Here is what we did for my daughter:
- We took out a map and drew a 4 1/2 hour radius from out house. We all agreed that the school would have to be in that range. At the time, my mom was in HOSPICE and we needed for my daughter to be close enough to drive home or close enough for me to drive and get her.
- She knew early on she wanted to be a teacher. So, we took schools that were better known for teaching and gave them a higher rating. While I say "higher rating," you have to keep in mind that this didn't mean that the school would be interested in her.
- Next, we had to determine whether it mattered to her if it was D-I or D-II. It did not so that opened up a whole lot of schools who were showing interest.
- Next we tried to see if we knew people who played at those various institutions and placed calls to them. You would be amazed at what players say while in a program versus once they leave a program.
- My daughter picked some camps she wanted to attend. For her, that was a good thing but ironically, the closest D-I school was luke warm while several schools in the same conference were red hot after her.
- My daughter checked out the roster of each of the schools she was narrowing her choices for to see potential openings for her freshman year.
- A couple of schools had winter camps. She attended two and at both, the players asked her to stay the night with them.
- I am going to mention this and you need to beware about this statement. My daughter got close to a couple of coaches who were hot after her. In the end, that was a mistake! Coaches come and go. It should be about the education. Also, coaches can flat out lie to your child and then, at the last minute change their offer. That happened to my daughter. Her athletic offer dropped for 55% at one school to 40% at the end of the summer and after a tournament where she absolutely tore it up. This was her top school pick and she went elsewhere where it all worked out well. That coach was gone in two years.
Have your son go to some team websites and look at the "recruit me" portion of these sites. Have him begin the process. Coaches want to hear from the player and not the parent. He can open up a dialogue if he is lucky.