How to get recruited to HS team before committing to school/ transferring if you don't make it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve gotten a lot of really dumb answers from parents who obviously have never been in this situation. In basketball, for example, in the DMV, there are 5 teams that are in the top 25 nationally, so claiming that your kid must be terrible if there’s a question about making the team just demonstrates those parents’ ignorance.

Likewise, people claiming that coaches don’t know or that they won’t tell you are just demonstrating that they haven’t been in the situation.

When our kid was in 8th grade, he was choosing between a school with a nationally ranked team and a school with a pretty bad team where he would have been a varsity starter day one. We didn’t know if he’d make the JV team at the nationally ranked school.

DS did workouts with the team in March, and the coach called me and offered him a spot on the team if he chose that school. Other teammates were also offered spots to come to the school - one from out of state.

That’s how it works. Your question is very reasonable, and you should reach out to the coach and see if your kid can get a workout with the team.

New poster and really appreciate this post from a parent who gets it (and would love to know the school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve gotten a lot of really dumb answers from parents who obviously have never been in this situation. In basketball, for example, in the DMV, there are 5 teams that are in the top 25 nationally, so claiming that your kid must be terrible if there’s a question about making the team just demonstrates those parents’ ignorance.

Likewise, people claiming that coaches don’t know or that they won’t tell you are just demonstrating that they haven’t been in the situation.

When our kid was in 8th grade, he was choosing between a school with a nationally ranked team and a school with a pretty bad team where he would have been a varsity starter day one. We didn’t know if he’d make the JV team at the nationally ranked school.

DS did workouts with the team in March, and the coach called me and offered him a spot on the team if he chose that school. Other teammates were also offered spots to come to the school - one from out of state.

That’s how it works. Your question is very reasonable, and you should reach out to the coach and see if your kid can get a workout with the team.

This is very clearly not the OP’s position, if you read the posts.

This is not “how it works” universally. You have described a specific scenario in a specific sport at a specific school, and you are discounting reality for a huge number of kids who aren’t starting on a nationally ranked program. Random kids hoping to make the jv program at a normal school are not going to have guarantees like that. And I’ve personally known multiple strong players who went on to play D1 get sucked in by coach promises (ie you’ll start here, and then kid is behind two other superstars) and ultimately transfer, which OP is hoping to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op here, I am not talking about the top athletic schools, my kid just wants to play somewhere. Trying to figure out how to make it happen.

There are some schools with athletics participation requirements and most have some no cut sports like XC. They might be good choices to consider. You can also ask admissions if your child’s sport has made cuts in recent years, or how many cuts. It might not officially be a no cut sport, but they might make a practice of trying to accommodate everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve gotten a lot of really dumb answers from parents who obviously have never been in this situation. In basketball, for example, in the DMV, there are 5 teams that are in the top 25 nationally, so claiming that your kid must be terrible if there’s a question about making the team just demonstrates those parents’ ignorance.

Likewise, people claiming that coaches don’t know or that they won’t tell you are just demonstrating that they haven’t been in the situation.

When our kid was in 8th grade, he was choosing between a school with a nationally ranked team and a school with a pretty bad team where he would have been a varsity starter day one. We didn’t know if he’d make the JV team at the nationally ranked school.

DS did workouts with the team in March, and the coach called me and offered him a spot on the team if he chose that school. Other teammates were also offered spots to come to the school - one from out of state.

That’s how it works. Your question is very reasonable, and you should reach out to the coach and see if your kid can get a workout with the team.

This is very clearly not the OP’s position, if you read the posts.

This is not “how it works” universally. You have described a specific scenario in a specific sport at a specific school, and you are discounting reality for a huge number of kids who aren’t starting on a nationally ranked program. Random kids hoping to make the jv program at a normal school are not going to have guarantees like that. And I’ve personally known multiple strong players who went on to play D1 get sucked in by coach promises (ie you’ll start here, and then kid is behind two other superstars) and ultimately transfer, which OP is hoping to avoid.

I disagree. OP is choosing between multiple schools, at least one of which has a much stronger team. Our kid was in exactly the same position.

OP is fortunate because their kid plays for a top AAU team, which my kid didn’t. He played up a year and did well for a mid tier AAU team, but he came off the bench for a bad middle school team, and his MS coach told him he didn’t have a chance to play the school he wound up at.

The question we had — which I think is the same as OP’s —- was “Is our kid in the range of skill of kids who make these teams, or does he not have a shot?” It worked out for our kid, but we had no idea what would happen and were totally clueless non-basketball people (for example, we didn’t know freshman teams were a thing or that summer league was a thing).

My only point was that it’s OK to reach out to the coach or AD and ask about open gyms, and summer league.

By “that’s how it works” I meant that most kids who will make JV or varsity are known to the coach before tryouts, and much of that is through summer league and open gyms, and coaches give kids honest feedback long before tryouts. It’s not only about superstars who HS coaches scouted at their high level AAU games — kids who show up and do the work can also get picked up at many schools, even those with really strong teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve gotten a lot of really dumb answers from parents who obviously have never been in this situation. In basketball, for example, in the DMV, there are 5 teams that are in the top 25 nationally, so claiming that your kid must be terrible if there’s a question about making the team just demonstrates those parents’ ignorance.

Likewise, people claiming that coaches don’t know or that they won’t tell you are just demonstrating that they haven’t been in the situation.

When our kid was in 8th grade, he was choosing between a school with a nationally ranked team and a school with a pretty bad team where he would have been a varsity starter day one. We didn’t know if he’d make the JV team at the nationally ranked school.

DS did workouts with the team in March, and the coach called me and offered him a spot on the team if he chose that school. Other teammates were also offered spots to come to the school - one from out of state.

That’s how it works. Your question is very reasonable, and you should reach out to the coach and see if your kid can get a workout with the team.

This is very clearly not the OP’s position, if you read the posts.

This is not “how it works” universally. You have described a specific scenario in a specific sport at a specific school, and you are discounting reality for a huge number of kids who aren’t starting on a nationally ranked program. Random kids hoping to make the jv program at a normal school are not going to have guarantees like that. And I’ve personally known multiple strong players who went on to play D1 get sucked in by coach promises (ie you’ll start here, and then kid is behind two other superstars) and ultimately transfer, which OP is hoping to avoid.

I disagree. OP is choosing between multiple schools, at least one of which has a much stronger team. Our kid was in exactly the same position.

OP is fortunate because their kid plays for a top AAU team, which my kid didn’t. He played up a year and did well for a mid tier AAU team, but he came off the bench for a bad middle school team, and his MS coach told him he didn’t have a chance to play the school he wound up at.

The question we had — which I think is the same as OP’s —- was “Is our kid in the range of skill of kids who make these teams, or does he not have a shot?” It worked out for our kid, but we had no idea what would happen and were totally clueless non-basketball people (for example, we didn’t know freshman teams were a thing or that summer league was a thing).

My only point was that it’s OK to reach out to the coach or AD and ask about open gyms, and summer league.

By “that’s how it works” I meant that most kids who will make JV or varsity are known to the coach before tryouts, and much of that is through summer league and open gyms, and coaches give kids honest feedback long before tryouts. It’s not only about superstars who HS coaches scouted at their high level AAU games — kids who show up and do the work can also get picked up at many schools, even those with really strong teams.

The poster you’re referring to is not OP.

And again, you’re making definitive broad claims based on your experience in a single sport, while referring to all contrary experience as “dumb advice” from people who “haven’t been in the situation.” There are many ways this works. It depends on the sport, the coach, the conference, and the athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve gotten a lot of really dumb answers from parents who obviously have never been in this situation. In basketball, for example, in the DMV, there are 5 teams that are in the top 25 nationally, so claiming that your kid must be terrible if there’s a question about making the team just demonstrates those parents’ ignorance.

Likewise, people claiming that coaches don’t know or that they won’t tell you are just demonstrating that they haven’t been in the situation.

When our kid was in 8th grade, he was choosing between a school with a nationally ranked team and a school with a pretty bad team where he would have been a varsity starter day one. We didn’t know if he’d make the JV team at the nationally ranked school.

DS did workouts with the team in March, and the coach called me and offered him a spot on the team if he chose that school. Other teammates were also offered spots to come to the school - one from out of state.

That’s how it works. Your question is very reasonable, and you should reach out to the coach and see if your kid can get a workout with the team.

This is very clearly not the OP’s position, if you read the posts.

This is not “how it works” universally. You have described a specific scenario in a specific sport at a specific school, and you are discounting reality for a huge number of kids who aren’t starting on a nationally ranked program. Random kids hoping to make the jv program at a normal school are not going to have guarantees like that. And I’ve personally known multiple strong players who went on to play D1 get sucked in by coach promises (ie you’ll start here, and then kid is behind two other superstars) and ultimately transfer, which OP is hoping to avoid.

I disagree. OP is choosing between multiple schools, at least one of which has a much stronger team. Our kid was in exactly the same position.

OP is fortunate because their kid plays for a top AAU team, which my kid didn’t. He played up a year and did well for a mid tier AAU team, but he came off the bench for a bad middle school team, and his MS coach told him he didn’t have a chance to play the school he wound up at.

The question we had — which I think is the same as OP’s —- was “Is our kid in the range of skill of kids who make these teams, or does he not have a shot?” It worked out for our kid, but we had no idea what would happen and were totally clueless non-basketball people (for example, we didn’t know freshman teams were a thing or that summer league was a thing).

My only point was that it’s OK to reach out to the coach or AD and ask about open gyms, and summer league.

By “that’s how it works” I meant that most kids who will make JV or varsity are known to the coach before tryouts, and much of that is through summer league and open gyms, and coaches give kids honest feedback long before tryouts. It’s not only about superstars who HS coaches scouted at their high level AAU games — kids who show up and do the work can also get picked up at many schools, even those with really strong teams.

The poster you’re referring to is not OP.

And again, you’re making definitive broad claims based on your experience in a single sport, while referring to all contrary experience as “dumb advice” from people who “haven’t been in the situation.” There are many ways this works. It depends on the sport, the coach, the conference, and the athlete.

You’re right - the parent with kids on a top AAU team isn’t OP, so OP’s situation is even closer to the situation my kid was in that I had thought.

And — you don’t agree that some of the responses to this perfectly reasonable OP have been dumb (e.g. “you’re a horrible parent!”)? I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree about that.