- Oct 9, 2010
- 6
- 0
I've been lurking for last couple of years and have thoroughly appreciated everyone's comments about their hunt of college softball for their DD.
My DD is a Junior LHP in the midwest. She's got the reputation for being a top student and a competive pitcher. That combined with being older makes me the target of "what are you doing for her to get a college scholarship" question by quite a few people. I point them towards Aradi's book and try to give them an honest view of the process. We have spent a lot of time and thought over the last 15 months and have just begun to start seeing the fruit of the labor.
I see a real gap in our town in the education process for parents of kids who have college athletic apirations. Shoot, there is a real gap in the education of parents of kids who just want to go to college. My college search 25 years ago is night and day different than it is for kids today...
Anyway, below is email that I sent to a friend who's DD is a year younger. If someone cares to provide some feedback/comments on it I'd appreciate it and will continue to pass along the knowledge I've already gained from this forum...
------
Don't worry --- it's easy to be overwhelmed. If the college brochures haven't begun to arrive by the dozens each day they soon will.
Last year I didn't know where to tell DD to start. I wasn't sure if she could play in college and if she could, what level. Pitching coach suggested *maybe* low level D1, mid tier D2, D3 and NAIA. Which level would correspond to how much she would contribute to the team. That opened up a lot of schools. DD recognized that she didn't want to put 20+ softball hours a week in for a team where she wasn't going to be playing regularly. Then it became a process of where she wanted to go to college for education's sake. What size, location and quality. I think she is still undecided on those questions.
Looking over on the results pages of the college softball teams it appears as if the quality of D2 and D3 teams really varies. Then, cross section that with average ACT/GPA for Freshman it seems that D2/NAIA schools aren't at the top academically. D1 and D3 schools on the other hand can have both. Quality academics and team. We've mostly ruled out playing at D1 because of her desire to really contribute to the team. So that leaves D3. The problem with D3's is that they are almost all private schools.
That means it comes down to dollars. Re-enter D2/NAIA schools because they can provide athletic money -- but rarely do they have top tier academics. She is interested in a career path that will probably include graduate school so blowing the wad on undergrad may not make sense. So maybe a degree from a D2/NAIA won't hurt her grad school choices that much.
What we don't know is will D3 academic money be enough when compared to just going to a good public college that will have a fraction of the debt after graduation.
Arghhh... the further you go into this it just seems to get less clear.
I will say though, the biggest thing to understand is that unless someone is on a true gold team and a complete over the top stud, coaches won't "just find you". But, even stud players have to market themselves to the coaches that don't happen to come to their games. What this translates into for the good but not great players is that they have to pick the school and market themselves. Somehow, someway get the information to the coach and get them to watch her play. This can be at camps or tournaments.
Tournaments, especially travel tournaments are one of the opportunities to capitalize on your dollars spent to get college coaches to come watch. Last year, we didn't use every out of town tournament to contact the coaches. We thought that if it wasn't a "college exposure" then we shouldn't send out invitations to coaches. That was probably a mistake. If you travel near a coach invite them to the tournament. With a letter, postcard, something. Just not solely by email.
There needs to be a reality check for almost every college bound athlete. I've heard quite a few families say that they wish they had not spent the money on sports because nothing came of it. If the team fees and travel expenses were an investment into a college scholarship then I'd have to say that is a bad investment. In my opinion the goal should be the journey not the destination. In other words, the experiences gained when someone develops into an athlete, the hard work, the practice, learning how to pick yourself up, and life lessons from games should be the goal. NOT a discounted college tuition.
IMHO, a part time job when you are 16 and working your way through college can accomplish more financially than going after the rare athletic money for college sports. And probably teach you many of the same life lessons. That is, unless you are one of the few total stud college softball players.
Getting to play after high school because you love the game and getting some level of compensation for it should really be just the icing on the cake for most athletes.
My DD is a Junior LHP in the midwest. She's got the reputation for being a top student and a competive pitcher. That combined with being older makes me the target of "what are you doing for her to get a college scholarship" question by quite a few people. I point them towards Aradi's book and try to give them an honest view of the process. We have spent a lot of time and thought over the last 15 months and have just begun to start seeing the fruit of the labor.
I see a real gap in our town in the education process for parents of kids who have college athletic apirations. Shoot, there is a real gap in the education of parents of kids who just want to go to college. My college search 25 years ago is night and day different than it is for kids today...
Anyway, below is email that I sent to a friend who's DD is a year younger. If someone cares to provide some feedback/comments on it I'd appreciate it and will continue to pass along the knowledge I've already gained from this forum...
------
Don't worry --- it's easy to be overwhelmed. If the college brochures haven't begun to arrive by the dozens each day they soon will.
Last year I didn't know where to tell DD to start. I wasn't sure if she could play in college and if she could, what level. Pitching coach suggested *maybe* low level D1, mid tier D2, D3 and NAIA. Which level would correspond to how much she would contribute to the team. That opened up a lot of schools. DD recognized that she didn't want to put 20+ softball hours a week in for a team where she wasn't going to be playing regularly. Then it became a process of where she wanted to go to college for education's sake. What size, location and quality. I think she is still undecided on those questions.
Looking over on the results pages of the college softball teams it appears as if the quality of D2 and D3 teams really varies. Then, cross section that with average ACT/GPA for Freshman it seems that D2/NAIA schools aren't at the top academically. D1 and D3 schools on the other hand can have both. Quality academics and team. We've mostly ruled out playing at D1 because of her desire to really contribute to the team. So that leaves D3. The problem with D3's is that they are almost all private schools.
That means it comes down to dollars. Re-enter D2/NAIA schools because they can provide athletic money -- but rarely do they have top tier academics. She is interested in a career path that will probably include graduate school so blowing the wad on undergrad may not make sense. So maybe a degree from a D2/NAIA won't hurt her grad school choices that much.
What we don't know is will D3 academic money be enough when compared to just going to a good public college that will have a fraction of the debt after graduation.
Arghhh... the further you go into this it just seems to get less clear.
I will say though, the biggest thing to understand is that unless someone is on a true gold team and a complete over the top stud, coaches won't "just find you". But, even stud players have to market themselves to the coaches that don't happen to come to their games. What this translates into for the good but not great players is that they have to pick the school and market themselves. Somehow, someway get the information to the coach and get them to watch her play. This can be at camps or tournaments.
Tournaments, especially travel tournaments are one of the opportunities to capitalize on your dollars spent to get college coaches to come watch. Last year, we didn't use every out of town tournament to contact the coaches. We thought that if it wasn't a "college exposure" then we shouldn't send out invitations to coaches. That was probably a mistake. If you travel near a coach invite them to the tournament. With a letter, postcard, something. Just not solely by email.
There needs to be a reality check for almost every college bound athlete. I've heard quite a few families say that they wish they had not spent the money on sports because nothing came of it. If the team fees and travel expenses were an investment into a college scholarship then I'd have to say that is a bad investment. In my opinion the goal should be the journey not the destination. In other words, the experiences gained when someone develops into an athlete, the hard work, the practice, learning how to pick yourself up, and life lessons from games should be the goal. NOT a discounted college tuition.
IMHO, a part time job when you are 16 and working your way through college can accomplish more financially than going after the rare athletic money for college sports. And probably teach you many of the same life lessons. That is, unless you are one of the few total stud college softball players.
Getting to play after high school because you love the game and getting some level of compensation for it should really be just the icing on the cake for most athletes.
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