Recruiting for student athletes

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the information. I just confirmed with a friend, who as a hobby referees HS basketball. He told me about the rules above and that the coaches that he knows do recruit but never initiate initiate contact. He actually told me about a time when he told a coach about a prospective recruit but the coach said that the family/parents had to initiate the contact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the information. I just confirmed with a friend, who as a hobby referees HS basketball. He told me about the rules above and that the coaches that he knows do recruit but never initiate initiate contact. He actually told me about a time when he told a coach about a prospective recruit but the coach said that the family/parents had to initiate the contact.

So how did your friend say the schools "recruit" if they don't initiate contact? I don't understand.

[Anonymous]

Schools will often use parents who coach as proxies. The parent seeks to field a good team with kids from school X and those who aren't at school X. The parent can introduce the idea of comnig to school X without it constituting recruitment. For independent schools, recruiting is much more narrowly defined than NCAA.

[Anonymous]

A friend's kid attended a Sidwell soccer camp and afterwards was "encouraged" to apply. The family sat down with some school staff but no money was offered, this isn't a family that can easily afford $35k/year even if they aren't poor, so the kid didn't apply.

I guess recruiting means even less slots for the rest of us!

[Anonymous]

Not sure about money but the sports piece can definitely get a marginal student into a school.
I witnessed a convo at a party between a coach from one of the big three and a mom who's kid (average student) was recently rejected from that school. They were chitchatting (the coach maybe had the kid in a summer program) and the mom mentioned that her kid had applied to his school and was rejected. The coach was shocked to hear about the kid's app and had not heard about it because the family "didn't reach out". The coach was visibly disappointed about missing the opportunity to have the kid on his team and told the mom a million times that he "could've done something".
Heard it with my own ears, saw it with my own eyes.

[Anonymous]

IAC schools and colleges look for a mixture of scholars, athletes and artists to fill a student body. The families of athletes must initiate contact with the school to circumvent the recruitment process.

[Anonymous]

All of the private schools recruit. The most intense recruiting is in boys' sports, whether it is all-boys' schools or the co-ed schools. There is less recruiting for girls' sports, but still some -- it depends on the school and the sports. There are no athletic scholarships in the Independent School League (the big private school girls league) or the two main independent school boys' leagues (IAC and MAC). Rumors do circulate on occasion that some of the schools seem to find the financial need more acute where the child is most adept.

As with everything, the level of recruiting differs greatly by school, coach, and sport. One classic is to use a school "affiliate," so to speak, to get around the "no first contact" rule. For example, it just so happens that one of the sons of Landon's head lacrosse coach is a youth coach in the area. He aggressively tries to steer lacrosse players (sometimes even those who have committed to other schools) to his father's program. In basketball, it is very common to have a local AAU coach as the assistant or head coach of the program, so the coach can steer players to the school. The recently disgraced assistant girls coach at GDS, for example, was an AAU coach who had helped direct a number of players (who went on to play Division I college ball) to GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IAC schools and colleges look for a mixture of scholars, athletes and artists to fill a student body. The families of athletes must initiate contact with the school to circumvent the recruitment process.

Is that true?

My son was on an 8th grade age travel team that had an excellent record. Coaches from high schools, Catholic mostly but also Maret, came to games and practices, and sent emails to the coach that he forwarded to the whole team.

Maret kind of cracked me up. They came to practice and what my child took away from it was that "I know you probably want the schools that are really good at (sport) but just in case you want academics more, you should think about us".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IAC schools and colleges look for a mixture of scholars, athletes and artists to fill a student body. The families of athletes must initiate contact with the school to circumvent the recruitment process.

Is that true?

My son was on an 8th grade age travel team that had an excellent record. Coaches from high schools, Catholic mostly but also Maret, came to games and practices, and sent emails to the coach that he forwarded to the whole team.

Maret kind of cracked me up. They came to practice and what my child took away from it was that "I know you probably want the schools that are really good at (sport) but just in case you want academics more, you should think about us".

I think what they probably said is if the other coaches are not interested, we are.

[Anonymous]

The Prep lacrosse coach used to teach at Mater Dei and also runs the Club Blue program. Talk about a pipeline for recruiting.

[Anonymous]

The Prep Lacrosse coach is the ED of the Club Blue program and I believe he is still teaches Math at Mater Dei. SOOO WHATT.

The reality is.. .almost every single private school in this area recruits in some way or another. Some schools recruit more heavily for a particular sport.

[Anonymous]

ummmm, Sooooooooo whatt?
Head coach at one school also happens to teach at a feeder school and run a club program? That's a huge advantage in attracting athletes to your high school and is a way around the recruiting restrictions. Very typical of Prep who has always looked to cut corners with IAC rules but just won't pull the trigger and join the WCAC which is a more suitable athletic, academic and cultural environment. "Every private school recruits in some way" is a poor excuse. STA does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:... "Every private school recruits in some way" is a poor excuse. STA does not.

Oh really? Here's St. Albans' football coach talking about recruiting in the Washington Post. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-12-12/sports/36886723_1_coaches-private-school-montrose-christian

[Recruiting turned] Hyattsville Catholic school into a national basketball power. After that, many coaches said, it was a matter of trying to keep pace. It only makes sense that coaches recruit in other sports, too. "More often than not, it's a matter of trying to keep up with the Joneses," St. Albans football coach Gary Schnell said.

I guess he doesn't explicitly say "STA recruits athletes," but he might as well have said it.

[Anonymous]

I stand corrected. But still stand by my comments re Prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... "Every private school recruits in some way" is a poor excuse. STA does not.

Oh really? Here's St. Albans' football coach talking about recruiting in the Washington Post. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-12-12/sports/36886723_1_coaches-private-school-montrose-christian

[Recruiting turned] Hyattsville Catholic school into a national basketball power. After that, many coaches said, it was a matter of trying to keep pace. It only makes sense that coaches recruit in other sports, too. "More often than not, it's a matter of trying to keep up with the Joneses," St. Albans football coach Gary Schnell said.

I guess he doesn't explicitly say "STA recruits athletes," but he might as well have said it.

Why did you have to burst their little bubble. It's sort of fun to watch them hang themselves with their own rope. The Ivy league education at it's best.