Hi! I’ve been lurking on these boards for a while, but now my son is ending his sophomore year and I’ve got some questions I’m hoping CC can help with. When is the best time for him to start contacting college water polo coaches? He’s relatively new to the sport, but is huge and the coaches (at his SoCal high school) are playing him tons. We didn’t realize how important the ODP programs are so we missed the boat on those, but he is attending some college water polo camps this summer. Is it true that the D3 coaches can talk to him as much as they want? How does contact work with the D1 coaches? Any advice will be much appreciated. I’m so bummed he missed out on the ODP part.
Hi @WaPoMom
I’ll be very interested in reading any responses that might come from this thread as our DD will be 2 yrs behind your son in this process. That’s what originally led me to poke around this site and I’ve begun to develop a rough game plan at this point. My plan, if she continues to progress over the next couple years is to begin contacting coaches the spring of her SO year. I believe you are correct that D3 may contact you already, but D1 phone calls from coaches won’t be able to start until September 1st of Junior year.
We’re a little geographically disadvantaged so ODP will be a crucial part to getting our daughter noticed, but from what I’ve read it’s less crucial for SoCal students as you’ll have other exposure opportunities including clinics/camps and JOs. On the girls side there were 35 or so colleges’ coaches at ODP this year and I’d assume there are as many if not more at JOs. Definitely worth asking the coaches your son is interested in if they will be at events he will be playing in.
Hopefully we’ll get some responses from those with experience going through this process. Good luck to your son!
Hmmmm. Spring of sophomore year? Yikes, that’s now. But he doesn’t have SAT/ACT scores to submit? Does anyone know if you just email the coach, or if you should fill out the recruiting questionnaire? I’m reluctant to have him fill out the recruiting questionnaire just yet since there will be SO many blank spaces.
Again, take what I say with a grain of salt as we haven’t been there or done that yet. But with coaches able to contact athletes fall of Jr year I would like to get on their radar at sometime before then even if tests won’t be taken until Jr year. So really our plan is to initiate contact either that spring or summer, depending on whether we want to get in contact before the SO spring ODP.
But I hadn’t thought about whether to fill out the recruiting questionnaire at that time. I figured she would just send emails indicating interest and listing some accomplishments to date. And perhaps follow with a call to the coach. Really just want to get her on the radar early enough to factor into recruiting plans.
Here’s a link to an interview with Princeton coach Luis Nicolao that might be useful for you. Listening to this was a big part of the basis for my planned timeline. He references the ability to call and text September 1 Junior year and notes that they are trying to identify kids with academic and athletic potential during Sophomore year. Also notes that they essentially need to nearly wrap up recruiting just before Sr year to be competitive.