Luther wrote:Here is the response my DD got from a large D1.
Unfortunately, because of NCAA regulations we are prohibited from initiating any contact with you or responding to emails and phone calls. After September 1st of your Junior year, we can communicate with you via email and after July 1st before your Senior year, we are able to initiate contact with you via phone calls. Please visit the NCAA Eligibility Center for more recruiting guidelines or initial eligibility information for high school prospects.
This is generally the canned response you get from coaches when the player sends an email to the coach. The reply usually includes this, plus an invitation to the school's softball camp on campus.
My general understanding is that the player can initiate contact all they want; its the coaches at the schools that are limited in their responses. Some schools, instead of replying to the player directly, will contact the player's travel ball coach saying they are interested in so-and-so and will ask for more information or will invite the player to come on campus through the travel coach. Once the player is on campus, it is free reign to talk to the coaches (except during NCAA "dark" periods). I recently visited a school in Texas while on business on that campus, so I took the time to go over and talk to the softball coaches. It was a very good experience, and the coaches told us we could call them (they are allowed to talk to the player if the player initiates the phone call), or to keep them updated on game schedule by email, but that they were just not allowed to respond to the email (they also told us what to include in the email header so they would pick up on that particular player's email among the thousands of emails that they get). All of this is prior to the Junior year noted above.