Taken another step in Kids sports experiences

[2rocky]

My youngest daughter played her first full year of HS Varsity Basketball this last Winter as a Sophomore. As a Freshman she would play in some Varsity games since the team roster was really pared down by Covid restrictions. This spring she joined an AAU team comprised of students from about 5 different high schools. She is getting noticed by a lot of the coaches in the league and the former coach of the crosstown rival team (who coached her in Jr High club ) told me she is well on her way to being one of the top players in the league.

One of the other parents told me she is taking her daughter to an individual showcase where D2 D3 NAIA and JC coaches would be in attendance. i thought this would be a good opportunity for my daughter to get a feel for what the recruiting process looks like and whether it is something she wants to pursue being recruited.

Curious if any other HT'er's had kids who played basketball and considered College sports as an option. I'd like to know what you thought was valuable and what steps in the process you would do differently if you knew the outcome.


My daughter has expressed interest in Land Grant colleges for Ag programs. Most of those are Div 1 programs.
My gut feeling is if she wants to play basketball and go to an Ag school she needs to play at the JC level and transfer to a Land Grant university.

The stats for her sophomore year:
(Of the 14 games that stats were turned in)
5'11"
#2 scorer on the team (total points)
#3 offensive, and overall rebounder
#1 defensive rebounder
#2 in steals
#1 in blocks

 

[Treeshark]

Curious if any other HT'er's had kids who played basketball and considered College sports as an option.

Congrats on her success, sounds like she’s doing great!

Not basketball, but my daughter just received and accepted an offer to play volleyball in college so we did just go through this at my house. Best advice is to dive heavy into the AAU/Club scene but don’t let it turn into a “job.” Burnout risk is real. If she wants to go this route, it takes a lot of commitment (which sounds like it will be no problem for her based on her success).

I also recommend that she identifies a few schools that she would like to go to and reach out directly to those coaches. Be proactive, see if they offer camps etc… and try to be as visible as possible to them. It worked out well for ours in the end, but if we went back in time we would have helped her start this sooner and be more aggressive with reaching out.

The stronger she can grow those relationships with those coaches at this stage, the better- ask specifically how she can best prepare herself to possibly join their team.

I hope this helps, best of luck to her and your family- it’s exciting but can be stressful!

 

[LopeHunter]

I have had family get scholarship offers to play collegiate sports. Division 1 is where you get recruited nationally so need to be in tournaments and have highlight YouTubes to share. The smaller divisions tend to recruit regionally. Some lack budgets so rely on YouTubes and calls to high school coaches and inbound calls from coaches.

Full scholarships are rare, especially in female sports where can be offered 1/2 of a scholarship, etc. Two of my family accepted athletic scholarships and graduated on time. One had more academic scholarship value than athletic scholarship value. Two other family members turned offers down and graduated on time. None got Division 1 offers. The two that took offers had one or more head coaching changes from the point of recruitment until completed their college career and that was a distraction and created drama on the team that took the edge off their love of the game.

College is expensive and scholarships may not move the needle much as compare a school offering a scholarship and one that does not. The college offering the scholarship may offer more grants or less and costs net of everything might be higher than another college. Academic standards may be lower at one versus the other. The particular things your daughter wants to study might not be offered at one college vs. the other.

I work with a guy and his daughter had scholarship then the coach left so his daughter transferred to where that coach headed but when the dust settled his daughter was not given a release from the first college so had to sit. Never finished college as was distracted by the drama.

A high school buddy saw his daughter get recruited by several smaller colleges then in the summer before freshman year of college the college cut the swim program so his daughter had to scramble to find a slot somewhere, scholarship or not.

I love competition but as a collegiate athlete you are a piece of meat so had better love the game because instability is almost a given now.

 

[crock239]

I have some experience w D1 bball, and have a nephew who's a D1 football player currently.

In basketball, AAU is likely the best way to have her play vs the best competition you can find. That will be best measuring stick. Then there are the select, invitation only camps where a concentration of recruiters will be. If you can, strike a balance of keeping her confident while also playing against excellent, often older competition.

Collegiate sports, especially D1 bc of the travel requirements, are a full-time job and major commitment, so just be prepared for that

 

[rustednuts]

My wife works in athletics for a team at D1 university. At D1 women's BBall is limited to 15 scholarships, the coach can split them and then apply them to more than 15 athletes. Schools will also work closely with athletes to find other scholarship opportunities outside of athletics.

Playing D1 is a full-time year-round commitment. You don't get a summer break and you will miss holidays being on the road for tournaments. The offseason has "voluntary" workouts but you better be there.

Getting recruited is about getting noticed, and camps are a big part of that if a coach invites you to their camp that is an opportunity you should take.

D1 is a big commitment I wouldn't write off D2 either.

 

[Irrelevant]

As a former collegiate athlete, I would not recommend the JC to Div 1 simply due to the education/experience. Maybe she's destined for the WNBA, but I'd have a hard time sending my kids to JC over a D1 even if they only made the D1 practice squad. But as others have said, it's a full time commitment without breaks. I couldn't've handled D1 commitment. I went the D2 route.

 

[2rocky]

My wife works in athletics for a team at D1 university. At D1 women's BBall is limited to 15 scholarships, the coach can split them and then apply them to more than 15 athletes. Schools will also work closely with athletes to find other scholarship opportunities outside of athletics.

Playing D1 is a full-time year-round commitment. You don't get a summer break and you will miss holidays being on the road for tournaments. The offseason has "voluntary" workouts but you better be there.

Getting recruited is about getting noticed, and camps are a big part of that if a coach invites you to their camp that is an opportunity you should take.

D1 is a big commitment I wouldn't write off D2 either.

Her 4.0 GPA for the last 3 years I think is going to be helpful. Somewhere I heard coaches love good scholars because that frees up the athletic scholarships, and they have an inside track on non sport $.

I don't want her to go to a D2 or 3 school she doesn't really like, just to play. I'd rather she have a couple good years at JC and decide then if she wants to hang it up or try to pursue more. I'm pretty sure she is not D1 material.

Her sister just graduated from UC Davis in 4 years and had a great time playing pickup games as her main form of social life. Lil sis might want the same thing. I'd support that.

 

[Treeshark]

had a great time playing pickup games as her main form of social life. Lil sis might want the same thing. I'd support that.

Totally agree, same outlook with our youngest. Sports are for fun.

 

[utah400elk]

I was a Div 1 swimmer and got a full ride scholarship. My son is a swimmer now and we are at a swim meet this weekend @ Auburn. His last swim coach was a former Div 1 swim recruiter and he is on track to get a scholarship. He is a great backstroke and is 14. He is competing against men and doing very well (sorry proud dad).

My Div 1 scholarship got me a degree and it was worth while but I was definitely a cog in the system. The university will get their pound of flesh for the scholarship. I would have had a very hard time paying for college if I had not gotten my scholarship. Just know that it is really a full time job and very demanding. It’s a great opportunity to pay for college and get a great education. I was able to travel to China because of college swimming and competed at Olympic Trials. It was an amazing adventure and I had great life experiences but the cost was my love for my sport.

 

[MarvB]

Only other thing I’ll throw out there is try to limit direct contact conversations between the coaches recruiting and your daughter, make them involve you in ALL the discussions. Three daughters here, all multi sport athletes who went on to play in college as I did (D2) myself. What is often “promised” directly to a 16-18 y/o can end up far from what reality looks like.

One (the youngest who is still playing ball) got so frustrated by the lack of follow through on their commitments by the time she was finishing up her Soph. season she was ready to call bball quits. Lucky for her/us she was playing in a postseason tournament up in Seattle that was getting a lot of looks from Canadian universities and when one coach heard the rumor she was likely pulling the plug he contacted me directly. We met and long story short she’s been in Vancouver BC on a full ride for the last three years. They 100% held up their ends of the bargain and she has thrived there both in sports and school. The other two daughters never got past their Junior years on the court, injuries led to broken promises and they lost the love of the game. Just my two cents!

 

[GoGriz]

Not sure it applies here, but I went the college sports route, while my twin brother did it without sports (different schools). There are a lot of positives about having a scholarship and playing sports in college, but you definitely miss out on the “tradition” college experience. Even for a lot of the people that I know that went beyond college in sports, I always wonder if I would have been better off without the college sports. Just food for thought - it’s easy to get wrapped up in the sports world and being wined and dined in the recruiting process, but they (coaches, school, agents, fans) are usually looking out for themselves first, and as a young athlete, that is hard to sort out/ separate.

On the other hand, if she does end up going that route, it is a built in group of friends in school, many of who you will bond with and stay close with for the rest of your life. Congrats on doing things to help her get to the point where you get to ponder these sorts of things - it takes great parents (and a village) to raise and keep kids in sports.

 

[Gellar]

My sister in law is a d3 head womens basketball coach in the Midwest and she is at one of those showcases about every weekend during the summer. It seems like a lot of the tournaments are in the Chicago area or Wisconsin Dells area. I’m sure they are elsewhere, but those might be just the ones she goes to.

 

[Scott85]

I have nothing to add but you go girl!!!

 

[EastTNHunter]

Every kid and situation is different. I’ve known people who have played college and minor league sports and lived the experience. Others found the commitment to sports to be too much to focus on the academics and growth of college.

As has already been said, it IS a job on top of the strenuous academics

 

[2rocky]

Well we are 6 games in to her Junior Season with the 7th this afternoon. She's been starting and playing the whole game for most of the games.

Anyone dealt with the NCSA recruiting service/site?

For over 20 years, NCSA has been a leader in college athletic recruiting, and we are proud to continue growing our legacy as part of IMG Academy. Together, we provide innovative tools to help athletes increase their chances of playing sports in college, including online education and performance training, expert recruiting guidance, data-driven college matching tools and access to more college coaches than any other college recruiting service. Today, NCSA is the largest and most experienced college athletic recruiting network, having helped more than 250,000 student-athletes make commitments to their college choice.

Seems like a good way to guide the process of narrowing down schools to apply for .

 

[Treeshark]

No experience with NCSA, but I did work at a startup (entirely different industry) and our President had previously owned a similar company.

His feedback would definitely make me interested in looking into something like this in your case- specific to your daughter, he said that it was a particularly good fit for students who performed very well academically- it was a helpful service to connect kids like that with upper-level academic schools that had a hard time finding decent athletes that also had the academic credentials to be admitted and make it at their school.