Starting the athletic recruiting process - NCSA

[Anonymous]

PP here. I should have mentioned that the UTR website allows you to search by school and see the roster UTRs. It’s very helpful in assessing how strong a tennis team is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about tennis? If kid is doubles, and interested in D3 LAC, good enough or don't even bother? I would think with under 2000 kids, it is like a high school team, and will look at a typical varsity player, don't need to be national or state level?

HA D3 players will be extremely good, USTA 4.5 or so. The top players can even go a bit higher. That said there are plenty of schools who would happily take a 3.5 but they won’t be the top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about tennis? If kid is doubles, and interested in D3 LAC, good enough or don't even bother? I would think with under 2000 kids, it is like a high school team, and will look at a typical varsity player, don't need to be national or state level?

HA D3 players will be extremely good, USTA 4.5 or so. The top players can even go a bit higher. That said there are plenty of schools who would happily take a 3.5 but they won’t be the top schools.

Those USTA ratings don’t apply to juniors. Colleges are focused on UTRs so look those up and compare your kid’s to players at colleges he or she might be interested in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were told that college coaches don’t want to hear from a recruiting service, they want to hear from your kid. You said “I don’t think my DS could manage this on his own.“ Tens of thousands of high school students do, in order to be recruited. It’s a lot of work but he needs to do it himself. Check out the FB group “Educating Parents of HS Athletes on the College Recruiting Process”, buy the accompanying book by Renee Lopez, and have your kid follow the steps it outlines. It worked for my kid and many others I know.

Spot on, this needs to be mostly self directed by the kid. I do recruiting support for volleyball (mostly targeting HA schools) and none of the coaches that I interact with want to deal with emails coming from recruiting services or platforms. They’ll respond to a few people who have reputations and effectively act like scouts but they really want the kid to be driving things.

The book mentioned above is a solid starting point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about tennis? If kid is doubles, and interested in D3 LAC, good enough or don't even bother? I would think with under 2000 kids, it is like a high school team, and will look at a typical varsity player, don't need to be national or state level?

HA D3 players will be extremely good, USTA 4.5 or so. The top players can even go a bit higher. That said there are plenty of schools who would happily take a 3.5 but they won’t be the top schools.

Those USTA ratings don’t apply to juniors. Colleges are focused on UTRs so look those up and compare your kid’s to players at colleges he or she might be interested in.

I was commenting on skill level but UTR is typically used for recruiting. Someone mentioned a 9.0 which would be low at a top D3 program for a player expected to get match play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about tennis? If kid is doubles, and interested in D3 LAC, good enough or don't even bother? I would think with under 2000 kids, it is like a high school team, and will look at a typical varsity player, don't need to be national or state level?

HA D3 players will be extremely good, USTA 4.5 or so. The top players can even go a bit higher. That said there are plenty of schools who would happily take a 3.5 but they won’t be the top schools.

Those USTA ratings don’t apply to juniors. Colleges are focused on UTRs so look those up and compare your kid’s to players at colleges he or she might be interested in.

I was commenting on skill level but UTR is typically used for recruiting. Someone mentioned a 9.0 which would be low at a top D3 program for a player expected to get match play.

At a school like Wellesley, would they want a great player, or a smart girl that can kind of play?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about tennis? If kid is doubles, and interested in D3 LAC, good enough or don't even bother? I would think with under 2000 kids, it is like a high school team, and will look at a typical varsity player, don't need to be national or state level?

HA D3 players will be extremely good, USTA 4.5 or so. The top players can even go a bit higher. That said there are plenty of schools who would happily take a 3.5 but they won’t be the top schools.

Those USTA ratings don’t apply to juniors. Colleges are focused on UTRs so look those up and compare your kid’s to players at colleges he or she might be interested in.

I was commenting on skill level but UTR is typically used for recruiting. Someone mentioned a 9.0 which would be low at a top D3 program for a player expected to get match play.

At a school like Wellesley, would they want a great player, or a smart girl that can kind of play?

They want and get players who are both. Take a quick look at their roster, multiple players made it to their state championships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about tennis? If kid is doubles, and interested in D3 LAC, good enough or don't even bother? I would think with under 2000 kids, it is like a high school team, and will look at a typical varsity player, don't need to be national or state level?

HA D3 players will be extremely good, USTA 4.5 or so. The top players can even go a bit higher. That said there are plenty of schools who would happily take a 3.5 but they won’t be the top schools.

Those USTA ratings don’t apply to juniors. Colleges are focused on UTRs so look those up and compare your kid’s to players at colleges he or she might be interested in.

I was commenting on skill level but UTR is typically used for recruiting. Someone mentioned a 9.0 which would be low at a top D3 program for a player expected to get match play.

At a school like Wellesley, would they want a great player, or a smart girl that can kind of play?

there are sooooo many smart kids who are also great players. Great academics & great tennis often go together.

[Anonymous]

So coming here to give details on my mid distance DS 2023, state champion in middle distance.

Agree, do not use NCSA,,but do register with the NCAA if you are considering D1 schools

Look at times on runcruit and Tfrrs.
Follow the teams you are interested in on Instagram.
Look at the website rosters for the men’s teams, and look up on milesplit what the middle distance kids were running in high school.
Pay $75 for milesplit pro to see this.

Write an email to the distance coaches of the schools that interest you. Subject line: Larlo jones, blank hs class of 2027 4.2 gpa, 1:57 800m, 4:26 1600, whatever. Express interest in their running program. They most likely won’t respond but you never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:oooh for real? Damn. I posted here to get this very scoop. So there's nothing good that can come from doing the initial free call?
It appealed to me, as DS is kind of in denial that literally this year he is applying to colleges.
I was looking forward to having an outside person tell him "the time is now" to get organized and think about what he sees himself doing in college - it's likely track, but maybe not.
Will speaking with them not serve this purpose?

all the kids who make spreadsheets of their desired colleges, coaches, who they've emailed etc... will not be my ds. Nor will it be me or dh.

Does it ever make sense to get outside help with this?

Yes it does. Look up dave morris. College athletic advisor dot com. My friend said he had her daughter email college coaches instead of NCSA. Kid is now in touch with interested coaches. Not sure where it’ll go but one name I’ve heard of and saved in case I ever need it.

[Anonymous]

Part 2 of DS 2023 post above:

Decide what’s most important to you: great academics, a great college running career, college cost, or social fit. Usually this can’t all be found at one school.

Realize there are fewer men’s programs than women’s programs. Also walk ons are getting more and more rare.

Consider running at the club level for top D1 schools, they are very strong and fun without a lot of the stress.

Fwiw, my kid was a great mid distance runner (ran a 1:54 800m and a 2:28 1000m, 4:20 mile). He decided to go to a D1 school for academics, cost (40k vs 80k) and social fit (20k undergrad) vs a selective D3 where he could have run easily but did not fit the above criteria.

He tried to walk on and they didn’t take any mid distance that year. He is still running club, not as much as his high school teammate at a D3, but he is also invoked in other athletics and college activities. I was worried at first because he loves running so much, but he still runs almost daily, has time for friends and has a 3.9 gpa at college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were told that college coaches don’t want to hear from a recruiting service, they want to hear from your kid. You said “I don’t think my DS could manage this on his own.“ Tens of thousands of high school students do, in order to be recruited. It’s a lot of work but he needs to do it himself. Check out the FB group “Educating Parents of HS Athletes on the College Recruiting Process”, buy the accompanying book by Renee Lopez, and have your kid follow the steps it outlines. It worked for my kid and many others I know.

Please you can have my copy of that book. Total waste as is the web site. All your kid needs to do is cast a wide net of schools he is interested in, contact coaches with relevant info at said schools. and send them video. You will know where your kid stands by their responses. If they say attend camp, that is basically a no.

[Anonymous]

I can tell you that coaches do look at the NCSA site. But it’s either to invite you to a money—grab prospect day, or it’s an obscure school you don’t want your kid to go to.

Avoid Renee Lopez and her website, she is an annoying grifter.

[Anonymous]

Your child should fill out the recruiting questionnaires for the school's he's interested in and send emails with times and academic info. Get hs coaches involved especially if they have connections. NCSA is a money grab

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about tennis? If kid is doubles, and interested in D3 LAC, good enough or don't even bother? I would think with under 2000 kids, it is like a high school team, and will look at a typical varsity player, don't need to be national or state level?

This is sadly untrue if you want an academically strong D3. Strong D3s like Emory, Tufts, Chicago, Vassar, etc are not that much weaker than D1. You’d better have a UTR above 9 to have a shot. With all the international students and strong American tennis players, it’s quite difficult. Even UMW and CNU here in Virginia are extremely competitive and if your kid can do better academically it’s hard to justify going there instead of a better school.

There are definitely D2 and D3 schools that would take kids with lower GPAs but you have to decide if those are kind of schools that are the best for your kid. They’re typically both expensive and not very prestigious.

wouldn't there be even more international track and field athletes than there are intl tennis athletes?