How to respond to College Coaches after getting cut from High School team?

Athletic Recruits
1

So I think of myself as a very good player. I play for a top AAU team in my area and have excelled in AAU tournaments and have film from some AAU games. I’m being recruited by 5-10 D3 schools of varying interest and also have an unofficial offer from an NAIA D2 school. Some of these schools have seen film on me and some of them haven’t.

I played on freshman as a freshman and JV as a sophomore at my high school. I felt like I was good enough to make varsity as a junior but cutting me was somewhat justified because he had a lot of returning players that were also guards. But this year I played lights out at tryouts and undisputedly should’ve made it. There were definitely spots for me on the team but for whatever reason, he cut me and took younger but definitely worse players. I hate to make excuses but it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that some of these kids also have very influential parents.

Regardless of all that, I’m not worried about my game at all and think I’d be able to get even better without the team focusing on my own individual training.

But since I’ve been cut some of these coaches have emailed me asking how my seasons been going and some have even asked for a schedule so they can come see me play. I don’t know how to respond to these coaches and tell them that I didn’t make it even though I know I am still good enough to play for them. It seems logical that a college player should be good enough to make his high school team and it makes sense that the coaches that recruited me were under the assumption that I was on varsity. But I don’t know what to do now and I’m afraid of losing the unoffical D2 offer.

So how do I respond to these coaches? Is there anyway to put a good spin on this?

2

You might say that you are focusing on your AAU team play this year which allows you to dedicate time to improving your grades and doing well on standardized tests. Good luck.

3

How did everything work out for you?

4

The original poster has not been back since December 2017.

5

I’m curious how it goes. But generally speaking, no decent college team will spend effort recruiting a kid who can’t make a high school team for whatever reason.

6

^^Except Michael Jordan.

7

Jordan was cut as a sophomore. And it wasn’t really a cut, it was that he didn’t make Varsity. Nowadays you have kids who are good start playing as a freshman, but 15+ years ago and earlier it was common to not play on Varsity until you were a junior, no matter how good you were.

8

But some who are cut as freshmen or sophomores will not return to the high school system. We have that in lacrosse in some of our powerhouse schools. There are only a few teams (freshman, JV, Varsity) and there are hundreds of kids who want to play. Some don’t make it but are outstanding at club are are recruited from there.

9

It’s very difficult to make many varsity sports teams at our large high school. There are many kids who continue with their clubs year round and can be recruited from those teams. Additionally, there are many examples of kids who played their sport at DIII schools even though they didn’t make HS varsity.

10

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