Verbal Commit last year, now other schools are expressing interest. What to do?

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Jul 14, 2010
716
18
NJ/PA
DD verballed last October as a sophomore. She got a very good offer from a local school, not quite at her academic level but a decent softball program and she really likes the school. The coach is a great guy and it seems like a good fit.

Since then, she has taken her SATs and gotten a very high score, and her GPA is over 4.0. Several much better academic schools have shown interest but will not "officially" offer her unless she decommits from her original school. Her travel ball coach told us that one of the new schools will not even allow her to visit while she is committed, because the two schools are near each other and cross-town rivals. They want her to decommit, but will not discuss an offer until she does.

With no official new offer on the table, what would you do? She is very interested in at least two of the new schools.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
IMO school first, SB second.

She might get stuck with nothing but you need to look at her education first.

Good for the other coach not talking to her.
 
Jun 1, 2013
847
18
Very high ACT and a 4.0? Don't even talk to them about softball, pursue academic scholarship, get that locked down then de-commit and talk to softball coach.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
Tough situation.

My gut reaction is this -- The right thing to do is talk with the head coach of the school where she's committed and explain the dilemma. In a ''committed'' relationship, it's not OK to keep secrets that could significantly affect the other. Being 'very interested' in other schools and having conversations with them about what's required to get an offer would constitute a significant secret, IMO.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
This is why you do not commit as a Sophomore, your stock is only going to rise.

Is that always the case, though? For every player whose stock rises, someone else's stock must fall. Isn't it kinda like mortgage rates? Where you make an educated guess about when to lock in? There are other advantages to committing, which is that you don't have to spend quite as much money travel to camps and showcases, and you can focus purely on player development and not worry about having to perform at each an every tournament where a coach is watching. I think it can be a gamble either way.
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,855
113
Scotty, I want to throw this out. You have one in the hand and the other offers are in the bush. If your dd likes the school and coach and if it offers the degree she is seeking, you might want to then consider how much any academic monies are available from the school she verballed. The coach should be able to put you in touch to talk to those who know that. Why I say this is that it is pretty nice knowing for my dd that she will not have any debt at all from college. For my dd, she she was a freshman and with academic and athletic monies, I think we paid somewhere around $700 total for that year. Tuition increased each year as did cost for books and her apartment. Still, her senior year, we paid right at $2000 total. IMO, knowing that there is no debt will enable my dd to get on with her life and dreams without having that weight on her shoulders. JMHO!
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Is that always the case, though? For every player whose stock rises, someone else's stock must fall. Isn't it kinda like mortgage rates? Where you make an educated guess about when to lock in? There are other advantages to committing, which is that you don't have to spend quite as much money travel to camps and showcases, and you can focus purely on player development and not worry about having to perform at each an every tournament where a coach is watching. I think it can be a gamble either way.

Not at all. Players get better with age and experience. Coaches would much rather hang their hat on what they know a player can do than what they think they might do in 3-4 years. As a Sophomore players are not even remotely ready for college ball. In fact not just 20 minutes I got a call and advised one of my 2016's to de-commmit to a school that she verbaled to (against my advice) as a Sophomore and commit to a better school and program. When she was a Sophomore she showed potential, but now she is a beast playing at a level well beyond what she could only a year ago. Unless it is truly your dream school and they are offering everything you could ever hope for, committing as a Sophomore does not make much sense. IME all too often players under pressure from Mom and Dad end up doing this just to be done with the process.

As to saving money on travel and showcase, the coaches will expect you to be there. It would be ill advised to not continue to be at every showcase as once verbaled you are working to sweeten the deal. Not to mention you still need to be working behinds the scenes on a plan B or C in case the coach quits or they decide to go in another direction. Even after my DD verbaled we still talked to other schools and heard them out. Because until you sign you NLI you have absolutely nothing other than everyone's good intentions.
 
Last edited:
Jul 14, 2010
716
18
NJ/PA
Scotty, I want to throw this out. You have one in the hand and the other offers are in the bush. If your dd likes the school and coach and if it offers the degree she is seeking, you might want to then consider how much any academic monies are available from the school she verballed. The coach should be able to put you in touch to talk to those who know that. Why I say this is that it is pretty nice knowing for my dd that she will not have any debt at all from college. For my dd, she she was a freshman and with academic and athletic monies, I think we paid somewhere around $700 total for that year. Tuition increased each year as did cost for books and her apartment. Still, her senior year, we paid right at $2000 total. IMO, knowing that there is no debt will enable my dd to get on with her life and dreams without having that weight on her shoulders. JMHO!

Great point. Almost exactly half of her scholarship money will be academic at her current school. She will be paying more than your DD did, but still will be able to graduate debt-free.

However, this will likely also be the case with the other schools she is looking at, so it's really not a factor. The trouble is, we won't *know* that to be the case until she talks to the coaches...and in order to do that, she may have to decommit. So...bird in the hand and all that.

She committed last year after a tough summer where she wasn't playing all that well. She had a breakout weekend at a major showcase and got a few interested schools, then picked the one she liked best after visiting all of them. I think she felt like things might not get better, so she committed. Since then, she has been probably the best hitter on her team and has gotten some looks from coaches that never came around before. If we really thought her stock would rise this much, maybe we would have encouraged her to keep her options open, but given what we knew a year ago, we weren't sure the door would always be open.
 
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