Recruiting - Decision Time!

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Apr 25, 2019
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Not that anyone necessarily cares, but...after receiving a total of 8 offers (D1 x 2; D2 X 4; NAIA x 2), we did a visit a few weeks ago to a D1 on the East Coast, got a really nice scholarship money with both athletic and academic support (DD has a 4.0) and she committed the next day! She is incredibly excited and dedicated to working her butt off during her senior year of high school to improve her skills as much as possible and also get a lot of hours worked so she can help pay for it!

Whole family is on cloud 9! (except for Mama who is a little sad her BFF is moving so far away)

First of all, CONGRATS to your DD!!

I had a quick question. Once September 1st came and went, what's next? My DD is a freshman so I have a couple years but what do you do after that date? Do you take all the offers and decline the ones you have no interest in? Do you start taking visits? Are these official or unofficial visits? My DD and I have done our parts to get her name out there with emails, flyers, camps, showcases, and postcards but I have no idea what to do next.
 

osagedr

Canadian Fastpitch Dad
Oct 20, 2016
280
28
First of all, CONGRATS to your DD!!

I had a quick question. Once September 1st came and went, what's next? My DD is a freshman so I have a couple years but what do you do after that date? Do you take all the offers and decline the ones you have no interest in? Do you start taking visits? Are these official or unofficial visits? My DD and I have done our parts to get her name out there with emails, flyers, camps, showcases, and postcards but I have no idea what to do next.
I am probably not the right person to answer these and would hate to give the wrong advice. I think there is quite a bit of good info on you questions in this forum! And you can always start a new topic b/c there are a lot of very knowledgeable ppl who are very willing to help.

Having said that...for us, Sept 1 was NBD (actually, most of her interest was from D2s and their contact date is June 15th). She did get quite a few emails Sept 1 but wasn't sitting by the phone at midnight or anything. DD definitely did not decline any offers until she was put on a deadline - you never know what will come up, what will change, when coaches will get hired or fired, etc. Definitely lots of emails, I would keep your videos very fresh (every week or two; we used Sports Recruits but there are other good ones; even Youtube channels are free!) and just keep that contact going. Also being with a travel org that plays good events really helps. Video-wise, we found a mix of highlights and skills videos was important. Highlights show the kid can succeed in games. Skills videos allow coaches to breakdown mechanics, etc.

So "what to do next"...keep playing, keep focusing on getting faster, stronger and better, keep the videos fresh, keep emailing and calling! Good luck the rest of the way!
 
Dec 6, 2016
70
18
FWIW...Here is my personal story, and it contradicts all the other advice you've heard.

When I graduated, I wanted to play football. Didn't care where. Had several offers and ended up going to a very small D2 school. The campus was not the prettiest, not the biggest....i just wanted to play football. Had no idea what i wanted to do with my life, but football was going to get me there. I played 4 years, started every game but 1 (due to injury), fell in love with a beautiful girl, graduated with a Computer Science degree, married the girl i fell in love with and started my career in IT. We now have 3 kids and i have the perfect life. Where i graduated from, meant nothing. I had a degree...that meant everything.

Moral of the story: It doesn't matter where you go to school (unless Harvard or Yale or another prestigious school) as long as you get a degree. I'm living proof. Go somewhere who offers the most scholarship money and graduate as close to debt free, as possible.

It's funny now, I've taken my kids (they all played sports) to visit our alma mater during their recruiting years and they all said, "This is awful. I would never go here." I tell them, those were the best four years of my life. I had the most fun, worked my butt off, bonded with some great friends and was able to travel around the US to play a silly game. I also tell them, that if it wasn't for me going to that "awful" school, they wouldn't be born!

Forgot to add - my daughter ended up accepting a 95% scholarship to play softball at the most beautiful campus i've ever seen. Loved the school, loved the coaches/players during recruitment, loved the location. Perfect school for my daughter. Old coach left before she arrived, new coach came in. Her whole freshman year, coach probably said two words to her and no playing time and the upper classman were awful to the freshman. Worst experience she ever had. Ended up transferring.
 
Last edited:
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
First of all, CONGRATS to your DD!!

I had a quick question. Once September 1st came and went, what's next? My DD is a freshman so I have a couple years but what do you do after that date? Do you take all the offers and decline the ones you have no interest in? Do you start taking visits? Are these official or unofficial visits? My DD and I have done our parts to get her name out there with emails, flyers, camps, showcases, and postcards but I have no idea what to do next.


For 95% of the players out there, Sept 1st will mean nothing and many will be disappointed that college coaches won't be flooding their DD's inboxes and vm's. I have been advising a family with their recruiting adventure that really only started last May. As with most kids this recruiting thing doesn't even seem real. At the end of HS ball, the kid got in a great program that is a great fit with great coaches with the right connections. The kid was disappointed to see that her #1 school committed a 2023 pitcher last week and she didn't get a call. I told the dad that doesn't mean anything other than they might have been communicating with this kid since she was in 8th grade and she might have attended every camp every year. Meanwhile this kid is just beginning her recruiting efforts. She is 6'0" tall and will get lots of interest as a pitcher. Attend the camps, get in front of coaches and play hard in the fall tourneys. She will get invites, as long as she shows interest to those schools.

If your DD is one of the lucky ones that gets at leaset one call, more than likely the coaches will want to set up a visit to the school and hopefully an offer will be extended at the end of the visit. Sept 1st for D1 prospects is the day that coaches can actually discuss recruiting with PSA's and for most they are trying to establish a relationship. There is so much more to this to discuss and so many factors and working parts that go into this whole recruiting thing. If you talked to 20 different kids that got recruited there will be 20 different stories how they got recruited.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
FWIW...Here is my personal story, and it contradicts all the other advice you've heard.

...

Moral of the story: It doesn't matter where you go to school (unless Harvard or Yale or another prestigious school) as long as you get a degree. I'm living proof. Go somewhere who offers the most scholarship money and graduate as close to debt free, as possible.
...

Forgot to add - my daughter ended up accepting a 95% scholarship to play softball at the most beautiful campus i've ever seen. ... Worst experience she ever had. Ended up transferring.
Uh, your post doesn't make any sense.

You say, "Go to a place where you get the most scholarship money. Nothing else matters." And then you say, "My DD, on a 95% ride, transferred because she hated it."

To me, aren't you really saying that there is more to picking a college than simply how much money a school offers?
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Uh, your post doesn't make any sense.

You say, "Go to a place where you get the most scholarship money. Nothing else matters." And then you say, "My DD, on a 95% ride, transferred because she hated it."

To me, aren't you really saying that there is more to picking a college than simply how much money a school offers?
He was trying to sneakily say that quality of school doesn’t matter as long as you come out debt free and get a job but threw in the “snotty schools” as a way to keep us off his scent…
 

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