Daughter Committed...did we do the right thing????

[JAD]

Major congrats! I gotta say, what FP26 above stated is HUGE. 90% JUMP ON THAT!!!!

I understand that money is a HUGE factor in determining where a lot of kids go to school, but I want to caution against making it the only factor in the decision making process. Playing college softball is a lot of work, hard work, and if your DD is not happy with her coaches, her teammates, her academics, and her life, all the money in the world is not going to fix it.

Before your DD makes any decisions ask her, "if your arm fell off tomorrow, and you could never play softball again, would you be happy here as a regular student and could we afford it". If the answer is not an IMMEDIATE and unwavering YES, keep looking. There is a reason that most college recruiting classes have 6-8 players while there are only 2-3 seniors on the team - playing college sports is a grind and 50%+ of the players who start as freshmen do not play all 4 years.

 

[justanotherguy]

I understand that money is a HUGE factor in determining where a lot of kids go to school, but I want to caution against making it the only factor in the decision making process. Playing college softball is a lot of work, hard work, and if your DD is not happy with her coaches, her teammates, her academics, and her life, all the money in the world is not going to fix it.

Before your DD makes any decisions ask her, "if your arm fell off tomorrow, and you could never play softball again, would you be happy here as a regular student here and could we afford it". If the answer is not an IMMEDIATE and unwavering YES, keep looking. There is a reason that most college recruiting classes have 6-8 players while there are only 2-3 seniors on the team - playing college sports is a grind and 50%+ of the players who start as freshmen do not play all 4 years.

Wise advice that I can't really compete with yet!

 

[sbdad03]

Thanks for that advice JAD. "if your arm fell off tomorrow, and you could never play softball again, would you be happy here as a regular student here and could we afford it"

The answer to that question is NO, and I'm only saying that because of the afford it part. It cost about $45k to attend, so affording that is out of the question.

So, we will keep looking and keep our options open.

 

[Tom]

School #3 didn't give us a time frame, but said he was making the same offer to another young lady and said whoever gets back with me first will get it. We didn't like the way he did that, but he's holding all the cards. We looked at it like "A bird in the hand..." and she accepted the offer the next day.

First off, congratulations to your daughter and you. That's a big achievement and payoff for hard work. IMHO this coach isn't holding all the cards and accepting it really doesn't change that much for her. At 90% definitely want to keep that option available. Keep the verbal commitment quiet, let the HC from her #1 see her play then see who's calling Sept 1, and then again when NLI time comes around. If she was late bloomer, there may be some options out there she hasn't even heard from yet. With the communication blackout until 9/1 who knows what happens. This school my find another player they want and all of a sudden offer is less etc. If coach put that kind of ultimatum on offer I would suspect they'd have no problems changing the offer as other players come along.

 

[Hube111]

Congrats on the offer sbdad03! Just out of pure curiosity, why does she want the school she attends to have a football team?

 

[Bubrox]

Congrats on the offer sbdad03! Just out of pure curiosity, why does she want the school she attends to have a football team?

That comes up a lot when we were looking at schools for DD1. Football brings in money and something to do on Saturday nights.

 

[masterblaster22]

That comes up a lot when we were looking at schools for DD1. Football brings in money and something to do on Saturday nights.

My thoughts also. The entertainment factor, plus the atmosphere on campus during the football season is fun.

 

[YOCOACH]

I understand that money is a HUGE factor in determining where a lot of kids go to school, but I want to caution against making it the only factor in the decision making process. Playing college softball is a lot of work, hard work, and if your DD is not happy with her coaches, her teammates, her academics, and her life, all the money in the world is not going to fix it.

Before your DD makes any decisions ask her, "if your arm fell off tomorrow, and you could never play softball again, would you be happy here as a regular student and could we afford it". If the answer is not an IMMEDIATE and unwavering YES, keep looking. There is a reason that most college recruiting classes have 6-8 players while there are only 2-3 seniors on the team - playing college sports is a grind and 50%+ of the players who start as freshmen do not play all 4 years.

And that's how Emily picked her school even though there were other offers on the table from D1 down to D3. She ended up D2 but is exceptionally happy with her choice since they had the major she wanted to study plus is able to play SB for them. The offer wasn't anything to talk about but, If she quit tomorrow, we could still afford it.

 

[sbdad03]

Hey Hube111,

My daughter is VERY social. She is very outgoing and I am the opposite, so I don't get it.

She feels like it will give her the complete college experience and also give her something to do on weekends in the fall. All the schools she is looking at is too far to drive home on the weekend, so it is really a social thing for her.

 

[Softball scholar]

My DD visited a D1 school without football. One of the selling points of the coach at the school, was at the schools without football, the girls and all of the other athletes got treated so much better. She said the softball, soccer, track athletes are the stars and get so much more attention. She coached at a big major football school, and its all about football and the non-revenue scholar athletes were just after thoughts.

Anyway, how many home games do football teams have, 5 or 6 a year. I wouldn't base a decision on football.