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Acton-Boxborough - March 21
Varsityedge and The Athletes Advisor gave a seminar at Acton-Boxborough to about 150 parents and students. We spoke for roughly an hour and then heard from Merrimack baseball coach Joe Sarno. Coach Sarno talked for about 20 minutes and provided not only great information but capped the night off stressing the points we discussed in our presentation. We appreciated his presence and the time he took to come down. Coach Sarno stressed that while winning and recruiting good baseball players is certainly important, at the end of the day going to school is about education and growing as an individual, and his job is not simply a baseball coach, but a life coach and mentor. He recruits players that have already displayed success not only on the field but in the classroom, and he recruits players that are committed to being a student-athlete and have a passion for baseball and athletics.
Merrimack College is a small D2 college in North Andover with an enrollment of about 2,400 students and an acceptance rate of about 60%. Perhaps the most interesting thing coach Sarno spoke about was the academic awards the school offers for students. If you apply early action and have a 3.0 GPA and 1100 SAT, you are guaranteed to receive $11,000 in academic aid from the school – 3.0 1200 SAT you are guaranteed $12,000 – 3.0 1300 SAT you are guaranteed $15,000 from the school. That is free money and he also has athletic scholarship money to give as well. That is also money you receive before any financial aid has been awarded, so it is possible to get more once your EFC has been calculated. We always stress to families that there is far more academic money and grants available to top students than there is scholarship money available to athletes. I think that example above illustrates how important academics is. This is a common theme we have been hearing from coaches and admissions officials lately, that high school athletes would be better served at spending more time on raising their academic standing and less time trying to become a better athlete.
Coach Sarno also stressed the importance of contacting him if you are possibly interested in their program (or any college program) and the importance of conveying your interest or lack-there-of in the program once recruiting begins. Recruiting is a difficult task at any level and most college coaches have to go through a list of 1,000 players to find maybe 7 or 8 in a given year. If you are truly interested let them know, and if you are truly not interested let them know. The last thing a college coach wants to do is to spend a lot of time and effort on a recruit that really isn't interested but doesn't want to tell the coach because they might hurt the coaches feelings. Saying no is important for you to move your process forward and hearing no is important for a coach to move their process forward.
If you have any questions about ordering The Making of a Student-Athlete or any questions/comments regarding any topics discussed that night, please contact us directly at info@varsityedge.com
We fielded several questions from parents after our presentation, some of them being after the seminar concluded. Here are a few questions.
Is the Division 1 athlete going to be spending more time playing sports over a D2 or D3 athlete?
There are actually two answers to this question, yes and no. It all depends on what you mean by Division 1 athlete. There are 327 Division 1 schools and a basketball player at Duke or a football player at Notre Dame is going to have a much different career and schedule than a field hockey player at Sienna or a swimmer from Northeastern. When most people think of Division 1, they think of national teams they see on TV that travel the country. There are hundreds of smaller D1 programs that do not fly 1,000 miles for a game. At Fairfield, the longest bus ride we took for a game was about an hour and forty-five minutes. All the schools in our conference and surrounding area were pretty close. As far as the team time commitment goes, another misconception is that you will not be practicing as much at a D3 program. Most college coaches take their programs pretty seriously and regardless of division, you will have a fall season, a spring season, and some type of winter activity. Our advice is to look at a program individually and not assume they travel or practice a lot because it’s D1 or D2 or D3.
How do I really discern my son’s talent and potential?
Is he the best player on his team, is he the best player in the league, is he the best player in the state, is he the best player in his region, where did other player go to college that you played with and against, how did your son match up against those players, are those players getting any playing time at their college, are they struggling, are they dominating, did they get cut, do they ride the bench? Ultimately you have to play against outside competition and use your coaching resources to help yourself answer that question and compare your play to other players that you play with and against.
What type of college camp should I look for?
The key here is not simply looking for a camp but communicating with a coach at a school about the camp. Most schools run camps for 3 reasons, to make money for the program, to make money for the coaches, to see recruits. At the high level D1 programs, their camps usually exist to make money, and if there are any prospects they want to see, they invite those players personally and those players might be there for one day and then they are off to another camp. The important thing to do with selecting a camp is to make sure that it’s a school you are interested in and it’s a college program you could possibly play for. If you aren’t a legitimate prospect, playing well at the Ohio State football camp won’t get you recruited there. The second important point to stress is that the coach should know you are interested in their school and program before you arrive at camp. If you just show up with 200 other kids, the coach may not pay attention to you. If you call the coach, express interest, meet with them prior to the camp, and tell him you will be at his camp, they will pay more attention to you. You should also find a camp that has other college coaches in attendance as that is an additional way to be seen by other coaches. We have met many players that were recruited by a camp, and we have met many players who weren't recruited at a camp. It's an inexact science. At the very least, attending a camp should be about learning new skills and possibly making some new friends.
Do coaches and admissions officials communicate with each other?
Yes, all coaches at all levels have the ability to submit names to admissions for kids that they are interested in, that are interested in them, and that they would like to see accepted. This varies at every school and program and Lou Holtz at Notre Dame probably had more influence than some D1 swimming coach at a school you have never heard of. At the end of the day, schools want to admit students that have shown that they take their academics seriously and have academic records that are close to what the school wants. As Joe Sarno of Merrimack college stressed when he spoke, he has his own admission standards that he looks for before admissions even gets involved as he wants to recruit players that not only take academics seriously, but have shown success in the past in the classroom. But to get back to the question, yes, coaches and admissions directors work closely together to make sure the right kids get accepted and can succeed at the school.
My daughter plays two sports and is possibly interested in playing two sports in college, should we tell both coaches at a given school that we are talking to the other coach?
I had to pause on this one for a second to digest it. In the end I said honesty in this case was the best policy and coaches don’t want to be misled or deceived in any way, just like you don't want to be deceived by any coaches! If you are talented in both sports, can work hard, and balance your time, both coaches would probably be glad to have you, provided you can give the coach the level of play they expect from your ability. College athletics is not seasonal like high school and if you play in the fall, you practice in the winter and spring and vice versa. Playing two sports will cause you to miss some important practice time and this will bother some coaches, it all depends on the coach and program. If you don’t tell both coaches and you enroll and then tell them when you show up at school, I think they will be more upset. If you lay your cards on the table and they both still want you, then you will know that they can accept your decision. This is also an attractive way to get two players for the price of one. If one coach is offering you a few thousand dollars in athletic money, this may free up money on another team for another recruit that may have been set aside for you, so now the coach can go out and recruit another player with that money.
How does Holy Cross (with 2,500 students) compete with Harvard (with 8,000 students)?
They don't, they are in two different leagues. Joking aside, the question was really about resources meaning how does a very small school compete with a larger school. In some cases they can't but since Harvard and Holy Cross are not in the same league and are two very different schools, ultimately they are not really competing with each other. For one, Holy Cross is a D1 school that can offer athletic scholarships, Harvard is an Ivy League school that cannot offer athletic scholarships. While both D1 colleges, from a pure scholarship standpoint, Holy Cross has an advantage. Harvard also has a 22 billion dollar endowment, which just went to 23 billion by the time I finished this sentence. Harvard has the ability to provide aid packages to athletes that other schools probably cannot match and in some cases, there are some really talented athletes that could receive an athletic scholarship at another school (like Holy Cross), but choose to go to Harvard because they want to study at the best institution in the country. Holy Cross can probably get recruits that could play athletically at Harvard but probably cannot get accepted at Harvard. It isn't so much about competition as it is who a coach can recruit and who they are trying to recruit. Harvard is going to get a lot of kids that they want simply because they are Harvard, they are also going to lose kids simply because they are Harvard, and at the end of the day, recruits need to meet minimum academic requirements known as the Academic Index, which scores recruited athletes on a scale based on GPA, Class Rank and SAT1 and SAT2 scores.
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