My son is a 2010. He received some interest as a sophomore and much more as a junior, pretty much like you said some signed letters, invites to camps, some personalized notes but mostly form letters and a few calls. We chose schools to send a video to based on academics, a combination of D1,2 and 3. The interest got stronger and we did hear from the D3 schools after this for the first time. In November he applied early decision to what we feel was the best academic D3 school in a great conference. In December he was accepted. From what I can gather about the average D1 scholarship money wise he is much better off
His high school coach put together a video for all the seniors and it definitely helped us in the process. Without it, for sure the school he is going to never would have seen him.