If You Had To Do It Over Again....

[BAM2]

Thanks, Thanks and Thanks.
Grades 1st.......... and then the rest

[jonriv]

You don’t even need red cups. Most courses have a cart that brings your beer to you.

Say no more...........

[Coach11]

Cannot stress GRADES enough! While not an issue for my daughter (thankfully), her best friend on travel team will be attending community college as freshman in hopes of bringing grades up. And this is a girl who is the stereotypical model for perspective college athletes. Big, strong, raw athletic ability.

[jonriv]

Must be tough for the coach from MIT to recruit!

[DDG]

Must be tough for the coach from MIT to recruit!

SAT at 2100 and above according to asst coach.

[jonriv]

Must be tough for the coach from MIT to recruit!

SAT at 2100 and above according to asst coach.

So a coach needs to find someone who can play at the next level, 2100, great grades and to be able to hand a MIT workload(an play)

[dodgerblue]

We know a few girls that never worked on grades and now all of them will be attending community colleges with hopes of getting to the next level. One of them is a good friend of mine and I would always tell the dad that instead of all the hitting lessons you're paying for why don't you squeeze in some tutoring lessons here and there. Now I feel bad that they learned the hard way but they always had the mentality that she's good enough at softball that they will find a way to get her enrolled and that never panned out.

[Coach11]

As I mentioned....grades were never an issue for my daughter. We always stressed school before extracariculars. She learned early on that in order to play softball, schoolwork had to be completed first. She missed a handful of games/practices in her early years. She realized we weren't just threatening, and it was never an issue after that.
To be honest, as good a softball player as she has always been, playing in college was never something we were sure she'd be able to do....forget about a scholarship.
I can't imagine what this kids parents are going through. Here you have a bunch of schools trying to recruit your daughter, and you already know she doesn't have the grades necessary to attend? Sad really.

[hit4power]

Must be tough for the coach from MIT to recruit!

Having talked to a few coaches at elite schools about this none of them told me they felt they had a tougher time recruiting than anyone else. It's not that hard to find the kids who score 2100+ on the SAT - for the most part, the only schools at which those kids are looking are the MIT's of the world. And, as one coach told me, its rare for a kid who scores 2100+, has a 4.0, and took an all AP course load in HS to flunk out of college, even at MIT. Much less angst about academic performance than the coach who recruits the kids with 1400's and B/C grades in HS. If they have a challenge, it's on the financial side, as most of these elite schools are private and pricey. With no athletic scholarships, some families who are tweeners (too rich for need based aid, but really too poor to foot the whole bill) have to make tough choices over which the coach can do little.

[jonriv]

I wish I knew then what I know now. I also wish I had joined HB back then because more of the info would have been out there.