Some advice to the folks in the recruiting process

[3'sDad]

Penn is a great school (provided DD is OK with going to school where the winter's are cold - you take cold winters as a given if you look to go Ivy). Make the weekend out of the unofficial visit and enjoy The City if it's been a while since your last visit. I'm not an alum, but have many friends from the business world who went to Wharton.

If the visit is unofficial, then your daiughter is a HS junior I assume....If you daughter is looking at Penn, is she looking to study business at Wharton or in the Engineering, Nursing or a more general BA degree ?

The travel program DD tried out with just placed a freshman on the Penn team - when I spoke with the travel organization head regarding academics and softball for DD, he happily told me his last 3 pitchers were now attending Ivy League schools (Penn, Yale & Cornell)....got my attention.

Regarding the Fordham softball program, I've read good things about the clinic.....my DD is a bit young to get caught up in this yet, but does ask often if a particular school has a softball program.

[Lannie]

How old is your DD?

[andy]

some general advice:

Taking an unofficial costs you money. Taking an official does not. A school like Penn does not offer scholarships, the Ivies only offer entry. So why not wait until your senior year and take an official.

I have had players go to Fordham, it is a great school with good coaches. However, it is in the inner city and a Jesuit school. Not exactly right for every player. Hard to take a country girl and put her in the city or vice versus.

With that said, you need a list of what you want out of college and prioritize it. Is it the education? The coaches? the softball history of the school? Do you have money? Do you need a full ride or will you take a partial. Then research the schools. How many players in your position do they have already? What class are they? Who else are the looking at. I for one never recommend a player take an unofficial unless they know this and also know what the coach intends to offer. I would not recommend you take an unofficial , spend money to fly across the uSA only to find they will offer a partial or a walk on only. Camps can be good but generally are cattle calls to make money for the school. But it can give you a little more one on one with coaches. Also keep your offers and your recruitments close to the vest, It is not uncommon for anothe rparent to under cut your DD once they know so and so school has money or needs a certain position. Backstop talk is common and word travels fast. On top of that, do not take much stock in worrying about who else has verbaled or what deal they get. Fe wparents admit or brag that their child verballed or signed but only got walk on status or book money. Not everyone out there is getting a full ride and in several cases players have verbaled without the college even asking and so of course they say yes, as the college has made no commitment as to what the deal is .

Lastly, tot he question on how much do they have to scout you until they make up their mind, the answer is as many as it takes. There are many factors that could make them want to see more and more games. Maybe your DD had one bad game or did something that made them think twice, such as threw her helmet or cussed after an error or hollered at a team mate or sassed her coach. maybe they have seen her hit a ton but had a game or two where she did not. maybe your daughter is only number two or three on their wish list (your travel coach should know this ) and thus they are waiting for the others to commit first. A pitcher can and normally does take more looks and longer. If a coach makes an error on a SS they can DH her, put her in the OF or 2B but if she is a pitcher and they make a mistake they are screwed. So they have to be more careful. Your travel coach should know where you are in the college coaches mind and what they have in mind for you. They should know what the school has in mind to offer money wise and position wise. If they do not, the only way you can know is to go ahead and take the unofficial and ask. But never leave without an offer or a clear understanding of what they have in mind. Other wise you may be in for a surprise come NLI day when you get the formal offer

[Lannie]

Andy,
Thanks for everything you said. Everything that you have mentioned I have mulled over in my head. I was very skeptical when the Ivy League schools started sending letters, emails and so forth.
Penn invited her to camp earlier this month. Lannie was all excited, but me being the skeptic with the permanant raised left eyebrow figured it was a generic offer to " come learn from us" so we can have gas money for the spring florida trip tournaments. So, I sent the coach an email explaining that I am not rich, nor do I have the money to travel 7 hours just for a camp. If they were really interested in my daughter then we would contemplate coming. She wrote back like an hour later explaining that NCAA handcuffs them on what they can say, offer and all the other bull that the NCAA makes them do. But she did say some things that lowered my left eyebrow that I would rather not go into on here that led me to believe that this was an opportunity for them to allow Lannie to meet the team and the coaches. We told them that we could not at this time do 2 trips so we invited them to NY. She emaild back and told me that they are not budgeted to make trips like that, but asked if we would be interested in coming to a camp in January and also schedule an unoffical visit while we were there. I have no idea how Lannie got on some of Ivy league schools radar screens. We have received emails stating that they have seen her play, and want us to send them stats schedules and etc. Dad has been scratching his head a lot since September 1st.

So when Lannie's pitching coach asked us to come to NY with him, I was like,,,, dam do ya think I have a money tree in my back yard? I told him that a trip like that is gonna cost me big. Now this guy is like family to us. When he knows about something, he doesnt come right out and say it b/c of things that could go wrong. He keeps saying that this would be a good cheap investment for the future. Usually when he does these camps with the olympic players he off handedly offers for us to go knowing that we wont go. But on this trip he has been after me for the last couple of months. I used every excuse I could to get out of it, and he has shot down everyone of them. Everytime we have been to lessons he has made comments about what college coaches are going to be there in attendance. He knows that Lannie is looking at Ivy schools so from prior experiences that we learned a couple of life lessons from him that I wont go into on here. We finally figured out that he has something up his sleeve for Lannie.

So yes I hear ya Andy! We have researched the schools, Division doesnt matter to us. Softball to us is a tool to get an education. I have gotten similar advice from a real good friend of mine that I respect greatly. Lannie originally wanted to got to MIT. But after her regional visit with them she decided to mark that school off. I was happy with that b/c the very first thing I seen when we walked in was some kid with blue hair. It looked like a freaking geek squad convention!

Earlier this week Lannie was asked to work out with a local college here and afterwards the pitching coach talked to us and made a lot of sense. She asked Lannie what other schools she was interested in and politely told her that being away from home is not all its cracked up to be and being from a small town in the south, not being exposed to the lifestlyes of big cities will be a huge culture shock for her.

Personally myself I am very high on this local college. They will be moving up to D2, they are starting a med school there and will be completed when Lannie is a Junior in college and the coaches are awesome! Plus I will get to see her play at a brand new softball field.

So this trip will to New York will serve more than one purpose. We are going up a day early so she can see New York for what a big city is to a small town girl and do the camp thing.

[Tucson]

My son went to a tiny HS, 20 minutes from Springfield IL. He chose to go to the University of Chicago. He was hired by Bank of America, who flew him to NY for 6 weeks of training. He absolutely loves the city.

So, your DD may, too.

I am glad that you are looking into all opportunities afforded her.