Schools that contact your DD September 1st Junior year?

[Blind Squirrel]

You think I was rough.....wait till his kid gets recruited, signs, goes off to college and plays a total of 10 innings over her 4 year career. Seems to happen quite a bit.

IMO the situation Sam describes is usually the parent's fault. Luckily for them, their kid pays for their delusions, not them. They continue to talk while their kid has to do the walking 25 hours/week for 4 years just to sit and watch others play the games and may not even travel with the team. Sweet. I hate seeing the same kids on the bench game after game.

Squirrel

[Fastpitch4Life]

It depends on the wording in the letters.

There are the generic fill-in-the-blanks Sept 1st letters:
"Hi ______, It's Sept 1st, and we can now email you.
We hope you will take time to look at our school, you won't be disappointed..."

Then some are more personal, like:
"Hi ________.
We are so happy we can now contact you directly.
We have been watching you all summer.
Our pitcher graduates in 2013, and we feel you can step in and contribute to our program right away...."

So I would think the more personal ones are the programs that are reallly interested in your kid, and the more generic ones are getting their info out to the masses....

While I would agree that a letter with a personal touch is a very good sign, even this can be misleading. The most impressive/personal letter DD got on Sept 1 was from Patty Gasso. It was actually HAND WRITTEN and even inquired about the injury she had suffered at 16U State the previous June.

However, AFTER Sept 1st, she couldn't get ARRESTED in Oklahoma if she tried.

You just never know.

Nice touch. So I would surmise that Ms. Gasso is probably still kicking herself on that one. Begs the question as to what the follow up letter looks like at OK

[Fastpitch4Life]

You think I was rough.....wait till his kid gets recruited, signs, goes off to college and plays a total of 10 innings over her 4 year career. Seems to happen quite a bit.

IMO the situation Sam describes is usually the parent's fault. Luckily for them, their kid pays for their delusions, not them. They continue to talk while their kid has to do the walking 25 hours/week for 4 years just to sit and watch others play the games and may not even travel with the team. Sweet. I hate seeing the same kids on the bench game after game.

Squirrel

So do college teams really need 18-20 girls on their roster?

[Blind Squirrel]

You think I was rough.....wait till his kid gets recruited, signs, goes off to college and plays a total of 10 innings over her 4 year career. Seems to happen quite a bit.

IMO the situation Sam describes is usually the parent's fault. Luckily for them, their kid pays for their delusions, not them. They continue to talk while their kid has to do the walking 25 hours/week for 4 years just to sit and watch others play the games and may not even travel with the team. Sweet. I hate seeing the same kids on the bench game after game.

Squirrel

So do college teams really need 18-20 girls on their roster?

I don't know enough to answer that. I suppose it depends on the program, the aspirations, the skills of the players, etc. I do know of college programs in various sports where there are kids that don't travel with their team. I think that sucks assuming the kid wants to go. I won't go off on a rant here but college sports are often not what the public thinks they are. The public has no idea how brutal they can be. It can make travel ball look like AYSO. I'm not kidding. Concern about "daddy ball" is like being concerned about your first grader getting a B+ instead of an A on her collage.

John

[Gone in 2.6]

It depends on the wording in the letters.

There are the generic fill-in-the-blanks Sept 1st letters:
"Hi ______, It's Sept 1st, and we can now email you.
We hope you will take time to look at our school, you won't be disappointed..."

Then some are more personal, like:
"Hi ________.
We are so happy we can now contact you directly.
We have been watching you all summer.
Our pitcher graduates in 2013, and we feel you can step in and contribute to our program right away...."

So I would think the more personal ones are the programs that are reallly interested in your kid, and the more generic ones are getting their info out to the masses....

While I would agree that a letter with a personal touch is a very good sign, even this can be misleading. The most impressive/personal letter DD got on Sept 1 was from Patty Gasso. It was actually HAND WRITTEN and even inquired about the injury she had suffered at 16U State the previous June.

However, AFTER Sept 1st, she couldn't get ARRESTED in Oklahoma if she tried.

You just never know.

Nice touch. So I would surmise that Ms. Gasso is probably still kicking herself on that one. Begs the question as to what the follow up letter looks like at OK

Kind of you to say but my intention was not to criticize Coach Gasso. It's got to be pretty tricky for these coaches trying to fill their "holes" but not having a scholarship available for each player on the roster like some other sports. As I recall ESPN ranked that recruiting class #1 in the nation (Ricketts, Shults, Turang) and those players have backed up that ranking so far.

But that's really what I was driving at, there are so many factors at work you can't possibly anticipate where it's going to go based on Sept 1. And trust me I was just as naive as anyone. When I saw that hand written note I was thinking "holy crap she's going to get an offer from Oklahoma". I was flippin clueless.

[Fastpitch4Life]

It depends on the wording in the letters.

There are the generic fill-in-the-blanks Sept 1st letters:
"Hi ______, It's Sept 1st, and we can now email you.
We hope you will take time to look at our school, you won't be disappointed..."

Then some are more personal, like:
"Hi ________.
We are so happy we can now contact you directly.
We have been watching you all summer.
Our pitcher graduates in 2013, and we feel you can step in and contribute to our program right away...."

So I would think the more personal ones are the programs that are reallly interested in your kid, and the more generic ones are getting their info out to the masses....

While I would agree that a letter with a personal touch is a very good sign, even this can be misleading. The most impressive/personal letter DD got on Sept 1 was from Patty Gasso. It was actually HAND WRITTEN and even inquired about the injury she had suffered at 16U State the previous June.

However, AFTER Sept 1st, she couldn't get ARRESTED in Oklahoma if she tried.

You just never know.

Nice touch. So I would surmise that Ms. Gasso is probably still kicking herself on that one. Begs the question as to what the follow up letter looks like at OK

Kind of you to say but my intention was not to criticize Coach Gasso. It's got to be pretty tricky for these coaches trying to fill their "holes" but not having a scholarship available for each player on the roster like some other sports. As I recall ESPN ranked that recruiting class #1 in the nation (Ricketts, Shults, Turang) and those players have backed up that ranking so far.

But that's really what I was driving at, there are so many factors at work you can't possibly anticipate where it's going to go based on Sept 1. And trust me I was just as naive as anyone. When I saw that hand written note I was thinking "holy crap she's going to get an offer from Oklahoma". I was flippin clueless.

Thanks to you and Blind Squirrel for the dose of reality. So when does this whole process become enjoyable?!?!?!? Maybe for the DD? It's got to be gas to open the mailbox and see the school's logo on the envelope.

[Sam]

You think I was rough.....wait till his kid gets recruited, signs, goes off to college and plays a total of 10 innings over her 4 year career. Seems to happen quite a bit.

IMO the situation Sam describes is usually the parent's fault. Luckily for them, their kid pays for their delusions, not them. They continue to talk while their kid has to do the walking 25 hours/week for 4 years just to sit and watch others play the games and may not even travel with the team. Sweet. I hate seeing the same kids on the bench game after game.

Squirrel

Hi BS,

I have never seen the situation that I describe have a single thing to do with a parent. It has everything to do with college coaches that can't evaluate talent and then change their minds continuously. They change lineups every game. Every game. Who changes their lineups every game? I get changing lineups after a kid plays their way into or out of the lineup. How can you evaluate a performance based upon a single at bat? My personal favorite is the kid who is 0-2 and get pinch hit for by a kid with a lower average. This happens at a ton of schools because they fill coaching spots with ex-players who don't know the first thing about coaching.

When being recruited, it is definitely "Buyer Beware."

[NORCALGOLD]

Sept.1st, Was a very fun day in our house I really don't see anything negative about it. 5:am on the 1st our house was woke up by the happy screams of my kid getting emails alerts from the east coast college’s from Ivy league to powerhouse schools to schools she has never heard of. The rest of the day the west schools emails started coming. She had a blast that day. I saw no negatives that day just a kid and parents exited about getting an email from different coaches.
How someone reacts to getting a correspondence from a coach has no bearing on the value or validly of the letter. If you act stupid it is becuz you are stupid, don’t blame the letters and I would never take away the joy of my kid getting a bunch of coaches correspondences. Nor would I piss on someone else’s parade if they are excited about it.

[Blind Squirrel]

Thanks to you and Blind Squirrel for the dose of reality. So when does this whole process become enjoyable?!?!?!? Maybe for the DD? It's got to be gas to open the mailbox and see the school's logo on the envelope.

For me, it was first enjoyable when my fragile little donut verballed and recruiting was over. The uncertainty about which colleges/coaches are seriously interested, what the actual offers would be and where/when the process will end up sucks. The uncertainty about whether the right choice is being made sucks. But after my kid visited the school, heard the specifics of the offer and accepted, we went back to the hotel and immediately called one of her rec All Stars/TB coaches to thank him for his contributions to her accomplishment. That was freaking sweet. We loved the school and the fact that she was made to really feel wanted. It felt right. It was a huge relief.

It was really enjoyable the first time I saw her on a college field in a college uniform. I flashed back to her first years in wreck ball, in her catcher's gear, and her crying her eyes out after almost every at bat her first year of All Stars because she didn't get on base. It was a long road.

I'll ask my kid about this the next time I talk to her and let you know. I will say this: In the 2 years she went through recruiting, she changed her mind a few times. We have stuff from a couple different schools she was sure she wanted to go to even though one of them had absolutely no interest in her.

John

[artomatic]

For me, it was first enjoyable when my fragile little donut verballed and recruiting was over. The uncertainty about which colleges/coaches are seriously interested, what the actual offers would be and where/when the process will end up sucks. The uncertainty about whether the right choice is being made sucks. But after my kid visited the school, heard the specifics of the offer and accepted, we went back to the hotel and immediately called one of her rec All Stars/TB coaches to thank him for his contributions to her accomplishment. That was freaking sweet. We loved the school and the fact that she was made to really feel wanted. It felt right. It was a huge relief.
John

I can only relate to this first paragraph that Yoda Squirrel wrote.
That is where my kid is at.
I hope some day I can relate to the next few paragraphs in his post.
I can also say that it felt really good when the school she has verballed to made it clear they really wanted her.
This is where we are learning to treat this as a business and try not to make decisions with your heart.

As far as the letters, I agree with Norcalgold that regardless of their intentions, it feels great to receive them.
I know my kid was all smiles some days when certain envelopes showed up in our mailbox with initials of schools she liked.
But I can also say, in the end, all those letters are basically just souvenirs of her recruiting process...

My kid's coaches all told us to try to relax and enjoy the process...easier said than done, but that's what I tell people these days...