Welcome! Most D3s recruit the summer before senior year and all through senior year. So for your son, summer '23 (next summer). It's a good idea to make a list and reach out to coaches early next spring, with a playing schedule, asking what events they will be at to see him. They will tell you to come to their camp, but if he's a credible recruit, this does work at the D3 level. Next summer, have the travel coaches reach out, too.
Things to know about how it works include these:
- D3 teams have no limits for roster size, so they can recruit as many players as they want. Some teams have 50+. Some schools have reputations for sports recruiting as a way to get paying students to attend. So you have to be aware of this.
- There are basically two things that a coach can offer to recruit players: (1) getting to play on a team with good coaching and winning program, and (2) help with admissions.
- For (1), if the team has success in the NCAA regionals but has 50 players, you want to try to figure out whether your son has a chance at playing time - really no way to know, of course. You can also look at a roster to see how many of the upperclassmen are transfers.
- For (2), some D3 schools are private schools with very low acceptance rates ("High Academics" in sports recruiting terms), some are state schools with very high acceptance rates. Would your son get into the school without the coach's help? If not, you can get a sense of how much the coach wants your son by how much help he offers through admissions. Of course, if your son would get in without help, then that may not apply.
Going to WWBA: probably won't make any difference with D3 recruiting. He might get seen by D1 there and draw someone's eye. On the other hand, having experience at that kind of high-level tournament is not a bad thing as a player heads to college, even a D3 college.