D3 official visits

Welcome to the site and congratulations on the interest from the schools!  You came to the right place and just in time.  There are tons of threads here on this site that you can search.  You will also likely get very good information via direct replies to your questions.  

Be aware that D3 schools, unlike those at other levels, have no athletic scholy $ to offer.  Many have incentive to encourage as many players as they can to attend their colleges in efforts to boost tuition income.  It is possible that this is part of the reason why they are so willing to "recruit" him heavily after having only seen him play once.  So, you and your son really have to cut through the rah rah speak and try to determine what the actual baseball fit and interest is.  He should ask many specific questions about where they see him fitting in and when.  Don't settle for a generic "we think you can compete for playing time right away".  OF COURSE everyone will be competing for playing time.

As far as how soon, D3 schools typically are the last to offer... The pressing issue is often more with regard to gaining acceptance into the school.  Others will be much better at addressing various time hurdles on acceptance, etc.  

Welcome!  It's pretty crazy.  One of the things Headfirst does is create video packages of each player, and give them to all the schools who were there (they will also sell them to you if you want). So, coaches can watch you again (or have their other coaches do so). It's also true, as cabbagedad says, that in some cases they are trying to recruit a lot of players, and once is enough for them. Did any of them see your son play elsewhere this summer?  They do talk to each other.  My son was contacted by several schools after Headfirst, only two had seen him previously.

Overnight visits are really useful and important.  Staying with the players gives you a sense of team culture, and your son can talk to more players about the program.  D3s don't have "official visits" as such, you have to pay for it yourself, and there are no (NCAA) restrictions on them. If you're asked to visit that's a good thing, but before you go, your son should have talked (or maybe emailed) with the coaches, to find out what they really think of him, as above.

At selective schools with Early Decision, the "offer" should consist of coach support with admissions if you apply ED. They have your test scores and GPA from Headfirst; usually the coach asks for school transcripts and test scores, and runs those past admissions. Once they have a "yes" from admissions (as a baseball recruit), they can tell you "you are on my list that I will send to admissions" or "if you get in on your own, you can play for us."  Or, admissions might say "maybe - if his test score was higher" (as in your other thread).  Depending on how selective the school is, and what your son's academics are like, that might matter more. We wanted to know that before deciding to visit schools, so those "offers" were by phone.  Unless you go to a camp, they're not going to see you play again, so you should get it clarified before you decide to visit - could be you are not top on their board, and they are waiting to see what happens with those higher up. 

Part of the problem is that the player is having the phone calls, not the parents.  My son would just tell me "he said that he really wants me to come" and I would have to ask, "exactly what did he say?" to get the specifics.

Lots of great info in these threads:

https://community.hsbaseballwe...m/topic/d3-ha-timing

https://community.hsbaseballwe...73#54518501141099373

They're not having him stay overnight to make a new friend. Expect an offer on each overnight you take and if they don't then I honestly have no idea why they would waste their time as well as their players' time for hosting a random kid. If they invite for overnight that means they're interested. AKA don't need to pay for any of their camps. 

No such thing as official visit for D3 though. 

anotherparent posted:

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Overnight visits are really useful and important.  Staying with the players gives you a sense of team culture, and your son can talk to more players about the program.  D3s don't have "official visits" as such, you have to pay for it yourself, and there are no (NCAA) restrictions on them. If you're asked to visit that's a good thing, but before you go, your son should have talked (or maybe emailed) with the coaches, to find out what they really think of him, as above.

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Part of the problem is that the player is having the phone calls, not the parents.  My son would just tell me "he said that he really wants me to come" and I would have to ask, "exactly what did he say?" to get the specifics.

 

AnotherParent & 2BoysMom ,

Absolutely agree that "unofficial visits" (on your dime for D3s) are incredibly useful for a recruit to get a school & team vibe, audit some classes, and determine if a family wants to invest $$$$ over 4 years at a particular school.   My son did a combination of OVs and UnOVs to both D1 and D3 schools and it was absolutely priceless.   One D1 school in particular was an OV disaster as the cops raided a party and many people (most of the baseball team) went to jail that night.  My son and his baseball escort left 5 mins before law enforcement showed up.  The school offered Sunday AM in the coaches office, but I think my son had made up his mind the previous night.  As bad as that situation was there were very positive experiences as well.  This is the beauty of the OV or unOV.

So, I think it is absolutely essential that the recruit talk to the coaches and own that conversation.   There are apps you can load on your smart phone to record conversations.   My youngest son is in Army Basic Training and we never know when he is going to call, so my wife records the conversations so we can play them back for each other.   This tool was not available to me 10 years ago when my son was going through college recruiting, but I can tell you with 100% certainty he would be recording those conversations for "training purposes only".

Good luck!

I think Fenway is one of the best posters on this site and I've always agreed with what he says.  But recording a conversation with a coach, I'm not sure about that...

If word ever got out (assuming kid doesn't tell coach, "hey I'm going to record this conversation"...which would be a bit nutty and most likely cost him an offer) that their conversations were recorded, I'm sure that would impact kid's standing on the team.

All respect Fenway!!

cabbagedad posted:

Be aware that D3 schools, unlike those at other levels, have no athletic scholy $ to offer. Many have incentive to encourage as many players as they can to attend their colleges in efforts to boost tuition income.  It is possible that this is part of the reason why they are so willing to "recruit" him heavily after having only seen him play once.  So, you and your son really have to cut through the rah rah speak and try to determine what the actual baseball fit and interest is.  He should ask many specific questions about where they see him fitting in and when.  Don't settle for a generic "we think you can compete for playing time right away".  OF COURSE everyone will be competing for playing time.

Great advice from cabbagedad, as usual! I'd like to comment on a couple of sentences, in particular, in bold/italics above. This is very true at the D3 level – and I daresay my son is one of these – however, I wouldn't necessarily look at it as a negative thing. In my son's case, he wanted to attend his chosen school whether baseball was in the picture or not so being offered a roster spot, for whatever reason, was a bonus. I think he has a bit taller order than the #1 or #2 on the board at his position but time will tell how it works out and where his motivation resides. Best of luck to you guys!

Thank you for the great info.  We are aware that the D3s do not offer athletic money, only academic.  He has a 3.8 and a 28 superscore so he has qualified for some nice academic $$$ at some closer D3s near us, but I think he was hoping to find a higher academic fit.  Not sure we would feel comfortable recording any conversations, but I agree it is hard to disect all the info and see what the chances are of him actually playing.  We have come up with a good list of questions for him to ask on his visits.  I do worry about over recruitment though.  I thought it was worse at the D1 level, but I see here it can happen anywhere.  Thank you all again.  I feel like I am starting a new job here taking all of this in

My son did visit D1, D2, and D3 with all different experiences.  The D3 UOV was an overnight visit and was matched with a player.  Watched practice followed by dinner and then experienced the social life. The next morning coach asked my son, along with me, to meet at his office .  An offer for admission support and spot on the team was made but only had 3 days to make the decision. I was more set on the school but unfortunately my son was not!