Anon D3 College Gymnastics possibility

[Anonymous Post]

My daughter has always wanted to do college gymnastics. It has been her dream ever she was 6 years old. She has had some major set backs so far so she is far behind others in her class.
She graduates in 2026. She is competing xcel platinum but can do diamond routines (one level per year rule at her gym). Some of her skills include a tsuk on vault , giants and double backs on bars, almost has her back full and front layout on floor, bhs and ro bt dismount on beam. We are transferring her to DP next season. Not sure which level yet but hopefully level 8.
She has always been the hardest worker on the various teams she has been on. Her coaches gave her an award for being the best team player on her team one year.
Obviously she wants to be on a D1 team but she knows that there are low hopes for her on that front. But we have been doing some research about D3 gymnastics and we believe that she would have a better chance making a team. If she were to make a team, we think it would be because of her vault and bars. She doesn’t have her heart set on any specific colleges either.
Do you think that there is any possibility of her having a shot at making any D3 team? Would it be too early to make a recruiting account even though she isn’t even in DP yet?

 

[Anonymous Post]

I personally would wait to make any recruiting account until she is demonstrating at least solid level 9 skills and routines. Doesn't have to be across all events.

It is so hard to know what the future holds as so many things could happen. Given where she is now, if she made good progress each year, it is possible, but blocks, injuries, etc get in the way so you just don't know. I will say that most D3 rosters are filled with L10 gymnasts who have had either late starts or lots of injuries that hindered their recruiting years. There are a few L9s but most of these are specialists with superb skills in one or two events. To be marketable in VT as a specialist (being recruited just for VT) she would need a more advanced VT like a twisting one or a front front. All D3 teams have at least 6 layout and above vt-ers when healthy so they would be only looking for a specialist who could bring in a higher start value. Recruiting as a bar specialist only, she would need a solid L10 routines with at least a 9.8 start value but like 10.0SV, meaning she would either need two transitions or a single bar release. bars appears to be more volatile for a lot of D3 teams because of shoulder and wrist injuries and that bars is just really hard for a lot of gymnasts, so if she can excel in bars, she will have a better recruiting shot.

If you haven't already, try to stream some of the D3 meets so that you get a sense of what skills she will need as a recruitable specialist, she would need to be striving for the more skills/routines not the lower ones. D3s often have a few really strong routines and then a few "average". So for bars, you may see 2-3 scores in the 9.5+ range and then the rest would be lower. VT would be 9.6+ but more like 9.7+

 

[Anonymous Post]

I recently was at a D3 meet and was surprised at the number who came from Xcel, so it is possible.

Bars will be very difficult even if it's her best event now just because it takes years to learn the release skills (and this assumes she already has a high to low bar release now). Most in D3 are competing single bar releases, even in the lower ranked teams. It's very possible to put together a routine w/o the single bar release but if your DD isn't consistently training high-low bar releases now then unfortunately, time will probably not be on her side.

It's too early to start a recruiting account as it sounds like she doesn't have any high value skills yet. The important thing will be whether your DD has skills for a 10.0SV on routines. This is what college coaches look for.

 

[Anonymous Post]

I recently was at a D3 meet and was surprised at the number who came from Xcel, so it is possible.

Interesting. Do you mind sharing the colleges? Or at least saying east vs west? I know there are a couple gymnasts sprinkled throughout D3 but maybe more are being recruited especially now with sapphire?

 

[Anonymous Post]

West. I don't think it's that they are being recruited b/c of Sapphire. I think it's that some programs have a harder time building teams.

 

[Anonymous Post]

As far as I know, there are no D3 women's gymnastics programs in the west. The list is pretty short, right? Are there others beyond USAG's list? Or is my sense of geography mistaken? https://usagym.org/pages/home/college/womeninfo.html

 

[Anonymous Post]

If by west, you mean Western US, then yes. NCGA divides up teams by 'west' and 'east' hence the reference above to west. The west teams are in WI, MN and now IA. East teams are eastern US.

 

[Anonymous Post]

As far as I know, there are no D3 women's gymnastics programs in the west. The list is pretty short, right? Are there others beyond USAG's list? Or is my sense of geography mistaken? https://usagym.org/pages/home/college/womeninfo.html

There are 8(?) D3 programs in the western Conference (WIAC), but no, they are not really in the west. they are in MN and WI. 5 of them are University of Wisconsin schools.

 

[Anonymous Post]

Thanks! Being from CA we don't tend to think of those states as west. What you shared makes sense, though.

 

[Anonymous Post]

Thanks! Being from CA we don't tend to think of those states as west.

We don't either!