The Only College Fencing Recruiting Thread You Need to Read

Athletic Recruits
1361

Howdy all, I’m looking for Ideas. What does my kid do for the next 6-8 weeks to get/stay on the college coaches radar?

Suddenly we lost two months of the season…Of my sons Junior year. He was fencing well and slowly climbing the JR points list.

We’ve lost the State Champs, an SJCC, a chance to visit with coaches at the March NAC, and maybe the April NAC (No, he was never gonna get on the podium, but a nice 4-2 pool was realistic.)

His other extra-curriculars are toast too. Schools are closed here for three weeks.

Any ideas?

1362

Interestingly, there are several petitions circulating to grant a waiver to graduating seniors to give them an additional year of eligibility to compensate for the abrupt cancellation of NCAA Championships. One of them had more than 25,000 signatures the last time I saw it. Don’t know what the Olympics do if Tokyo is postponed…

1363

Coaches and college administrators have their hands full with the impact of the virus. No one is paying sharp attention to recruiting at this point. Personally, I would keep on top of. Your academics and fine-tune your college search and possible recruitment slots. Be ready for when the field clears and it becomes appropriate to re-engage. Good luck!

1364

NCAA institutes dead period, suspending in-person recruiting through at least April 15

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ncaa-institutes-dead-period-suspending-in-person-recruiting-through-at-least-april-15/

1365

Since we are all presumably largely shut-in these days, I am pondering the wealth of speculation going on about the Olympics and NCAA Championships. There is a pretty large movement (one petition sent to me contained over 300k signatures), pushing for the NCAA to grant a blanket one-year waiver of eligibility for all NCAA athletes. IMHO, if such a waiver is to be granted at all (and I’m not quite sure it should be), it should be limited to senior athletes, perhaps even just to those athletes who were denied competition in NCAA Championship events. Anyone else thinking about this stuff? Hope all are well and safe!

1366

Just playing devil’s advocate, but granting only the seniors who qualified for the championships an extra year of eligibility means this year’s juniors get one more year of being beat by those fencers.

1367

Agreed and exactly the reason I am loathe to give a waiver even to seniors. Even if you give it to all classes, the deficit will still trickle down to new recruits.

1368

And would it even apply to Ivy’s and div3 schools that don’t generally permit redshirt years. The preponderance of these schools in fencing make this sport very different from other people winter sports such as wrestling. Also I’d imagine with the economic consequences many seniors would need to move on from college and sports to jobs and earning money.

1369

I think Ivy League athletes can redshirt. I know of a football player who sat out a year with an injury, and then played his fourth season while getting a graduate degree. (Student athletes who are considering this may want to research the NCAA transfer portal.)

Whatever happens for the seniors in terms of NCAA eligibility, they’ve lost something much bigger - their last spring on campus with their closest college friends, spring break, senior week, graduation, etc. This isn’t how the happiest four years of their lives was supposed to end.

And for those who are still in off-campus apartments after their schools went online, there’s the stress of social distancing - and of frayed relationships when friends and roommates expose themselves to others.

Good luck to the high school seniors who’ve not yet heard from all of the schools to which they applied. I’m sorry that your high school experience isn’t winding up the way you thought it would. Hopefully, this crisis will clear up in time for proms and graduations to take place.

And to juniors who are fretting about APs, SATs, etc., please understand that admission officers know what’s going on. Applications for everyone will look different next year, and college coaches and AOs will have to rely on less information than they have in the past. We live in an imperfect world. Here’s to staying safe and trying to make things better.

1370

@“helmut?” - Ivy League athletic programs allow for red-shirting, e.g., during an Olympic qualification year and, of course, in cases of severe injury, but the student must take off the entire school year, not just the semester within his/her sport competes. This situation is kind of reverse-engineering red-shirting. The student did not take the year off, but had the year taken away. Again, not strongly advocating this, but sympathize with graduating seniors and their parents who feel they and their child ‘lost’ something.

Also, strongly agree with @emptynester2016. All of these kids, particularly seniors, have lost something far greater than an individual competition. Watching each of my kids cry and laugh as they left their friends, 2 months premature, made my heart ache. It wasn’t time yet. They weren’t prepared. Goodbyes weren’t supposed to be this way. Something has been lost. Other things will be found. Hopefully what is found can in some small way compensate.

1371

Do you think colleges will still recruit for HS class 2021?

1372

I do. There will come a time when we are past the current circumstances and life, including NCAA athletics, will resume. Interestingly, the IOC just announced that it is postponing the 2020 Olympics until 2021. In addition to the incredible upheaval and complications to be worked out, this probably means that star athletes on many NCAA teams will now take additional time off. This in turn will open opportunities for athletes who may have withered on the vine waiting for greater competitive opportunities. One door closes. Another opens.

1373

This is a great collection of thoughts from six fencers who qualified for this year’s NCAA Championships.

https://www.usafencing.org/news_article/show/1096889

1374

The NCAA made two significant moves, one already publicized, the other apparently still in the works.

The first is that eligibility waivers will be granted to all athletes competing for spring sports teams.

The second is that All-American honors will be granted to all athletes who qualified for NCAA Championships. Not clear whether this applies solely to those fencers actually headed to Detroit to compete, or if it applies to all who “qualified” through Regionals or otherwise. In any case, something to look out for in upcoming releases.

Hope all are safe and well.

P.S. A shout-out to those with whom I and other people on this thread have been privately communicating. When appropriate, please share your recruitment stories. Your process, including hard information as well as your personal take, are so-so valuable to this thread.

1375

@snsh17 - I would continue as you normally would but with the understanding that coaches and administrators, like many of us, are working remotely and may not have access to resources and people to expedite responses. All of my personal information, including contact with several coaches, as well as other parents engaging in this process, is that recruiting is continuing as normally as possible. Just be patient. Good luck!!

1376

@snsh17 - yes, recruitment is still ongoing it seems. My child’s school counselor still advised her to send emails to coaches after she got her SAT score last March. We received positive responses with some even asking for detailed videos of bouts to analyze! (It looks like they have more time in their hands during this period). Our child has already completed a couple of video interviews with some coaches and a couple more in the pipeline…so yes it’s ongoing and now may be a good time to contact them!

1377

@snsh17 hi - we are actually only targeting Div III schools because our DD’s ranking is not high enough. The only other reason I think we got some responses (aside from time on their hands) is that we did a more targeted approach and tried to find a fit academically and fencing-wise.

Big, big thanks to the creators/ contributors of tons of information on this thread and advice/ guidance from fencing parent experts like BrooklynRye and others, one KEY THING WE LEARNED IS TO CAST A WIDER NET and not solely rely on the HYPS-type of schools.

We were quite pragmatic with our DD’s chances. Hence we did 2 things to come up with our target schools:
(1) looked at schools where she would be academically challenged and at the same time enjoy her college life; it also helped we already did Admissions tours for 6 of the schools last summer so she has an idea of what she wants (big vs small, LACs?, urban vs suburb/ rural?); and
(2) looked at the school’s roster to see the level of fencing and see where my daughter is competitive enough (bench warmer vs top fencer); this practically eliminated programs with Olympic/ World level hopefuls.

As with Academic admissions, after coming up with our Div III list we also listed down our ‘reach’ Div I schools. These Div I are those outside of the top 10 with a more broader fencer ratings (A to even U) on the team and where my DD would still be happy attending. Overall, we ended up sending emails including a highlight video our DD produced to at least 15 schools.

So far we got responses ranging from: “thanks to your email. your profile looks good can you fill in these forms” to “please provide more detailed videos” or “we are interested can we have a video chat.”

The process is still progressing with some asking for my DD’s academic records for pre-read with Admissions (which we take as a good sign??!!), others connected her with fencers on their team to chat (is this common at this stage?), offer to meet at the Summer Nationals if it pushes through, etc.

One other key aspect we felt why coaches had positively responded (besides school targeting) is that our DD came into those ‘video chats’ treating it like an Admissions interview so she came 100% prepared with questions for the coaches then she researched the schools beforehand (including any unique things about them). She emphasized how she could be a team player and ways she could contribute to the team.

It’s still a long Musical chair (as referenced many times here): firm offer after July 1/ LL/ NLI?–> OV → apply ED Nov → official admissions results in Dec (this is from what I understood from this thread - fencing parent gurus can correct me). Anything can still happen but we are just thrilled they even responded! Hope we can at convert at least one firm offer.

Not sure when you last contacted the coaches but would a follow up be in order? From what I understood, you should regularly update coaches on child’s progress even if they’re not responding but unfortunately there are no tournament results to update! Maybe coach is not looking as much to recruit in your child’s weapon vs mine - does not hurt to ask? Or coaches must still be going through their list? Maybe recalibrate your school list - add or drop a few names? Other fencing parents may have better ideas. Take care and Be safe!

1378

Make sure to check out the “Crowd-Sourced Data About 2020 Collegiate Incoming Fencers” forum for the latest info about this year’s graduating seniors. An updated chart with RD admissions was posted this evening.

1379

For those currently on NCAA teams, and especially for those currently engaged in or looking forward to the recruitment process, please be aware of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college athletic programs. Several NCAA DV2 and DV3 programs have already announced eliminating certain teams. NCAA DV1 is governed by regulations that require that each school maintain a minimum number of teams. This is of critical importance to niche sports, including fencing. However, there are rumblings that DV1 programs are asking for at least a temporary suspension of this rule in the face of the unprecedented economic impact of this pandemic. There are substantial petitions out there looking to preempt such a move by the NCAA. As always, knowledge is power. Best to keep informed.

1380

A follow-up on my last post – The NCAA voted down the proposed elimination of the minimum number of teams requirement for DV1 programs.