JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

[joehockey]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

My daughter is in the middle of it right now and here is a few things we learned from others leading up to the calls of yesterday.

I think a player who wants to play D1 can do several things as a sophmore and junior with schools that can help them on the contact date of July 7 before thier senior year..... Our sense watching the last few years her older teammates is things are moving earlier and schools are asking for decisions.

So what can you do.....Send a note to the coach and let them know she is interested in the school - the school will then set up/send out a profile for the player to complete (some schools have these as electronic forms on their websites). Here is MN some kids don't get attention from Eastern Schools because they don't think the MN kids want to be that far from home. If you are a top student some of the Eastern Schools might be a great choice to combine hockey and college. Share with the coach what development you are doing and competition dates and times - in case they want to scout....remember in the end you have to be good enough so if you focus on becoming a good player first you will create more potential options....remember there are only about 150 or so slots a year.

Go do an unofficial visit to the school - contact the coach and set up a time to visit - depending on the program my daughter had from 1 hour to 5 hour sessions - when you come to see coaches on campus they can talk with you take you around the campus and you get a feel for the program and facilities. More than a few players have ruled out schools from these early visits.....they say you know when you have found the right program....take advantage of it.

Last Women's College Hockey is a great opportunity for all the players who make it....something around 620 play at that level in any give year and it must be great. The sport though for most of the players ends post college there are few options to continue playing. So pick the right school to get a great education, pick a program that will allow you to play and succeed and a program that can help you develop as a person and leader to help change the world for the better.

 

[puck bag]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

My daughter is in the middle of it right now and here is a few things we learned from others leading up to the calls of yesterday.

I think a player who wants to play D1 can do several things as a sophmore and junior with schools that can help them on the contact date of July 7 before thier senior year..... Our sense watching the last few years her older teammates is things are moving earlier and schools are asking for decisions.

So what can you do.....Send a note to the coach and let them know she is interested in the school - the school will then set up/send out a profile for the player to complete (some schools have these as electronic forms on their websites). Here is MN some kids don't get attention from Eastern Schools because they don't think the MN kids want to be that far from home. If you are a top student some of the Eastern Schools might be a great choice to combine hockey and college. Share with the coach what development you are doing and competition dates and times - in case they want to scout....remember in the end you have to be good enough so if you focus on becoming a good player first you will create more potential options....remember there are only about 150 or so slots a year.

Go do an unofficial visit to the school - contact the coach and set up a time to visit - depending on the program my daughter had from 1 hour to 5 hour sessions - when you come to see coaches on campus they can talk with you take you around the campus and you get a feel for the program and facilities. More than a few players have ruled out schools from these early visits.....they say you know when you have found the right program....take advantage of it.

Last Women's College Hockey is a great opportunity for all the players who make it....something around 620 play at that level in any give year and it must be great. The sport though for most of the players ends post college there are few options to continue playing. So pick the right school to get a great education, pick a program that will allow you to play and succeed and a program that can help you develop as a person and leader to help change the world for the better.

Good stuff Joe! I also need to clarify from my earlier post - we did not send my daughter on unofficial vists by herself - we did let her do the contacting. As an earlier poster pointed out - some coaches look at parent contact as a sign of immaturity (sic). However - the coaches we met with were happy to meet the parents (or seemed to be). I think it helps them decide early if a home visit is in store if they remain interested.

My wife and I always emphasized to the kid and the coaches - school first - if you get to play hockey it's a bonus. These unofficial visits can really help your daughter decide on THE SCHOOL - then if the hockey program fits.

 

[Trillium]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

My daughter is in the middle of it right now and here is a few things we learned from others leading up to the calls of yesterday.

I think a player who wants to play D1 can do several things as a sophmore and junior with schools that can help them on the contact date of July 7 before thier senior year..... Our sense watching the last few years her older teammates is things are moving earlier and schools are asking for decisions....
Go do an unofficial visit to the school...
.

We had also heard from many coaches that the process seems to get earlier every year. I would also agree that the best advice we got from others who had been through the process before, was both to be proactive to schools you are interested in, and to go and do unofficial visits to the schools that had shown interest, so that things would be much clearer by the time calls started July 1.

So we did make a point of visiting a large number of schools on several occasions during Junior year with a goal of having a clear(er) picture by the end of June. Unfortunately, not all schools seem to be on the same calendar yet despite this trend to starting earlier, as a whole new list of schools started contact in June and July suggesting unofficial visits. This does add more confusion to the process of narrowing things down. At some point, I think you just have to cut it off as most of these schools (for many if not most players anyway) are a considerable distance away, and making several such trips can be quite costly.

I would think if the schools had really done their homework and had high enough interest, they would really have made their first contact by March of Junior year latest. At least then you could schedule several nearby schools into the same long road trip. Comments?

It would certainly be preferable, especially as the process timings and commitment pressure keeps advancing, that official visits be allowed PRIOR to the start of Grade 12. Once school and hockey starts in September, there is virtually no time available to do these anyway. IMHO, it is this that adds too much unnecessary stress to the process--and will those spots still be available if you wait until your visits are completed? So it seems the official visits are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

I hope I don't appear to be whining, as these opportunities are an absolutely incredible gift and priviledge, and the stress of the process is most definitely worth it in the long run. I just hate to see the amount of angst I have seen so many girls go through that could be avoided with some small tweeks to the process.

 

[BIG RED]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

In talking with some coaches on "unofficials" they thought visiting several school early was a good idea. They thought by doing this it would make the decision process easier and improve the chance that the right "fit" was more likely to happen the first time and would lessen the chance of a transfer to another school later. They felt by doing this the number of transfers in womans D-1 hockey would go down.

Also here is a link from Colgate's web site about the recruting process. It is several pages long and there are some good points in it regardless of what schools are involved. P.S. Colgate is NOT on our list so we are not advocating for them.



http://groups.colgate.edu/womenshockey/timeline.html

 

[GHF]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

Also here is a link from Colgate's web site about the recruting process. It is several pages long and there are some good points in it regardless of what schools are involved.

http://groups.colgate.edu/womenshockey/timeline.html

Thanks for sharing! This is good stuff. While I've seen many "tutorials" such as this in differnet formats, each one provides some new information.

 

[BlackBart]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

This was a good read a year ago and July 7th is just around the corner. That said, I thought that I would revive the thread.

 

[pakidnyc]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

My daughter verbally committed in mid September. She was getting calls into October from schools asking what her status was. Don't assume that all of the spots are gone early.

I think this happens a lot because coaches may have a few openings, but they have a "priority" list. As girls start to commit elsewhere, they continue to work down their list. I have heard of A LOT of schools telling girls on the 7th how many spots in their position they had open still. It kind of surprises me that more and more girls are committing really early. But, yet, you still have Ivy's and I don't think very many commit to those early because they have to first determine they will be accepted vis-a-vis the early credential review process.

 

[pakidnyc]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

Go do an unofficial visit to the school - contact the coach and set up a time to visit - depending on the program my daughter had from 1 hour to 5 hour sessions - when you come to see coaches on campus they can talk with you take you around the campus and you get a feel for the program and facilities. More than a few players have ruled out schools from these early visits.....they say you know when you have found the right program....take advantage of it.

I think this is the MOST important thing that a girl can do, along with her parents. My daughter was able to eliminate many schools this way, for varying reasons. But, they were all things we wouldn't have known had we not visited!

 

[Stick Boy]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

Great info on the Colgate site, thank you. On the NCAA site under Recruiting Calendars it notes that a call can be made to international players after their Sophomore year between July 7 and 31. I didn't see that mentioned anywhere but does this happen often? It seems early.

 

[OnMAA]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

Great info on the Colgate site, thank you. On the NCAA site under Recruiting Calendars it notes that a call can be made to international players after their Sophomore year between July 7 and 31. I didn't see that mentioned anywhere but does this happen often? It seems early.

Not sure how often it happens, but ours got called by a few schools just prior to her Junior year. Canadians are considered international.

 

[fanof the game]

Re: JULY 7TH.....Let the phone calls begin!

The NCAA wants to move the process BACK not earlier. Although they do allow the 'international' call and i knew some girls who got those, moving recruitment entirely up earlier is NOT what the NCAA wants. They are quite concerned about the earlier and earlier contact that is going on in many sports, not just hockey.