A little background information for my questions. My daughter is a high school sophmore and a keeper playing up on a U17 team that is traveling to a couple of the major recruiting showcases over the next few months.
In preparation for these trips, her club held a recruiting information seminar targeted at the juniors on the team. Amongst the panel of speakers, they had two people talk about the D1 recruiting process. The first one, an active coach, stated that amongst the major D1 schools it was now becoming somewhat common for them to get commitments from sophmores and that this had really altered the recruiting process on the women's side. They went on record saying that they were opposed to this illegal process and refused to give advice on what to do if you were sophmore. The second, a retired D1, but active club coach, acknowledged that active recruiting was in fact taking place in the sophmore year and advised the families to follow the advice they were giving the juniors to actively solicite coaches. Later, in private, I ws advised that since my daughter was a keeper she would likely be one of the sophmores drawing interest and we should be prepared.
My first question is what is the competition like amongst D1 programs for keepers? In our area you can count the keepers with decent physical attributes and skill on one hand. Is this the same across the country? My kid has a late December birthday so she has always played up a year relative to her school year. While she has made her school's varsity and the state's ODP team, she has always been the youngest on the team and has not gotten much of the limelight. That said she's a big strong athletic girl who has been well trained as a keeper. When she does play with her age group she absolutely sets herself apart. Her coaches tell us she is a legitimate lower tier D1 prospect. Should we even bother playing the recruiting game as a sophmore?
If we do decide to start contacting coaches and inviting them to see her play at these tournaments as her club is suggesting, how should we go about things? As I read the NCAA rules, if we contact a coach, they cannot respond. If we invite one to come see my daughter play and they like what they see, how will they let us know and how should we respond?
In preparation for these trips, her club held a recruiting information seminar targeted at the juniors on the team. Amongst the panel of speakers, they had two people talk about the D1 recruiting process. The first one, an active coach, stated that amongst the major D1 schools it was now becoming somewhat common for them to get commitments from sophmores and that this had really altered the recruiting process on the women's side. They went on record saying that they were opposed to this illegal process and refused to give advice on what to do if you were sophmore. The second, a retired D1, but active club coach, acknowledged that active recruiting was in fact taking place in the sophmore year and advised the families to follow the advice they were giving the juniors to actively solicite coaches. Later, in private, I ws advised that since my daughter was a keeper she would likely be one of the sophmores drawing interest and we should be prepared.
My first question is what is the competition like amongst D1 programs for keepers? In our area you can count the keepers with decent physical attributes and skill on one hand. Is this the same across the country? My kid has a late December birthday so she has always played up a year relative to her school year. While she has made her school's varsity and the state's ODP team, she has always been the youngest on the team and has not gotten much of the limelight. That said she's a big strong athletic girl who has been well trained as a keeper. When she does play with her age group she absolutely sets herself apart. Her coaches tell us she is a legitimate lower tier D1 prospect. Should we even bother playing the recruiting game as a sophmore?
If we do decide to start contacting coaches and inviting them to see her play at these tournaments as her club is suggesting, how should we go about things? As I read the NCAA rules, if we contact a coach, they cannot respond. If we invite one to come see my daughter play and they like what they see, how will they let us know and how should we respond?
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