Anyone ever have an Ivy approach your athlete summer before/fall of senior year for recruitment? We have had radio silence from a few and minimal communication from a couple others, 2 said “we are not interested”. My athlete is still sending film, schedules, emails to a few. When is it time to give up and move on?
What sport?
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What is “minimal communication”? Phone calls or just polite email responses?
polite email responses,
no phone calls.
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field hockey
For our sport, we were told Ivy, NESCAC and Patriot League need to see three years of HS grades before they can assess admissibility, so not like Div Ipower conferences etc for which fall of junior year is already commitment time. But it is highly sport dependent, we were told. In our sport, we did not see any Ivy commitments announced until fall semester of senior year.
My guess is that the coach is not interested. There would almost certainly be calls if there was even a small amount of interest. It’s ok to send an email to ask where they are with recruiting for your class and if their roster is full.
The good news is that a kid who is on the Ivy bubble is usually a very strong elite D3 players and will often have a lot of interest from NESCAC, UAA, etc. I hope your D is talking to those coaches as well. Those schools tend to wait for the Ivy shake out and have to wait for summer pre reads, so things are probably just starting to heat up there.
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I do not have any experience with field hockey recruiting in the Ivy’s, and do not know how many slots/LLs a coach has to offer. My guess only is a few.
I would say that it is not too late, however based on the lack of response from the Ivy coaches I would say your D is not on the radar or their board.
If she is interested in Ivy’s, have you visited any of the campuses? I assume you have been reaching out to the coach(s) thru the website, etc.
If you are visiting a school, you could have your D reach out to the coach again to let them know you will be on campus and if the coach is available you would like to stop by to touch base.
If you get no response or a lukewarm, I would give up on the Ivy recruiting especially for any help with admissions. My experience is that the coaches will always reach back to you if they have any interest, even if not offering a LL but may still want her to go out for the team if she gets admitted on your own
If she does get in on her own, she could always reach back out to the coach.
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Which sport is that?
Since field hockey is a fall sport, it is likely the coaches have finished their lists and are just waiting to see how things finish out. They’ll have students submit for pre-reads in June, and go from there.
Has your daughter played in any national tournaments? That is a big recruiting location. I live in the west and there isn’t a big high school field hockey pool. Often those recruited also play lacrosse and the college coaches ‘share’ the recruit.
Like others, I think it depends a lot on the sport. It’s not too late in track and field. I don’t know field hockey timelines but I suspect it moves earlier and most programs have things pretty well figured out by now.
I’m always reticent to assume or state firm timelines, as I know of Ivy athletes who were recruited far later than most here on CC would believe possible. Those are the exceptions though.
To me the most important information you shared is a not interested from a few programs and minimal engagement from a few others. That suggests an athlete who isn’t a clear fit in the conference. Could be a marginal fit that a few teams might keep on the back burner in case their higher priority recruits fall through. (These are my assumptions; I don’t know for sure).
If that’s the case I’d think through what the actual athletic experience would be for a recruit in that position, and how important the academic experience is in comparison. In other words, for example, is sitting on the bench at Brown a better overall college experience than playing and studying at, say, Williams.
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In my kids sport, the IVY schools were really active summer after Sophmore year/fall of Junior year (offers seen in August/September/October of Junior year). The SLACs were much later with a lot of activity in winter of Junior year with coaches watching in the summer and offers following. My kid was a late bloomer that started sport late so no realistic chance at IVY as they were still pretty new to the sport. Your kid needs to be on the right teams (if that is relevant for your sport) and be pretty developed by this point. An extra year of playing for a kid who starts late is really meaningful.
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Adding from above post after reading in more detail, I’d say too late. The only way you would begin to have interest is if a kid doesn’t pass pre-read and the coach begins to scramble for players and the other kids they were following have committed elsewhere. Honestly, even the competitive SLACs you are getting late but it can happen but would be better to have a relationship established by now. If your kid really begins to shine during this travel season (I”m assuming field hockey has travel starting around now but don’t know for sure), she can certainly get the interest of coaches.
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The Ivy league is 8 schools (do they all have field hockey?). If you haven’t heard anything from any of them, I think it is time to move on.
You have to decide if you will only consider schools with field hockey or only consider highly ranked schools with her desired major, and if there if a Venn diagram that shows any schools in both circles.
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