My friend's son is a 2021 who is playing at a D3. Reports to school in about 3 weeks.
Before he graduated HS but after he committed, the school had him come stay with the team (in the fall of his senior year). He was there for 2 or 3 days, stayed overnight with the players, ate with the team, practiced with them, etc.
Is this something that most schools do?
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@Francis7 posted:My friend's son is a 2021 who is playing at a D3. Reports to school in about 3 weeks.
Before he graduated HS but after he committed, the school had him come stay with the team (in the fall of his senior year). He was there for 2 or 3 days, stayed overnight with the players, ate with the team, practiced with them, etc.
Is this something that most schools do?
Yes this would be considered an official visit and each division is different and has specific rules.
Yes, so far all the kids in my extended family did OVs with different sports. My kid is planning one in the fall. Hopefully wife and I can plan a small getaway in NE, but that will depend on the other kid a rising HS frosh schedule.
Curious on the timing - if schools do this in September or October, is that also a way to make sure they are not wasting a NLI in November?
@Francis7 posted:My friend's son is a 2021 who is playing at a D3. Reports to school in about 3 weeks.
Before he graduated HS but after he committed, the school had him come stay with the team (in the fall of his senior year). He was there for 2 or 3 days, stayed overnight with the players, ate with the team, practiced with them, etc.
Is this something that most schools do?
This is something a lot of schools do if they are serious about a recruit. As TPM noted, it is different between NCAA divisions. D1 schools can provide some financial means for an official visit, however most D1 recruits are committing before the NCAA official visit dates...which means they are visiting the school unofficially and making a decision. In the case of the D3 schools there is no such thing as an Official Visit only Unofficial Visits where the recruit has to pay his own way. Many D3 schools get around this by providing an academic visit that is coordinated between Admissions and Athletics. My son did a fair number of both D1 and D3 visits, and it was a great experience overall to identify if the school and baseball program was a fit or not a fit.
PS...It used to be that only D2 schools allow a recruit to actually play or practice...not D1 or D3. I'm pretty sure that is still the case. That seems "off" to me.
Several years ago I stopped to watch a Villanova September camp. It was done in the mode of a showcase. At the time Nova was a P6 bottom feeder before the Big East imploded. Louisville, Notre Dame and West Virginia were in the Big East at the time.
I mentioned to a kid I knew on the team only four players had D1 swings. He commented they’re showcasing free of charge as part of their official campus visit. The four were kids from the south and likely to commit by the end of the weekend.
At the time Nova would pursue southern kids who got to the end of summer realizing they’re not getting an offer from a southern program.
Since the D3 timeline is aimed at the Early Decision/Early Action application deadlines (D3s have no NLIs), schools often do this kind of visit in the fall, the coaches consider it a recruiting tool. It's what they say after they've seen you, to express interest - "we'd like for you to do an overnight visit." My son visited schools through September after he had offers of admission support but before committing to one. I highly recommend it, you get to meet players, learn how the program is run, get a sense of campus culture.
Gaining a grasp on the culture at a D3 can be a very important part of the decision. The D3 college campus population may be smaller than your high school. On a D1 campus the population is typically so large you can find your fit. While it’s likely your best friends will be teammates you do spend time away from the team.
Son did an unofficial visit the fall after he committed, stayed with a player, and I think the player took son out to eat pizza and he got to watch a fall practice. The school did an "official visit weekend" which for D1s was no longer than 24 hours. ALL the committed players and their parents came for the weekend: meeting with parents on Saturday, catered Mexican tailgate lunch before football game, dinner at a restaurant that night, hotel, and goodbye breakfast the next morning.
I believe airfare and driving costs were on the parents as well any additional costs for siblings that tagged along. (I am not sure if the school picked up the airfare for the several players that had to fly in). Son stayed with some players, so we got the hotel
Well I am jealous as hell. With the virus we got none of this including a visit.
D1 programs now save the official visits for committed players. They have to cover travel expenses for players only but do cover hotels and meals for parents. The bigger the program, the more they feed you.
It's definetly an experience.
Sounds like parents are more involved in these things than just drop him off and pick him up. Is that true?
My son did his official visit in the fall after he verbally committed. They had all committed players at the school. Parents weren't involved.
@Francis7 posted:Sounds like parents are more involved in these things than just drop him off and pick him up. Is that true?
Once again, as mentioned, all divisions and programs do things differently.
Keep in mind that we are still in the middle of a pandemic. So much has changed.
@TPM posted:Once again, as mentioned, all divisions and programs do things differently.
Keep in mind that we are still in the middle of a pandemic. So much has changed.
I think we are at the end of a pandemic. Dr. Gottlieb says the Delta variant is likely 2-3 weeks away from cresting based on what is occurring in the UK. I do think people should be cautious. If schools start changing their fall plans based on the current environment I personally will have major problems. Colleges are a bit different too as many are requiring/mandating vaccines.
@Gunner Mack Jr. posted:I think we are at the end of a pandemic. Dr. Gottlieb says the Delta variant is likely 2-3 weeks away from cresting based on what is occurring in the UK. I do think people should be cautious. If schools start changing their fall plans based on the current environment I personally will have major problems. Colleges are a bit different too as many are requiring/mandating vaccines.
I was referring to official visits last fall, as nycdad said it was just players. Lots of programs just had players.
I don't know about the rest of the country, but here in Florida, hospitals are overflowing with covid patients, those with and without vaccination. One county using an underground garage for covid patients.
FWIW, I am fully vaccinated but wear a mask in busy stores.
@Francis7 posted:Sounds like parents are more involved in these things than just drop him off and pick him up. Is that true?
It depends. My wife and I were involved as much as our son wanted us, or when the HC/RC wanted to meet us. He was a late D1 committment, so he did go on D1 Official Visits (Fall senior year). He also went on many, many unofficial D1 and D3 visits junior and senior year. He did not go on an official visit to the school he committed to, and attended.
Our default was to drop him off and pick him up which usually meant I was off to visit the campus on my own. Inevitably, either at the beginning or the end of the visit we would meet with the HC/RC to say "hello". There were a couple instances where the HC/RC would want to take us on a tour. There was also a good chance that the conversation would lead to the Coaches office where they would discuss offers and timelines. My son wanted us there for that.
As I said earlier...it depends. My son's first offer was the result of meeting (unofficial visits) 4 times at an A10 school in Virginia. The A10 school was local, and I learned how to be a fly on the wall when I was asked to take part in the meetings. Then there was a Official Visit (Patriot League school) where my wife and I just listened to an offer in the Coaches office on pick up day. We also took part an an un-Official visit in the HCs office of a CAA school (drove 75 minutes) to listen to an offer where only my son spoke. The most interesting experience for us was at an Ivy prospect camp 8 hours away (dream school)....which I consider an un-Official visit. Ivy HC offered my son on the mound, and the HC came over to talk to me while the event was still going on. This would be the college my son would eventually select. You just never know how these things are going to turn out, but I think if parents teach their kids how to handle these situations on their own (knowing when to respectfully bring Mom & Dad into the conversation) they are much better off.
Just my experience....
Well, this shows the difference between the D1 "official visits" that are just celebrations before the NLI, and D3 (and HA D1) fall visits which are done for the purpose of actually persuading a player to commit.
For our D3 visits, the parent (and player) met with the HC at the beginning of the visit, he asked if we had any questions. Then we left son, and picked him up the next day, maybe meeting briefly with the coach one more time. My son had "offers" of support before he went, but it was important to us as parents to specifically ask what kind of support it was.
Well, son went on no unofficial visits because he played on just about every campus he was interested in and some gave tours back in the day. He wasn't going out of FL due to FL academic earned through the lottery. He kind of made up his mind speaking to coaches on the phone.
We only went on 2 official visits, had already made up his mind but we said you have to go to both.
Ironically he chose the out of state school.
Official visits are a great opportunity for parents to meet staff, ask questions. It was our opportunity to meet the Head Coaches.
Recruiting has changed, but the concepts remain the same. Unofficial, official you as parents also need to check out the situation just as you would if there were no sport involved.
JMO
@TPM posted:Well, son went on no unofficial visits because he played on just about every campus he was interested in and some gave tours back in the day. He wasn't going out of FL due to FL academic earned through the lottery. He kind of made up his mind speaking to coaches on the phone.
Ironically he chose the out of state school.
100% same with my son
@IAmThatGuy posted:100% same with my son
Right. Clemson!!
