Football Recruiting - Ivies, NESCAC, Patriot

Parents Forum
1

<p>S1 is class of 2014 HS grad. Just attended New England Elite Football Camp which is staffed by coaches at many of the high academic schools. Several coaches talked with him; he is a 6 foot three, 250 pound offensive lineman, but when they heard he was a rising junior, and not a senior, they politely told they were more focused on the seniors. </p>

<p>I assume he should not have been surprised? I’ve tried to tell him that so long as a few coaches (Bowdoin, Harvard) actually singled him out and talked to him, he should feel good about the camp - as he still only 16 and has 2 more years of HS football. BTW, the camp was a circus - 2000 kids. </p>

<p>Sound advice, or are we just clueless? (Note: he has excellent grades at a large public high school in the DC area - as opposed to an elite prep school)</p>

<p>Toughts?</p>

2

<p>I know more about soccer but that sounds absolutely correct. I’d just have him keep in touch this fall so he stays on their radar. For now, “nice meeting you” type things. During the season maybe a brief “hey, I made all-district/ started every game/ won this accolade”.</p>

3

<p>Put it all into context. The leagues you’re talking about don’t participate in the "verbal offer/ verbal commitment charade/process that goes on in D1 recruiting.</p>

<p>The commitment that these coaches will want (next year) is the commitment to apply early. That really can’t be extracted until next year this time. And only one can get it.</p>

<p>I suppose that there are some recruits who could say "look, I’m going to apply regular to H, Y, P, and also X, Y, and Z, and in April when the decisions come out, I’ll make a decision. But those guys are few and far between, and for the top schools, that recruit risks being rejected like 92% of the applicants. Not a smart strategy if you’re a potential recruit and you’re non-stratospheric in scores and grades. </p>

<p>Be happy he attracted some attention, and be ready next year to narrow the field to a couple of fall official visits, and then make a decision on where to go “early” application. Read the ten year old JohnTReed rant about elite college football from his site.
[College</a> athletic recruiting lessons learned by a Miramonte Dad](<a href=“http://www.johntreed.com/matsdad.html]College”>College Football Recruiting lessons learned – John T. Reed)</p>

4

<p>my advice is you should have him take a look at W&M =P</p>

5

<p>Thanks, Dadx, sound advice to be sure. And soccer guy315, we do live in Virginia. Thanks.</p>

6

<p>The advice given by the coaches is right on target. My son went to the NE Elite Camp last year and you are right-It was a zoo. However, it got my son on the radar of many high academic schools.</p>

<p>Be sure not to discount the high academic schools in other parts of the country, including the midwest. There are fabulous Division 3 schools in the midwest (U Chicago, Case Western, WashU, Grinnell, etc…). </p>

<p>The most important thing for your son will be to get film to coaches after his junior year. Find out what your school makes available to students. He needs to make a highlight film, put it on YouTube and send the link to coaches after his junior season. </p>

<p>Cast a wide net. It’s easier to cast a wide net than to widen it later. You do not have to make an expensive film. I paid a college kid to do it. It cost me around $40. </p>

<p>Most of all make sure your son does well in school. Every coach my son spoke with asked to see his transcript and test scores before he would even speak with him. He needs to have really stellar grades and high test scores for those schools.</p>

7

<p>don’t take the coaches actions personally. NCAA rules forbid almost anything that can be construed as recruiting until after Sep 1 of student’s junior year.</p>

8

<p>My son is a rising Senior and we’re just winding down from a summer of football recruiting antics which included a blur of camps, prospect days, tours, interviews and more miles on my poor car than I care to think about. If I had caught you earlier in the season I would have suggested for this summet that you concentrate on hitting a few of the smaller camps sponsored by some individual schools that you think might be a good match for him academically. Those are typically much smaller and the kids get more individual attention. As mentioned, this year concentrate on getting some good film for his highlight tape. Are your HS games taped? If I were you I wouldn’t rely completely on that video…show up at a few games with a hand-held and get some clips that focus on him completely. Encourage him to keep his grades up and get as much of the testing (SAT/ACT/SAT2) done this year as you possibly can. Bowdoin and Harvard are a great start! We went to the Bowdoin Prospect day a couple weeks ago and you can’t get much better coaching! Good Luck!</p>

9

<p>One of our local kids committed at the end of his Junior year of HS, but he’s a quarterback, so maybe that’s different.</p>

10

<p>Some kids commit early but most do not. D3 recruiting is typically done later than D1 as the coaches do not have the money to coach their own kids and recruit at the same time.</p>

11

<p>Also, I don’t think Ivy League schools can effectively accept a commitment before fall of a candidate’s senior year. A kid can commit all he wants, but the college’s admissions department won’t review the application and issue a likely letter (the Ivy League equivalent of entering into a letter of intent) until September/October. I’m pretty sure it’s the same deal at the NESCAC schools, but without likely letters. I haven’t heard of anyone getting a commitment from an Ivy League or NESCAC college before late September of his or her senior year, even people who are being aggressively recruited on a scholarship basis by other Divison I programs.</p>

12

<p>My advice is, unless football is the be-all and end-all in his life, advise your son to put that way on the back burner during his college search process. </p>

<p>Prepare him, too, with the idea that schools are casting their nets wide, as well. While a few kids do make verbal commitments before senior year, for most things do not shake out until after “quiet” and “dead” periods of their senior year. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, official recruiting cannot begin until fall of junior year and official campus visits are not allowed until senior year. Our son (also an O-lineman) received a lot of interest during his junior and senior years of high school, but several of the schools that seemed very gung-ho early in the process dropped out as rosters were filled and needs more specifically defined. So, based on our experience, it’s not a good idea to get your hopes set on a school that expresses early interest because there’s a very good likelihood that the schools will be narrowing their prospect lists down as signing day approaches. It’s not personal. The coaches may love your son and see him as having great potential, but if he doesn’t fit into their system, it’s not likely that he will be on their recruiting list. it’s a business for coaches…even DIII coaches are expected to “produce” on the football field.</p>

<p>There’s also a huge difference between high school and college ball in terms of talent, commitment, and attitude. Of the four kids in my son’s high school who signed letters of intent their senior year, none wound up playing football for more than two years at the college level. And out of 15 linemen who were part of DS’s college recruiting class (at a DIAA school), only one played through his senior year. As a senior in high school, DS was 6’4", almost 290lb, and ran a 4.9 forty. And, ultimately, he was too small and too slow to be competitive at the tackle position in a DIAA program (such as the Ivies). And he found it very hard to juggle a fairly demanding academic load with what was essentially a 30-hour per week commitment during the football season. He admits now that he wishes he had hung up his helmet after his senior year of high school “when football was still fun.”</p>

<p>Edited to add (because I realized how discouraging my advice sounded). Playing college football can be a great experience for some kids. My nephew (actually, nephew-in-law) played for V-Tech and loved every minute of it. It’s just not for everyone.</p>

13

<p>Isn’t an advantage of going through the football recruitment process being able to get into very competitive schools (e.g. D3) that may be hard to get into otherwise, even for academically strong students just due to low admit rates? So even if the student doesn’t end up playing football for all 4 years, if it is a foot in the door of an excellent college or university, might it not be worth it?</p>

14

<p>Definitely! It’s potentially a very powerful “hook.” My 15 year-old daughter, who is an average athlete but an excellent student, is still a longshot to get into Brown. She’s more than a little resentful that her football-playing “B” student brother got a likely letter from her dream college because, as she puts, “he’s good at knocking things over.” (Actually, she’s quite supportive of him, but she also has a very strong sense of irony.)</p>

15

<p>LBowie:</p>

<p>Yes-being a recruited athlete can be a tremendous hook in admissions. However, it is not that easy to be recruited. It’s not enough to just play or even to be a good player. If a particular kid wants to go to school A and is a LB school A must actually need LB with your particular skill set.</p>

<p>That’s why kids are advised to cast a wide net and not to get overly attached to one school. A kid can be a good player and still not get into the school of his dreams. The coach has to need the kid in the year the kid is entering for sports to matter.</p>

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<p>Elliemom, I find it really bizarre that at 6’4" and 290 with a 4.9 40 your ds did not have interest from Ivies (?). To me it sounds like you have/had a dream Ivy lineman. Or maybe there is something I am missing. That is not slow and/or small in the least.</p>

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<p>ChicagoMama – I think if you read the Elliemom post carefully, you will see that her son had plenty of interest, and actually played for a D-IAA program. But he did not start consistently, he did not enjoy it, and ultimately he stopped playing before his eligibility expired.</p>

18

<p>There is some good advice here.</p>

<p>For more advice, check out College Admissions > Specialty Topics > Athletics Recruits. That’s where most of the recruiting talk takes place.</p>

<p>New England Elite was a zoo (“If ya pahked ya cah on the grass, ya ganna gat towed.”)</p>

<p>Good advice regarding making sure you’ll have a highlight tape at the end of junior year. I suggest getting it together and emailing it to coaches in March or April. Right now they’re focusing on their season, and December through February they’ll be focusing on recruiting for the incoming class, so if you get your stuff to them before March or April it will likely go unnoticed.</p>

<p>If your team posts game tape to hudl.com, you can make a highlight tape and email it to coaches directly from the site.</p>

<p>Many if the Ivies and NESCACs specifically asked S to submit tape through gobigrecruiting.com, and that site just the other day permitted highlight videos to be uploaded directly from hudl.com.</p>

<p>Regarding camps for your Son next summer - make no mistake, the HY&P camps are D1 camps, so if your Son won’t stand out among that level of talent, you may want to pass on those. This doesn’t mean that your Son won’t eventually get recruited by HY or P, just that during those camps the coaches tend to focus on “picking off” recruits that might be otherwise going to D1 schools. And just to be clear, verbal offers ARE made at these camps, some with conditions (“We want to offer you if you can get your SAT up to _____”), but many believe these offers are not real. I read an article somewhere about a head coach (non-Ivy) who shamelessly makes over 250 verbal offers to fill 30 slots.</p>

<p>Many of the NESCAC and D3 coaches go to the Ivy camps (but an Ivy coach will NEVER be at another Ivy’s camp), so check which coaches from other schools will be at a camp and if you want to be seen by a particular Ivy you must go to their camp. You can attend many multi-day camps for a single day if you ask. IMO you don’t need more than a day at a camp, better to leave them wanting to see more.</p>

<p>I don’t think you’ll get anything out of attending NE Elite next year, so I would focus on other camps.</p>

<p>And beware, many coaches will contact your S with the intention of showing interest FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF getting your son to attend their camp. Camps are revenue generators for the coaches. The more kids that show up, the more money they make. If your son is good enough, coaches will recruit him whether or not he goes to their camp. If your son is on the bubble and there’s one spot left and it’s between him and another recruit and your son went to their camp and the other recruit didn’t, will going to the camp make the difference? WHO KNOWS? But that’s why we all take our kids these camps!</p>

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<p>Yes, NE Elite was a zoo. We attended because S was looking at East Coast schools, especially NESCACs, and we live far away so it wasn’t practical to attend each school’s camp. However, S attended enough individual camps in late June or mid-July, that S was able to make contact with those coaches when they were at NE Elite and say, “Hey, I enjoyed your XX camp last week” or “Hey, I’ll be attending your XX camp in a few weeks.” That extra contact did seem to help. Also, several schools contacted S before NE Elite to ask him to consider tacking on a trip to visit their school right before or after NE Elite and we even made a last minute, 4 hour round trip drive in the morning of the first NE Elite day.</p>

20

<p>I also agree with previous posters that it’s a good idea to send out highlight tapes in February or early March, fill out the Recruit Questionnaire at each school, then send emails to coaches to let them know you’ll be visiting during spring break [or whenever] and would like to meet with them. That worked really well for our S.</p>