Athletic recruit: things I have learned from this so far

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sport is track and field. So it is straightforward in the sense that it is about times/distance.

Thank you for sharing.

Do T&F athletes train throughout the entire school year or do they have down time during which they can take a more intense course-load ?

Train all year but meets are December-Spring (indoor and outdoor track)

[Anonymous]

There are some very selective schools with big D1 programs- Chapel Hill, UVA, Michigan, Texas, Stanford, UCLA, etc....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn't know much about how athletic recruiting works so wanted to share my list of things I have learned 3 months into recruiting (some of these might be already known but I feel like I read a lot before this started and these things have surprised me):

1. Good question to ask school is if they automatically redshirt freshman. The answers vary from always to depends on the student. This can be negotiable if it is important to your kid.

2. Offers are negotiable. We haven't done it yet but learning that if one school offers 80% coverage of everything- you can go back to the 75% offer and ask for more and let them know who offered more. You might lose but you might get more money.

3. Things are changing daily right now with all the new rules. We are being told more changes are coming.

4. The extras that athletes get are pretty great- tutoring, academic support, someone doing class registration and making sure graduation requirements are being met, weekly medical/massage/pysch appointment, etc...

5. Assistant coaches change schools a lot- always communicate even if not interested because you don't know where that coach may end up. We have already experienced an assistant coach moving from one big school to another and the good contact with their original school is helping with the new school.

6. Coaches are not sugar coating the work and commitment required which has been nice. It is a full time job.

7. I have been surprised that some coaches will say "you can't major in that and be an athlete."

If you don't mind sharing, how much scholarship money are you being offered? If the school is out of state are you being offered in state tuition plus scholarship money? I have a DS very early in the process, trying to figure out what the total pricetag may be at a D1 school (also track). For example Michigan oos is close to $80,000 per year. but what are most athletes paying?

[Anonymous]

My child has not done an official visit yet (that is where the formal financials will be offered) but in discussions with coaches so far the range is between 60%-100% of OOS tuition and room/board. There are caveats with that- improve anything over last year, commit early, grades/test scores, etc...

[Anonymous]

Is it a boy or a girl for track? There are more women’s spots and programs than men’s, because if a school has a football program where only men play, they have to balance the other opportunities for sports at the school for female spots. So sometimes a school will only have a women’s track team but not a men’s. JMU is D1 and like this. It was a bummer for my son, a state track champion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are all good points, but they're all impacted by both sport and school, especially since money is not relevant to all schools (Ivys, D3 theoretically). The issue with major is also impacted significantly by school. The Ivys and the like do not put restrictions on major, and in fact, have more restrictions on when/how much athletes can practice.

Ivys might not put restrictions on majors and they supposedly limit time in practice, but we have found that there are other team requirements such as “team lifts” and in-season “captains practices” that are not exactly “optional”. If you don’t participate in these, good luck getting any playing time.
Parents and student athletes should not only ask coaches, but ask the players what their in-season schedule is like. 4hrs a day in-season and juggling a STEM major might not be ideal for some students who thought that Ivys would be less practice time than top athletic D1 programs. YMMV depending on the sport. This is what we have found based on teammates going to Ivy for sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some very selective schools with big D1 programs- Chapel Hill, UVA, Michigan, Texas, Stanford, UCLA, etc....

Outside of Stanford, the other schools only really care about NCAA minimums for revenue sports. Even Stanford’s football team will average test scores hundreds of points lower than the overall school average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are all good points, but they're all impacted by both sport and school, especially since money is not relevant to all schools (Ivys, D3 theoretically). The issue with major is also impacted significantly by school. The Ivys and the like do not put restrictions on major, and in fact, have more restrictions on when/how much athletes can practice.

Ivys might not put restrictions on majors and they supposedly limit time in practice, but we have found that there are other team requirements such as “team lifts” and in-season “captains practices” that are not exactly “optional”. If you don’t participate in these, good luck getting any playing time.
Parents and student athletes should not only ask coaches, but ask the players what their in-season schedule is like. 4hrs a day in-season and juggling a STEM major might not be ideal for some students who thought that Ivys would be less practice time than top athletic D1 programs. YMMV depending on the sport. This is what we have found based on teammates going to Ivy for sport.

Also, an Ivy coach may not explicitly say anything about your major but may just decide to go with another player if you are adamant about engineering or similarly lab-intensive majors.

At the end of the day, these coaches are people who care about winning and may be hoping that if they produce a great Harvard team then perhaps they are considered for coaching jobs at BC as an example.

[Anonymous]

The tough combo for athletes is finding the right balance with 4 criteria in a school: academics, athletic level fit, cost, and school cultural fit. Usually a school fits two of those but not the other two.

I have given this example before but, Amherst and Williams are great school and top D3s. DS could have run at any of them. He would not have been happy at such small schools though, and it would have been too expensive for us, even w “merit” aid.

Ultimately he chose a large D1 school that is well ranked, more affordable and is running club track. He is happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a d1 engineering major at an acc school. Roommate is pre med.

Lots of perks including laundry, special dining hall, first dibs at class and housing picks. Mental and physical health support.

The only time we have heard of major restrictions was from football players.

Yes. DC is D1 non-revenue at a Big-10. A number team members are getting their degrees in pre-med, biology chemistry, engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is a d1 engineering major at an acc school. Roommate is pre med.

Lots of perks including laundry, special dining hall, first dibs at class and housing picks. Mental and physical health support.

The only time we have heard of major restrictions was from football players.

Yes. DC is D1 non-revenue at a Big-10. A number team members are getting their degrees in pre-med, biology chemistry, engineering.

That’s the big difference…revenue sports at Power 4 conferences are now massively different than the other sports especially with schools directly paying athletes. It also varies by conference because baseball at say Penn State isn’t like baseball at an SEC or ACC school.

I know a kid playing baseball at TN and he said that the coach expects you training 12 hours per day…and that “we have people who take care of your classes”. Needless to say they aren’t taking care of engineering or premed classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn't know much about how athletic recruiting works so wanted to share my list of things I have learned 3 months into recruiting (some of these might be already known but I feel like I read a lot before this started and these things have surprised me):

1. Good question to ask school is if they automatically redshirt freshman. The answers vary from always to depends on the student. This can be negotiable if it is important to your kid.

2. Offers are negotiable. We haven't done it yet but learning that if one school offers 80% coverage of everything- you can go back to the 75% offer and ask for more and let them know who offered more. You might lose but you might get more money.

3. Things are changing daily right now with all the new rules. We are being told more changes are coming.

4. The extras that athletes get are pretty great- tutoring, academic support, someone doing class registration and making sure graduation requirements are being met, weekly medical/massage/pysch appointment, etc...

5. Assistant coaches change schools a lot- always communicate even if not interested because you don't know where that coach may end up. We have already experienced an assistant coach moving from one big school to another and the good contact with their original school is helping with the new school.

6. Coaches are not sugar coating the work and commitment required which has been nice. It is a full time job.

7. I have been surprised that some coaches will say "you can't major in that and be an athlete."

If D3, fairly accurate.

If D1, #8, 9, 10 etc. NIL, NIL, NIL

[Anonymous]

Very little money out there for men s track and field and less for track and field generally wth new rules. Kids on scholarships already at colleges are losing them

Three pages of posts and no discussion of travel requirements. Kids miss a lot of class time at most P5 conference schools, especially for the more spectator popular team sports. Your kid is going to need that tutor when they have multiple travel days per week in season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
3. Things are changing daily right now with all the new rules. We are being told more changes are coming.

4. The extras that athletes get are pretty great- tutoring, academic support, someone doing class registration and making sure graduation requirements are being met, weekly medical/massage/pysch appointment, etc...

6. Coaches are not sugar coating the work and commitment required which has been nice. It is a full time job.

DD and boyfriend are both D1 athletic recruits. These three are the things that stand out to me. The extras are awesome. My DD just got new athletic shoes and a bunch of other gear. Her class registration was done for her and sent to her back in May or June, all approved by the coach beforehand. She got a choice housing assignment and a double room, not a triple, also sent to her early on. She got early move in, which made things so easy. Also, there is a lot of focus on nutrition and food choices.

I will say that while tutoring is available, that's really not special. I found that it was available for my other kids for free at their schools. It's a huge benefit though.

The work is no joke. It's a lot.

As far as money, I am seeing that some kids get money to cover everything - tuition, room and board, clothes, etc. But, not all kids get the room and board covered and that is not an insignificant expense. And not all get full tuition covered.

Good luck to all.

[Anonymous]

9:04 has some great suggestions for thinking of this. I’d add a fifth consideration: team culture.

Ensure you have a sense of the type of team culture you prefer! DC had calls with coaches and visits where the conversation was primarily sport related. DC opted for the school, coach and team that was focused on the student and with whom there was an aligned team culture while still being a great team.

The interviews and official visits with coach and team require good questions. Good luck!!

And, yes, tons of gear.

(Also- All NCAA teams have restrictions and are closely monitored to ensure athletes practice time does not exceed the NCAA limit.)