Division 3 Sports, Unrecruited Athlete

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the process for participation if you didn't participate at your HS?

IE- competitive and capable athlete that played for various travel programs but for a variety of reasons decided not to play for their HS.

Are they supposed to just reach out to the college's AD and inquire?

Is your kid still playing travel? In nearly all sports, that's how the recruitment happens. If anything, there are a lot of athletes who never play for their HS teams, so that's not how recruitment occurs in nearly all sports (perhaps different in football, but I don't have kids who play that and very rare for a player to be recruited from their school [it does happen, but usually a once in a generation occurrence]).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

This is true. Many told my kid that they no longer do 'walk ons'. The rosters are set.

My son was a preferred walking and got a 1/2 scholarship after 1 year

for a D3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Boys may be different in terms of timing but my female rising college freshman was offered her spot (D3) late in her HS junior year and committed in July, then was accepted (high academic school) ED. It’s pretty late to be having a first conversation with the coach. Agree that Coach Renee is great and her steps worked for us but my kid started the process as a sophomore. And had lots and lots of video to share with the coach— do you have film?

How could it be late to having a discussion? Plenty of schools haven't even issued admission decisions yet. Why would an athlete be having discussions with a coach of a school he isn't in yet?

All your comments here indicate you are not familiar with college recruitment.

[Anonymous]

Is it swimming or track? Then it depends on your times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It wouldn't be different had they played for the HS, btw.

+1. I don't understand the question. In most NCAA sports, the club teams rule and playing for HS is irrelevant.

Often true, but some sports it would look very odd to not play in HS, especially if your HS is competitive in that sport.

Football is the one sport where HS really matters, as there really is not a travel circuit. Basketball it technically does not matter, but it would look odd to attend Sidwell and play on an AAU team but not for the HS. That would usually be a tell that you were not good enough to play for Sidwell (which is very strong in basketball).

Same, if you attend SJC and don't play on the baseball team but play travel baseball...the only exception would be if you are so good that you are playing on one of the crazy national travel teams where literally 1/2 the team sends kids to the MLB. However, even those teams don't usually play during the main HS baseball season. Also, if you are on one of those teams everyone knows who you are and you aren't playing D3 baseball.

Soccer is definitely different. Kids play for academy teams that often won't allow you to play for the HS team.

That’s non sensical. My son plays baseball for a school that would be creamed by SJC and he might not make the team at SJC. But he is being recruited now by D2 and D3 teams. Not being the best of the best doesn’t mean you can’t get a roster spot at a school that plays at your level.

Many D3s will happily take you onto the team at this point (assuming kid is a senior) whether still applying or already in. At my kids school his baseball teammates have decided to play baseball at their selected school after they made their selection much more often than going through a “recruitment process” because baseball just isn’t that important to most of them. They’ll play if it works out, but they aren’t going to shape their college choice around it.

My kid is an outlier - he desperately wants to play, so we’ll make sure he does the recruitment thing and the coach truly wants him.

I'm honestly wondering if you are my spouse. This is my son to a T. He doesn't want prestige or money. He just wants to play baseball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Boys may be different in terms of timing but my female rising college freshman was offered her spot (D3) late in her HS junior year and committed in July, then was accepted (high academic school) ED. It’s pretty late to be having a first conversation with the coach. Agree that Coach Renee is great and her steps worked for us but my kid started the process as a sophomore. And had lots and lots of video to share with the coach— do you have film?

Boys are very different. They recruit much later. Boys on my sons MLS Next team are just committing now.

My son was injured his entire Jr year so he had zero game tape and couldn't play in front of coaches. He did know 3-4 college coaches fairly well prior to injury. They all wanted him to stay in touch and send him tape. He has had honest conversations with them about their roster limits, chances, etc.

We had our son plan to concentrate on getting into schools on his own this Fall while really rehabilitating. He has an UW 4.0/4.4 at a private with a near perfect standardized test score. He is going to do exactly what OP's kid plans to do to some of the schools he was unable to be seen by or even contacted due to the injury. A few have been emailing him back offered opportunity to be seen this spring, etc.

I think he will likely see where he gets in and then see where there is a realistic opportunity to actually play, walk on even if he is redshirted first year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

This is true. Many told my kid that they no longer do 'walk ons'. The rosters are set.

You're telling me it's impossible to walk on for baseball at Gettysburg?

I don't know about baseball but my kid is being recruited by them for another sport and, no, there is no walk on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Boys may be different in terms of timing but my female rising college freshman was offered her spot (D3) late in her HS junior year and committed in July, then was accepted (high academic school) ED. It’s pretty late to be having a first conversation with the coach. Agree that Coach Renee is great and her steps worked for us but my kid started the process as a sophomore. And had lots and lots of video to share with the coach— do you have film?

How could it be late to having a discussion? Plenty of schools haven't even issued admission decisions yet. Why would an athlete be having discussions with a coach of a school he isn't in yet?

All your comments here indicate you are not familiar with college recruitment.

Seriously this.

Look, I happen to believe that there is a D3 spot for most decent athletes who want to play. If you go in with the right expectations. I def know kids who were not that great, but have spots in college at low level competitive D3 schools. But, hey, they are still playing in college.

But, while some schools recruit late (through end of senior year) most are earlier. These athletes have been talking with coaches, going to clinics, and sending film for a couple years. It's the rare situation where you can expect to swan in the fall of the first year of college (or summer before) and expect to get a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Boys may be different in terms of timing but my female rising college freshman was offered her spot (D3) late in her HS junior year and committed in July, then was accepted (high academic school) ED. It’s pretty late to be having a first conversation with the coach. Agree that Coach Renee is great and her steps worked for us but my kid started the process as a sophomore. And had lots and lots of video to share with the coach— do you have film?

How could it be late to having a discussion? Plenty of schools haven't even issued admission decisions yet. Why would an athlete be having discussions with a coach of a school he isn't in yet?

All your comments here indicate you are not familiar with college recruitment.

Can you answer the question?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WHAT SPORT???

I hate when people don't state the sport because recruiting is incredibly different for some sports.

If it's soccer, the best players don't even play HS soccer and recruiting never happens through high school. College coaches go to club games. They will outright say 'we do not care about high school soccer'.

Calm down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Not true.

Mine walked on Div 1.

Stopped playing for his HS junior year as parents were so obnoxious. He hated how they behaved.

He wasn't going to play in college as we totally discorraged all our kids from that. Summer before college at orientation he was playing in a pick up game. A trainer saw him. Asked him to come for a tryout to meet the coaching staff. He did they offered him money and spot that day. Starter all four years. Yes, true story.

LAX

This is not a true story too many things that would not make sense. Most of all when ending with "Yes, true story" I do not believe it. Trainer (?) not assistant coach, spotted him in a "pick up" game? Yeah right

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Boys may be different in terms of timing but my female rising college freshman was offered her spot (D3) late in her HS junior year and committed in July, then was accepted (high academic school) ED. It’s pretty late to be having a first conversation with the coach. Agree that Coach Renee is great and her steps worked for us but my kid started the process as a sophomore. And had lots and lots of video to share with the coach— do you have film?

How could it be late to having a discussion? Plenty of schools haven't even issued admission decisions yet. Why would an athlete be having discussions with a coach of a school he isn't in yet?

All your comments here indicate you are not familiar with college recruitment.

Seriously this.

Look, I happen to believe that there is a D3 spot for most decent athletes who want to play. If you go in with the right expectations. I def know kids who were not that great, but have spots in college at low level competitive D3 schools. But, hey, they are still playing in college.

But, while some schools recruit late (through end of senior year) most are earlier. These athletes have been talking with coaches, going to clinics, and sending film for a couple years. It's the rare situation where you can expect to swan in the fall of the first year of college (or summer before) and expect to get a spot.

Blah blah blah. Many of these kids just want to play and play at the best academic school they can get into. For sports like baseball and soccer so very few of even the D1 players go onto play professionally after college. They don't care about playing D1 at some low level academic school. Education first while doing what they love.

These posters aren't talking about being recruited. They are talking about finding a spot on a roster. Period. They love the sport and want to play while getting a top-notch education. Many also don't want the demands of it being a full-time job--like at the highly ranked top D1 schools.

There are some really annoying sports parents that get so into the 'my kid plays D1'. Wow. Great job.

[Anonymous]

The sport does matter, in terms of whether the OP will have a good chance of walking on at the school of their choosing.

But the process going forward is the same no matter what -- contact the coach ASAP and try to meet with them when you visit the school. And if it is a sport with times, like track or swimming, you should be able to see pretty easily on-line whether walking on is a possibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Boys may be different in terms of timing but my female rising college freshman was offered her spot (D3) late in her HS junior year and committed in July, then was accepted (high academic school) ED. It’s pretty late to be having a first conversation with the coach. Agree that Coach Renee is great and her steps worked for us but my kid started the process as a sophomore. And had lots and lots of video to share with the coach— do you have film?

How could it be late to having a discussion? Plenty of schools haven't even issued admission decisions yet. Why would an athlete be having discussions with a coach of a school he isn't in yet?

All your comments here indicate you are not familiar with college recruitment.

Seriously this.

Look, I happen to believe that there is a D3 spot for most decent athletes who want to play. If you go in with the right expectations. I def know kids who were not that great, but have spots in college at low level competitive D3 schools. But, hey, they are still playing in college.

But, while some schools recruit late (through end of senior year) most are earlier. These athletes have been talking with coaches, going to clinics, and sending film for a couple years. It's the rare situation where you can expect to swan in the fall of the first year of college (or summer before) and expect to get a spot.

I guess I'm special because I know two kids that did exactly that. One for Tennis at Denison and one for Swimming at Kenyon. I'll have to reach out and let their dads know what unicorns they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, don't go in with high expectations. DS approached the college coach after admissions and was basically stiff armed. They do tend to bring in all they need through the recruitment process, even if none of them are getting $$ or a thumb on the scale.

Boys may be different in terms of timing but my female rising college freshman was offered her spot (D3) late in her HS junior year and committed in July, then was accepted (high academic school) ED. It’s pretty late to be having a first conversation with the coach. Agree that Coach Renee is great and her steps worked for us but my kid started the process as a sophomore. And had lots and lots of video to share with the coach— do you have film?

How could it be late to having a discussion? Plenty of schools haven't even issued admission decisions yet. Why would an athlete be having discussions with a coach of a school he isn't in yet?

All your comments here indicate you are not familiar with college recruitment.

Seriously this.

Look, I happen to believe that there is a D3 spot for most decent athletes who want to play. If you go in with the right expectations. I def know kids who were not that great, but have spots in college at low level competitive D3 schools. But, hey, they are still playing in college.

But, while some schools recruit late (through end of senior year) most are earlier. These athletes have been talking with coaches, going to clinics, and sending film for a couple years. It's the rare situation where you can expect to swan in the fall of the first year of college (or summer before) and expect to get a spot.

I guess I'm special because I know two kids that did exactly that. One for Tennis at Denison and one for Swimming at Kenyon. I'll have to reach out and let their dads know what unicorns they are.

We know several kids that have done this too. Some of these 'D1 or bust' parents who have spent thousands of dollars and hours have their heads so far up their butts. There is no other world except theirs.