Sports recruitment for high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family is in the public school system but have a child, an 8th grader, with some outstanding athletic skills. How does one go about getting this child seen by coaches and recruiters from area private schools? Admission wouldn't be a problem. Child is also a scholar. Do private schools offer scholarships based on athletics if they want a certain athlete to attend?

Which sport?

This is OP. Sport is baseball and HHI is around 160K

St Albans, Georgetown Prep and St Johns would be the schools that would give you the best advantage for baseball.

This is good advice. I have a son who is similarly talented. My hook was an alumni who was very involve with the school's sport program and had knowledge of my DC's academic potential. He asked the school's coach to come see my DC. I don't qualify for FA, but they told me not to worry about it that'll get taken care of. My kid also had direct ( by being at the right place at the right time) interest from coaches who's known to have placed athletes in D1 and beyond who called the school's coach as a 'favor' to let him know they're interested. In other words OP, who you know matters. I think getting your kid involve in a good club team is key as well. You have to get out there and grind and get notice. You have to work both ends. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't football and basketball players get recruited over baseball players?

[Anonymous]

DC area private schools tend to recruit most aggressively for football and basketball and more recently, lacrosse.

St. Johns and Paul VI recruit pretty aggressively for baseball but most schools in the area, will just compete with what kids show up on March 1st.

St. Albans was recruiting for soccer when its admissions director also happened to be the head soccer coach, which is no longer the case now.

[Anonymous]

get an offer from Prep then wave it at Bullis. Guarantee you'll get a better deal

[Anonymous]

Bullis administration is a complete joke after allowing a football recruit to be reinstated to the school after a sexual assault charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't football and basketball players get recruited over baseball players?

It depends on the school. Some schools mostly interested in the football/basketball/lacrosse local triad of most prominent sports, but there are some good baseball programs in the area. St. Albans has an alum who is a current major league baseball player (pitches for the Cardinals) and had another grad who was picked second in the MLB draft (but has had injuries so has not made the majors yet). Great tradition there and they would be very interested in an excellent baseball player with strong academics (for that matter, they'd certainly be interested in any great athlete with strong academics). St. John's has been sending lots of kids to Division I college programs for baseball lately. Maret is another school that doesn't get mentioned a lot for sports but has an excellent baseball tradition and would also be worth a look.

[Anonymous]

St Albans may be your best bet. They have really ramped up sports recruiting. Lacrosse is the focus now. Baseball has always been strong, but can only remain strong with new talent streaming in. If your baseball player son can also play football, even just in a support capacity, that'll make him even more of a shoo-in.

You should definitely have your travel coach reach out to the STA coaches also.

[Anonymous]

[quoteSt Albans may be your best bet. They have really ramped up sports recruiting. Lacrosse is the focus now.

Really? They haven't won a league lacrosse game in quite some time.

I have heard they are going to step it up for football and ice hockey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[quoteSt Albans may be your best bet. They have really ramped up sports recruiting. Lacrosse is the focus now.

Really? They haven't won a league lacrosse game in quite some time.

I have heard they are going to step it up for football and ice hockey.

Right. What I think the poster was saying was that lacrosse recruitment is the focus now. I don't have inside info. But it does seem accurate. They have a new coach and the assistant coach also happens to be the AD. They landed a few new kids who are starting this fall. Parents are hoping its the start of a new chapter for STA lacrosse.

Can't really step it up for football alone. Too many quality players are needed. But where you have a solid lacrosse, hockey, or baseball applicant who can also play football, that'll be a huge hook for any applicant. Grades still matter. But athletic prowess will definitely be weighed heavily and may make up for less than stellar scores/grades.

[Anonymous]

St Johns recruited my DS for baseball. We're in NoVA and didn't want to deal with the commute so didn't follow up. Interest came through travel coach connections.

[Anonymous]

I think Maret recruits heavily for baseball. No private school will offer you a "scholarship" officially. As others have said you get an admissions offer and then any financial aid they choose to offer you which could be more than the FAFSA says you should pay.

[Anonymous]

OP, if your son is as gifted as you say, apply to both STA and SJC. With your HHI, and what your son can contribute to the school, both will make it financially workable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Maret recruits heavily for baseball. No private school will offer you a "scholarship" officially. As others have said you get an admissions offer and then any financial aid they choose to offer you which could be more than the FAFSA says you should pay.

As other posters have noted, Catholic schools tend to be more flexible in this regard. A few -- not many -- independents offer something akin to merit aid - where merit may be seen as encompassing athletic skills. A few others actually have third-party endowed scholarships that are not advertised. This allows the school to officially say "we offer no aid except based on demonstrated need" while funneling dollars to a desired recruit. And, of course, there is nothing that requires a private independent school to distribute its financial aid equally to all who request it. Independent schools in the DC area certainly have channeled their financial aid dollars toward achieving other specific goals deemed important by the administration, and that has included athletic recruiting. I am not defending the practice, but it is no secret.

[Anonymous]

You should just approach the school. Many independent schools are not allowed to reach out to you first.

[Anonymous]

We were in your same shoes a couple years ago, but a different sport. Here's what we did:

- We made it clear in the application essays (the parent-written ones) that our child was very into and very good at the sport. Of course, we also discussed child's other interests, including musical instrument and other sports.
- Child's coach wrote a great recommendation letter re: ability, leadership, etc.
- At admissions open house, we sought out the coaches or coaches table.
- Child's essays in school applications were in some way on the topic of that sport and teams, etc. Child did that not so much at our suggestion but because child loves that sport so much.
- We took videos of our child in sports games and sent the best material to the head coach. We called the admissions office of each school and they all told us to send videos to the head coach or athletic director of the school (they gave us email addresses and names/titles, as if it was a fairly common request).

Our child had decent grades and SSAT scores and was accepted at all but one school applied to -- we were amazed at the interest of coaches! Personal letters and lengthy emails, and child is only in middle school. We worked hard to prep child for interviews too (going over sample questions/answers, as child had never had an actual interview before).