The head coach and assistant coach of an Ivy League team will be flying out to visit my daughter in a few weeks. They would like to observe her playing basketball in an open gym practice followed by a home visit. The open gym will be around 6PM. I was thinking it would be best to invite the coaches to our home for dinner. Any thoughts on this? Any other advice?
How does you daughter feel about it? Does she want to play for an hour, get cleaned up, and entertain the coaches for another 1.5 hours? While eating?
If so, how about pizza so you can all talk and eat easily? You can watch The Blind Side and see how they handled home visits (iced tea and in and out the door). My brother had a friend who was heavily recruited back in the day, and I know they sat in the living room and talked. Maybe snacks.
How about just order a tray of mini sandwiches and have a pasta salad or caesar salad. You can just pull them out of the fridge when you get back. Good luck!
Given logistics, I am hoping that they’ll accept the offer for dinner. Our daughter will go from school to tennis practice to the basketball workout and then home for the meeting with coaches at around 7-730. No time for dinner before the meeting.
I am also thinking that it’s probably best as parents not to attend the open gym. Just let the college coaches observe with her high school coach.
I suggest sandwiches and finger foods. If they show up and don’t want any dinner, you want something easy (not messy) for your daughter to eat as they chat. Grapes, cookies, sandwiches, carrot sticks, pretzels…
Agree that casual finger food, 1/2 sandwiches, that kind of thing that your daughter can eat but they won’t feel obliged to eat, would work better.
Thanks for the advice!
Also, any way to skip tennis that day? If she is being evaluated for basketball by Ivy Coaches, I’d want to make sure she had fresh legs. I wouldn’t even entertain tennis that day.