How our DDs ended up on college teams

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sluggers

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May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
My DD had no offers at the end of her HS career. (At that time, most schools did not have softball. E.g., the SEC and the Big 10) We sent out a mass email to JUCOs in the south. One college, El Paso Community College, was interested. So, we sent a videotape. The coach (Cathy Rodolph, now HC at New Mexico State) asked her to come down for a visit. She did, and was offered a scholarship.

She learned to play high level softball at the Juco--she played Jucos from Arizona and SoCal. They even scrimmaged against Arizona. My DD played Juco for 2 years, won a bunch of awards for her play, and pitched in two NJCAA Div 1 championships (she lost both).

She was then recruited by Kansas, Loyola-Chicago, and Southeastern Oklahoma. The Kansas coach passed on my DD, but was impressed enough to call up her friend at Ohio University and say, "Hey, you need to look at this kid." My DD went for a visit at Ohio U (beautiful campus, by the by) and the coach made her an offer on the spot. (She ended up an all-conference pitcher in the MAC.)

DD#3 played D3 basketball. The Illinois coach wanted her to walk on and red-shirt. However, DD#3 probably would not do much more than sit the bench. She had an offer from an NAIA school, and some others were interested in her. I found out that Hope College had a really good team, so we contacted the coach at Hope College, and went for a visit. My DD#3 fell in love with the school immediately. The coach asked her to play for him, and my DD#3 agreed.
 
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Sep 9, 2019
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DD's journey was likely pretty typical. 2022 grad and 03 birth year so has the advantage of 2 years 18u before college starts. Trying to be brief.
Started communicating seriously in the fall of 1st 16u season. Built highlight and skills videos on a YouTube channel. Identified about 30 colleges with good academic standards. Emailed updates and schedules. When traveling, made it a point to drive through or walk through potential schools and let the coaches know she would be on campus. This led to several coach led tours and talks. Also eliminated many for the environment, campus etc. Several coaches attended games. Went to select camps on campus or those with limited attendance. Ruled out D1 after 2nd year 16 entering junior year to focus on academics. Sept 1 calls came but were not considered. She determined she would pursue a high academic path. The list narrowed to 10. This is where it got difficult. Communication back was sporadic with many if the schools. A few were very frequent. Continued Communications though, updates, schedules, academic achievements.....We were left wondering why teammates were getting and accepting offers junior year and here we were, D1 interest, limited contact. Then comes spring junior year. ACT, SAT tests taken, high scores good transcript and the emails and calls start pouring in. Like a light switch after the spring season. Some with very little contact prior. Very enlightening. Learned that they were all watching game streams, video replays all along and really waiting to get a good idea of admission. Covid impacted travel and even on campus opportunities. Attended several on campus face to face visits and learned about a much different process for these schools. Narrowed the list to 3 D3 high academic schools. Interestingly, they were the schools she had frequent contact with from the start. Their process is to submit admissions pre-reads to determine your likelihood of admission and get an initial academic scholarship commitment. Once passed, the official roster offers were made. Narrowed the list to 2, and revisited both officially. Verbally committed and applied to a great school and program 2 weeks ago. So happy and proud of her choice.

If we learned anything it would be.
Keep up the communication. Had no idea of the interest level based on replies alone.
Someone is always watching, there or in office. 1 coach showed us her 6 TV viewing set up.
They love streamed games since they can watch at leisure, fast forward, slow mo etc...
For us, we would have saved some confusion and angst if we simply asked what their process is.
If you have access to SportsRecruits, use it. We were well into the process when made available to us but a great tool for PSA and parents.

Enjoy the time. The worst part is that the travel ball journey and the irreplaceable time spent together is about to end.

Sorry but there is no short reply to Sluggers thread.
 
May 14, 2015
493
43
Bismarck ND
DD is a good ball player (lettered in 3 sports) that plays high school ball and travel ball. Little context: Her travel ball team is just a local group of girls that are pretty serious (5 commits so far). played a schedule of regional tourneys, nothing showcasey at all. Won a NAFA northern national. (yes Nafa lol). But good group of girls and families. HS ball she started Varsity as a 12 yr old 7th grader, all state at 13 and Gatorade POY by 14........ Never went to a camp, or even emailed a coach. Made a couple free profiles on the recruiting sites. She had several calls Sept 1 Junior year with coaches with offers, but her question was always "how far from home". The coach/school she ended up choosing (300 miles away from home) actually UMPED games at the state and national level during Covid, as that was acceptable/approved. He was able to see the girls up close and personnel and see all their reactions, good and bad. And of course hear the parents telling him all the mistakes he was making hahahahaha. Coach also will give her the opportunity to pitch and hit, and still play in the field on other days. not all the schools had the same vision :) In State D1 that fits the softball test and broken leg test, and a conference thats all within driving distance. So far so good for all. She is a class of 2022 and just turned 17- two years of travel left, if they still do that.
 
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Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
If I knew that DD would have ended up at the school she is at, I could have saved $1000's!!! She just had an interview for an Internship last week with a dad of a softball player that is a freshman at UNC-Greensboro. An offer should be coming any day!

DD's recruiting process starting in 8th grade, because that's what you did! Lots of changes to target schools, lots of camps, lots of emails, and voicemails. She only sent out two emails to the college coach where she landed before he came out to watch her play. Once she added the school to her list, she sent an intro email and the next week her fall schedule with some videos. This is Sept of Jr year. TB coach texts and says "I didn't know Meg was interested in UTD. I am friends with the coach. He likes her and wants to see her play this weekend vs Blinn Juco" He came, saw a few AB's and watched her play catcher. As he left, he told her coach that he wants her and the pitcher! Then the Asst coach followed her the next several weekends and before he would grant a visit he needed to know if would be an auto admit (top 10%) to the school. 4 years ago TODAY, she took her all day visit tour and visit and and offer was made. Within 2 months of her first email, she gets an offer. Seems that we wasted all that time and energy on all those other schools. But maybe not. It was necessary to understand which school would be a good fit.
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
Dd started emailing schools freshman year. She attended a few camps and then decided to join a true showcase team her sophomore year since only a couple of girls on her previous team were serious about playing in college. She was also asked to guest-play for a national team a few times the summer between her freshman and sophomore years where the initial schools she was interested in came to see her play. Dd wasn’t completely sold on those schools though after campus visits.

The following summer (between sophomore and junior years) dd really started to narrow her focus and decided that she had a good shot at high academic programs which became her goal so she decided to shift her focus to those types of schools. She had emailed a few and one of those schools showed a ton of interest in her and called her right after the Pennsbury showcase. She instantly felt comfortable with the coach so they kept in touch via email and text over her junior year; the coach then came to see her play in Florida and in Massachusetts. She also attended their camp a few times and absolutely loved the school. She also had a lot of interest from a few other high academic schools who saw her play and we were able to narrow the list down to a top 4 after a few calls and visits. We were then able to eliminate one of those 4 as Covid hit and dd never got the chance to set foot on their campus.

Fast forward to summer after junior year - dd had positive pre-reads done at her top 3 remaining choices and they always say love the school that loves you back and this one school just did all the right things and checked all of DD’s boxes. She received her offer in the very beginning of July 2020 with full coach support through the admissions process at the NESCAC school which was her top choice. She is a freshman there now and loves it!

ETA: We created a web site for dd through Wix where skills videos, metrics, newspaper article links, and academic/awards/community service info was all posted. Dd sent the link to the web site to all of the coaches she emailed. Definitely helped to have it all in one place.

Dd was also more interested in the schools for the academic aspect vs the softball aspect and that is what drove her recruiting process.
 
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Jul 27, 2015
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Starting writing D3s as a freshman. Got a fair amount of interest. Then we figured out the liberal art schools at all our state's D3s were not going to work for my daughter. So she had to write them saying sorry. Lesson learned - but of course that was a one time lesson to learn.

Anyhow, in the winter of 10th grade, once she figured out her likely major, she sent out emails with video links to a group of schools that offered them (D2s and D3s. She was not a D1 prospect at that time)

She got unsolicited D1 interest (and offers) her junior year mostly because we switched team. One of our better moves. We went from a local team where half the girls wanted to play in college to a more regional team where everyone wanted to play in college. The atmosphere was better. Competition was better, which made her better. Exposure was better.

She ended up to one of the DII schools she wrote as a sophomore. They had her major. And minor. And we loved the coach.

We never made a skills video. But I had very good Go Pro footage of her pitching.

It was a family process. My wife researched the majors and requirements. We also looked at their academics and graduation rates. We did not want her to be the smartest or dumbest person at the school. Also, was it a commuter or residential college? I researched the softball coach and team. My daughter then checked out any approved schools we had. Of course she added some schools here and there. At the end, she was doing most of the research herself. What I looked for:
*How many juniors and seniors were on the team?
*How big was the last freshman class? I saw a school I was interested in who had 17 freshman. They were marked off the list.
*My daughter is a pitcher. How did the coach allocate innings in previous years? I saw a few where the #1 had like 80% of the innings. I wrote them off.
*I checked the roster for how many pitchers they carried and their years. Early on we actually went to a camp where the coach said she liked to carry 7 pitchers. We actually got a tour by the #1 pitcher who griped about how few innings she got. Yeah, they were marked off the list.

Other things we learned. In pretty much the first paragraph of an email to the coach that your daughter writes, say what she wants to major in and then say how great it is that that school offers it (of course the school better offer it). If there is a good GPA, mention it early too. Then go into the specific softball skills. That was the key thing she did not do well early on.

I grew to hate winter camps, and we stopped attending after 9th grade. But I can't say enough about summer and fall camps. My daughter attended 5 summer or fall camps, and got offers from 4 of them. That is where a coach really sees you.

We also attended games, if possible, of the schools she was interested to gauge skill level. That was an eye opener. We watched live streams too but viewing live is so much better.

Worst experience: Drove close to 500 miles to a summer camp where they invited my daughter to attend after seeing her videos on the Internet. They initiated the contact through the coach since my daughter was too young to have a direct contact. They were one of the few colleges that had her major and minor. Got there - coach had no idea who my daughter was. My daughter pitched 1 inning at the camp and struck out all 4 batters she faced. (dropped third strike) Still no interest. Granted, my daughter hated the urban school so it would have been a no-go anyhow. We were on the local travel team then, and our coach did not make the phone calls he should have made to save us that trip.
 
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Jun 11, 2012
741
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DD started emailing coaches freshman year. We also made a big switch from a big organization to a smaller but very well respected organization which turned out to be the best thing we could have done. Sophomore year we did some campus drive bys at schools she thought she might like. That narrowed the list down further once she figured out what type of location she liked.
we toured a few, met the coaches and they came to see her play that summer.
By mid junior year she was 100% certain where she wanted to go and told the coach that. She’s a senior now but is planning on taking advantage of a 5th year since she’s already been accepted into the grad program she wants
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
Just some more info to consider after learning about the process through DD’s experience and while also being a recruiting coordinator - take a hard honest look at your DD’s softball and academic abilities and let them help to guide the process. Do not go to camps or reach out to certain schools just because your showcase team’s coach wants you to (many just like to be able to put that D1 school on their team’s profile). We wasted some money doing this because DD’s coach really wanted her to go D1 and dd did not want softball to dominate her college experience. Once she visited those schools she knew they were not for her. Really listen to your dd to discover what she truly wants. It is ultimately her journey.
 
Aug 27, 2019
640
93
Lakewood CA.
DD graduated in 21. She was a Covid recruit. We used Field Level and sent personalized emails to many schools. We had a nice, short skills video on the FL site. She got a lot of inquiries (she’s a catcher) from schools from all over mostly DII and NAIA. She did some online interviews with coaches and some virtual campus tours.
She then decided she wanted to attend someplace close to home. One of the coaches from one of the local schools that showed interest came to a couple of games last summer/fall. We did a drive through tour of the campus and accepted their offer.

Like many smallish programs they did not have a ton of athletic money to offer but they were very helpful in getting a lot of academic money for her.

She is now 4 games into fall ball and doing very well. We miss not having her at home but she comes home every weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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