D (starting junior year in fall) is wrapping up summer lacrosse. Plays for a very (top 5) highly ranked club team and has gone to 4-5 “camps” at schools which are geared towards identifying recruits from her class. Has videos on the IWCLA profile. Is getting video and profile views from many places- for whatever that is worth.
Sept 4 is the date coaches can reach out to recruits. We were under the assumption that her work was done (club season is over and only a few more school ID camps are still on the calendar), and in Sept we get to see if it amounted to anything. Many girls for lacrosse commit in the first week of September- so we figuring August really is the end of the “show” period.
So now we are starting to get inquiries through club coach about her interest in attending Mid- September ID camps for schools whose camps she did NOT attend during the summer. They were plane right away, and we were trying to cover as many as we could given time available- so she attended those a car ride away only.
This caught us off guard because we thought we were done- they would either recruit or not based on video and tournaments. But maybe not?
Anyone have any experience here? I understand a coach not offering someone they haven’t watch play live (although we know these coaches attended the tournaments). But is attendance at these mandatory to getting an offer, and is this common practice?
The fall camps are new (maybe in the last few years?) and I’m not sure as many TOP juniors are attending as most know where they are going, but I’m sure some who haven’t firmed up lax with academics will still be looking for their spots.
Your post reads like you are waiting for coaches to contact you. Has your daughter sent any emails, visited the schools, had contact with the college coaches either directly or through her hs/club coaches? The college coaches can’t call her but she can call them. She can send emails, she can visit and meet with team members. My daughter sent a lot of emails directing the coach to her play in certain tournaments, like 'I was playing in game 21 on July 15, I’m #2 and have a stick with gold and maroon stripes on the shaft. I scored goals at 10:30 and 12:50 of the first half. I had a good transition at 8:15." The coaches can’t watch the whole of every game. She should also direct them to her highlight film or attach it to her email.
So I don’t think you are done, but I don’t think going to fall camps is going to change recruiting. She can go if she enjoys going to camps, and you never know if the right coach (more likely an assistant) will spot her play and really like her. My daughter was recruited after a summer tournament by a D1 coach - who was reffing a game my daughter played in! Coach liked her style of play, and of course watched her for the whole game, not just a film clip.
Have your club coaches contact the coaches at any schools she’s interested in. They all know each other. And each other’s cousins, sisters, prior coaches, brothers, and friends. Don’t underestimate how much these contacts play a role in the recruiting. I think they are your best source for what is going on and whether to go to any more camps.
I probably should have mentioned- she has emailed her info, links, tournament schedules and the like over the course of the last 11 months- dating ball to the Fall 2023 season. It’s strange - all the one way communication- it has been done and up to date nonetheless.
She has gotten plenty of attention as evidenced by profile and video views and interest expressed by D1 coaches to her club coach (direct contact not permitted). You see this happening during and after the tournaments. So we feel pretty confident an offer from a few schools will be coming Sept 1. She has been told as much in not so many words- specifically from some camps she attended.
The confusing matter is that she chose not to attend the far away (plane ride) camps and accepted that they either would not recruit her, or would make a decision to recruit or not based on films and watching her play at tournaments the past 11 months. But now these too create opportunities for her to be seen live.
I think you are just in the waiting phase. I don’t think she needs more camps unless she wants to go. The camps offered in our area (after daughter was in college) were not as formal as the ones in the summer. Many high school players were playing a different fall sport or their parents were just out of money after all the summer camps and tournaments!
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Your club coach should be able to tell you if the schools they are asking about for fall camps have expressed general interest. If no general interest has been communicated, I would be reluctant to travel to a camp. Girls are often grouped strategically and I’ve seen some really good girls at these fall camps never have a coach glance their way because they weren’t in the “top” group.
Come Sept 1 (I think a lot of communication will happen Sept 1…she just can’t go to a campus until the 4th), my guess is she’ll have far more interest than you are aware of at this point. The trick is figuring out level of interest. Good luck! I have a 24 who went through lax recruiting and a 26 in the thick of it.
Exactly. Nailing down the level of interest is the difficult part. I think we are going to forgo traveling based on general interest and see what Sept 4 brings.
On that topic- is Sept 4 “offer day” (a spot on the team) or “offer to come visit us and meet us and see if there is a match day”.
I know for top 25 girls it’s offer day and just a formality locking in what was likely already agreed to- but for the others?
You’re exactly right…most top programs will be extending offers/inviting to campus and several will give tight timelines for letting them know (tippy top programs). For my 24, it was a bit of everything. She went to visit a couple schools early September and several offered on the spot, one said they wanted to see her at midfield (she was mostly attack) in Nov. tournaments, a few extended offers before getting her to campus (or said she was in top tier and wanted to get her to campus) and then a couple said she was one tier down and they needed to see how early offers came back. Not a lot of rhyme or reason…higher ranked programs offered, lower ranked programs either wanted to see more or were waiting on other girls, etc.
Your daughter should be very comfortable asking where she falls on any coach’s list…and then you can schedule accordingly. Good luck!
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There may be an offer but not a financial aid offer as your daughter may not be in the top group and the coach needs to see who accepts and who goes somewhere else. Or she might get a small offer that could go up if others reject the offers. You may also want a financial pre-read or need to wait to see if there is merit aid offered.
I wouldn’t panic if all the offers don’t come on Sept 4. Some schools may not allow the coach to make more than ~10 offers even if there is no money involved (the Ivies?) while a big D1 school may allow all who past a pre-read to get an offer to be on the team (really, what’s an extra 10 students to Maryland or Penn State?), and then the coach can make cuts in the fall or even have a jv team. I know one D2 team that had about 35 on the team but many were on the jv team and when they went to NCAA tournament only 24 could dress for the games.
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This is very helpful. We have heard from club coach about almost 20 teams that “show interest” and “are interested in”. We aren’t pressing her as to what this means, as we don’t want to go past the line here. We fully expect club coach will ask us priority before Sept 3 to make this a good experience for student and school alike.
We could tell from some camps that they were extremely interested, some we weren’t sure how much. She was strategic in not attending ridiculous reach camps so these results were somewhat expected.
From what I gather from this and your feedback, she should have at least a few offers on September 3 which will not be contingent on seeing more. We will deal with those conditions if and when they come up.
College coaches (before Sept. 1) are only allowed to express general interest. Even if your club coach pressed these schools, it’d be a violation for them to give you a ranking so don’t worry about the vagueness of it all, right now. I know some college coaches are good buddies with club directors and thus more might be shared but it really should only be general interest right now. Also, my daughter heard from schools on 9/1 that she hadn’t heard about any interest from so be prepared for that as well. Double check me but I believe communication can still occur on 9/1 this year…it’s just coaches couldn’t visit your home and she couldn’t step on a campus (for recruiting purposes) until 9/4 (e.g. dead period and then contact period). A few days doesn’t matter but with 9/1 being a Sun., it sure would be easier to hop on the phone when they aren’t in school!
The verbiage is unclear as are the definitions.
I think coaches can call 9/1, but dead periods ends 9/3. So I believe 9/1 is when the fun Starts.
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Hearing from schools completely off of the radar is exciting. I see schools that hit her IWCLA profile and videos 9-10 times so we aren’t surprised when coach says there is interest.
But then there are the situations coach says there is interest but the school has not even viewed her profile. Those are the most fun.
Maybe a little off topic- but does UC Berkeley significantly flex their academic requirements for athletes (women’s lacrosse specifically) or do they keep the bar high- something akin to the Academic Index that the Ivies hold themselves to?
Recruited athletes are not under the same standards at UCB, but I think you’ll find most athletes (especially in lax) still have fairly high academics because they are usually coming from competitive prep or boarding schools and/or have played on club teams while having to keep up academics. The students only have to meet NCAA requirements for admissions, which is a 2.0 gpa (California schools no longer use test scores so I don’t think athletes need them either). The PAC 12 didn’t have extra requirements, and I don’t think the the ACC does either. Several years ago Wisconsin did limit the football coach when he tried to bring in a lot of jr college transfers who didn’t meet academic standards, but those players were really low academically, not like the difference between a B+ and a B average. Another Big 10 school might have been fine with it, just not Wisconsin.
Schools and coaches can have their own requirements. I know the Yale lax coaches wrote an article about it several years ago that they don’t want to have a struggling student on the team when they can pick from many who are academically superior. Coach said they just stop the recruiting if they feel the academics aren’t up there. Don’t have to be the top top top (like a non-hook applicant), but the coaches want to be assured that the student can handle the academics.
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D1 (like UCB) requires a 2.3 GPA for NCAA eligibility (and a certain number of core courses.)
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Student_Resources/DI_ReqsFactSheet.pdf
That makes sense and makes UCB somewhat unique- probably the widest “back door” for athletes, of highly ranked schools.
UCLA, Michigan, Stanford, Hopkins (D1 for lax), Duke, Miami, Maryland, Virginia…They can all set their own rules for admissions but their conferences don’t set strict ones like Ivy, NESCAC, etc. with the bands and AI. The athletic hook is not a back door. It’s an open policy that thousands of students use every year to walk right through the front door.
What made ‘Varsity Blues’ a back door was that the coaches and administrators were taking bribes to admit students as recruited athletes who weren’t really recruited and who didn’t play on the teams once admitted.
I haven’t followed the rules for a few years. There used to be a sliding scale for the GPA/SAT scores, so the higher one was, the lower the other could be. My daughter wanted athletic money and merit money, and she had a different requirement to get both. I think those rules have changed too.
A legitimate back door may be more accurate- it still a back door nonetheless if a B student can attend those schools due to their athletic talent- more power to them.
Stanford and Hopkins do adhere to elevated standards though. I know through personal experience. No one is getting in with B’s.
I know a student headed to Hopkins who may not even have Bs. He won’t be majoring in a science or math. Christian McCaffrey went to Stanford with Bs and a 24 ACT. He actually did major in something hard (but didn’t graduate). Still, he makes millions.
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