<p>My daughter is a rising junior and is looking to play colligate volleyball. Since returning from playing in the AAU Nationals, and attending two elite camps things have picked up. She was also the subject of a newspaper column spotlighting her academic achievements and her community service. Updates and new highlight footage was sent to coaches recently.</p>
<p>In the last three weeks she has gotten 7 requests for unofficial visits. She has scheduled 2 of them. One of them we are currently working on the details. Another three we are looking at doing in the Fall. The last one is the one creating the dilemma.</p>
<p>It is from a coach (we will call Coach B) who has been heavily recruiting her. It involves not only seeing the campus but seeing the team practice and scrimmage, and meeting the players. She likes the school academics and the fact that it has a program that directly leads her into the postgraduate schooling she wants. The problem is the date is the same as the visit we are currently working on with another coach (Coach A).</p>
<p>Coach A contacted my daughter several weeks ago. My daughter got back to her with some dates and they settled on one. Coach A said she would get back to my daughter with a schedule. Over two weeks have gone by and my daughter has not heard back, so last night she emailed Coach A. If she does not hear back I think a phone call will be forthcoming early next week. We have already booked a hotel since it is over a five hour drive one way and that my daughters high school team has a scrimmage the day before.</p>
<p>This morning Coach Bs emailed asking my daughter to visit came. At first she was excited until she realized about the conflict. The drive to Coach B is only about two hours one way.</p>
<p>Provided my daughter and Coach A can finalize the visit and she has to decline Coach Bs offer should she tell Coach B she is visiting another college? The colleges are not in the same conference but do regularly play each other. If the situation with Coach A drags on would it be acceptable to reschedule with Coach A and take Coach Bs offer? What would she tell Coach A at that point?</p>
<p>In our experience unofficials were extremely flexible. Can she tell the coach honestly that she’s not available that weekend, and go another weekend? I don’t think she has to tell the coach she’s going to another school unless asked. He’s certainly entertaining more than one recruit and coaches know athletes are looking at more than one school.</p>
<p>I think it might be worth it to even mention that she already has a visit scheduled with another school that was arranged prior. Makes her look more “wanted” in Coach B’s eyes perhaps… Like imafan said they know kids are scheduling. Also if she keeps her visit as planned with coach A then it shows that she sticks to her commitments which I feel is a desirable characteristic in a recruit… Just my 2 cents… good luck. Fun times!!</p>
<p>She called Coach A today and talked with her for a while. Coach A is in the process of working the schedule out and will be emailing it to my daughter in a couple of days. The Coach was trying to see if my daughter is interested in an overnight visit as part of the visit. Unfortunately she can’t. She has a scrimmage for her high school team in the afternoon. Also my wife works until 4:30 PM. Since we will be using her car to travel we won’t be getting on the road until 7 PM. It is a five hour drive to the college meaning we will be arriving around midnight the night before the visit. The coach said that if my daughter is still interested in the overnight they can schedule it for the next visit.</p>
<p>She emailed Coach B and told him that she had prior plans and could not attend his event. She did tell him that she is going to try to see his team play at a conference crossover match in October at another campus. Also we are going to try to make one of his home games. Since it is a two hour drive to campus and the only games that we do not have major conflicts with are on week nights we will have to work around school and volleyball practices. We are planning on attending the school’s Open House at the end of October.</p>
<p>I do have a question regarding overnight visits since Coach A’s request was the second my daughter got. She is making another UV as part of a Open House at the end of September and the coach asked about an overnight visit. Presently she was not planning on doing it but if we could work some logistics out she might. Since my daughter is a rising junior and these are unofficial visits to D3 schools are overnights allowed?</p>
<p>Overnights are allowed for unofficial but they cannot pay for her housing. They would probably put her in a dorm with current players to get the school vibe… It would be a great way for her to really get a good feel for what it would be like and spend quality time with the current players.</p>
<p>As always, be sure to prep her for college overnights. There will be drinking and partying, and all eyes are watching - even if the athletes think there are not.</p>
<p>We will be heading out on UV #1 in a few hours. It is at a DIII about 2 hours away. We just realized that this the first UV that my daughter was invited to by the coach. Our previous meetings with coaches have been at Open Houses, regular tours, or at games. All of these were initiated by my D. The one tomorrow is an Athletes Open House and from what we can tell including her their three girls attending from her sport.</p>
<p>As a further update, Coach A sent my D the schedule for UV next weekend. She is working with Coach B on another meeting. We are looking at an Open House at the end of October. Also trying to see if we can catch a home game. Working around my D’s high school volleyball schedule makes things hard.</p>
<p>She has a third UV scheduled next month with Coach C. Also Coach D has been after her for months to come for a visit. He is a five hour drive so the logistics are making that one harder to schedule. Then the other night a Coach E emailed her wanting to set up a visit.</p>
<p>Does it really get this crazy? Do we have a year of this kind of stuff coming?</p>
<p>tpmcinty=yes, it does get this crazy, especially with a fall sport/activity that has weekend contests. We are doing a 4 school tour this weekend and have another 4 school tour Labor Day weekend. DD has already met with 5 coaches and has talked to 5 other coaches. She has been contacted by about 30 coaches so far, “only” 20 are still on the list:D. One school we won’t visit before applying. It was never really on her radar but through emails with the coach, it could end up being a nice option. It’s just way out of the way of any other school she is considering so that school along with another school she is considering, she will only visit if they offer an official visit or even an accepted students fly in day.</p>
<p>One school she wants to visit but we are trying to squeeze in might end up being a drive out and back in a day deal–LONG day. It’s about 5-6 hours away but we have one Sunday that we could do that. She has a competition out of state that we will attend that makes the trip there about 3 hours. </p>
<p>I’m still trying to figure out what happened yesterday–had a visit, coach had team tryouts that day and no-showed for her visit (still had admissions/campus tour, etc.). We are giving him the benefit of the doubt as it’s his first year as a college coach. Sounds like he is running things more like a high school team with the tryouts, etc. Even the admissions people were kind of scratching their heads–when you are awarding scholarships, you don’t wait until AFTER they start school to give out money. It will stay on her list but we will have to see how the offer comes in. She would be their #1 player even now so we are not sure what the deal was.</p>
<p>Some of the coaches she is talking to want her to sign at the National Signing day in November, which she is more than happy to do if a clear decision is made by then. Her #1 and 2 choices have told her she is their top recruit so it’s possible that will happen.</p>
<p>D 3 UVs or OVs are generally in the dorm on a couch or the floor.
Students are generally exposed to drinking, better have a plan. Best not to, as recruits are " watched"
We found that after 6 visits, we had enough info to stop. Schedule schools that are your favorites earlier, so if fatigue/grades/ current season suffers, you can (politely) bag.
If everyone wants you, you don’t need to visit them all.Be selective and have a strategy.</p>
<p>Oldbatesie: Couldn’t agree with you more. The most valuable part of Ds recruiting were the unofficials and the subsequent communication with the coaches. She UVd at 7 or 8 schools as a junior, was offered this summer more OVs than she could take, and received offers from 4 of 5 of her scheduled OVs. She had enough info to make her decision before even taking the OVs and committed early August. It wasn’t worth the missed school days and she felt deceptive taking OVs where she knew she wasn’t interested. And it’s made for a stress free last few weeks of summer.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the great discussions. It feels good when you find out that you are not the only one going through this process.</p>
<p>The first UV was this past weekend. It was an Athletic Open House for all sports. I would say that there were about 70 families attending. The sports that seemed most represented were Womens Rowing and Womens Basketball. There were two other volleyball recruits, both of whom were rising seniors. One was from our area and played on a club that we know well. We did not play her because she was playing on the 17 team. The other recruit had a bad experience with a college that my daughter also had a bad experience with. As result the three of them were very chatty with each other during the day. </p>
<p>She liked the school and the support they had for the athletic programs. Too often we have seen schools that womens volleyball is treated like second class citizens. At some schools the attitude seems to be everything for football and basketball and the only reason they have volleyball is because Title IX makes them have it. We liked how the school was proud that their teams and athletes make All-Academic. The only drawback was we did not get to meet with any faculty in her area of interest. We did see the classrooms and labs. Right now the school is in her top five. It is not higher because she has questions about some of the academics. It looks like we will be planning a second trip to cover the academic part.</p>
<p>She liked the coaches and talked with the associate head coach at length. We got to sit in on a practice. At the end of the day there was a barbecue and the associate head coach and assistant coach sought my daughter out and talked with her and us for a while. He told her that she is one the top recruits for 2014 and they also discussed which club tournaments he may come to see her play at. We discussed about seeing the team playing a game near us.</p>
<p>I think my wife is beginning to stress out some about the next step. We have a group of schools that we like and the coaches seem to like my daughter. She is worried about how to know which school is the right one. </p>
<p>Next visit coming up this weekend. My daughter and wife are excited. I am also but not looking forward to the five hour one way drive during the night. The coach sent my daughter an itinerary and she has a full day ahead of her including an interview with admissions. The interview will be her first. Any suggestions or things to look out for?</p>