Starting a new thread to stay out of 2025 commits.
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Six on five
There are a few sources to help you but you need to get on it now! You should be emailing head coaches and assistants coaches from every program your kid is interested in, CC your club coach. Start with 10, emails are on their roster pages. Talk to your club coach first, he may have some contacts or give you advice on what schools would be a good fit for your player. They will want video most likely. NCSA has some info but I would not pay for the service. Oaks and a few others do a college recruiting seminar with in water scrimmages in front of college coaches. You must be honest with your child and their ability. Of the 22 or so D1 teams, they each will probably take an average of 4.5 freshmen (estimation with new roster limits should be 6 but they take from City colleges/ transfer portal, to get depth). That is about 100 kids from each class. You also have 7 D2 schools, many D3 schools and lots of city colleges. Best of luck!
Maybe others more connected have more advice.
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Thank you for the help and perspective. He wrote to a few schools but did not CC his club coach. He was noticed by some college coaches at JO’s (platinum) and Futures (D1) as a 16U and they recently reached out. He has the size and speed but not a top level player. Would like him to drive the process, just want to give some helpful guidance.
My own observation is that the D1 programs are a really large commitment and his academic interests lie in engineering. Think it would be a tall order to do well in both, he loves the game and want to be supportive as possible. I never saw a water polo game until he played in one and even after years on the deck this all seems new to me.
Love this site and all the great insight. Happy to see the dedication and love for the game.
Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of information on the recruiting process. Most of it out there is either completely untrue for water polo and most talks given by college coaches lead players to believe things are done a certain way that also isn’t true.
My best advice if you have a junior son right now would be to get his coach on the phone with the college coaches they know and start the process with a verbal recommendation. If they don’t know any, then you need to find a coach you know that has connections that would be willing to watch your son play and find an appropriate program.
Emails, videos, resumes, websites, etc etc etc really don’t do much.
National Letters of Intent are being phased out with the House V NCAA settlement as well, so major changes are really limiting spots and coaches are very nervous right now.
Sorry for the negativity but it’s pretty messy out there right now and the recruiting process is extremely difficult (speaking as a parent).
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Thanks for creating the new thread — moved my post to here and then saw your reply as well.
Helpful insight, sounds like we should leverage anyone that has connections (club and HS). Here’s another question; does he go back to his club as a junior who is likely to take a backseat on the 18U team to a very strong group of seniors or go for a club that is not in the top ten and more likely play as a starter?
Exactly, gotta use the good ole boys network in water polo.
My gut would be to stay with your top 10 level club to get exposure to college coaches. Practices will be more competitive and you might even be more likely to have college coaches attend practice or games with the higher ranked team.
You can be the best player on a team finishing 30th at JOs (or in Classic division) and the college coaches would show up and say “well they look good but they are playing against low level teams”.
If your son wants to be an engineer, start there. Where can he get a good engineering degree. Do they have water polo? If so, is he good enough to play there? If so, connect with the coaches, repeatedly.
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Really helpful on the club perspective!
The start with engineering is my perspective as well, will water polo open many doors to the more high level engineering schools (MIT, JH, Brown)?
Only if he has a 1600 on his SAT and a 4.5+ GPA. Those three and the ivies are no joke on the academics, MIT especially.
Also, no money from them.
I don’t how any kid pulls off a 4.5, extracurriculars, and high-level WP all at the same time. Different world these days when it comes to college admissions.
They exist and they end up at those schools. I know really good players with 1500+ SATs and obscene GPAs that you’d have thought would get into those schools without water polo that have been denied. Most end up happier playing club at a school right for their major.
Yes, to play D1, you have to want to play top level water polo. 30 hour a week commitment for practice, meetings, games, add a bit for travel. Then find time to do your school work and socialize. Now they do have advisors who help get them the right classes and help them balance the workload for the first semester/quarter. If you are successful at that, you can accomplish great things!
To be honest, the drop from D1-D3 is not huge. My observation is they are on average a bit slower (less conditioned), less cohesive (less practice), and a bit weaker (less time in the Gym). But watching D3 vs D3 or D3 vs D2 can be exciting.
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I can attest to the fact that students with 4.5+ GPAs, 1500+ SATs from top 3 D1 HS WP programs have been repeatedly rejected by the those programs. It’s a sad state of affairs.
Our HS Goalie last year fell into that category of high level student, and ended up at Harvey Mudd for engineering, and is playing for the CMS squad. Great spot for him, great education, and pretty high level water polo.
It’s difficult to find those spots academically and athletically, but CMS and PP are great options for that level of student, and sometimes overlooked by kids dead set on the Ivies or MIT.
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Thanks for that perspective on level of effort across the divisions. I think he could handle both the time commitment and academics well enough. I think some of what is shared on a D1 commitment is inflated.
I would not survive in today’s hyper-competitive world when it comes to the college application process. I filled out my applications with a pencil in about an hour or two and never gave it much thought.
He’s looking at both those schools, seem like a good option.
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When it comes to the Ivy’s, prepare for a nail biting experience until the bitter end. Don’t celebrate or announce anything until that acceptance email arrives !
yes, it is nail biting and it takes more time than you want. many of these elite schools have indications of support while not 100% are nearly that. Ivy’s (some) will issue a commit a “likely letter”. I have not heard of any likely letters going sideways in a decade. Other top schools have other indications of support such as “pink envelope”, etc. Bottom line is when you get an indication of support from a head coach, that is not a green banana. you need to make up your mind asap. If you think you can sit around and wait for offers to come in and you can take your sweet time evaluating and obsessing about the pros and cons. you will end up disappointed. If you want to go to Ivies, you better be sanguine about early action and early decision for those schools that have that option. This an obvious way to show a coach that you are dead serious about their school and admission is much easier if you go “early”. Final piece of advice, be honest, be ready to jump, and have your sh*t together, and you will vastly improve your chances of landing somewhere good. This assumes you are a great player too 