When Did You Know?

[jacketsfan]

I was talking to a good friend tonight, who's DD is a jr in HS. She has been talking to a D1 school for a few months, been to some camps there, etc. Their recruitment of her has really ramped up over the past month. Last week, they asked her to come to campus to meet with the Head Coach. They are going next week, and I expect an offer is forthcoming (based upon the whole of her interaction with them over the summer and fall).

As we were talking, I asked him how it felt to be the parent of a recruited athlete. It was still a little new to him yet, and he still isn't comfortable thinking about it.

That made me start to think - when did you really know that your DD 1) had a shot to play in college, and 2) that it was real, and she was actually going to have the opportunity to live that dream.

For some people, I'm sure it happens it early. For the rest of us, it's probably more of a long process.

For me, I don't think I really started thinking she had a shot until I was talking to a coach that was watching her at a tourney in Fall of her jr year. I was very surprised that he had her name circled on the roster. I was talking to him about one of our other players, and we asked me about my DD, it took a second to register (he asked by her number, and I thought I heard him wrong).

Then, as we went through the ups and downs of the recruiting process, talking to different schools, coming close but missing at some, I really started to have doubts. Then, as new shcools showed up and started to talk to her, I started to think she had a chance again.

I think it only became real when we were on campus, at the SB field, and the coach asked me if I was comfortable with him being her coach for the next 4 years. He then asked her if she was ready to commit. She looked at me said "Dad, this is it, this is where I want to go". Hearing her say that is when it became real.

What's your story?

 

[sluggers]

Well, for DD#1, it was tougher than DD#3.

When you knew she had a shot to play in college

For DD#1, it was the year after I stopped her coaching her. Her team made it to the 16U nationals, and then the team got hot and the team finished in the top 16. I wasn't holding her hand. I only saw a few of her games that year (she has two younger sisters).

DD#1 went to a juco for two years. I realized she was going to play after juco when she took her team to the D1 juco nationals and was named team MVP as a freshman. When I saw her pitch after her freshman year, I realized what a good pitcher was supposed to look like.

As to DD#3 (the basketball player), I knew it when she started on the HS varsity team as a sophomore. She was a lot better than about 99% of the girls she played against.

that it was real, and she was actually going to have the opportunity to live that dream

For DD#1, none of it was real until they put the money on the table. She had been approached by teams, but until they put it in writing, it doesn't mean anything.

For DD#3, it was more of a process of her deciding what she wanted to do. She had an NAIA offer. A Big 10 school wanted her to walk on and red shirt a year. And a D3 school just wanted her to come and play for them.

 

[RMGC]

It started with a dream

Jacketsfan: When my daughter was 10, she was playing in a girls baseball league. The head of the league called to tell me she was being removed from the league because she hit too hard and the other parents were afraid for their daughters. They then put her in the boys league where she was a pitcher. In 7th grade the head of the boys league called me and said she was being removed from that league because the boys were complaining that they did not want to bat against a girl. He is the one who told me to switch her to softball. She went out for her middle school softball team, started to take pitching lessons and was the best player on her team. By ninth grade, she was the only ninth grader to make the varsity high school team, and she started saying to me that she wanted to pitch full time, that she wanted to go to a Division 1 school and pitch. At this point it still was only a dream for her and I didn't really think about it too much. By the time she was a Junior in high school she had pitched her team to the independent school state title and was chosen all city first team. That is when it started to become a reality for me. Her Senior year, she was all state first team, won the state title as a pitcher again, hit a home run out of a college field park, was named most valuable player and was sort after by a number of schools. She also was a gifted student and was accepted to several Ivy League schools. She ended up studying and getting a degree from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she pitched all four years she attended. Her dream was realized. She went on to pitch in the state games on an independent team and earned a bronze medal. Injury to her hip and her job in finance ended her career, but what a ride it was!