Unofficial vists?

Hopefully the coach who told your son to take the trip is his current coach after hearing the college is interested in your son. College coaches should not be approaching juniors this soon. The player can approach the coach. The coach can talk to a player who approaches him on an unofficial visit.

Also it's too soon for the school to host a visit. It's all on your pocket. These unofficial visits are how players decide to verbal before they can legally take their official visits.

You can also use unoffical visits as an interview process on your end. Often times any visit can reveal the fact that this school is not for you. It is better for you to be able to cross schools off your list, so you don't waste time on them. As long as it is not costing you a bunch of $$, go for it.

Official or unofficial visits are a tool for your son to check out the staff, facilities, "feel" of the campus, etc. The Official ones are paid for by the school, and have a certain set of rules that apply. Unoffical visits are on your dime and are not bound by the same rules.

phillyball19 - We went to a lot of unofficial visits as we played tournaments across the country. Those in California we scheduled unofficial visits with the coaches and we took tours of the campus, went to games, and visited with coaches and players. It was usually just us, but one time we coordinated many of our team mates who were interested in the school.

We did that on our timing as we could and it of course showed interest in the schools.

Our son had and several of our friends committed to a school before they could officially call them.

I saw that USC has 10' commitments already and UCLA has several 09 commitments.

quote:

My 09 son was asked by the coach to take an "unofficial visit" to a school-Div 1 mid level program. They invited us ...

Philly, could you clarify this statement. You don't want your son to do anything illegal.

Sounds like your son was invited to a Junior Day event. These are very common where a number of prospects are invited for a day visit. Could be as few as 10 and as many as 100 or more in attendance, depending on the college. Typically, the prospects hear from academic advisors, coaches, trainers, etc to get an overall perspective of the school, normally for informational purposes only. While it is an honor to receive such an invitation, you should not read too much into it. It does not necessarily mean you are high on their recruiting list, and you may just be on their early mailing list. In any case, Junior Days can be very informative, and it gives you a chance to meet the coaching staff early on.

You can find more information here:

http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/junior_day_visit.htm

phillyball19 - As you may know you can only take 5 official visits at which the school pays for transportation and housing for the prospect, but you can take as many un-official visits as you want, but they are on your dime.

They can give you 3 tickets to various sports events, but can not buy you food nor can they transport you.

quote:

Originally posted by phillyball19:
My 09 son was asked by the coach to take an "unofficial visit" to a school-Div 1 mid level program. They invited us(parents and son) to come and see the baseball facilities and then attend the teams basketball game that day. This is the first we heard of an "unoffical visit" like this- is this a common occurence? Is this a huge group of kids or just a few typically? We are planning on attending. Should we be pursuing these at the other schools he is interested in? Anyone experience with these visits would be helpful. thanks

Also sounds like a Junior day visit to me, the only time a coach can legally "invite" you through a letter during certain periods. During our trips to see son play in fall games, there were always junior recruits and their parents who attended. Although not a junior day, the players most likely initiated contact first. The NCAA allows these unofficial visits. Coaches know not to break rules and if they do, they receive the consequences not the recruit.
This is a good opportunity to visit a school if your son is interested. Some coaches invite large numbers at one time, some have smaller groups and many coaches these days like to have their junior days before season begins. They do arrange for speakers to speak about the academic programs, they will give you a tour of the facilities but the campus visit has to be on your own. Some programs supply lunch for a fee.
Most of sons junior day visits came during his season and the schools season so it was difficult to attend many of them. Also, many schools don't have junior days so they will just invite you to attend a game and are allowed to give free tickets (I think it is 3) to basketball games and baseball games.

Football games are usually reserved for "official" visits.

Have fun!

quote:

You can also use unoffical visits as an interview process on your end. Often times any visit can reveal the fact that this school is not for you. It is better for you to be able to cross schools off your list, so you don't waste time on them.

iheartbb is so right. I remember an unofficial visit our family took, during which we visited with the head coach. I am paraphrasing, but he proudly declared something like, "I am the type of coach parents love to hate." Perhaps he didn't realize that many of his players hated him too. We heard an earful from several on the team and we were quick to mark that school off the list.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:

quote:

My 09 son was asked by the coach to take an "unofficial visit" to a school-Div 1 mid level program. They invited us ...

Philly, could you clarify this statement. You don't want your son to do anything illegal.

Ok to be asked through email, letter, if you called them or if you are on their campus playing. The school can call your coach and ask them to tell you to call the school. No big deal here at all.

I would strongly suggest going to as many of these as you can. It can get expensive but I know it was a huge help in our process and being able to make a very sound decision. In the end we were able to find the perfect "fit". I beleive it's always better when you can compare the complete package, academics, athletics, campus life, coaching staff, etc. amongst several other options. Also, as I think someone stated above....when you go on an unofficial, like we did, you're able to set or dictate your schedule to a certain degree and really have a good feel for the over all campus and surrounding areas. Have a great time and best of luck to you during this fun ride !

We found the unofficial visits to be a very important part of my sons recruiting process.

If your son is one that might be asked to commit early (before official visits can be completed) then I would recommend the unofficial visit route.

By doing unofficial visits prior to the summer season my son already had a very good feel for the coaches, facilities and campuses of the top schools on his list. When it was time to pull the trigger I think he was better prepared to make an informed decision.

As a bonus, we had a great time doing the "road trips" together.

JD,
It's also a great time to meet up with friends and chat recruiting and baseball while freezing one's azz off.

quote:

Originally posted by Tiger Paw Mom:
JD,
It's also a great time to meet up with friends and chat recruiting and baseball while freezing one's azz off.

So true TPM

Aside from meeting up with TPM and her husband on one visit (yes it was cold), the next day I also ran into Coach May, Southern01 and Prepster on another unofficial visit.

Seriously, if you get a chance to meet up with parents or others close to the program it’s an added bonus seeing the program from their eyes. Not to mention it made for a much more enjoyable trip.

Thanks for all the info.

Just to clarify, the coach was from the University and we had not actually contacted that school except a questionairre last spring.

Sounds like the junior day mentioned in a number of the posts.