What does Invited Walk On mean?

Well, I had 2-3 D1 types show up at Springfield College in IL., when I was coaching there. All of them had sat around waiting to be discovered and did nothing to help themselves. I had dug around and found them. One girl was fine, another was unhappy that she didn't get any other offers and never went to class and the third, didn't end up coming there.

I can't imagine telling a young lady "you are much to good to be here." She needs to go in and tell the coach that she wants to go to that specific college. She probably has the grades, so that he won't have to use up a scholarship.

Or could it be that the young lady is better than the coach's coaching abilities?

Bustos is a good example . Didn't have the grades, because she is LD. You will be surprised at how many kids are out there that fall into this area and has nothing to do with what one poster stated about working harder after school. Public or Private makes a big difference on who will take a kid that is on a IEP in high school. The SAT-ACT testing requirements are different for these kids.

The dad told me the coach talked with her about 15 minutes of the 2 hour tryout (in the middle of it) and his daughter told him what it was said. He said the coach called her over after she lined a ball off the center field fence from one of the college pitchers on that team.

I thought that a bit strange of a conversation myself.

This is a great kid and wants to go to this school, and wants to play SB and wants to be in the medical field. The school has a reputation of good courses in the field she wants to go into.

I suggested to her dad she contact the coach, phone, email or mail and express that thought to him if this is what she rally wants.

Peppers - having a hard time following you. The OP was talking D1. What division are you talking about?

If I were the DD, I would go visit the coach in his office, and tell him "i was confused by your comment at the tryout." Tell him why she chose that school - the med program. Tell him she chose the school, and wants to play softball there.

These guys are human, and actual conversations go a long ways.

I'm with Jacketsfan...

The coach may have thought that the player was messing with him. The player should go to him and say, "I love this school. I'm going to this school. It would be great to play softball here. But, if not, I'm still going to school here."

jacketsfan

Peppers - having a hard time following you. The OP was talking D1. What division are you talking about?

Click to expand...

A young lady who plays on daughters summer team and had offers from a D1 school and D2 and D3 schools.

She desides she wants to go to this school which has the field of studey she wants to go into. She contacts the coach of this school's softball team and ask him to come look at her in some of the exposure tournments she plays in and does not recieve an answer from the coach.

The school has tryouts she goes and the coach calls her over in the middle of tryouts and the coach ask, what are you doing here? The coach goes on to tell her that he appreciates her coming, but she is way too good to be playing for the team and advises she needs to be at a much better college team. She advised the kid you have excellent grades, you are a great athlete I don’t understand why you were not recruited by some of the major schools. The kid was stunned and her reply was I don’t know. The coach tells her he has seen enough and wants to look at the other kids more and does not let her participate in the remaining tryout.

Update, she recieves a call Tuesday at 9 PM 2 days after the tryout and coach ask why she wants to go to this school, ask about info of her HS team and HS coach and how she felt about the distance the school was from her home, about a 5 hour drive. Then tells her he will call her back.

I am wondering if he thinks she has some skeleton in the closet - like attitude or discipline. I think I would have the travel ball coach call the guy to vouch for her work ethic, attitude, character, and ability.

As a TB coach, I have done this for kids (only when I believed it of course). One college coach was a little hard to talk to at first,and I could tell he was qualifying me as a human being before he was willing to listen to my advice on a player. Once we got through that, he told me his last class had some real discipline problems that weren't apparent in recruiting, and he was not making that mistake again. I spent quite awhile talking with him about the character of the player under stress - he had seen her play - he knew she was good enough.

She ended up signing with the school. I sent him another player from another TB team (not my own) also, who I knew real well. She had been sort of overlooked, but was great kid, and a very good player.

I have no idea if this guy has something like that in the back of his mind or not, but I think a call from her TB coach might be more valuable than get dad. The TB coach could also vouch for the offers/interest from other schools, and can explain why she picked that school.

I am beginning to think that she should look at another college. Something isn't right. Also, I would tell someone at the college how she is being treated.

There are a lot of reasons why someone doesn't want to go to a large university. Why would the coach ask about the 5 hour distance to her home?

I wish I knew what this coaches win, loss record is.

I don't know, Amy. I believe Peppers when he says that the young woman already knows what school she wants to go to and why she wants to go there. I wouldn't suggest she look elsewhere just because of a chance softball may not be a part of her college experience. It sounds to me like she has her priorities straight and when the day comes, I hope my DD will make her college choice based on her career goals as well.

I agree with Sluggers with respect to having the player announce her intentions. If the coach doesn't want one of the best softball players on campus as a part of the team, that's the program's loss, not the student's.

I know of one coach at a D1 school that has a rep of not allowing very good girls to try to walk on for some reason that only he knows.

Others that have a reputation for taking as many as they can, just to keep other schools nearby that they have to play from getting them.