College Recruiting - Need Help Badly

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WARRIORMIKE

Pro-Staff Everything
Oct 5, 2009
2,815
48
At the Jewel in San Diego
Ok so WarriorAngela is an 02 or a freshman in HS or a 2020 grad. However you want to look at it. Currently she is playing on a 18U team that does a lot of college showcases. We only have one player on our team that is Senior and graduating here in 2017. The team is really accommodating the senior at these showcases and trying to get her signed. However no one has taken the bait. With my dd being that she is a freshman. For college recruiting sense, should I move her back down to 14U to get more exposure? OR is the exposure at the 18U level and should I leave her playing on the same team.


We are open to suggestions on this. I would love for my dd to get verbal, signed or something . lol
 
Mar 26, 2013
1,934
0
A lot depends on what level of college ball you're targeting as teams/orgs are usually better at some levels than others.

JMHO, getting on the "best" team where she will be an impact player (e.g. stands out) is more important than age group in SoCal.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Are the other girls, the juniors verbaled anywhere? I would be a little concerned if my "showcase" team did not have any girls committed or is this the only girl on the team that's a junior or senior not committed?
 

WARRIORMIKE

Pro-Staff Everything
Oct 5, 2009
2,815
48
At the Jewel in San Diego
We just picked up the senior about 2 months ago. Since then, my dd's circle time has slowly decreased. One the senior has 4 more years experience and two, has more control over WA at this 18U level. The senior has never played travel ball at this level. She stopped playing travel at or about 14U then went to HS. Competed in Little League Softball tourneys, but that's about it. She hasn't gotten signed because parents and her have not but in the work for recruiting until now.

We have one Junior on team and just recently we had a sophomore just verbal. The sophomore is the only one on team that is verbal.
 
Oct 3, 2009
372
18
Ok so WarriorAngela is an 02 or a freshman in HS or a 2020 grad. However you want to look at it. Currently she is playing on a 18U team that does a lot of college showcases. We only have one player on our team that is Senior and graduating here in 2017. The team is really accommodating the senior at these showcases and trying to get her signed. However no one has taken the bait. With my dd being that she is a freshman. For college recruiting sense, should I move her back down to 14U to get more exposure? OR is the exposure at the 18U level and should I leave her playing on the same team.


We are open to suggestions on this. I would love for my dd to get verbal, signed or something . lol

You may know all of this already but I will give you my two cents based on my DD's recruiting process. This is not in perfect order but I tried to get close.

1) DD needs to define goals of what she is looking for in her college academic and athletic experience. For my DD she was looking for a top school in economics and political science and a place where she had a legitimate shot at actually PLAYING softball versus watching it from the dugout.
2) From there she researched schools that fit her academic criteria and ranked them. On the softball side she broke those same schools down into reach, possible, and likely on the softball side. This was just a ranking scheme she used to think about the likelihood of her realistically getting real pitching time with the school based on her skills.
3) She decided to change TB teams based on her goals to one of the better organizations in our area. One of the things that I think helped her is when she emailed she would include a link to the org site as well as the team site. She would give the schedule which included some of the better national tournaments. I think it helped showing her team played against quality competition.
3) She started, not her parents (this is key in my mind) emailing the coaches of the teams of the schools she was interested in based on her rankings. Emailed and emailed and emailed. Before tournaments giving her schedule, after tournaments giving results, thanking coaches that came to see her, and videos. Videos, videos, videos.
4) Filled out the recruiting questionnaires...lots of them. Attached videos on ones that supported that feature.
5) As her interest focused on a school she went to camps...and did campus visits letting the coaches know she was coming.
6) Emailed the coaches academic progress especially to her short list of schools that happened to be the most academic challenging.
7) Did interviews with admissions. These are usually optional but but if you are looking at good academic schools treat admissions with all the respect and time spent as you would the softball coaches.
8) Update coaches with ACT and SAT scores.
9) Cast a very wide net within your criteria and narrow slowly. Do not rush the process and ask the coaches lots of questions when you visit. We watched a number of her teammates jump on early offers to verbal and we did not see much upside other than an artificial sense of relief. Nothing is for sure until you sign the NLI.
10) Enjoy the ride...easy to say when you are on the other side but we both say we wished we would have just enjoyed it more.

This was stream of conscious so might be rambling but bottom line is your DD has to "own" the process and communicate, communicate, communicate. Even when there are times when you get no response just keep communicating. Again my two cents.....
 

WARRIORMIKE

Pro-Staff Everything
Oct 5, 2009
2,815
48
At the Jewel in San Diego
You may know all of this already but I will give you my two cents based on my DD's recruiting process. This is not in perfect order but I tried to get close.


3) She started, not her parents (this is key in my mind) emailing the coaches of the teams of the schools she was interested in based on her rankings. Emailed and emailed and emailed. Before tournaments giving her schedule, after tournaments giving results, thanking coaches that came to see her, and videos. Videos, videos, videos.


This was stream of conscious so might be rambling but bottom line is your DD has to "own" the process and communicate, communicate, communicate. Even when there are times when you get no response just keep communicating. Again my two cents.....


Some really good stuff, and yes agree, my dd needs to invest the time into it. Thank you.
 
Oct 3, 2009
372
18
Some really good stuff, and yes agree, my dd needs to invest the time into it. Thank you.

And I have to add, I made that process sound much less painful than the reality we experienced. :) For example I said she sent lots of emails and she did. But in the early days getting her to send even one email was like getting her to climb Mt. Everest with no oxygen. With each one sent and getting responses made it easier over time...but it took TIME. More than one bucket conversation would go something like:

Me: "Did you email so and so your schedule yet?"
DD: "No Dad I will!!!"
Me: "Ok well the tournament is coming up and they are going to be there."
DD: "I know Dad!" And then grumble grumble something that I cannot hear 43 feet away and then the ball comes whizzing in with extra spin and velocity

So bottom line is it was not easy and they have to think about things at a very young age and "owning" the process is a process in and of itself and took us a while. I did not want to make it sound like it was all sunshine and lollipops!!
 

WARRIORMIKE

Pro-Staff Everything
Oct 5, 2009
2,815
48
At the Jewel in San Diego
And I have to add, I made that process sound much less painful than the reality we experienced. :) For example I said she sent lots of emails and she did. But in the early days getting her to send even one email was like getting her to climb Mt. Everest with no oxygen. With each one sent and getting responses made it easier over time...but it took TIME. More than one bucket conversation would go something like:

Me: "Did you email so and so your schedule yet?"
DD: "No Dad I will!!!"
Me: "Ok well the tournament is coming up and they are going to be there."
DD: "I know Dad!" And then grumble grumble something that I cannot hear 43 feet away and then the ball comes whizzing in with extra spin and velocity

So bottom line is it was not easy and they have to think about things at a very young age and "owning" the process is a process in and of itself and took us a while. I did not want to make it sound like it was all sunshine and lollipops!!


LMAO Daayum. That sounds just like my kid. Thank you for the reality check too. I always hate the "I know" response. Bugs the crap out of me.
 
Aug 26, 2011
1,285
0
Houston, Texas
And I have to add, I made that process sound much less painful than the reality we experienced. :) For example I said she sent lots of emails and she did. But in the early days getting her to send even one email was like getting her to climb Mt. Everest with no oxygen. With each one sent and getting responses made it easier over time...but it took TIME. More than one bucket conversation would go something like:

Me: "Did you email so and so your schedule yet?"
DD: "No Dad I will!!!"
Me: "Ok well the tournament is coming up and they are going to be there."
DD: "I know Dad!" And then grumble grumble something that I cannot hear 43 feet away and then the ball comes whizzing in with extra spin and velocity

So bottom line is it was not easy and they have to think about things at a very young age and "owning" the process is a process in and of itself and took us a while. I did not want to make it sound like it was all sunshine and lollipops!!

This was my DD exactly. She had a very short list. Knew she wanted academic over softball, wanted good premed with good medical school/center relationships, didn't want to be too far (3-4 hours okay, but over 6 seemed to intimidate her), had to be a decent softball program with good coaches, etc. And after the academic list checked out, the coaches had to have established good rapport with her...no dead-have-not-heard-from-coach-in-weeks coaches but coaches who genuinely showed interest and contacted her regularly. Anyway, prior to the 2nd half of her junior year, it was like pushing a sloth out of deep slumber to get her to do the emails or make the phone calls. Now that she is verbally committed to a d3 school, going through the same pushing-sloth-out-of-deep-slumber route with applying for scholarships. Now that is one big thing on *my* list. LOL.
 

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