Opinions on where my daughter is in her recruitment right now?

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jun 27, 2018
291
28
My 2021 has this current situation: she has the following four schools on her radar. She’s a catcher/1B/3B. 5’8” 170 lbs. usually a power hitter but she’s working through some kinks right now. Is she behind, or probably right where she should be right now? I was hoping she would be committed by the end of junior year. Now I feel like it might be more this summer.

School 1, D3: probably her top school choice right now. They seem interested but they also seem to still be involved with recruiting 2020’s. This past Fall they were anyway. So it’s hard to tell. She has attended several camps and this past Fall the HC told her he will see her more in 2020. The assistant coach also told me once that she should expect to be heavily recruited in the summer after her junior year. He was talking in general not just his school.

D3 school 2: ok this coach has been talking to her pretty regularly over email. He came out to see her twice. Once last summer with her 16u B team. Then once this past Fall with her 18u Gold team. Both times she’s was struggling at the plate. We saw him recently at a open house at the university. I
He seemed happy to see her. I think he likes her. He told her to work on her hitting over the winter. She already was going to do that anyway. He said he will watch her again next summer. Send him her schedule. He also told her she can come watch his team practice in the Spring. I think he’s interested? She really likes this school too.

D3 school 3: she just discovered this school literally like a month ago. She was searching schools for her major. It’s 2 hours away. She emailed the coach and pretty much told him she just discovered the school. She also said she is really interested in attending and playing there. . He said he’s always looking for good softball players and invited her up for a visit. We will visit in the Spring. Just an open house not an official visit. I’m hoping it’s not too late and he can watch her play in the Spring/Summer.

Ok the last school is a D1, and the coaches met my DD at a clinic attached to a showcase last summer. They seemed interested but as you know they couldn’t officially talk. She did hit well that weekend. They may have seen her play at that showcase but I’m not sure because that was before they were allowed to talk to her. After Sept 1, they sent her a personal email (not like a cattle call) and invited her up in to a prospect camp in January. They also said they are limiting it to 50 kids. 8th thru 12th grade. She got an invite from the HC and another email from the AC. We are planning on going but I wonder if it’s real interest. It’s going to cost some money for the two day clinic plus travel and hotel. I wish we knew.

Any thoughts on any of this?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Aug 19, 2015
1,118
113
Atlanta, GA
As a parent of a 2022 with the same positions (C/1B) and similar issues with streaky batting, I'm interested in this thread. Wish I had advice, but I'm following in your footsteps. I would say for her to just keep emailing/calling them. Even if there's nothing new to report, tell them "Happy Holidays," send more video of her batting in practice, and just generally stay on their radar like weekly. The unwritten message is "I'm still really interested in getting an offer from you." And of course, after each camp, send a personal email discussing something specific she learned or something about a particular experience she had.

Also ETA: DD is on a high A-level team with a mix of 2021s and 2022s and we literally just had our very first girl have an offer this week. Some of these girls are All-State HS players, etc..., but none have committed yet. So I don't think you're too far behind.
 
Jul 27, 2015
235
43
My 2021 has this current situation: she has the following four schools on her radar. She’s a catcher/1B/3B. 5’8” 170 lbs. usually a power hitter but she’s working through some kinks right now. Is she behind, or probably right where she should be right now? I was hoping she would be committed by the end of junior year. Now I feel like it might be more this summer.

School 1, D3: probably her top school choice right now. They seem interested but they also seem to still be involved with recruiting 2020’s. This past Fall they were anyway. So it’s hard to tell. She has attended several camps and this past Fall the HC told her he will see her more in 2020. The assistant coach also told me once that she should expect to be heavily recruited in the summer after her junior year. He was talking in general not just his school.

D3 school 2: ok this coach has been talking to her pretty regularly over email. He came out to see her twice. Once last summer with her 16u B team. Then once this past Fall with her 18u Gold team. Both times she’s was struggling at the plate. We saw him recently at a open house at the university. I
He seemed happy to see her. I think he likes her. He told her to work on her hitting over the winter. She already was going to do that anyway. He said he will watch her again next summer. Send him her schedule. He also told her she can come watch his team practice in the Spring. I think he’s interested? She really likes this school too.

D3 school 3: she just discovered this school literally like a month ago. She was searching schools for her major. It’s 2 hours away. She emailed the coach and pretty much told him she just discovered the school. She also said she is really interested in attending and playing there. . He said he’s always looking for good softball players and invited her up for a visit. We will visit in the Spring. Just an open house not an official visit. I’m hoping it’s not too late and he can watch her play in the Spring/Summer.

Ok the last school is a D1, and the coaches met my DD at a clinic attached to a showcase last summer. They seemed interested but as you know they couldn’t officially talk. She did hit well that weekend. They may have seen her play at that showcase but I’m not sure because that was before they were allowed to talk to her. After Sept 1, they sent her a personal email (not like a cattle call) and invited her up in to a prospect camp in January. They also said they are limiting it to 50 kids. 8th thru 12th grade. She got an invite from the HC and another email from the AC. We are planning on going but I wonder if it’s real interest. It’s going to cost some money for the two day clinic plus travel and hotel. I wish we knew.

Any thoughts on any of this?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We are on a team with 2020 and 2021s with DII and DIII level players. We had 2 of our 2020s commit last spring. We had 2 of our 2020s commit this fall. (one was to DII and one was DIII) I don't think it is too late for your daughter, but I doubt you get a whole lot of new schools looking at her.

We have one 2021 who has verballed. My daughter, a 2021 pitcher, has offers but is holding off until the summer to verbal. I don't expect any of the other 2021s to get offers until the summer or fall. Quite frankly, they are lazy and are not sending out emails. They have the skills.

So has school 1 actually seen your daughter play in a game? Did school 3 see videos? If not, the schools 3 coach is just keeping the options open.

I know - there are some DIII schools that are better than some D1 schools. But on the whole, D1s are better than DIII schools. If you have had DIII schools see your daughter play and have not made an offer, then I am skeptical if the D1 is really an option. It is really hard to discount a personal email, though. There have been 2 times in the past my daughter has gotten a personal email, showed up a camp, and they had no clue who she was. Your case certainly sounds better than that.
 
Jun 27, 2018
291
28
School 1 has seen her play but they were very specifically there to see 2020 kids. I was told by the AC that the head coach won’t make offers to anyone until the summer after JR year. He said he disagreed with this but that’s how they do it.

School three she just discovered and she’s hoping to get them to come out in the Spring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
D3's usually wait till late junior year.
They don't want to make early offers then get left at the alter. Some kids will commit D3 early then get better and a D2 or D1 will come knocking.
 
Dec 6, 2019
382
63
D3's usually wait till late junior year.
They don't want to make early offers then get left at the alter. Some kids will commit D3 early then get better and a D2 or D1 will come knocking.

How late? Through winter camps?
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
How late? Through winter camps?
Yes. That's what I've seen. Seems like they want to be sure kids are 100% committed to the school. When DD (2021) was a freshman we had a D3 school coming to her HS games. Coach is a legend in our area. He told DD "I'd love to have you and you'd set records at our school but I know you're dreaming bigger and that makes sense, if your junior year comes and you don't have a home you have one here".
I thought that was so nice of him, but I'm sure in his 25 plus years coaching he's been burned too much.
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
It all depends on the D3 program, IME. The high academic D3’s will not typically ask you to commit until after the player’s junior year and SAT/ACT scores have been submitted and they know that the player meets the minimum admissions criteria to their school. However, in many cases you will know that they are interested since they will keep in frequent contact via emails/texts/calls with the player, have them come for visits, etc., if the player has reached out to them.

Unfortunately at a lot of these higher academic programs the coaches don’t have a lot or have minimal input with admissions because there is no athletic money. Sure, there are many D3’s out there that will ask for verbals early junior year but they typically aren’t the programs that require the high test scores and high GPAs.
 
Jun 27, 2018
291
28
I should also add, the schools she’s really targeting are D3. She had no interest in any D2 schools, just because there were none in her target area of location or major really. The top 2 D3 she is looking at she seems to have a pretty good communication with coaches.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Dec 6, 2019
382
63
Yes. That's what I've seen. Seems like they want to be sure kids are 100% committed to the school. When DD (2021) was a freshman we had a D3 school coming to her HS games. Coach is a legend in our area. He told DD "I'd love to have you and you'd set records at our school but I know you're dreaming bigger and that makes sense, if your junior year comes and you don't have a home you have one here".
I thought that was so nice of him, but I'm sure in his 25 plus years coaching he's been burned too much.

On reflection, most of the D3 commitments we have seen have occurred in the fall of senior year. Of people in our circle and schools that we are watching, we have only seen 1 junior commit to a D3 school.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top