What worked / didnt work for your daughter

[Bouldersdad]

After going through it recently, and now watching it from girls a year or so behind my group, there are MANY colleges struggling to fill a roster. I've seen players with less talent than I would take on a travel team, get decent college deals. You won't see them on ESPN, but they are getting a 50% or more "ride" to gain a good college degree. Which is better than 10's of $1000's in student loans.

My advice is keep the emails going out far and wide. You might not land that D1 dream, but there are an abundance of D2, NAIA, jucos, who are actively searching.............right up to the summer before your freshman college year.

After going thru the recruiting process twice I can say that he pretty much nailed it with this post. Good advice

Tim

 

[obbay]

go here:
Student-Athlete Sign In | NCSA Client Recruiting Management System
they hyave good info on getting you doing the right things

 

[MNDad]

Sort this verbal list by club team to find a showcase team with proven ability to place players:

https://www.fullcountsoftball.com/recruiting/verbal-softball-commits-master-list/


In helping some players, I noticed a bit of truth stretching and out of date information at individual club team sites, ie, the player played on the school's club team and not the actual team, the player never went there, etc.....

Truth stretching by parents about their daughters softball accomplishments? Say it ain't so

 

[KCPRK]

So true - at least from what I've seen here in SoCal:

"Play for a big Organization that gets invited to the right showcases and has the right connections with the coaches." If your DD wants to play at a D1 school, this is an absolute. I've read more than one column in the NFCA monthly newsletter from current D1 coaches that say they won't even open an email, much less visit a showcase, to see a player unless that player is from Firecrackers or one of the other "National" brands.

There are also training centers all over the country that have college coach connections. If you can't afford the "brand" name team (and often it's a lot of money every month to rent that name on the front of the uniform), those training centers can be another lifeline into the process.

Best of luck.

Been a member of NFCA for years and even of their coaches college where I get to sit next to those same D1 coaches. Ive never heard or read that statement before regarding national brands. IMHO that's how they "sell" their product and pay their coaches salaries and expenses.

What Ive always noted was coaches are human like us and they spend so much time recruiting-anything you can do to get their attention and prove you can handle a college load as well as play softball helps. So many players fail or drop out their freshman fall because their not good students and hard workers (self study on and off the field). Coaches want players they don't have to babysit on and off the field and unfortunately there are too many that need said babysitting.

Teach your DD to be self sufficient and have great grades-THATS what all the hundreds of college coaches have told myself and DD over the years. Im talking National Champ coaches to brand new rookie coaches at all levels of the game-even hall of fame retired coaches

And most of the coaches at all levels are against this early recruiting. The NCAA coaches and NFCA are working to put limits and rules on early verballing as they don't like having to fight for a player that may not be the same or even like the game 4-5 years later. I was at a major school-top 25 last weekend. They said "were looking for 2014 graduates as 3 of the early recruits didn't make it through hell week. Scholarships available"

That says a lot!

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Sort this verbal list by club team to find a showcase team with proven ability to place players:

Caveat - some high-profile org's are very aggressive about updating entries to show their team when they get a player that was already committed.

In helping some players, I noticed a bit of truth stretching and out of date information at individual club team sites, ie, the player played on the school's club team and not the actual team, the player never went there, etc.....

IME, only the website for the current TB team is updated after a verbal falls through, which makes them more reliable than previous team(s) and the big verbal lists. If it were my kid, I'd contact the verbal lists to have her removed so it didn't hamper efforts for a new deal.

Some verbals are reported even though there is no commitment from the school (e.g. walk on) and later on the kid doesn't make the team. In extreme cases, the college coach knows nothing about them. My DD's college coach sent out a funny email to the team last summer about an unknown kid who'd announced she'd been invited to play softball there.

 

[luvofgame]

Does anyone have or can show a sample post card

 

[JAD]

Does anyone have or can show a sample post card

Here is the front of the last postcard we did for my DD. On the back we put her summer TB schedule and left plenty of room for a handwritten note. We ordered them through VistaPrint and if you sign up for the website you will routinely get 20% off coupons via email. Since my DD has verballed if you PM an address I would be happy to mail you one if you would like!

 

[abbygale]

JAD, I think it's cool that you show your daughter wearing a mask while pitching. Good for her.

 

[iMlearning]

After struggling with the recruiting process, I'd highly recommend that you get your daughters to talk to the coaches early in their recruiting process. DD has a real problem with this which shocks me because in "real life" she is very outgoing, and all of her past coaches really speak highly of her. At clinics she would almost get sick at the thought of talking to the coach. Even at her dream school when the coach asked who she was after she performed outstanding, she didn't take the opportunity to get to know the coach. She has done this several times...even once after hitting 2 homeruns in a row in front of a top notch D1 school. We forced her to talk to a recent top D2 coach and she looked extremely nervous but did great and he said he could use a good player like her. Still, she is having trouble.
So, in conclusion...force your girl early so it gets easier before you run out of time.