If your athlete child didn't get recruited...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a junior. Similar situation. Strong academics but not as strong to be recruited by those teams. DC feels like he has invested so much time into the sport that he needs to play in college. DW and I can't get DC to change his thinking. DC is looking at lower caliber schools b/c thats where the coaches are recruiting from. DC has a few coaches that match academic and sport but DW and I don't see it working out in the end. These coaches are talking to atleast 20+ athletes for approximately 5 spots. DC has had calls and a few unofficials but the coaches don't say anything definitieve which tells me they see DC as a backup. DW and I don't know how to get through to DC that the coaches aren't really interseted maybe as a possible backup and should start to look at other schools not based on the sport. Its very frustrating. DC's travel sport coach keeps pushing playing in college. DC has the grades, class rigor, SAT/ACT scores, and ECs in STEM. How can we get through to DC?

What sport?

I would show your DC the stats. NCAA publishes them.

Fencing

In 2019, 17% of D1 spots for fencing went to international kids. It’s probably higher now. Meanwhile there are not that many fencing teams. In other words, you should be able to do the math for DC on likelihood of a spot even existing.

Dam.

[Anonymous]

If your child wants to play their sport in college, they should apply to the best academic schools where they will likely be good enough to start for the team by their junior year and have the grades/scores to be admitted. This is more likely to pan out if your child wasn’t recruited because of not being seen by any/many college coaches vs. being seen and deemed to lack the needed skills/athleticism. In lacrosse, for instance, there are lots of HS all-state players who never get seen by college coaches because their state isn’t a lacrosse hotbed or because they don’t play club. Don’t try this at teams that tend to advance in the NCAA tournament.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a junior. Similar situation. Strong academics but not as strong to be recruited by those teams. DC feels like he has invested so much time into the sport that he needs to play in college. DW and I can't get DC to change his thinking. DC is looking at lower caliber schools b/c thats where the coaches are recruiting from. DC has a few coaches that match academic and sport but DW and I don't see it working out in the end. These coaches are talking to atleast 20+ athletes for approximately 5 spots. DC has had calls and a few unofficials but the coaches don't say anything definitieve which tells me they see DC as a backup. DW and I don't know how to get through to DC that the coaches aren't really interseted maybe as a possible backup and should start to look at other schools not based on the sport. Its very frustrating. DC's travel sport coach keeps pushing playing in college. DC has the grades, class rigor, SAT/ACT scores, and ECs in STEM. How can we get through to DC?

What sport?

I would show your DC the stats. NCAA publishes them.

Fencing

fencing recruiting spots should largely be taken by spring of junior year. plenty of time for your DC to look at other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a child who was hoping to be a recruited athlete. We've come to terms with the fact that this will not be happening. If you had a child in a similar situation, did you do anything differently than originally planned with the college applications? Did you change your target schools?

Yes and yes! Not being recruited opened up some great school options that did not have her sport. She took some time to re-evaluate what she was looking for in a school and reformulated her list. Currently, she is an upperclassman at a school that does not offer her sport and she is thriving there. She also has so much "extra" time that she used to devote to her sport that she has developed a number of new interests. Through these interests, she has found her new "team."

It certainly didn't seem like it at the time, but not being recruited was truly one of the best things that happened to her in HS.

[Anonymous]

As a junior my son was not recruited. As the summer after junior year looked bleak he made a list of his top 5 schools (academic and sport levels matched).

He had already made contact with these coaches in the summer to see if they would watch him but it never panned out.

We agreed to send him to a PG year at a boarding school.

He called those 5 coaches saying if there was a sport would he be considered for the next year. They were all very vague with you are on our list but not the top.

He continued to call them every other week to see if there was any movement. He would call when other kids entered the portal or changed their commitment.

Eventually in the 11th hour he got a "we have a preferred walk on spot". They helped with admissions, no scholarship, no promise of making the team.

He made the team Freshman year and earned a partial scholarship the rest of the years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a junior my son was not recruited. As the summer after junior year looked bleak he made a list of his top 5 schools (academic and sport levels matched).

He had already made contact with these coaches in the summer to see if they would watch him but it never panned out.

We agreed to send him to a PG year at a boarding school.

He called those 5 coaches saying if there was a sport would he be considered for the next year. They were all very vague with you are on our list but not the top.

He continued to call them every other week to see if there was any movement. He would call when other kids entered the portal or changed their commitment.

Eventually in the 11th hour he got a "we have a preferred walk on spot". They helped with admissions, no scholarship, no promise of making the team.

He made the team Freshman year and earned a partial scholarship the rest of the years.

Nice. I know of some kids who did something similar for football and lacrosse.

[Anonymous]

What about continuing to work out, practice, play and try out as a walk on? (To the highest school your DC was admitted into?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a junior my son was not recruited. As the summer after junior year looked bleak he made a list of his top 5 schools (academic and sport levels matched).

He had already made contact with these coaches in the summer to see if they would watch him but it never panned out.

We agreed to send him to a PG year at a boarding school.

He called those 5 coaches saying if there was a sport would he be considered for the next year. They were all very vague with you are on our list but not the top.

He continued to call them every other week to see if there was any movement. He would call when other kids entered the portal or changed their commitment.

Eventually in the 11th hour he got a "we have a preferred walk on spot". They helped with admissions, no scholarship, no promise of making the team.

He made the team Freshman year and earned a partial scholarship the rest of the years.

Nice. I know of some kids who did something similar for football and lacrosse.

Never give up. Perseverance pays off. You did a good job raising him.