New article on recruiting 8th graders

[Amy in AZ.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/s...r-a-college-then-starting-9th-grade.html?_r=0

I know we have discussed this to death, but I saw the NY Times at Starbucks and bought it. Also, we are getting new members that might have some thoughts on it. I still think if you have an 8th grader that is good enough to verbal, she is going to be good enough to have her choice of several teams her junior year.

 

[SBFAMILY]

How many 8th graders know what they want to study? It still boils down to an education.

 

[BaldNBeautiful]

How many 8th graders know what they want to study? It still boils down to an education.

There are large numbers of 8th graders that listen to Justin Bieber....making a decision on what they want to be when they grow up (and what they need their college major to be) is more than a stretch for about 95% of them.

 

[obbay]

DD#1 is a freshman in College.
DD#2 is in 8th grade.
both don't know what they want to study in college or what interests them in a career.

DD#1 has visited colleges with her sister and now has an idea what's involved, but I could not imagine having a 14 year-old make that big of a decision. Its hard enough getting 17 and 18 year-olds to choose a field of study that will dictate the career for the rest of their lives.

 

[Greenmonsters]

There are large numbers of 8th graders that listen to Justin Bieber....making a decision on what they want to be when they grow up (and what they need their college major to be) is more than a stretch for about 95% of them.

8th grade is completely absurd IMHO, but mileage varies.

I remember my 8th grade math teacher saying to a fellow classmate "You are either going to go to Penn State or the State Pen". Don't know where he ended up, but both have SB teams so....

 

[SBFAMILY]

Just from my point of view. Never sign till you talk to and visit the players on the team . You might be surprised that the bill of goods the coach is telling you might not be true. Would you buy a car without a test drive! Watch that team play. That really nice coach that is recruiting you might yell scream and cuss during battle. So how would an 8'th grader know what they are walking into. Plus look at the turnover at that school. Easy to see if you look at web sites. Is that coach still going to be there in 5 years. If you have good grades , you can go about anywhere you want, because that is what gets you the money!

 

[BB875]

I would love to know a statistic or even approximation of 8th/9th grade kids that "verbally commit" to a program actually end up there.

You cannot sign your NLI until your junior year, correct? Everything up to that point seems like voodoo, especially 3 years out. I am still confused and my DD#1 received a athletic scholarship to a nice D-2 school...

 

[00fpdaddy]

Thank you for the article Amy. Amazing how young they are making these decisions. If they are that good, and have the drive to be better, the offers will still be there as 10th, 11th graders and even 12th. There that good now, imagine when they full develop their skill set.

 

[3bmama]

In NE, at least one girl to the U to play volleyball in 8th grade. She is now performing well. It might be a little easier to commit to the in state school when they are a national powerhouse in your sport, but I would not encourage my daughter to make the decision. Better opportunities may arise. What does this 8th grade commitment entail? Is the school really committed to you, or does the offer go away if someone else comes up on their radar? If you are the best in 8th grade, does that mean you are still the best in 12th(assuming the same level of commitment)? I really can't wrap my head around it. I also think it happens more with girls than boys bc by that age most girls have reached their full height so you have an idea of size. Boys could still have a fair amount of growing to do as well as muscle to build so perhaps you see more improvement over those 3 years in boys? Like I said, I can't wrap my head around it. It's crazy.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

I would love to know a statistic or even approximation of 8th/9th grade kids that "verbally commit" to a program actually end up there.

You cannot sign your NLI until your junior year, correct? ...

NLI is signed senior year.

The very early verbals are a more recent phenomenom in softball, so I don't know of any 8th grade commits that are even seniors yet. All the 9th grade commits I know of signed NLI's with the school they verballed. I checked the 2012 class of 10th grade commits a year ago using a vebal list from 11/17/09 and found the following:

At that time, there were 12 sophomores and 1 freshman on the list.
- 8 of the sophomores appear on the roster of the school they early verballed.
- 2 verballed to LSU and then signed with UCLA (Paige McDuffie) and UCF (Mariah Garcia) after the retirement of Coach Girouard.
- Kelsey Vincent verballed to Kansas and then signed with ULL (no reason found).
- Cassidy Taylor verballed to Liberty, was still planning on going there late in her junior year, didn't sign with them and isn't on the roster. I couldn't find her signing with anyone or on another roster.

The freshman, Samantha Montes, signed with the school she verballed, Baylor.

Most of the cases where a kid doesn't end up at the school they early verballled is due to a coaching change or not having the academics to be admitted.