Im going into 11th grade this year and looking to go to a boarding school for basketball as a repeat junior. I’m pretty familiar with boarding schools as a whole (my brother played basketball at Exeter and UPenn) but the recruiting process is a little bit foreign to me. I’m a decent student I have a very high SAT score (1560) and an ok GPA (don’t know exactly but somewhere around 3.5-3.7). I really want to play basketball at an Ivy League like Yale. I’m wondering what boarding schools should I consider and how exactly should I go about being recruited?
Hotchkiss upset Phillips Academy in the NEPSAC Class A Championship last year, so you might start with them and look up the other schools in the tournament. Also check how many people are returning in your position. Half of PA’s team were Seniors, for example.
Call the coach. Share tapes + awards. He may want to see you play, so if you’re in a summer league or AAU, that would help. It’s late in the process.
Check to see if they will play you at the position you want. As an example, I know a boy who was all state, was leading scorer in his school’s history, led his school to a state championship, and reclassified at a prep school. It turns out that they had an undersized team and played him at power forward despite the fact that he projected as a guard. Despite playing well, he didn’t get offered from the kinds of schools he was hoping for although he did go D-1.
Your brother went through this process. Start by talking to him about it. But you need to be filling out recruiting questionnaires at schools of interest and also reaching out to those coaches via email. Send highlight tapes and share your schedule if you are playing any summer ball. Start building relationships via email with those that respond. Keep them regularly updated with new film and any academic updates.
For my brother it was different because he wasn’t actively considering boarding school it just happened to be that the assistant coach of his high school was going to Exeter and asked my brother if he wanted to go to the school as well as a Post-Grad. I’m just trying to figure out a list of schools to get in contact with first, I know South Kent has a good basketball team but there academics aren’t as good as the school i’m already at.
Research the different NEPSAC divisions, and see if an A or AA or AAA school is right for you. The most athletically competitive school you can get into isn’t necessarily the best choice if it leads to you getting no/very limited game time as this can impact your visibility to coaches.
Also do your best to increase your GPA, as college basketball recruiting is heavily numbers-driven, and a 4.0 in honors courses is going to be better for recruiting than a 3.6 in AP/DE courses as the former will have the higher Academic Index and thus be more attractive as a high-AI counterweight to four star recruits with lower stats.
As a college recruit, the academic hurdle (at Ivy/Patriot league schools) is a lot lower than for ordinary students - if you’re getting As at a prep school whose rigor is a known quantity like South Kent and you have top tier test scores, then you’ve more or less cleared the academic hurdle.
Thus, unless you’re worried about social fit (important considering it’s a school of only 170 kids) or have some special academic interest that you don’t think South Kent can meet, I wouldn’t let your concerns about academics stop you from applying.
If you do want an AAA school with very strong academics, look at Northfield Mount Hernon, Worcester, and New Hampton school
OP, can you clarify your goals? Is #1 goal to go to a boarding school? Or is it to play D1 (ivy) basketball?
You can achieve the second without the first as coaches first and foremost want the best players who are adequately prepared rather than the best students who can play basketball. Your reply above suggests that you are already at a decent school. But if you want better academics and/or different coaching, BS is certainly an option.
If you want to go to BS, reach out directly to coaches, with your background, stats, and video asap. If you go through the rosters of the programs that interest you, you can see where players came from. On the BS athletics websites, you can get the info and contact details on the BS coaches.
You can explore programs and current teams at neprepbasketball.net. ( the ne is fornational elite, not new england.)
It’s to play D1 at an Ivy, I already know I can pass the Academic Index for every Ivy League (a football player at Yale told me this) because they weight SAT higher than GPA. I think a boarding school is the best route to get me seen by high academic colleges in new england.
Look at rosters and see who will need players for your position in a year. Reach out to the coaches at those. Realistically assess where you will get the most playing time and exposure. It does you no good to be on a team of players so much better than you that you get no playing time nor one that is so weak that it doesn’t get exposure.
My guess is that the conversations will start the ball rolling in the right direction.
Ivy AI also takes class rank in to account. You have a very strong test score, but your grades are a bit lower. You’re likely over the threshold though.
I’m not 100% buying that boarding school is the best place to be “seen”. Maybe it is but maybe it drags down your GPA and class rank. I’d also look at which of those schools are sending their players to Ivies regularly.
Have you sent any emails to college programs or filled out any questionnaires? The best way to be “seen” is to get on their radar ASAP.
This is so tricky. There are BS that have great coaching staff and consistently exceptional players. Some (Westtown)are placing players in programs like Villanova or Duke, which sounds like perhaps too high a level of play for OP. And some of those players are picking their college team for how well it can position them for the pros. Iirc, these teams/players do compete at big tournaments and in pretty competitive leagues (which include day schools).
The question for OP is what coaching/experience he needs that he can’t get where he is, then finding the school that provides that. It sounds like he could handle the academics although it may require a bit more discipline and time management than where he is now.
Good points. I’m not familiar with boarding schools and playing more than 4 years in HS isn’t allowed in our state. Sounds like OP has already had three years of high school so perhaps behind in the recruiting timeline. Perhaps that is driving the repeat of 11th grade?
As someone who went through the boarding school recruiting process for another sport, I know it can be a little intimidating. One thing to understand is that prep schools generally have a decent amount of flexibility with academics for recruited athletes, especially those they really want or need. A coach’s recommendation also goes a long way in the admissions process.
The first thing I’d recommend is researching a handful of schools and figuring out which ones you could truly see yourself attending. Once you’ve narrowed it down to a decent list(Keep an Open Mind and Be Broad if Possible), reach out to the coaches via email, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Send them a brief highlight tape, your basic information and stats, and ask if they’d be willing to talk more about their program and their positional needs.
Keep in mind that some coaches may be busy this time of year with summer leagues and showcases, so they may take a little while to respond. Assuming your level of play is a good fit and you match their positional needs, you should start receiving responses and can move forward with each coach from there.
Also, remember that every school and program has its own recruiting process, so the timeline and steps will vary from one school to another.