Anon Recruiting - Email timing for 2028s

[Anonymous (4db3)]

Hi everyone, recruiting question here, hoping someone here might have some insight into timing of emailing coaches for the first time, especially for girls who aren’t top level 10s.

My daughter is a 2028 and had an injury/surgery last year and missed what should have been her first level 10 season, so this year as a sophomore will be her first year actually competing level 10.

She’s strong on bars and beam, floor is not being worked on hard yet and vault is definitely not there. Some of her bar skills are Maloney, pak, blind to Jaeger (only on pit bar with coach right now), double layout dismount into the pit. So the pieces are there but not competition ready yet. Beam skills are pretty solid, but not full routines being worked yet, and floor D passes are only on rod and tumble track right now.

Ive heard don’t reach out until she’s the level of the school, but does that mean full routines scoring well? Or skills in the gym?

Should she wait to email coaches until she has full routines or some level 10 scores, or is it better to start reaching out sooner?

Considering signing up with Jill Hicks but have heard some feedback from others that they can be pretty discouraging to girls who aren’t top level 10s, so wondering if it’s even worth the money vs her just doing it herself for now.

 

[Anonymous (4db3)]

I forgot to add, she does have a dozen or so coaches following her on Instagram already, but has only gotten an actual “like” of a post from one of them.

 

[Anonymous (474f)]

I would wait until she’s competing level 10. Being a 28, she has time!

My daughter missed her freshman and sophomore season completely. She still ended up at a top 10 D1 school based on her junior year results.

Jill Hicks is wonderful! She is realistic though and knows her stuff. Many parents don’t want to hear that. I personally wanted realistic!

In my opinion it’s better to not waste time on schools that aren’t a realistic option.

 

[Anonymous (ffca)]

I just wanted to add that I think Jill Hicks is great! My daughter was sidelined with some pretty major injuries, and we had to move gyms her senior year. I found our advisor to be very encouraging. We knew D1 was probably a long shot in her situation, but we didn't find our advisor to be overly negative at all. She steered my daughter towards programs that were a good fit for her. We did not start any of the recruiting stuff until the end of her junior year, but that was due to the injuries. It was pretty late to be starting the process.

 

[Anonymous (c879)]

I would wait to email coaches until your daughter can really show put together routines. Putting a bar routine together on a comp set and landing dismounts are a whole different story than pit bar and into pits. Same goes for the rest of the events. When you can get some solid videos with complete routines that would be better. Or wait until comp season, your daughter has time!