Parents Is it possible to get recruited as a specialist?

[GymnastMomX2]

So I know that once girls get to NCAA its actually more rare to be an AA gymnast, and most girls only compete on a couple events. My question is is it possible to get recruited to a D1 school as a specialist?

Without going into a long explanation of the serious of unfortunate events, my daughter who missed all last season as a freshman, is now looking at missing the first meet or two of this season and only planning on competing bars and maybe beam as a sophomore level 10. She's still going to be training vault and floor, but she's no where near where she needs to be for colleges to even glance at her on those events. She may get there on floor summer/next season, but vault will take a miracle.

She's strong on bars (competing a maloney+pak, double back), training a double lay and also has a couple E releases(not competing them, but has caught multiple times) and is relatively clean/good form. She knows she needs to get her dismount, but her coach is very cautious with her injury prone self.

The schools she is currently looking are mid-lower D1, we're getting mixed messages on when to email coaches. Some say email now, others are saying wait. (like does she need to wait until she has her E bar dismount ready to compete?) Does she even have a shot with just 1-2 events. I'm hesitent to even say she has beam, but she does have the skills, tbd on how it all goes in competition and if she's able to come back from this latest injury in time to even compete the event. So realistically it may just be bars this season, and probably with just a double back dismount.

Thanks for reading, sometimes I really really hate this sport and how quickly an injury can de-rail things.

 

[Coach Kate]

Possible? Sure.

I would say vault is the more common event for specialist recruiting because that's the event hardest to fill a lineup with 10.0 start values.

But if your daughter can be a standout on bars and show potential and progress on 1-2 others that could put her in a good position.

 

[Dahlialover]

I wonder if it is possible to start at a D3 school and then transfer to a D1?

 

[RTT2]

Definitely possible and being strong on bars is a big help. Vault and bars are the most highly sought for event specialists. I think getting a spot on a team has gotten much harder in recent years, but I wouldn’t count her out.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

I wonder if it is possible to start at a D3 school and then transfer to a D1?

I mean at some point I think / hope she’s going to come to the realization that there’s nothing wrong with D3, she’s just not there yet and doesn’t even want to consider it when I’ve brought it up.