How do you handle college visits, communicating with coaches and recruiting when you are injured and will miss your entire senior season?
DS20 was second-string kicker on varsity football team last year as a junior; he’s been in private kicking training for over a year. Sadly, he tore his ACL in the spring and had surgery in June. Recovery time is at least 6 months, usually more like 9 to 12 months, meaning he will miss his entire senior season. No stats, no video. He has some limited stats and video from junior year, but not as much as he would have had this year if he wasn’t injured.
Do we go ahead and contact coaches for schools he’s interested in and say up front that he’s injured and will miss the season, but is still interested in certain schools? A walk-on position is fine; in fact, except for the tippy-top schools and the very best kickers, most of them start out as walk-ons.
Thoughts from anyone who’s successfully navigated a senior-year injury?
I am not sure your son has many options, honestly. It certainly won’t hurt to ask the schools he is interested in if they will allow him to attempt to walk on. It doesn;t take much to let a kicker come out to the field and hit a couple balls. I would bet most schools would permit that, excepting maybe at the top of D1 where they have already invested whatever resources they are willing to commit to that position. Just be aware that even at the D3 level kicking and punting is very competitive. Most schools carry one of each, and probably only recruit every third year or so. There are just not that many available slots.
If you believe that your son’s kicking performance would significantly enhance his chances to get admitted to a top school or even get a scholarship, one alternative would be to do a PG year at a prep school. But it costs money and does not guarantee anything.
That’s the funny thing about competitive sports, especially football. The most accomplished athletes are the ones who have the most dumb luck. Missing a senior year is pretty much a death blow to a scholarship, especially if there aren’t a lot of stats from his junior year. I think the best option is to just get accepted into a decent FBS school and then com into walk-on trials with an attitude.
Do you depend on an athletic scholarship? Or does he want to play for a team?
Have you run the NPC on the colleges he’s interested in?
What are his stats?
What’s your EFC?
What colleges was he thinking of?
I don’t think you have anything to lose by following your plan of contacting coaches at schools he’s interested in and asking them what to do - just apply RD, visit, get some bump as a recruited walk on… it may depend on the academic level of the school and how many recruited walk on spots the coach has. Stanford? Pretty tough admit without coach support. Your home state flagship? Maybe an easier acdemic admit but harder to walk on the team. It never hurts to ask. His current coaches could also be helpful, as could any coaches he met while at the camps he attended.
He might also look at D2 schools, especially if he’s looking at STEM. Colorado School of Mines has a pretty good football team (most years) and of course an excellent academic reputation.
Thanks, everyone. To answer some questions, he wants to stay in-state (Texas) and definitely not looking at a top-level academic school. He is a mid-level student and that’s fine. Scholarship is not necessary; if he stays in-state at a public school, his costs will be almost entirely covered by a 529 plan that we have. I think @coolguy40 and @twoinanddone 's suggestions to walk-on are the way to go. We haven’t toured any schools yet but he has a couple of favorites, so I think we’ll get in touch with those coaches and see if we can do a campus visit and perhaps attend a game.
Check with your son’s coaches to see if they can reach out to schools and explain your sons injury, talent, and desire to walk on. That’s a great way to get the process started. Good luck!
Is a return to football at the collegiate level a realistic option for one with a torn ACL who has missed his entire senior season & was never a starter / first string player during high school ?
I ask because the emphasis on football may be setting your son up for a major disappointment. Maybe his targeted colleges should be for fit & academics rather than a football pipedream ?
I agree that you might be chasing something that is nearly impossible to attain. I think you would need his current coaches advocating for him and using their contacts. The college coaches might suggest a PG year. If you aren’t looking for scholarships then maybe you should look for academic schools that have activities he would like to participate in.