus with such a prior meeting already in hand.
I would echo @BrooklineRye, it is valuable to start the process early, especially if you think the student is a strong candidate. We were surprised at how early the indications of interest came from the coaches (not just for us, but hearing the same from others), so it helps to be prepared with knowing which school(s) you are most interested in. Official visits can come later, but if you have the time/resources, visiting sooner could be helpful. And it could also be fun when it’s more exploratory, without too much pressure!
@fencingmom: I think visiting schools in the summer has its pros and cons.
The pros = It’s generally more convenient for visiting families!
The cons = Generally school not in session or is in summer session, so you don’t necessarily see a campus full of students like you might during the school year. Coaches may or may not be available (they need to go on vacation, too!). Team has not started training. Finally, summer tours and info sessions were, in our experience, very full.
But sometimes, the lone pro I’ve listed outweighs the many cons. Our approach was to get most UVs over Sophomore year…so my daughter could determine if she even liked the school (outside of the fencing program)/location/size/etc. We did this before the new rules, so could meet with coaches on campus (travel was on our dime, so considered unofficial visit).
USA Fencing President Don Anthony named new Head Coach of Ohio State.
I am trying to wrap my head around all of the hats Mr. Anthony will now be wearing:
1-Founder & President of SwordSport LLC (a fencing marketing company)
2-President & CEO of the Warrior Group, Inc. (a management consulting firm)
3-President & Chairman of the Board of USA Fencing
4-Member of the Executive Committee of the FIE
5-Head Coach of OSU Fencing Program
Talk amongst yourselves…
@BrooklynRye You’re a brave man, you may turn this into a fencing.net thread by lobbing out a question like that. I’ll abstain for now 
Lol@stencils - Definitely not my intention to render us an fdn thread. To the extent, however, to which a hiring such as this impacts recruiting, I think it has relevance to our ongoing discussions. There is an intricate web of club owners, national coaches, college coaches, with many wearing multiple hats, and all manner of relationships that affect recruiting decisions. Doesn’t hurt in navigating the process to be aware…
Well, I’ll say that I was very surprised, given some of the other candidates. I suppose it could be seen as a “two-fer” since he is also saber, but I wonder if it will hurt their ability to recruit in that weapon if the only saber coach is someone with no coaching experience. And if they plan to hire an experienced saber coach anyway, then there were other (non-saber) candidates for the head coaching job with much more experience. Maybe they thought a sales & management type guy, instead of an experienced coach, could emulate Michael Aufrichtig’s success at Columbia?
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Brendan Doris-Pierce named Head Coach of Boston College today as well. He was previously an assistant coach at BC, specializing in saber.
I would think that if a serious fencer chooses to go to a more ‘isolated’ (in terms of local fencing opportunities) school such as ND or OSU, the coaching will be much more important. Nazlymov is a tough act to follow in any case. Replacing him with someone with no substantial coaching experience is certainly an ‘interesting’ choice. But as you point out, this may be more about other skill sets. Certainly if he follows in Aufrichtig’s footsteps he will do fine. You do raise a good point however; the degree to which coaching actually within the college program is important. Certainly a reasonable criterion to add to our growing list.
I registered an account in fencing.net, but somehow my account can never get confirmation, so I don’t have permission to view or post. Can someone forward that 2018 collegiate fencer acceptances.pdf from fencing.net forum? Thank you.
@Happylife4: But how would one send to you without an email? I don’t think CC PM feature allows for attachments.
Do you have a particular weapon/school you are interested in knowing about?
@SevenDad: Thank you for your reply. I am interested in Saber, but no specific school yet. Is it ok to just post here?