Was just curious if there was one. And if the coaches come out usually or not. Thanks
Zmaniane,
“Signing Day” is National Letter of Intent (NLI Day) for Division 1 or Division 2 NCAA student athletes receiving athletic scholarships. I’ve known some extremely talented & heralded athletes who’s college coach did not attend. Typically the NLI is faxed back to the coach/athletic dept/compliance office on or before signing day. So, it doesn’t really matter the type of school (ie LAC), but it does matter what NCAA Division they belong.
Celebratory signing days at the student’s school have become.more the norm to honor the student athletes. Some schools will honor all levels (D1, D2, D3, JC, NAIA) and other high schools will do it a differently. From what I can tell, it is up to the high school athletic director. My oldest son’s school had a party with the local newspaper, coaches, guidance councelor, parents, brothers as a way to celebrate his acceptance to an Ivy school and play baseball. He signed a blank piece of paper (for the cameras) since there is no athletic money in the Ivy conference.
My daughter’s high school did as above, let all students heading to college and intending to play some level of sports to participate in the ‘signing.’ I don’t think any of the college coaches came. They had two opportunities to do it, early signing in Nov or Spring (I don’t remember if we had any Div 1 football athletes sign in Feb). The 4 female crew signers did the Nov. signing, and everyone else, including my daughter who had signed her NLI in Nov., did the spring celebrations. ALL ‘signed’ fake letters or resigned. About half of the 25 students weren’t really signing NLIs as they were going to D3, junior college, NAIA, Naval Academy, cheerleaders, male rowers, etc., and not getting NCAA scholarships.
It was fun. The athletes each got 2 minutes to say thanks, they all pretended to sign, and then each ‘hosted’ a table with refreshments (LOTS of cake!). A lot of former coaches, from grade school on up, came and that made it special for the kids.
Our rival school (5 minutes away) did it differently. There, each athlete had a signing ceremony day for himself but they weren’t on the real signing days. Some of the November kids did it in Jan or Feb. Other schools do it by sport. It’s all fun.