<p>If you are asked to come back in the fall for an overnight visit ( not "official" because DIII), how interested do you think coaches are? That is, do they offer it to anyone who shows interest and has minimum times, etc. or only to the ones that they really want? How many athletes would a coach offer visits to in the fall vs how many he/she needs. Any one have any ideas on that?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, and depending on the schools recruiting budget, several athletes are invited for overnights per spot needed to be filled.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>No. There are no significant expenses to having a kid visit their school so budget is not an issue. That said, if a coach has offered to set you up with another student/athlete for an overnight, it is a clear sign of interest. The reason being is that coaches can only ‘go to the well’ so many times with their kids by asking someone to host a recruit. It is a time and energy commitment. However, if the coach simply directs you to the Admissions Office to set up a visit, that is sign that he or she is not putting much effort into your visit. </p>
<p>My straightforward suggestion is to simply ask the coach. The reality is that the admissions office will have a form for a coach to show his level of interest. This varies by school. Some will have a coach force rank the kids he has interest in. Others will be asked to put a kid in a category of interest as in (high, middle, and low). Even then, Admissions will discount the weighting depending on the coach. If some coach, tells Admissions that some kid can change their program overnight and tells them that every year, they will discount the coach’s input to some degree. It also depends a lot on the sport program. In some regions, they might care more about field hockey than basketball for example. So, not all programs are equal and therefore not all coaches are equal. Some coaches don’t get disappointed often if they have the ears of the college’s trustees. Also, many Div III coaches, coach both a Fall and Spring sport. If one of those sports is really important to that school, this can even help the coach (and therefore you too) in the other sport because Admissions does not want to disappoint an influential coach. </p>
<p>While I would simply and directly simply ask the coach about his/her level of interest you can also learn a lot from what they say. If a coach is asking you to apply early decision to the LAC, that is a VERY good sign that he/she really wants you and wants to lock you up. Then the question becomes whether you absolutely want to go there or not. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t get too concerned about how many kids a coach needs. This is Div III, where academics come first, then sports. And any LAC coach knows that you will be applying to other LACs so they have to cast a pretty wide net (depending on their school’s status AND their program’s status). It never hurts to check the starters’ stats and see how many seniors the program will be losing next year. </p>
<p>Definitely go to overnights at the schools you are really interested in and absolutely attend some classes. If the kids aren’t into their classes or don’t really get you excited to be there … why should you be excited to be there? Also, send a personal note to anyone that hosts you AND the coach to say thank you for the visit. In this day and age, e-mail is easy but a personal note can make a difference. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much this varies by sport and by conference, but for S, whose sport is soccer and who was recruited primarily by NESCAC, Centennial, and Liberty League schools, the invitation to an overnight meant pretty serious interest on the part of the coach. The coach will be asking his players to host these kids, taking time out from studying, etc., so I don’t think it’s done for just anyone. </p>
<p>At one school, S was one of about 8 guys who attended a group overnight for a particular date with a home game to watch (15 had been invited; those who couldn’t make it could go individually later. Coach had room for 8 new players.) At another, there were a few recruits on the same weekend.</p>
<p>The other team overnights were individual and after the coach told S he wanted him to play for the team. Most coaches want a recruit to spend time overnight with the team to make sure the recruit will fit in. Chemistry is important. At the NESCAC school S will be playing for, he was not invited for the overnight until Admissions had okayed him for continued recruiting. At another NESCAC school, he was in touch with fairly late in the process (Fall of senior year), the coach told him he expected to fill the team with recruits applying ED and that he was setting up no more overnights until he had the ED results in Dec.</p>
<p>While schools will put up overnight visitors who aren’t recruits, recruits are hosted by team members, so my impression is coaches don’t want to burden their players or take up their own time with kids they’re not really interested in. An invitation to visit overnight probably means a decent amount of interest on the part of the coach.</p>
<p>I second Royal statement.</p>
<p>“the invitation to an overnight meant pretty serious interest on the part of the coach”. S never got an invitation or contacted by coach from NESCAC either. Funny thing is when S went to meet with coach last week they asked a video which S sent it with USPS mail in Nov and email and re email in Jan. and Apr.</p>
<p>S will have a try out if he decide to go there in Sep.</p>
<p>We started recruited process pretty late. We started send video out in Nov.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. We will continue to optimistic for the fall! This topic of overnight visits is a good one and hopefully will be continued. Kids are visiting school as HS seniors and mixing with college kids, so I think that it would be good to be able to give the recruited athlete some guidance as to what they could expect at those visits. That is, some feedback on what to look for and how to act, etc.</p>
<p>Really helpful post ctyankee! D was invited to OV @ DIII LAC but she said coach invited 20 girls, so I wasn’t sure how serious his interest was in her. She saw a race, stayed with a member of the team, then did practice with them the next morning. She said coach talked to the group of girls vs. one-on-one, so she couldn’t really ask about his interest in her. She showed me his emails – comments are “we’d love to have you here” but I’m not sure if he says that to all the girls…this is like dating…Bottom line, if I ask his interest and he’s vague/non-comittal, I guess we should both keeping seeing other people?</p>
<p>Agree. Even if he’s enthusiastic, keep seeing other people.</p>
<p>For Midd, my son’s sport, there were about 40 kids on OVs-2 groups. They ended up with 18 new recruits. I have no idea how many were asked /admitted or how many had Midd as their first choice.</p>
<p>Clearly my S does not play football.</p>
<p>My S is now helping with the OVs already as the team is really tight, and he is interested in how it works from the other side. Will keep you posted.</p>