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FEBRUARY 2007 VARISTYEDGE.COM NEWSLETTER - Newsletter Homepage
ARTICLES
Please note: Iif a particular article does not open, it is because the website/publication that wrote the article has removed/archived it from their servers. Some media outlets keep articles up for years, others keep them up only a few weeks...
College football recruiting getting out of control. GO
Article on likely letters and the elimination of early decision at Harvard and Princeton. GO
NCAA NEWS
Attention 2007 high school graduates (and anyone planning to attend an NCAA member institution starting in the 2007-08 academic year)! The NCAA has adopted new legislation that will require prospects who intend to enroll at NCAA Division I and Division II institutions to supply ACT or SAT scores to the Clearinghouse directly from the testing agencies. Test scores on an official high school transcript will no longer be usable for NCAA purposes. Start now and plan to have your ACT and SAT scores sent to the Clearinghouse (via code "9999") so that your certification decision will not be delayed. For more details consult the NCAA's website at www.ncaa.org or call the Clearinghouse. This change in legislation will impact anyone who has previously registered with the Clearinghouse and intends to enroll in fall 2007 or later. If your record has been posted with scores from an official high school transcript, these scores will be removed and it will be necessary for you to comply with this new rule
ODDS N ENDS
I just finished reading an article online about 15 year-old high school athletes committing to colleges like during their freshman year!. A lot can happen between the ages of 15 and 17 when you are in high school, so don’t feel pressured to do something like that. There is plenty of time to be recruited and your desires may drastically change from year-to-year or even month-to-month…
Not only are some colleges conducting criminal background checks on recruits, but assistant coaches are now spending time one websites like Youtube and Myspace to see if they can dig up anything on certain recruits that might make them think twice about recruiting them.
I don’t recommend a lot of books because I don’t have time to read a lot, but I picked up a new book called Wins, Losses, and Lessons an autobiography by Lou Holtz. If you are looking for a new perspective on life, it just might give it to you! I also read Blind Side by Michael Lewis. I enjoy all of his work but this book was particularly good.
How hard is it to get into Princeton. I read they rejected 4 out of 5 valedictorians last year. I bet those 4 weren’t good athletes!
Was on Brown University’s web site for no reason at all and I stumbled onto the financial aid page where it said Tuition and room and board at Brown is now $46,340 a year. Does that seem high to anyone besides myself?
Congratulations to Paul Goydos. Goydos won the Sony Open his first PGA tour win since 1996. In that span of 10 years he played in 256 tournaments, missing the cut in over 160 of them and went to Q school 3 times. I think there is no greater trait in life than persistence.
Looking to play varsity soccer at a Big 12 School (Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech.)?? Well right now none of those schools have a varsity soccer program! If you are interested in seeing soccer at any of those schools, perhaps you can sign this petition. LINK
Some time ago, the NCAA voted to allow students that have graduated from their university but still had athletic eligibility left to transfer to another college and play immediately. It appears that they have reversed that rule. LINK
NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL COLLEGES
Daniel Webster College announced the addition of field hockey and women’s lacrosse, boosting the total of varsity sports at the school to 12. The field hockey program will begin varsity play in 2008 after playing a limited club schedule in 2007. The lacrosse team will play a club schedule in 2008 before beginning varsity play in 2009
Butler University eliminated 2 sports effective June 1st 2007, men’s lacrosse and men’s swimming. The swimming cut was particularly hard as the team’s operating budget was a mere $11,000 a year with no scholarships to support and the team raised most of that money on their own.
SUNY Potsdam will be adding women’s hockey. The program will be a club sport for 2007-2008 then move to varsity status the following year. A coach has not been hired as of yet.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has discontinued its field hockey program. The America East Conference member will honor the scholarships of 14 student-athletes through their graduation.
Baylor University announced it is building a new 20 million dollar football practice facility. The facility will be built on the site of the existing tennis courts, which could make it more difficult to play tennis there!
The University of North Dakota has opened a new wellness center housing a 3-court gym, jogging track, climbing wall and more.
CHANGES IN SCOUTING AND SHOWCASES
Beginning Aug. 1, Division I football coaches will be prohibited from attending independent football camps and combines to scout and evaluate high school players, and independent camps will no longer be able to use college facilities to host their camps.
So what does this mean for you? Well, either you will have to be pretty choosy as to what football camp you attend at a particular college run by that college, or, you can still attend the private combines and camps and hope your information gets disseminated to other colleges by the people that run those programs. This will also make the importance of video more important so work on putting a good tape or DVD together that you can provide any coach at any time. My guess is that private showcases and combines will work to provide more detailed information to college coaches on individual recruits as that has been the trend over the last few years.
READER QUESTIONS
Hi, I have son who is a senior in high school and is a solid D-3 football recruit, with some interest from non-scholarship Div. 1-AA and Div. 2 schools. I have read your website and newsletters with much interest over the past year, but haven't seen this issue addressed. My son is now in the process of whittling the school selection down, and is having trouble telling the coaches of the schools he is not interested in and having them respect his decision. It may be that he is not even interested in looking further at their program, but the coach keeps calling and insisting that he make a campus visit. My son is trying to be respectful, but in the meanwhile, the list is growing. Not good at this point of the year.
There is an entire page devoted to this very topic in our recruiting guide, but here’s the short answer.
It sounds like your son knows what he wants and that he has eliminated some schools from his list of options. Hopefully he is in a position to do this because it can often backfire. I would first ask that you make sure he is eliminating those schools for good reasons and that he has a fall back plan in all of this. I have seen lots of kids dismiss schools only to have to call those same coaches back later in the year begging for an opportunity. The worse you treat a coach when you are trying to say no to him, the worse you will be if you have to call that coach back in a few months.
Part of the reason coaches keep calling is that they know kids have a tuff time making up their minds and they know that there are other schools that will stop recruiting your son, so they are trying to keep in touch so you have options. Some coaches are better at this than others, and since you are dealing with football coaches, they are going to be a bit more aggressive by nature.
No coach can insist you do anything, so part of the problem is that it sounds like you are letting the coaches get to you. I would simply say, “coach thanks for your time, and at this point I am pursuing some other opportunities that I think will be a better fit for me, but if something changes I will let you know, best of luck.
READER FEEDBACK
A book reader contacted me after his daughter was successfully recruited to which he attributed the book to helping them a great deal and I asked him to expand on his experiences…..
"I would say the number one thing that I found true and I have expressed this to other parents (I don't know if it's sinking in) is that you have to pursue the coach, don’t wait for them to find you. Find a school that fits you academically first then contact the coach, maybe numerous times. You have to market yourself. I don't know about other sports but in softball having a skills video done professionally is key. The section on the video in the book was very helpful. Another section we got a lot out of was dealing with the coaches...what questions to ask. How to interpret what they are really saying. How to tell if it's a right fit for you. Just a simple thing as finding out how many players don't continue to play on the team all four years can tell you a lot about the coach. Learned that from the book. So overall, when we went into this whole thing I felt like we were armed with practical information to help us through the process. And when it was all said and done, it turned out we were, everything the book said was right. I've recommended your book to different parents I've met any will continue to do so."
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