You will blink your eyes and she will be off to college. You will blink again and there will be a young man asking for her hand. Store away the memories. This time will be past before you know it.
Article on early recruiting...
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You will blink your eyes and she will be off to college. You will blink again and there will be a young man asking for her hand. Store away the memories. This time will be past before you know it.Yeah mine were too. Keep good records in order to put a transcript together while accepting her ACT or SAT will be a much bigger determining factor.
Speaking of SAT or ACT, all of you, especially the kids who will likely end up at the upper end of the academic range, SAT and or ACT tests are like Chicago voting. Do it early and often. The school counselor will try to dissuade you but they don't understand the softball recruiting calendar. There is no downside to taking the PSAT and then the SAT and ACT as early and often as you possibly can.
Good individual test prep sessions can raise some kids score a lot.
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- Dec 2, 2012
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You don't "have" to do anything until your DD is ready. Just because some major D1 schools are reaching into middle school to captivate a few very talented kids doesn't mean every school is following that lead, nor does it mean every kid is ready to commit or has the talent/desire to pursue one of those slots. Instead of worrying about those rare cases, we parents should be focusing on what we can control, and what is best for daughters. Keeping a focus on academic achievement, and a balance between sports, school, family and faith is far more important than what UCLA, Oklahoma or Florida did in their recruiting process. Over the past 2 years, I've personally had coaches at all levels tell me they are willing to take a risk on a phenom or two each year, but all of them have been burned by committing to some kids too early. One coach from a well known mid-major told me she could sign uncommitted kids the summer before entering college that were better than some of her first very early commits. She is not going to continue to risk those mistakes, which will have a significant impact on that program.
Start slow. Find out what is important to your daughter...before opening your wallet for recruiting acttivities. Have her start communicating via email with some coaches..when she is ready. Go to a few local camps... when she is ready. Have her focus her energies on becoming a better player, and a better person rather than what she wants for a life long career. The rest will take care of itself with the help of good coaches and good programs that you help steer your daughter towards. The current system is not perfect or even desirable. You can't change that, so focus on what is right for your daughter.
I would not worry about it in earnest until your DD reaches high school. There are a couple of phenoms who verbal in the 8th grade, but it is the exception and not the rule. Get started in 9th grade and be up and running full speed by the summer after your DD's sophomore year. If she is interested in Ivy League type schools "prime time" will move to the summer after your junior year when she has an ACT and/or SAT score available.
One of the tougher issues for girls who are early offered is making the decision whether they should wait for more offers or risk losing the offer on the table. That's a lot of pressure when a girl may have a really good offer from a solid program that is telling her that she needs to commit by a certain date or they are going to move along to another girl on their list.
The University of Wisconsin sends out a lot of matrices which show what sort of ACT scores are needed with what set of grades, etc. There were lots of people DD 1 had access to, at her HS and at Wisconsin, who had that information.
Over the years she took ACT prep classes at both Wisconsin and her HS. She took the ACT over, and over, and over again until she had the number she wanted.
Then, she applied, submitted the scores, got an acceptance and an academic scholarship.
So, yeah, there certainly are cases in which taking the tests over and over again help. That was NOT the case for DS, who had great ACTs but mediocre grades, and had to concentrate on his grades. For SOME kids, Mark H's advice is spot on.
True.
Take the ACT or SAT (at least PSAT) well before that so they know you are worth watching and in case you need to get serious about test prep to get your scores up. Get seen by the Ivies the summer before your junior year with decisions happening the next year give or take. If by Ivy types you are including the Williams, Hamilton, Amherst etc, then yeah, they get to the buffet line after the Ivy League schools are finished on average. Not that a Williams isn't as hard or harder to get into than an Ivy. I know a former Ivy coach. I'll ask her about the details of their recruiting calendar and confirm.
What makes the decision more nerve racking is that most offers are less than 100%, with 50% or less very common. A lot of college coaches entice players to verbal early with promises of progressive scholarships where the scholarship value increases every year.
On the other end - which so many folks neglect - is that the odds of a girl spending 4 years playing softball at the same school are probably below 50% if you include all levels of play. By the time you consider girls who transfer, quit, get cut, injured or just leave school my experience, and many of the coaches I've known over the years have concurred, is that maybe half the girls who play do so for 4 years at one school.
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