WAG Gymnastics recruiting services

[tomtnt]

How old was she when the initial recruiting started? Do you think if she had accepted a verbal offer early on but then was injured the schools would have kept their commitment through the injury? I guess it's hard to say but hopefully this will end up better in the long run.

Good luck to your daughter!

I hadn’t thought of it in that way... so yes she has D1 options. It is a little more complicated for us than that.

She had a lot of interest and then spent the better part of two seasons injured. Interest certainly dissapated. Did is healthy now and is in the process of having to prove herself. Having someone to help us navigate that and getting some interest sparked has helped. We are still on this journey....

Through this process dd has watched as many other clients have had success and committed to schools she would have loved. It is about finding the right fit for sure. Dd is learning to be patient.

 

[sportsmom]

I will weigh in and say that I believe the service would be beneficial to those athletes that have had injuries and don't seem to be getting the responses they are looking for from the schools at the top of their list. My daughter is having great success on her own with a not so stellar start her first year at level 10 last year. I think her success is coming because she has a ton of upgrades and recent videos She sends out bi-weekly emails to the schools she is most interested in and monthly to the schools she has some interest in. We did spend the couple of hundred dollars for a website which makes the updates easy to show by attaching a link to the emails she sends out. Her coach follows up with the schools she has been in contact with and he then advises her on what they said in their conversations and where her chances of a scholarship are. She has done this for the past year consistently and because this is her Junior year in high school the past few months she receives more responses than not. If a school has not responded to emails after she has sent them two, she stops sending those schools emails. She is corresponding with and having telephone conversations with 9 schools right now and has some very solid interest from a couple. The hard part of all of this is the expense involved in traveling to the schools to get them on her radar to begin with. I think the only way I would pay for this type of service was if my daughter could not send recent videos due to injury or just wasn't having any success getting in contact or her coach was not being helpful. What I know now is that the camps are important in developing a name to a face relationship to start. I know that the email process can be long and cumbersome for these gymnasts and I know that if it does not work out and she doesn't obtain a scholarship she has already had Division II schools reach out as well as Division III. At this time that is not what she wants but we also now know that with her test scores and GPA she will likely be able to attend a division I school where she would be happy as a walk on and still receive some financial academic funds.
Our money has been better spent travelling to the schools and attending camps. Video updates on a regular basis and having a list of schools to target that fit their needs is key.

 

[tomtnt]

Thanks for your input- was curious when she started the process? When do you guys suspect she will be given a verbal offer? As a junior, it would seem quite a few of those scholarship spots are already taken?

I guess this is more the guidance we need than the actual nuts and bolts of videos/emails/camps.

Good luck to your DD

I will weigh in and say that I believe the service would be beneficial to those athletes that have had injuries and don't seem to be getting the responses they are looking for from the schools at the top of their list. My daughter is having great success on her own with a not so stellar start her first year at level 10 last year. I think her success is coming because she has a ton of upgrades and recent videos She sends out bi-weekly emails to the schools she is most interested in and monthly to the schools she has some interest in. We did spend the couple of hundred dollars for a website which makes the updates easy to show by attaching a link to the emails she sends out. Her coach follows up with the schools she has been in contact with and he then advises her on what they said in their conversations and where her chances of a scholarship are. She has done this for the past year consistently and because this is her Junior year in high school the past few months she receives more responses than not. If a school has not responded to emails after she has sent them two, she stops sending those schools emails. She is corresponding with and having telephone conversations with 9 schools right now and has some very solid interest from a couple. The hard part of all of this is the expense involved in traveling to the schools to get them on her radar to begin with. I think the only way I would pay for this type of service was if my daughter could not send recent videos due to injury or just wasn't having any success getting in contact or her coach was not being helpful. What I know now is that the camps are important in developing a name to a face relationship to start. I know that the email process can be long and cumbersome for these gymnasts and I know that if it does not work out and she doesn't obtain a scholarship she has already had Division II schools reach out as well as Division III. At this time that is not what she wants but we also now know that with her test scores and GPA she will likely be able to attend a division I school where she would be happy as a walk on and still receive some financial academic funds.
Our money has been better spent travelling to the schools and attending camps. Video updates on a regular basis and having a list of schools to target that fit their needs is key.

 

[sportsmom]

Thanks for your input- was curious when she started the process? When do you guys suspect she will be given a verbal offer? As a junior, it would seem quite a few of those scholarship spots are already taken?

I guess this is more the guidance we need than the actual nuts and bolts of videos/emails/camps.

Good luck to your DD

Thank you for the well wishes, my daughter really did not start until last year about this time. As far as when we will know, three schools have said that they will be making decisions in January the others have stated that she is on their white board and they want to see how she does this season. Of course a lot of the offers are already out but the schools she is targeting are not top 20 because she knows she is less attractive to those schools with fewer years at level 10 than most. My daughter is a bit of a different kid because she did not start the sport until she was 9 and did not move to a competitive gym until she was 10. Honestly is wasn't until she had went to a camp and a college coach asked her if she had started the process that she realized she even had a chance and that was a year and a half ago. Of course we have known all along that a scholarship for her would be a long shot but she has an E pass on floor and a single bar release and a Yurchenko half and yurchenko full on vault. Her beam is a 10.1 start value so she has the skills now and decided that Division I is what she wanted. We are trying to just be supportive but the process is exhausting and hard because I know there are times that she feels the rejection. She is one of the late bloomers that all the schools that verbal girls early would not look at a kid who did not reach level 10 until late. Because she is targeting schools that are not top 20 she will likely be in a good position to compete as a freshman and that is what she wants.

We really have no expectations and that is simply because we have girls at our gym that are fifth year level 10's and one just verbally committed last month. And this girl made nationals and did well 3 out of her 4 season completed at 10. It is just not a given no matter what and the girls have to do the work. If the girls don't do the work, unless they are elite or at a big name gym college coaches are not pounding down their doors.

Just my two cents. And good luck to your daughter as well!!

 

[Deleted member 14190]

thoughts on whether college gymnastics recruiting services are “worth it”?

I’m guessing for the elites and top tier JO gymnasts (national winners), service probably won’t help that much as the colleges will already be after these ladies.

For the rest, does the connections that some of these recruiters possess help when it comes down to two equally qualified gymnast?

Well.... the issue really is, do you want to do it yourself or have someone else do it for you ? And in the end the college coach will
Pick the kid who actually communicates with them over the child who never called or wrote. The recruiters know this and that is why ..... drum roll... they want your child to call and write college coaches . And / Or if it’s easier to expand your schools by hearing it from an outsider then go for it. It won’t hurt ! .

 

[scanlri]

Well.... the issue really is, do you want to do it yourself or have someone else do it for you ? And in the end the college coach will
Pick the kid who actually communicates with them over the child who never called or wrote. The recruiters know this and that is why ..... drum roll... they want your child to call and write college coaches . And / Or if it’s easier to expand your schools by hearing it from an outsider then go for it. It won’t hurt ! .

My dd does communicate with the coaches a lot! They had stopped picking up calls and such. We don’t have any coaches that help with the process so we needed help to get the interest going. We have figured out where dd should focus her energies now. I do like personally not having to do anything even though my dd is working it

I do agree that it can be done without a consultant. I will say it has helped us break the logjam that the combination of not taking it seriously early enough combined with injury has caused.

I am certainly encouraging parents of younger gymnasts at our gym to start thinking about the process and learn from our mistakes.

 

[gymgal]

My dd does communicate with the coaches a lot! They had stopped picking up calls and such. We don’t have any coaches that help with the process so we needed help to get the interest going. We have figured out where dd should focus her energies now. I do like personally not having to do anything even though my dd is working it

I do agree that it can be done without a consultant. I will say it has helped us break the logjam that the combination of not taking it seriously early enough combined with injury has caused.

I am certainly encouraging parents of younger gymnasts at our gym to start thinking about the process and learn from our mistakes.

Do the consultants make contact with the college coaches or is it more behind the scenes helping the families organize better and narrow down appropriate schools to target?

 

[Really]

Do the consultants make contact with the college coaches or is it more behind the scenes helping the families organize better and narrow down appropriate schools to target?

I attended an introductory talk by one of these gymnastics recruiting services. Think of the service as a "match maker" for athletes and schools. Certainly if your kid is an active elite or L10 who has been performing well and been without injury for the last couple of seasons, s/he probably won't need a recruiting service, especially if she is willing to aggressively make phone calls on her own behalf. It seemed to me that the service would be most useful for kids who have been injured or otherwise out of competition for whatever reason, or for those who are specialists. The universities will sometimes have a gap in their line up because of last minute changes (a competing athlete gets injured, or someone transfers schools or withdraws their application to the university in favor of another one, etc) and find themselves in a jam and desperately needing a promising freshman to fill the spot. They call the recruiting services and ask if they have a vault or a bars specialist (according to the recruiter, these are the events she most commonly gets called for) with at least a 3.whatever GPA and X SAT scores. If your kid meets the requirement, she gets the call and possibly the offer. Another thing that the recruiter mentioned is that she can sometimes pitch L9 girls for these openings if they have the grades and the skills on the event/s the coach needs. And yes, the recruiter keeps in close personal contact with the university and college coaches.

 

[TumbleTimes4]

For what it’s worth, my husband was an assistant golf coach at a DI school. His program was ranked in the top 25 in the nation. I know it’s a different sport, but I asked him how these services factored into their recruiting process. He said that if they needed a recruiting service, they weren’t on his radar. Tournaments and submitted scores from players were the best methods to find players.

 

[gymgal]

I attended an introductory talk by one of these gymnastics recruiting services. Think of the service as a "match maker" for athletes and schools. Certainly if your kid is an active elite or L10 who has been performing well and been without injury for the last couple of seasons, s/he probably won't need a recruiting service, especially if she is willing to aggressively make phone calls on her own behalf. It seemed to me that the service would be most useful for kids who have been injured or otherwise out of competition for whatever reason, or for those who are specialists. The universities will sometimes have a gap in their line up because of last minute changes (a competing athlete gets injured, or someone transfers schools or withdraws their application to the university in favor of another one, etc) and find themselves in a jam and desperately needing a promising freshman to fill the spot. They call the recruiting services and ask if they have a vault or a bars specialist (according to the recruiter, these are the events she most commonly gets called for) with at least a 3.whatever GPA and X SAT scores. If your kid meets the requirement, she gets the call and possibly the offer. Another thing that the recruiter mentioned is that she can sometimes pitch L9 girls for these openings if they have the grades and the skills on the event/s the coach needs. And yes, the recruiter keeps in close personal contact with the university and college coaches.

Thanks. This was helpful. In hindsight, perhaps it might have helped us to go this route. dd's list of desired schools was very limited due to the distance radius from home she chose but it still may have helped her to "get noticed" particularly due to her injuries hindering her comp seasons. In the end, we navigated fine on our own and she is happy with her choice but it could have been a smoother ride for sure.

For what it’s worth, my husband was an assistant golf coach at a DI school. His program was ranked in the top 25 in the nation. I know it’s a different sport, but I asked him how these services factored into their recruiting process. He said that if they needed a recruiting service, they weren’t on his radar. Tournaments and submitted scores from players were the best methods to find players.

There are almost 300 D1 men's golf programs so being in the top 25 golf programs is like being in the top 5 for gymnastics so what he said makes sense. If you need a recruiting service, you likely are not on the top 5 gym coaches' radar. Doesn't mean you can't get onto their team, but it is much less likely.

 

[bookworm]

I tend to think a recruiting service is not necessary either....of the coaches we dealt with and have spoken to, not one of them mentioned using a recruiting service as a way to "find" athletes for their programs.....kind of like Really's husband, the response was (to paraphrase) , if I need to find an athlete through a service, then they probably aren't a fit for my program....and we toured programs in the top 15 through 50 so it was a gamut of coaches.

I think that gymnastics is a pretty small community as a whole and the club coaches and NCAA coaches know the players for the most part. Granted, some girls have been injured or aren't the ones tearing it up at JOs, but in our old gym, those girls were still getting interest and verbal offers ....but it did take more work from the family/gymnast/club. Gymnastics is an expensive sport and I don't think you need to spend $3500 on a service to manage your kid but heck, if you have that kind of money to spend , have at it. I think you just need to remember that , even if you hire them, the results may be no different than if you did it yourself.

 

[QueenBee]

In many ways, non-athletic college recruiters do most of their work upfront with the families they work with managing expectations. Many of those recruiters will boast of getting a high percentage of their clients into the client's #1 school...after helping the family understand the student's #1 school shouldn't be Harvard, Stanford or any other of the sub-10% acceptance rate schools in the first place.

I would assume athletic recruitment services work much the same way. If a family doesn't understand what schools would be reasonable/good targets for their child's athletic and academic abilities, having a recruiter help figure that out could add value. But that isn't necessarily something that needs to be paid for, unless parents want someone else to administer the bitter pills of reality that athletic & academic admissions sometimes necessitate.

Personally, paying a recruiter doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If an athlete is recruitable, the athlete will get good results from contacting schools directly with videos and meets scores that show the value they could bring to a program. If there are issues with injury, that can make the process take longer, but having watch several gymnasts get recruited in their junior and senior years after coming back from injuries makes it clear that is possible (without paying a recruiter).

 

[Deleted member 14190]

In many ways, non-athletic college recruiters do most of their work upfront with the families they work with managing expectations. Many of those recruiters will boast of getting a high percentage of their clients into the client's #1 school...after helping the family understand the student's #1 school shouldn't be Harvard, Stanford or any other of the sub-10% acceptance rate schools in the first place.

I would assume athletic recruitment services work much the same way. If a family doesn't understand what schools would be reasonable/good targets for their child's athletic and academic abilities, having a recruiter help figure that out could add value. But that isn't necessarily something that needs to be paid for, unless parents want someone else to administer the bitter pills of reality that athletic & academic admissions sometimes necessitate.

Personally, paying a recruiter doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If an athlete is recruitable, the athlete will get good results from contacting schools directly with videos and meets scores that show the value they could bring to a program. If there are issues with injury, that can make the process take longer, but having watch several gymnasts get recruited in their junior and senior years after coming back from injuries makes it clear that is possible (without paying a recruiter).

Being a coach I can tell you that telling a parent to expand school list (in other words, abandon the UCLA Full ride Dream and look at the schools that a lower on the list) is next to impossible. Often they hang onto that dream for so long that they miss the boat on the other schools, (spots not gone). They just refuse to listen to a coach for some odd reason. But where a recruiter does come in handy (IMO) is they are an outside source that for whatever reason parents tend to take that information from. The end result is I have a meeting with the parents... and now all of the sudden they are in a hurry and want me to help them with schools that they never wanted anything to do with. In other words often the problem isn't that no one is looking at a talented level 10, it's that they weren't looking at the school. News flash folks, if you don't show interest in the smaller schools they don't bother. Why would they? there are 3000 level 10's in the USA!

 

[gymmom10]

I pretty much agree with what has been said already. We did not use a recruiter, though I remember feeling very overwhelmed as we started the process which was my daughter’s junior year. She was lucky to have a great coach who helped organize us, told my daughter what to do, and my daughter followed through and sent all the emails, YouTube videos, made phone calls, etc, even though in the beginning it was very difficult for her. We chose to do a website as felt this also helped organize all her ‘stuff’ she was sending through emails. I did initially hear and wonder about recruiters and perhaps if our coach hadn’t been so helpful I might have considered one as it is a very overwhelming process. So I think it depends- if you don’t have someone strong advising you about what to do and your realistic school choices, it could be very helpful. We got through it successfully without one though.

 

[QueenBee]

Being a coach I can tell you that telling a parent to expand school list (in other words, abandon the UCLA Full ride Dream and look at the schools that a lower on the list) is next to impossible. Often they hang onto that dream for so long that they miss the boat on the other schools, (spots not gone). They just refuse to listen to a coach for some odd reason. But where a recruiter does come in handy (IMO) is they are an outside source that for whatever reason parents tend to take that information from. The end result is I have a meeting with the parents... and now all of the sudden they are in a hurry and want me to help them with schools that they never wanted anything to do with. In other words often the problem isn't that no one is looking at a talented level 10, it's that they weren't looking at the school. News flash folks, if you don't show interest in the smaller schools they don't bother. Why would they? there are 3000 level 10's in the USA!

Totally agree with you, it is hard for many parents with unrealistic expectations to come a semblance of reality without 'impartial' outside assistance (though why so many parents think a person they pay for recruiting advice is an impartial expert but the coach they are paying for actual training isn't remains a mystery to me).

 

[lovofu]

I pretty much agree with what has been said already. We did not use a recruiter, though I remember feeling very overwhelmed as we started the process which was my daughter’s junior year. She was lucky to have a great coach who helped organize us, told my daughter what to do, and my daughter followed through and sent all the emails, YouTube videos, made phone calls, etc, even though in the beginning it was very difficult for her. We chose to do a website as felt this also helped organize all her ‘stuff’ she was sending through emails. I did initially hear and wonder about recruiters and perhaps if our coach hadn’t been so helpful I might have considered one as it is a very overwhelming process. So I think it depends- if you don’t have someone strong advising you about what to do and your realistic school choices, it could be very helpful. We got through it successfully without one though.

Part of the feeling of being overwhelmed is that very few parents who have been through, or are actively in, the process share information, numbers, tips. It's a ridiculously secretive process. I have answered every question I've been asked, shared phone numbers etc and people are shocked. I think another issue that is unspoken is the arrogance or ego of some of the elite/super successful JO kids that allows them to think "Well, when I am ready to choose ANY SCHOOL will be lucky to have me and will make room for me". Basically saying, I am OK with a girl who is already committed LOSING her spot because of me. Makes me CRAZY.

 

[scanlri]

Part of the feeling of being overwhelmed is that very few parents who have been through, or are actively in, the process share information, numbers, tips. It's a ridiculously secretive process. I have answered every question I've been asked, shared phone numbers etc and people are shocked. I think another issue that is unspoken is the arrogance or ego of some of the elite/super successful JO kids that allows them to think "Well, when I am ready to choose ANY SCHOOL will be lucky to have me and will make room for me". Basically saying, I am OK with a girl who is already committed LOSING her spot because of me. Makes me CRAZY.

Wow, sorry that the thought of waiting comes across as "Well, when I am ready to choose ANY SCHOOL will be lucky to have me and will make room for me". For us, there was a complete lack of understanding of the process - spots do fill up fast and 8th/9th grade was when we should have been looking. Bad advice plus ignorant parent equals bad situation for us. Certainly no thought of or intent any other way.

 

[wandrewsjr]

I don't begrudge those kids who can waiting until 11th or 12th grade to make a college decision (like all other human kids get to), instead of making the commitment in 8th or 9th grade. That Trinity Thomas got to wait until the ripe old age of 17 to decide where to go to college is a good thing. If anyone is losing a spot, that is bad form by the coaches reneging that offer, not on the kids.

 

[lovofu]

Wow, sorry that the thought of waiting comes across as "Well, when I am ready to choose ANY SCHOOL will be lucky to have me and will make room for me". For us, there was a complete lack of understanding of the process - spots do fill up fast and 8th/9th grade was when we should have been looking. Bad advice plus ignorant parent equals bad situation for us. Certainly no thought of or intent any other way.

I never said that is how YOU felt...I just said it is commonly said and heard more than once by ME in the process. Don't take that comment as directed at you. I don't even know you or your daughter and haven't even spoken to you in 5 years. Relax

 

[Deleted member 14190]

I don't begrudge those kids who can waiting until 11th or 12th grade to make a college decision (like all other human kids get to), instead of making the commitment in 8th or 9th grade. That Trinity Thomas got to wait until the ripe old age of 17 to decide where to go to college is a good thing. If anyone is losing a spot, that is bad form by the coaches reneging that offer, not on the kids.

I will add that the Coaches have a job to keep. So I completely understand when they pull a verbal offer. Sometimes it may seem unfair but honestly there isn't a person here who would just sacrifice a college head coaching job for an athlete. You / I / we wouldn't.... I also don't blame kids for changing their minds as well. It works both ways. I tell all my athletes , "now you have to KEEP the verbal". Some do.... Some don't.