MAG Men's NCAA Recruiting Nuts and Bolts

[ZJsMom]

I don't know if there are many people on here with personal experience, but I'm hoping to get into the specifics of the process for boys. We have a lot of general threads that say "it's hard," and "start early," but I wanted to get into the nitty gritty if possible. So here are my questions:

DS is a sophomore, first-year level 10. Does it make sense in the case of a mediocre level 10 to start contacting coaches as a sophomore, or is it better to wait until junior year hoping he has some good results and upgraded routines to show for himself?

What type of start values are college programs looking for? Does it help to have D dismounts in JO, or do college coaches feel confident they can teach them? How many events would most programs be looking for a potential recruit to contribute? I know pommel is a perennially in demand event, but are there others that are more attractive to college coaches?

Do men's teams have recruited walk-ons? We have some financing available because his dad works in higher ed. Should we tell college coaches about this straight off the bat? I'd be happy to have him walk on at one of the really good schools, but if we tell them right away that we can self pay, are we taking him out of consideration for possible scholarship $.

I know this is a lot, but if anyone has insights on this, I'd be super appreciative!

 

[l.c.o]

My DS is 8 and a new level 4, so we have no experience with this yet. But if they're recruiting nuts, he's a definite shoo-in for a scholarship!!

(Good luck with answers, I'll be following along to learn)

 

[Mom2twingymnasts]

From what I understand there are only 12 colleges with men's gymnastics programs and they don't have a scholarship to offer every year. At Future Stars Nationals we were told in one of the seminars that there are about 8 scholarships in total available each year. That means your son needs to be one of the top 8 gymnast in his graduating year or really good on a key event to get a scholarship. Scary to think it is so limited.

My kids are only in 8th grade so I don't know anything about the recruiting process yet. But I do think if my son was looking good around the time of Nationals as a sophomore, I would make a point to talk to the coaches prior so that they could look at him at Nationals. A boy in our gym was going to connect with coaches at Nationals this past year (his Junior year). He ended up getting injured on his first event at Nationals and couldn't compete. Now it is his senior year and he is talking to coaches now but most spots are taken even as a walk-on. Of the 5 schools he was looking at, 2 have potential walk-on spots.

I hope some with recruiting experience answer this so that we all can learn and get prepared.

Good Luck!!

 

[lilmisssunshine]

Does "walk on" mean getting on the team but not getting a scholarship?

 

[ZJsMom]

Does "walk on" mean getting on the team but not getting a scholarship?

Yes.

 

[ZJsMom]

So what I know about numbers is there are 15 NCAA teams. 12 must be excluding military academies I'm guessing. The D 1 teams get 6.2 scholarship equivalents and have between 15-20 on their teams. I think most schools are splitting up those 6.2 so almost no one gets a free ride. At the military schools, everyone gets a complete free ride, but being recruited for a team helps with admission.

 

[profmom]

I have a friend whose son is hoping. It's not too early to start getting on people's radar screens. That being said, I don't think now is the time to blanket every program with a promo of some sort. Do you have a simple YouTube channel yet? I've heard it's good to post meets but also skills that he's working on. I've also heard that what you want to demonstrate is that he has strong foundations that can be built upon, not necessarily that he has a bag of big tricks. With the small number of spots, the programs are often looking to fill holes when they go after recruits, whether as walk ons or scholarships. It's worthwhile to identify his strengths and think about what programs look likely to be needing those events when he's a freshman.

Sorry -- this is all just what I have heard since this is all a long way off for us if we ever even get there!

 

[lilmisssunshine]

Is there a path for guys to keep competing even if they don't get onto one of these teams (or would prefer a different college)?
Just curious. We're obviously a long way off....

 

[ZJsMom]

Is there a path for guys to keep competing even if they don't get onto one of these teams (or would prefer a different college)?
Just curious. We're obviously a long way off....

There are several schools with club teams. They don't get the support from the schools that NCAA teams do, but they have good coaching and cal allow guys to continue to compete and improve past high school. Several of DS's teammates have gone to University of Washington and Arizona State, both of which have high level club teams. There's a new program too called Southern California United for college guys in the LA area. http://southerncaliforniaunited.com/

 

[ZJsMom]

From what I understand there are only 12 colleges with men's gymnastics programs and they don't have a scholarship to offer every year. At Future Stars Nationals we were told in one of the seminars that there are about 8 scholarships in total available each year. That means your son needs to be one of the top 8 gymnast in his graduating year or really good on a key event to get a scholarship. Scary to think it is so limited.

My kids are only in 8th grade so I don't know anything about the recruiting process yet. But I do think if my son was looking good around the time of Nationals as a sophomore, I would make a point to talk to the coaches prior so that they could look at him at Nationals. A boy in our gym was going to connect with coaches at Nationals this past year (his Junior year). He ended up getting injured on his first event at Nationals and couldn't compete. Now it is his senior year and he is talking to coaches now but most spots are taken even as a walk-on. Of the 5 schools he was looking at, 2 have potential walk-on spots.

I hope some with recruiting experience answer this so that we all can learn and get prepared.

Good Luck!!

So I'm thinking about that 8 number and it seems really low. It's hard to know how the schools are spreading their scholarship money around, but with 15 programs and approximately 17 guys per team, that's 255 NCAA gymnasts. If around a quarter of them are replaced every year, that's about 64 spots. Of course, not all of them are scholarship athletes, but I've been told that almost all of the 6.2 are broken up into partial scholarships and spread around. I get that it's hard and not many NCAA men's programs are left, but I still feel like what they were saying at Future Stars was probably a little exaggerated.

Just this fall signing period, Berkeley signed 3, Stanford signed 3, Michigan signed 5, Minnesota signed 1, Oklahoma signed 2, and Illinois signed 6. That's 20 right there.
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http://www.fightingillini.com/news/2015/11/11/MGYM_1111154326.aspx?path=mgym

 

[lilmisssunshine]

I salute your obsessiveness!

Stanford has a pretty generous financial aid policy, does it not? (I believe anyone with less than $100,000 annual income pays no tuition.) Is it possible that their athletes wouldn't need athletic scholarships?

 

[ZJsMom]

I salute your obsessiveness!

Stanford has a pretty generous financial aid policy, does it not? (I believe anyone with less than $100,000 annual income pays no tuition.) Is it possible that their athletes wouldn't need athletic scholarships?

I only looked up the first 6 schools that came to mind. If I was truly following my OCD tendencies, I would have done all 15.

 

[samsmama]

In researching an article on the true odds of getting a scholarship by various sports, I came across this:
http://www.scholarshipstats.com/varsityodds.html

Gymnastics
High school boys: 1,995
College: 382
% competing in college: 19.1%
% competing D1: 16.9% (337)

Now, that's obviously not saying all 337 gymnasts competing D1 are getting full or partial scholarships, but it seems like more than 8 per year would be getting something. Just thought it added some interesting info to this conversation. Interesting also to see the stats for soccer, baseball, etc. in comparison.

 

[Mom2twingymnasts]

I like your data so much better @ZJsMom !! Makes me more optimistic about a potential scholarship for my son.

 

[ZJsMom]

Maybe they meant 8 equivalents. If you do the 12 times 6.2/4 you get 18.6 and that could probably vary a lot from year to year in terms of how much money is available.

 

[Deleted member 10727]

I was told at our gym that they have 6 scholarships per NCAA team...

 

[ZJsMom]

I was told at our gym that they have 6 scholarships per NCAA team...

It's 6.2 equivalents, which means they can split them up and give partial scholarships. I've heard that almost nobody gets a full scholarship.

 

[Smiley007]

Coaches know how much our boys train (and how much parents invest!) and wish so much that they could give every gymnast they recruit a full-ride but unfortunately it is not reality.

While there is not a lot of scholarship money to go around, some schools try to help gymnasts find other ways to obtain aid. I know of a walk-on who was able to earn some other aid by attending some event at the school although I am not sure the amount of aid. Also, I know of gymnasts who started out as a walk-on but as he became more valuable to the team, he earned scholarship money along the way - even close up to a full year scholarship for his senior year. It is my understanding that walk-on gymnasts receive many of the same benefits that scholarship athletes receive (healthcare, tutor support, etc.). Stanford's financial aid is extremely generous for many middle class families.

Coaches appreciate gymnasts sending links to short videos and updates to what skills gymnasts are learning, particularly when the gymnasts are level 10's. You can start sending videos any time, really, but don't expect a reply from coaches until after Sept. 1 of a gymnast's junior year in HS. Some coaches aren't the best with keeping up with emails/communications so don't be afraid to follow up if you don't hear anything back once you start your junior year. Many coaches don't start contacting gymnasts until end of May through July (after JO Nationals) to get transcripts, inquiring about which schools gymnasts are interested in and determining who they want to invite for the fall recruiting trips. It is good experience for these boys to learn how to market themselves and parents can play an extremely helpful role in guiding them.

For those boys who are interested in continuing gymnastics in college on scholarship, my suggestion is to focus on a few events that you have higher difficulty and can score into the high 14's even 15's by your junior year level 10. It seems there is greater chance of scholarship money for those gymnasts than the ones who are great all-arounders but don't have any stand-out events.

If you son loves gymnastics and may not (yet) have the caliber of gymnastics skills required for a scholarship, he can still try to get on a team via a walk-on position and enjoy the excitement (but also rigorous commitment) of men's collegiate gymnastics. The guys have shortened winter breaks and no spring breaks like a typical college student. But most guys love the experience and it sets their resume apart from other resumes when applying for jobs.

Last comment I have is about academics. Homeschoolers -- please be sure you are aware of the NCAA's short list of approved curriculum. Start the approved curriculum early so that your gymnast has the opportunity to be recruited out of high school instead of having to defer due to ineligibility. Also, many families are unaware that NCAA does not use your high school's cumulative GPA to determine eligibility; they include only approved core classes for your specific high school. This info can be found at the NCAA Eligibility Center. If your son is not a very good standard test taker, consider getting help earlier rather than later if they are open to getting help. Many gymnasts are extremely motivated to improve their scores their junior even senior year, but they end up running out of time and can't bring up the scores as high as they would like.

I hope this helps!

 

[ZJsMom]

Thank you! That was helpful.

My DS does focus on being the best AA he can because, of course, he wants to qualify to Nationals as an AAer. When he considers upgrades, I know he prioritizes what we add the most to his AA score. The events I can see him getting to mid 14+ next year would probably be FX, HB and maybe P Bars. I feel like there are a ton of competent floor workers out there though. I was thinking PH or PB make a better angle. Frankly, right now he's mid 12s to low, maybe mid, 13 on everything, which makes for a solid AA score, but maybe isn't going to get any college coach particularly interested.

 

[sce]

2 local college HC's do a seminar on the road to college gymnastics. A few things to note, It is exceedingly rare for a men's team to give anyone a full ride. Scholarships might even be broken down into tiny amounts (seriously, just enough to cover books), as being a scholarship recruit sometimes allows for different admission procedures. Each college's line-up and needs varies form year-to-year, so who knows which events they might be most looking at at any point. These coaches both prefer receiving full meet videos, they can see the highs and lows and see how the athlete handles the pressure. Do not worry about fancying it up with music etc, all of that is just a distraction. Register with the NCAA at the beginning of high school. I don't believe that you are allowed to contact the coaches until your Jr year. Your coach is your best resource for getting connected to college coaches.

Sorry this is so jumbled, am going on memory from what I heard last summer.