So if you're not VERBALLED by senior year, you're SOL???

[ontheblack]

Older sister of a kid I coached this last year received a partial as a senior last Spring. Due to the family moving several times, she didnt get any exposure until the summer after her Jr year. She is now at an excellent academic school that offers a great program for exactly what she has wanted to do upon graduating from college. She will get her sheepskin and they got a great kid with a big bat.

[NORCALGOLD]

It doesn't really matter what grade the player is in. What matters is what talent level she has. If she has no offers by grade 12 she is less likely to get an offer. If she has enough talent and good enough academics to help a school it could happen. Early verbals are usaully for the most talented.
As for SOL no she can move on with the rest of her life without college softball which is what most high school softball players do.

[softball_parent]

My daughter had a serious of problems her junior and senior year. She had a severe ankle sprain in high school in her junior year due to a jerky coach. She had mono in her junior year during some big show cases and her travel coach got pissed and kicked her off the team. She had surgery in the fall of her senior year on her shoulder. She got picked up by a wonderful travel ball team with a great coach and had some offers with some money. She decided to go to a D3 school because nothing really panned out but kept looking during the fall of her freshman year in college. In January she transferred to a D1 school with 50% money and they gave her in state tuition even though she was out of state and covered her books. With all of that it came to about 75%. Anything can happen as girls that have been recruited don't make grades, get homesick, get injured. You never know.

[Fredegar]

Sure anything can happen. But if you haven't gotten a scholarship by the end of your junior year, the odds go down. By that time, almost all D1s and many D2s are out of money. And as NorCal said, either the talent isn't there or it wasn't noticed.

That's not to say you're SOL. Many kids have continued their dream of collegiate softball in the following ways:

JC's: Student-athletes can make a name for themselves in 1-2 years, and 4-year colleges may be impressed with the stats to invest in a transfer.

Ivy League's and D3's: No athletic money, but they usually verbal/sign during senior year. And they provide other forms of financial aid.

D2's: Some still have money for partial scholarships. Some will offer a spot on the team as a preferred walk-on: no money first year, but will find money in future for solid contributors.

D1's: Yes, money may become available at some schools when players don't return after freshman year (homesick, grades, don't like the school, don't like the coach, not what they thought, etc.). But again, odds are lower.

[softball_parent]

In the end it is the education that becomes the most important. My daughter is 25, totally self sufficient and just got offered the job of her dreams doing public relations for $65,000 a year with her bachelor's degree. The jerky coaches just made her that much stronger. You should never give up even though the chances decrease because it is adversity that makes us stronger as people.

[katrayher]

Thanks guys. You proved my point and I'll pass this info along.

[Clean_up]

BTW...there are plenty of ways to pay for college besides going to work for a college softball coach...focusing on grades instead of a batting average is a good start for any of you young parents out there who are about to drink the kool-aid.

As I have said before on here, grades make a huge difference in what a coach can potentially offer. My daughter was an outfielder her entire softball career, but because she carried a 4.0 GPA in JC, the D1 coach was able to offer her a full tuition waiver. A very small portion of her ride during her JR year was athletic money. Her senior year he did add a fairly large chunk of athletic funds to cover the rest of her ride.

I think this is great.. congratulations.

[DonnieS]

Crazy stuff can happen - but again - grades are everything. Grades can make it so easy for the coaches - thats how full rides can happen at school w/o a lot of money. Grade based money comes in and tips the small amount of athletic money that is available into a full ride over all. Academic money doesnt spend any different than athletic money.

One of my players, a late bloomer to put it nicely, told me late in her senior summer (after graduation) that she would love to play college ball - I said let me ask around. One day later I get a phone call from what I consider one of the leading jucos in our state, "Coach, I need a center fielder - what I really need is a center fielder, lefty slapper with a lot of speed." I said "What color hair?" He laughed and I said "I have exactly that " So we agreed to meet at the first gold nq - I called my player - and she got very nervous - "Coach, I want this so bad". The next Friday night, after our last game, of the day, I see the coach - I take the kid and her dad - we walk up, introduce her and her dad, she vomits , and the rest is history. Four months later I run into her in a college softball uniform at a fall ball college tournament. Pretty cool - it happens - just dont vomit.

[MTR]

Sure anything can happen. But if you haven't gotten a scholarship by the end of your junior year, the odds go down. By that time, almost all D1s and many D2s are out of money. And as NorCal said, either the talent isn't there or it wasn't noticed.

For NLI members, real scholarships are not offered until the student is a senior. So, if you have a scholarship as a junior at one of [url='http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec2/nliListing]"these schools'[/url], you may have a problem.

Yeah, yeah, I know, old story and a coach's word, yada, yada, yada. However, there are too many people out there the really need to understand exactly what is fact and what is not.

And I don't know how anyone who is talking about sending children to college can argue that knowledge of a situation is not a good thing.

[Fredegar]

Sure anything can happen. But if you haven't gotten a scholarship by the end of your junior year, the odds go down. By that time, almost all D1s and many D2s are out of money. And as NorCal said, either the talent isn't there or it wasn't noticed.

For NLI members, real scholarships are not offered until the student is a senior. So, if you have a scholarship as a junior at one of [url='http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec2/nliListing]these schools'[/url], you may have a problem.

Yes, you caught me taking a shortcut. I meant: "... if you haven't gotten a verbal offer of a scholarship by the end of your junior year ..." Just thought that was needlessly wordy, since most HB readers understand it's a verbal until NLI. But fair enough. I'll try to be more specific in the future.