Why would a coach let us see this?

Parent Cafe
21

<p>Not sure that you can assess the coach’s trustworthiness by asking him/her. I’d suggest talking to kids already on the team as well as others that may have been recruited but chose to attend another school. It sounds as if OP’s daughter knows other athletes in her sport; her HS coach should also be able to put her in touch with former students at her school or at other HSs in her area who may have insight. </p>

<p>Coaches are selling - depending on the prestige of the program some have to sell harder than others. And some “overstock” with repercussions felt only when the season starts.</p>

22

<p>Committed athletes definitely aren’t a secret. Sharing their names is not unusual. Sometimes it’s a mystery why coaches particularly like certain athletes. </p>

<p>Coaches use playing time as a selling point in team sports. Smaller or less athletically competitive schools will tell recruits they’ll get significant playing time, even starter status. They don’t hide the fact that they feel lucky to get talent. They’ll explain the reasons for poor stats in past seasons and share their plans for improving the team. I assume flattery is similarly used with track recruits, telling them their potential importance to the team.</p>

<p>Some coaches with great salesmanship are unethical. I know some very sad stories from this type of recruiting. It can seem ultra professional and promising, then turn out to be exactly the opposite after the kid is actually attending the school. The more information available about the program, including recruits, the better I like it as a parent.</p>

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<p>I certainly agree that those other sources mentioned in post #21 can be useful. I would still maintain, though, that an important way to assess a person’s trustworthiness is to talk with that person. </p>

<p>In this situation, if I were the D I would be very interested to know how to coach responds to questions about the blackboard and whether those answers seem reasonable and prove to be trustworthy over time.</p>

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<p>There is a cross country and track website with national, regional, and state pages, as well as another one just for our state which often lists who has committed to what college once the students announce it. We are definitely monitoring that information for the current seniors. But once D is a senior, by the time that information comes out for her own class, obviously she will have also had to make a decision too.</p>

<p>To clarify, the info. on the whiteboard was mostly for the current seniors—not D’s class. D is going on unofficial visits now so that if or when she gets offers for official visits, she will be able to make an intelligent decision about which offers to accept. Even though it wasn’t for her class, I’m still leaning toward viewing it as sloppy.</p>

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<p>PS. At another school, the coach did drop a few names about who had passed through the office recently. In this case, the information had the opposite effect on D. She felt that if in addition to the stars she knew they already had, those seniors were also going to join the team, then maybe she’d better look somewhere with a little less talent if she wanted to contribute. So again, the information was good for us, but possibly bad for the coach. When her high school coach asked her impression of that school and she told him she didn’t think she was good enough, he was a little surprised and tried to convince her otherwise. We suspect this was not because she’s not correct in her assessment, but because he once worked there as an assistant coach and thus he might look bad if the school wanted her and he didn’t help sell the school to D, lol.</p>

26

<p>Hi GFG,
It feels to me like you might be overthinking this a little. I’d keep as many options open as you can right now. Let schools eliminate themselves for legitimate reasons, but try not to throw any out for quirky, small things. When my daughter went on her visits in the fall of senior year, she was truly able to make a good decision. She spent lots of time with coaches, the team, went to classes-you know how it goes. Little things that I noticed in our first pass junior year turned out not to matter. Her judgement was solid by the time it needed to be. I understand you’re trying to make a short list. Try and focus on things that really matter to your daughter, whatever those things are. Many will probably have nothing to do with athletics. I feel for you. It’s hard not to get a little crazy in this process.</p>

27

<p>Oh, I am definitely going crazy, riverrunner. So far our visits did very little to clarify the decision, and only one school on our long list sort of eliminated itself, though I wouldn’t even say that the reason was irreconcilable. And there are so many other very good schools with very good running programs that we haven’t visited yet, and others we likely won’t be able to! And to make matters even more complicated, H was just transferred to another part of the country. For now he accepted the transfer, but is looking for another job locally so we don’t have to move. I really go nuts when I start wondering if D should adjust/completely revamp the list based on location! How did your D decide which official visit invitations to accept? Or I am being overly optimistic thinking D might receive more than 5?</p>

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<p>Choose the school she likes the most in general and is the most conveniently located for you to watch her perform. That way, she will be close at hand and happy on campus if the whole sport thing doesn’t work out (injury, etc.). Hard to turn down the Ivies, but location can be important enough to trump school ranking in some cases. Your daughter should follow her gut, but back that up with facts. Always pick the school, not the coach & not the sport. Those last two can change a lot in four years.</p>

29

<p>And to answer the original question of “why would a coach let us see that?” The answer is: M-A-N-I-P-U-L-A-T-I-O-N. Parents and athletes are very easily manipulated by coaches during this process. They plan every aspect of the official visits and know exactly what is on whiteboards or laying out on desks. They also do not schedule three athletes by accident, no matter what they say. It’s called: R-E-C-R-U-I-T-I-N-G for a reason. I’ve noticed the better your school is at the sport, the more open the coach is with recruits until playing time is brought up. That can get dicey, but the trusty standby of, “You will have every opportunity to earn playing time from your freshman year” covers a lot of situations. Good luck with your choice.</p>

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<p>I’m not trying to hijack, but I’m curious how many parents agree with this. I’ve been surprised how important it is to parents who play with my daughter to be able to attend college competitions. I understand being close at hand for adjustment help, but we would hope the athletes love the school as well as the sport. </p>

<p>My daughter adamantly wants to get out of our local area (which she considers about 4 hours in any direction), and sports helped afford a way to do so. I’ll really miss seeing her play, but I put her desires way above my spectating fun. College is such a good time to have this independent experience with reasonable safety. I’m grateful for electronic communication, though. When I was in college we couldn’t even afford to call home, so halfway across the country seemed huge.</p>

31

<p>For many families, the sport is how they have spent their family time for many years and it can be a nice way to stay close and offer support to the athlete during college. Depending on the division and their conference, some athletes who are used to being super stars can have a difficult adjustment to coming off the bench and the attendance of family at competitions helps them. Others, not so much. If the sport is one where injuries are common, then being close matters helps. My own son has had numerous unanticipated injuries and we like to be there for most of the important medical consults, so it ended up being good that he was a 6 hour drive/ 1 1/2 hour flt. away. Most kids do not want to stay in their home area, but they should choose the school they like the best. My younger son (not an athlete) really wanted to get away, but had to admit in the end that the school that was the best fit for him was only 80 miles away. He is happy there and we never see him between regularly scheduled student holidays. For athletes, all sorts of factors can come into play with their college decision that regular kids don’t deal with, but still: they should choose the school that is the best academic and social fit and THEN they should choose the coach/sport.</p>

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<p>As a junior last year,my daughter was being seriously recruited by three schools and was definitely on the radar at two others. Between then and now, her two top choices both got new coaches who had completely new recruiting plans. Fortunately another school came into the picture which is still D-1, athough not quite the sports powerhouse she had in mind, but, academically and geographically and in many other ways a perfect fit. She is now verbally committed. I cannot emphasize enough that you should not be picking a school based solely or even primarily on the sport. </p>

<p>As far as whether you see the recruitment board, I would not read too much into it. It may have been on purpose, it may have been sloppy, if it was seniors land not juniors isted, that information is pretty easy to get anyway, so I am not sure what difference it makes.</p>

<p>Now that we are more or less set, I have this piece of advice - as stressful and crazy-making as the process is, try to stop and remember that to be a D-1 college athlete is a dream come true and a great reward for the talent and hard work that your kid and you should be very proud of. Especially for girls (and boys in non-revenue sports) this is it - the pinnacle. Enjoy it.</p>

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<p>The GFG,
Very familiar with what you will be going through regarding recruiting. I have learned a lot from reading all athlete related threads on cc. As you are currently doing, we visited some schools to see campuses and meet a few coaches. This was to get a feel for large school/small school, urban,suburban,remote etc. Some schools were eliminated from list based on these issues alone. Sent email with sports resume and filled out online questionnaires. Then the dance begins! Some coaches like to lock in visits early while others prefer to wait and see senior year performances in sport. Child can get injured and perform poorly. Coaches can stop calling. There can be many athletes brought in for official visits for few roster spots, so an official visit does not mean a done deal. Also it can be logistically tough to fit five in if student is competing in a fall sport. Child can also totally change opinion of school after official visit based on experiences that one weekend. Sometimes you want official visit, but coach does not offer one. Sometimes coach offers one, but you don’t want to use one of your 5 yet on that school in hopes of using it at another. Then coach feels you are not really interested in their school. I guess what I’m saying is that the process can be quite stressful and a lot can change between Junior and Senior year. As strykermom said above, try to relax and enjoy the ride as things tend to unfold on their own to some degree. Best of Luck!</p>

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<p>Op asks why a coach would choose to let a prospective student see the wall board. Could it be only that that’s where coach typically hangs the board, and really didn’t think about removing it? Could it be absent-minded rather than a conspiracy?</p>

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<p>A very common piece of advice is to pick the school, not the coach, because coaches come and go. This is certainly true, however a coach can have a huge impact on a student’s happiness and emotional well-being. After all, the athlete will be spending about 2 hours per day, 6 days a week, give or take, under the thumb of this individual. If a student has an ineffective or nasty professor, the suffering must be endured no longer than a semester. But an insecure, immature, unreasonable, incompetent, or just plain mean coach can make an athlete’s life hell for four years. D has been dealing with a ton of frustration due to coaching methods (such as pitting kids against each other) for two and a half years already, so for her the personality and coaching style of the coach are super important–second only to the academic quality and social fit of the school.</p>

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<p>Exactly: “SECOND to the academic quality and social fit of the school.” Of course the relationship with the coach has to be high on the list, it just shouldn’t be first on the list, in my humble opinion. A student athlete who does not like a coach should never commit to playing for the coach. Of course, many do not find out the real situation until they are on campus and it is too late. And the coach rules their life so it is important.</p>

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<p>Have seen our fair share of coaches’ recruiting boards! Sometimes it is what it is…just an organizational tool close by the coaches’ desk. Most of the offices we have visited are small, cramped and messy with lots of sports equipment stuffed in open places. :wink: We liked knowing who else was being recruited! Having information helps make good decisions. I sound like a broken record because I say this all the time here…coaches come and go…look at the big picture before choosing a school.</p>

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<p>Hi GFG,
You asked how my D got down to the list of where to make official visits. We did the same thing you are: visited lots of schools on our own dime, unofficially. By mid-summer before senior year, she knew which three to go back to in the fall. So much came down to how she felt on campus: how other kids seemed, the location-rural versus urban, the reputation of the school in terms of academics and quality of undergraduate teaching. Once she arrived at three schools that were academic/“feel”/and location fits, she made her visits. </p>

<p>The officials were a whole different level of evaluation because she spent so much time with current athletes, other recruits, and coaches. She also went to classes, and hung out with non-athletes as well as future teammates on the weekend. </p>

<p>When she came home from her ultimate 1st choice school, she simply had no doubt. I still required her to go on the third trip, but she came home more convinced than ever about the 1st choice. She could only fit in three trips because of how far away we are from the schools, and because the trips needed to be taken in September and October, during her sport’s season.</p>

<p>A couple of things:
The athletic fit piece for her was more about the style of the coaches than the competitiveness of the team. Her goal was to contribute right away, and work with a coach and teammates who are congenial and “fun”. Winning a championship was not her primary objective, although now that she’s on the team, she definitely wants them to improve their performance. :slight_smile: Funny how that shifted. But she did NOT choose the “best” team in the league to try for, because she knew she wouldn’t get to participate as much, and she also had some hesitations about coaching style fit for her. PM/email me for specifics on this topic, if you like.</p>

<p>The geographic location thing for us was not an issue. All the schools she was considering were far from us. Oh well. I had to let go of seeing her compete, and embrace long flights for visits. This was the right decision for this particular kid. How has your daughter done on away camps, etc? If she’s showing you that she does fine on her own, she’s sending a big message about how she’ll handle a distant college. </p>

<p>Also, if you are moving away from where she is going to high school, this is going to be a big deal. She may not want to come to your home for every holiday, and may figure out ways to visit her old high school friends sometimes. If she ends up going to college fairly close to your present home, this actually may work out well for her. (Not you so much :()) Others may have been through this and could shed light.</p>

<p>You still have lots of time, GFG. Listen closely to your daughter. Once I let go of my agenda, I was able to hear her and eliminate some choices that I liked but she didn’t.</p>