How does athletic recruiting for High School work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

I have more questions. If he goes to a school that recruits him, and gets aid, is he then required to play all 4 years? What if he's injured, or wants to pursue something else? Or what if he comes out of puberty and it turns out he's not as good as people seem to expect?

They typically don't lose the aid they've been given, but depending on the size of the school, the student may get socially isolated. This happens sometimes at schools with big football, basketball, and lacrosse programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A moco private that everyone assumes offers athletic scholarships made clear at the open house that they don’t. A lot of parents were shocked.

Because they can't say it publicly. It's merit for their extracurricular leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soccer? Seriously, boys?

Our school gets enough regular admits that they found fill 6 teams with top area players. They don’t recruit for soccer.

Basketball and football they start recruiting young.

Yeah. Soccer isn’t really a recruitable sport at our school. Football and basketball and baseball alum are playing professionally and top D1 programs. Soccer is a club sport-the best male players don’t play high school.

[Anonymous]

^ true. Colleges recruit from club/academy soccer, not high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MAC are also subject to the "first contact" rule.

The coaches can reach out to the youth coach, but not directly to the student-athlete or their parents.

A prospective applicant (or their parents, I suppose, but they really shouldn't be) can reach out directly to any coach at any school.

Do people really look to be recruited to the MAC?

Sure, why not. You realize there are graduates from MAC schools playing at D1, D3 and professional teams, right? College coaches do not need to worry about the academics for kids from most of these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MAC are also subject to the "first contact" rule.

The coaches can reach out to the youth coach, but not directly to the student-athlete or their parents.

A prospective applicant (or their parents, I suppose, but they really shouldn't be) can reach out directly to any coach at any school.

Do people really look to be recruited to the MAC?

Hmm do you think a local school can win the city championship over all the WCAC teams, then go on to win the National High School Basketball Championship in the boys AND girls divisions without recruiting?
You you think

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

I have more questions. If he goes to a school that recruits him, and gets aid, is he then required to play all 4 years? What if he's injured, or wants to pursue something else? Or what if he comes out of puberty and it turns out he's not as good as people seem to expect?

They don’t want a kid playing a sport who isn’t helping the school win. Most schools dont recruit, unless the kid is advanced enough to immediately go in and compete at the varsity level or close.

That doesn't really answer the question. A kid who is good enough to play varsity as a freshman can still get injured or change his mind.

It answers part of the question. OP asked about a kid who isn’t good after puberty. Recruiting coaches try to protect the schools from that.
A kid who just doesn’t want to play anymore or can’t play anymore, won’t lose financial aid or kicked out of school.
Maybe those answers are more to your liking.

But you didn’t answer. My kid is really good now. Everyone who sees him agrees. But he’s also a kid who has a lot of growing to do, and I know plenty of kids like that who end up sidelined by some kind of growth related issue, Osgood-Schlatter or whatever. So, it’s a reasonable worry.

The kid will not get any special treatment when it comes to financial aid unless they can immediately make a positive impact at the varsity level or or provide some type of extreme need.
The kid you are describing won’t be recruited in most situations, unless he checks some other highly desirable boxes.

I'm curious what I said that makes you say this. I haven't really described him, other than to say that at 13 he isn't close to his predicted adult height. That seems pretty common.

I don't think he's going to be recruited, because I think we won't choose to apply, but given that coaches are calling, and emailing, and coming to his games, I think there's a decent chance he's "recruitable".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing to note as well, is even if your child is recruited and admitted, they may not see much playing time at first in HS—especially for freshmen that make varsity. Kids get so excited to play varsity early but it’s worth considering starting in JV to get more playing time and have more teammates in their own grade.

If your kid is considered catholic for tuition purposes (that's the standard that I've heard about for WCAC recruited, but not star athletes), they play wherever the coach tells them to play

OP here,

My kid would be considered Catholic for any purposes (goes to Mass, believes, has all the age appropriate sacraments), but wouldn't any kid who was considered coachable enough to be recruited expect to do what the coach tells him to do? Why would this be a rule for the Catholic kids?

I am having trouble imagining my kid making either JV or varsity and then telling the coach they want the other.

Coaches at our schools talk through the ramifications of a freshman playing on varsity prior to finalizing that--discussion is around freshman spending so much time with older kids, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing to note as well, is even if your child is recruited and admitted, they may not see much playing time at first in HS—especially for freshmen that make varsity. Kids get so excited to play varsity early but it’s worth considering starting in JV to get more playing time and have more teammates in their own grade.

If your kid is considered catholic for tuition purposes (that's the standard that I've heard about for WCAC recruited, but not star athletes), they play wherever the coach tells them to play

OP here,

My kid would be considered Catholic for any purposes (goes to Mass, believes, has all the age appropriate sacraments), but wouldn't any kid who was considered coachable enough to be recruited expect to do what the coach tells him to do? Why would this be a rule for the Catholic kids?

I am having trouble imagining my kid making either JV or varsity and then telling the coach they want the other.

Coaches at our schools talk through the ramifications of a freshman playing on varsity prior to finalizing that--discussion is around freshman spending so much time with older kids, etc.

I get that I am still baffled what being Catholic has to do with it.

PP said that if you are considered Catholic . . . My kid would be considered Catholic. What does that have to do with anything?

[Anonymous]

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around being recruited for soccer so many kids on our JV/Varsity are on the 2nd or 3rd team of their club- and a few don’t play club at all. A lot of kids on first teams at club don’t bother playing HS, at least not in the upper grades, due to time constraints, risk of injury, club coach not liking it, etc..

[Anonymous]

A state HS soccer championship in a midsize-large state is so different than DCSA. Our final game was a state HS 3 hours away. The WCAC and DC championship are somewhat of a joke in soccer because it’s the same few teams over and over and little competition. As far as DC publics- it’s like what one HS that really fields a team? They play the same 3-5 HS teams every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Big 3 a parent reached out and communicated back to the coach

For WCAC coach was at a game but we didn’t need $ so he offered to “help them get in” but it wasn’t necessary.

And IAC school the coach approached my son at a practice but my child wasn’t interested in that school.

OP here,

I get that part, that either we reach out to the coach, or the coach approaches us. We've had some approaches, and so far we've said he isn't interested in moving. I'm pretty sure we really aren't interested, but I'm curious how the process would proceed from here if he was interested.

So, what happens after those initial contacts?

It really depends on how good the kid is and what the college plans are. Good friends of ours moved a couple hundred miles away to get their kid more exposure in HS. Kids goal was a top 5 program for his sport. It worked out very well.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this thread for the current application season. Wondering if people who have been through this process have any additional insight to share. Interested in differences between the different athletic conferences in terms of experience with admissions/recruitment process. TIA!

[Anonymous]

When it comes to the fundamentals of how this works, the Conferences and the schools are more similar than they are different.

The AD, representing the coaches, goes Admissions, with a list of kids they would like to have. Admissions then goes through its process considering the academic, social and extracurricular strengths of candidates.