Another Recruiting Thread

[Cannonball]

I was talking to some parents this past week about college recruiting. I told them that my dd's recruitment wasn't "typical" for several reasons. Today, I was sitting around going through some old files on my computer and while reading some of the old recruiting correspondence, it hit me that no one has a "typical" recruitment process. While there are many similarities, there are those differences. I thought I relate two stories that I was reminded of today.

DD was being recruited by a school in the Missouri Valley. A former player from our HS was playing there and doing really well. This player had told the HC about my dd and so, that is how she got on their recruitment list. DD was having a great season in HS and we had let this coach, along with a lot of others, know how well she was doing with updates. Naturally, we couldn't get responses back. It was senior day at this university and our games had been rained out. The HC had asked for my dd to come to senior day since a lot of other recruits were supposed to be there as well. We knew on the Friday that Saturday would be rained out and so, we'd be there for the weekend. BTW, this was an unofficial visit. DD was a junior then and this was our former player's senior day. There were 3 recruits there as well. By this time my dd had been the area player of the year a few times and had tremendous stats. Upon arriving on the Saturday, the former player introduce dd to the HC. They exchanged a couple of words and the HC walked away. DD felt that this coach didn't even know who she was. We went Sunday to Senior Day. DD went afterwards to the "get together" for the seniors and again tried to talk to the HC. She was completely ignored. It was then that we knew that this coach didn't have any clue who she was and that the HC had asked her to come. It is my belief that an assistant coach did this.

DD went to a college winter camp. This school is in the OVC. They have a decent practice facility and so, DD was pretty excited. This coach was just the opposite and showed DD too much attention to the point that some other parents started grumbling. At one point, the coach took DD and matched her up with a signed recruit who was coming in the following fall. Again, DD was a junior. They started by playing catch with the coach standing by her. Then, he took both to CF in the facility, to SS, to 3B ... Then, they hit one after the other. The college girls in the camp asked if DD could stay with them over night. This was a Saturday camp. These same players asked the HC to offer my dd.

Two mid D-I schools with about the same reputations and two different coaches who approached dd differently. Both continued to recruit her and both made an offer. Again, there are similarities for all in the recruitment process but there each of you will/could have vastly different experiences as well.

 

[mj1569]

I appreciate you telling BB's recruiting story. These are the stories I like to hear about.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Great information, thanks for that. Did DD select either of those schools?

 

[girliesmom]

I thought I would share my dd's college search and recruiting story.

DD knew early on that she wanted to play softball in college. She was looking for a very small school where she could play softball but not have it consume all of her time. She wanted a suburban school with opportunities for research / internship. She also wanted to attend an academically-rigorous school. Her wishlist left her with a dozen D3 schools. She started emailing coaches on the first day of her sophomore year. That same year, she wrote the ACT for the first time and performed extremely well. Her score placed well above the average of every school in the country.

During the summer between her sophomore and junior year, we completed a bunch of college visits and by the start of her junior year, she knew exactly where she wanted to apply ED1. Just before Christmas during her junior year, she received her first offer - a spot on the roster and application support to an elite LAC. She explained to the coach (let's call her Coach A) that she couldn't commit at that time because she was conflicted with her college choice. The coach was phenomenal. She did not pressure DD and gave her all the time she needed to make her final decision.

Towards the end of her junior year, she was communicating regularly with a handful of D3 coaches (including Coach A plus the coach from her top choice school- Let's call this Coach B). That summer, DD and her team played in the Colorado Fireworks. During the tournament, she was recruited very hard by one of the top LACs in the country (let's call this Coach C). It wasn't DD's top choice but since it was a school she was considering, she sent her transcripts to the college for an early preread as requested by the coach. It came back positive. Also, while in Colorado, Coach B - her dream school, came out to watch her play. After the game, the coach spoke with DD first, then DH and myself. She wanted DD and asked that DD submit her transcript for an early pre-read. She did. That too came back positive. She left Denver with 2 new offers.

Then all of a suddenly, everything came crashing down around her. 2 days after returning from Colorado, Coach C called and said that she wasn't going to support DD's application after all. She was able to get her top prospect through admissions. DD was upset but was ultimately fine with it - after all, it wasn't her top choice. Then Coach B (her dream school) called and recommended that we speak with admissions about financial aid. (Learning lesson - schools ranked in the top 10 nationally offer no academic money - just financial aid). We found out that we made too much money to qualify for fin. aid but made too little money to send our DD to the school. We were in financial purgatory! We told DD that there was absolutely no way that we could bridge the gap and send her to her dream school. She was devastated! She informed coach B of her decision and she walked away from her dream school.

DD still had 1 offer on the table - Coach A, when 4 other coaches came knocking - unfortunately, DD was lukewarm at best. Her heart had been broken - she was interested but at the same time, not interested. She was simply going through the motions. Her senior year started with 3 solid offers (2 LACS and 1 University) in the bag. She'd completed the pre-reads and we knew that she would be getting academic money (from some to a whole lot). Further college visits were scheduled for DD and I. Then 2 weeks prior to the ED1 deadline, DD's grandparents surprised her with enough money to help cover her tuition for 4 years. Upon hearing this news, DD knew exactly where she wanted to go. Problem was, it was now mid-October and she'd parted ways with Coach B (her dream school) in early July. I contacted DD's recruiter who then contacted Coach B, and within an hour, DD received an email from the Coach saying that she had a roster spot for DD and that she would support DD's application. However, (and this was not what I'd expected - I was always under the impression that if the coach wanted a kid, the kid would be automatically admitted - WRONG! At top schools, the kid still has to make the cut on their own. All the coach could do was write a letter of support in favor of DD. DD had to submit the strongest application she could muster. With an admit rate of under 20%, yes, we were worried. In early December, DD found out that she was admitted ED1.

When we started this process in DD's freshman year, I hadn't imagined DD's recruiting journey to be anything like what we'd experienced. When we started this journey, I honestly thought that she would jump at her first offer and that would be the end of it. Never had I imagined that I would one day have to turn her away from her dream school. Neither did I think that we'd ever have the opportunity come back after walking away from an offer. I knew that the D3 process is very different from the D1, D2 or NAIA process - but despite this knowledge, I still hadn't expected how different it would be! It's been one heck of a ride. It's been an incredible learning experience and I'm grateful to have been able to learn from all your experiences. Thought I would pay it forward.

 

[Cannonball]

Great information, thanks for that. Did DD select either of those schools?

No, initially, she selected the team where she attended the camp and all of the players wanted her at the school. We were told we would be contacted with an offer. We were. Then, as we went through the following summer, we found that this coach had told all of the other schools that BB had verballed to them. In fact, she had not. His offer was 40%. I've told this story here before but he came to a big tournament and BB tore it up with several homeruns. He asked her to commit and we thought that we would drive down the following weekend for her to do so. He dropped his offer significantly. We drove away and, some here might remember, I was panicked as to what to do. In the mean time, another school wanted her badly and made us an offer we could not turn down. BB graduated not owing one cent for her education and had a great career. In the end, it all worked out for the best.