Recruiting questions

[TXJames44]

"When she sends follow-up emails to coaches, always keep it in a chain with her original email. That way, the coach can see how many times she’s reached out (demonstrates her interest) and all of the emails will be in one spot so coach doesn’t have to search."

Does everybody agree this is a good idea?

This is something that we have all of our girls do. College Coaches seem to prefer it this way.

 

[Thunder17]

My 2025 is going through the process now. Everything you are doing is exactly what she should be. The coaches should 100% be involved. The only negative i see is the lack of relationships your coaches may have with the college coaches. That is a big thing. During games, when college coaches are present, one of our coaches with the relationships is always out talking to them. Whether they know them or not. Then, before camps and after camps, that same coach/recruiting coordinator is texting/emailing the coaches to get feedback. Between last fall, this summer, etc., our guy has been in communication with on on who is interested, what camps we should maybe attend, and also lets us know of the camp invites. In my opinion, this has been the most valuable thing......the emails and camps help show your interest and helps open the door a bit, but the communication behind the scenes is what opens up all the possibilities. Without this part of the recruitment, we'd be lost on who is actually interested, and where to place our time and money.

 

[Rolling Hard]

So you get an offer or you are asked to make an official visit. Now what?
How do negotiations usually go?
Is there a back and forth?
Who does most the talking?
How much time do you get to decide?
What questions are appropriate?
Can you ask what your projected role on the team will be?
Can or should parents ask questions?
Can you talk about majors?

 

[Vertigo]

So you get an offer or you are asked to make an official visit. Now what?
How do negotiations usually go?
Is there a back and forth?
Who does most the talking?
How much time do you get to decide?
What questions are appropriate?
Can you ask what your projected role on the team will be?
Can or should parents ask questions?
Can you talk about majors?

I’ll just speak to how it worked out for my kids. Obviously it will be a different experience for others, especially across the difference divisions.

If your dd is serious about the school (should be if she received an offer), then absolutely should go on the OV. Usually the OV comes before the offer but I imagine it can go both ways. Both of my kids were able to do “unofficial” visits at a few schools where they did have lunch with current team members, observed practices, met with the HC, sat in on a class or two, and met with admissions staff. Dd actually did do one overnight before Covid shut that down. These were done before offers were made.

Can‘t speak to negotiations as my kids went D3.

When dd and ds were made offers (which were done over the phone for us), the coaches said that a parent or parents could also be in on the call. Both received texts first as to when a good time to talk would be. The Coaches typically led the conversation and our kids answered and asked their questions. Then we were asked if we had any questions. Most of the questions revolved around how the off-season worked, what happened if they had a class or lab and it overlapped with practice, how did it work if they had to miss class for games, etc. The other thing was these questions usually were asked during the visits or on calls prior to when the offer was made.

A recruit can and should ask the Coach where they foresee their role on the team, or where they feel they would best fill a need for the team. Nothing wrong with asking these questions. It helps the recruit decide between different offers.

Definitely should ask if certain majors are doable with being on the team (probably should have been sharing this with the coach long before being made an offer). You don’t want to commit to a team and then find out later down the road that your dd won’t be able to miss a part of practice for a lab or won’t be able to juggle both softball and clinical time (if a nursing major, for example). Some coaches are definitely more accepting of this than others.

Your dd also absolutely should ask the coach how long she gets to make her decision if they don’t already tell her a time frame they need to know by. Some coaches want to know within a couple of weeks while others are much more generous with how much time they allow.

I hope this helps a little with some of your questions.

 

[BRsoftballDad]

So you get an offer or you are asked to make an official visit. Now what?
How do negotiations usually go?
Is there a back and forth?
Who does most the talking?
How much time do you get to decide?
What questions are appropriate?
Can you ask what your projected role on the team will be?
Can or should parents ask questions?
Can you talk about majors?

I'll try to answer some of these as well since my 2025 DD just went thru it. Let me start by saying that our visit was an unofficial but we did receive an offer after the campus tour, lunch (which we paid for), meeting with admissions, etc. For my DD, her academics/ACT will cover her tuition and freshman year of dorms. The offer covered her meal plan and books (about $4K all said and done). So there weren't really any negotiations needed since it was all covered. My DD did most of the talking and one of the questions she asked was how many catchers are you taking in this class? She also asked how long she got to decide and said that she would like to talk with her recruiting coordinator. The coaches didn't give a specific timeline but they did say that if the school and the softball checked all the boxes, then how long did we need. Which I understand. Really, we only had one box left to check once we left the visit and that was in relation to the Honors program. We did talk about majors and we knew from Q&A's from previous camps that this HC was good with many majors. My DD wants to go pre-med, so we asked if there were certain majors that we needed to steer clear from but they told us if that was route my DD wanted to go that they would make it work. I hope this answers at least some of your questions. My DD committed a little over 2 weeks after Sept 1st.

Also, before we made anything Facebook or X official, my DD reached out to all the other coaches she received offers from and let them know of her decision to commit elsewhere. I was surprised that some don't actually do this. I guess some athletes post their commitment and the other coaches see it and figure it out. I guess common decency isn't so common.