Anyone here have any experience with D3 sports?

[Paesano]

I would like some insights as to how the recruiting process works. Also, how demanding is it compared to D1 sports? If a kid has a tough major at a highly competitive school, is it still possible to balance academics and a sport?

 

[Northbound]

It's done all the time, but make no mistake it's a job and there are a lot of times it sucks.

What specifically do you want to know about the process and what sport are you talking about. Are you talking high major or mid/lower tier d-1

Not sure what you mean by how is it compared to d-1 sports.

 

[Paesano]

I am talking basketball or, possibly, track at a highly competitive D3 school like MIT. How do kids get exposure to those sorts of schools? Track is easy to gauge as one can look at times but how good does a kid have to be to play a sport like basketball at a D3 school? And does it actually help to gain admission? And then, once there, how brutal is balancing basketball with a major like Physics or Engineering? I suspect it is doable if one doesn't party much or piss away time on a lot of other extracurriculars.

 

[willie99]

We initiated contact with the baseball coach, who contacted the high school coach after meeting with us and then told admissions our son was on his recruiting list.

In a situation where all other things are equal, being on the recruiting list may be the difference.

It's obviously not D-1 and it's not going to have the same level of commitment, but make no mistake it takes a lot of time. So much so my son quit the team after his freshmen year, he wanted to have more time to himself.

 

[Paesano]

What school was it and what was his major?

 

[Gurleyman]

It still takes a lot of time to play a sport, but there are advantages to D3. Most D3s allow for greater class commitment (only attending partial practices due to a lab, etc.) which would never happen at DI. Another advantage to D3 is that when you are out of season (soccer in the spring, baseball in the fall), you are really out of season - there may be a weekend captains practice or something, but it usually isnt the year-round commitment that DI is. Depending on where you go, the travel demands can be much, much easier than D1.

Recruiting is trickier since D3s have small coaching staffs and won't go on the road much. It'll often be by video tape and word of mouth, and then since there are no scholarships, the role the coach has in recruiting is more helping with admissions and/or financial aid packages. Also easier to be a true walk on and just contact the coach when you're admitted - the hurdle of earning playing time over scholarship kids isn't there.

 

[JMick]

Unless you are local or your high school/aau coach has ties to a specific D3 school, you won't get "recruited"

If you and/or someone you're related to/friends etc. want to play a D3 sport, I recommend finding schools that fit first. After you compile a list of D3 schools, contact the coach by email, send video, etc. Usually if the coaches like you they will tell you to visit and set up a meeting or they will ask for your schedule and try to make an effort to see you live.

 

[Horatio]

I was "recruited"by Paul Pasqualoni to play football at WCSU. This is when his hair was jet black . He left right before I got there and the program went downhill quick . It was either WCSU or Alleghany College if I wanted to play right away . I still have two years of college eligibility left and I intend on using them before I turn fifty.

Most division athletes are playing for the love of the game. There's no scholarship just financial aid. Top D3 basketball players have a good chance of playing overseas but that's about it.

 

[James]

Most recently I've known a few kids @ Dickinson and bates, both very driven academically. And frankly , @JMick is pretty on point ; you have to really show to division 2-3 how hard you want to work on and off the floor. And your prep / aau coach is the guy who facilitates that discourse.

Edit; also if said kid has a great resume/app, he could potentially seek out the head coach on his own and let him know his hs/prep accomplishments.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

I was going to try and play soccer at wash st louis. I just scheduled a meeting with the coach when I visited campus, and had my high school and premier team coach contact him. It's helpful if you have video (my mom used to take lots of pics and video at games). Decided to go play club at D1 school instead. About the same level without all the "self recruiting"

D2 and d3 don't travel as much but it's still a huge time commitment, especially at a prestigious academic university like mit

 

[husky8273]

3DLacrosse strives to provide this guidance for D III lax players,

https://3dlacrosse.com/select/boys-committed-players

 

[Goat]

My older son was a 3 season athlete (swimming and crew) at Trinity which is academically competitive and D3. His younger brother was offered a D1 1/2 ride for swimming which he declined, but ended up playing rugby at a academically less respected D3 school.

We contacted the coaching staff at the schools they were interested in. My understanding was that qualified players were favored in close admissions decisions. One coach told us he had a couple of dream athlete passes that might get a student a standard deviation from the school's mean credentials admitted each year. The way it was described implied that helmet sport coaches might have a few more of those passes. The NESCAC schools are also very diverse and that flexibility for admitting a strong athlete probably extends to great artists and dancers and thespians and musicians, too. If a student needed financial aid or came from a substandard high school, sports would probably augment admissions chances too.

The commitment required seems to vary greatly. Successful athletic schools have a different culture. When the older boy he was looking at Williams, I remember hearing that 50% of the class had been the captain of a team in high school. We visited some schools where the facilities and program were more like a club sport, but they also had been near the bottom of their conference athletically for a few years or more.

At Trinity, school work was a legitimate excuse for missing some practices. It just was not something you wanted to use often if you wanted to play.

 

[willie99]

What school was it and what was his major?

Stevens Institute of Technology, Engineering Management

 

[djct1999]

The list of pros for participating in collegiate sports is long. The only downside is during the season you spend a ton of time in small, overcrowded vans away from campus traveling to schools three-four hours away most weekends. So it definitely is a commitment that demands sacrifice. If your kid is passionate about the sport, there is nothing better. If your kid was a really good high school athlete but isn't that passionate, eventually that commitment and sacrifice may not be worth it.

 

[SubbaBub]

Depends entirely on the school and the coach. The commitment level runs the gambit from just above club level to mini D1.

The turnover of athletes is a lot higher than D1 for all the reasons you expect. The team has no investment in you, but they want to field a team that meets their competitive standard.

The athletes themselves also range from newbies picking up the sport for the first time to pro level prospects who chose the school for reasons other than athletics.

There are many levels within D3. I went to a minor low level D3 school that had people who where drafted and went pro playing next to guys destined for the beer league.

If it's that important, do your homework on the team, coach, and school.

I quit playing after one semester because the time commitments clashed heavily with my class schedule and I didn't go there for athletics. There were plenty of intramural sports to play and for me I found a few I enjoyed more than my dominant sport.

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

I played D3 soccer at Endicott College. We were in a pretty competitive league and I had a pretty tough major (Finance). I was recruited by several D3 schools and the recruiting varied. You can either reach out to the coach/recruiting coordinator, provide them with some background (High School, AAU/Club you play for, GPA, etc), and also provide them with a highlight tape. Or you can be scouted at a tournament or game and the coach will usually be the one to reach out to you. Once you've reached out to the coach they will usually come out, or send an assistant to come and watch you play. After they watch you play, you will normally have a follow up phone call/email confirming their interest in you. At that point they will have you up for an overnight visit where you will have a meeting with your parents and the head coach, meet the team, sit in on classes, and get a general feeling for the campus, the team, and the atmosphere.

It is possible to balance academics and athletics, but it is no where near as easy as in high school. High school practices are at the same time, everyday. College practices vary by day, you can have 3-4+hour long bus rides for a game in the middle of the week. It is extremely hard to get into a routine as each day is drastically different. You need to have extremely good time management skills, and if you don't, you need to develop them quickly. I found that my grades were better in the spring semester when I wasn't in season. I graduated with a 3.5 though, so it is manageable.

Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help.

 

[SubbaBub]

Stevens Institute of Technology, Engineering Management

OK, this is more in line with my experience than I previously thought. My advice is treat the whole thing as an extracurricular hobby. If it gets close to being too much, quit.

That said, I would assume the commitment level to be similar to high school. Regular practice, gym time, and study hall. There are also likely some fund raising commitments and the travel is probably more than you are used to.

Class accommodation is up to each individual professor. At a school like that, don't expect much. Maybe a supervised separate test and a little leeway on class attendance for special circumstances. Best bet is for the athlete to schedule around any potential conflicts ahead of time.

 

[intlzncster]

It was either WCSU or Alleghany College if I wanted to play right away . I still have two years of college eligibility left and I intend on using them before I turn fifty.

Every team needs an old a ss strong safety that can still lay the wood. Go for it.

 

[MattMang23]

My roommate at UConn played club hockey, which is probably equivalent to D3. He kept trying to get me to join the team but seeing how much time he spent away from campus and how he had no social life- except with the other nineteen guys on the roster- I couldn't do it. You have to really love the game you play since you will sacrifice a large amount of the "college experience."

 

[freescooter]

My daughter was all New England at a D3 Nescac school in track. I would say that you're going to have to be fairly disciplined but you can also have a full college experience. More so than d1 for sure. She did a semester abroad, played in a college musical ensemble (they helped arrange for her to get back from a meet in time for her concert one night). She was active in a group on campus that arranged speakers. As I said you have to be organized but it is definitely a good experience. My other daughter played golf at the same school. The only drawback to that was she regularly kicked my butt since she played every day. That was less intense since the season was relatively short. But her experience was really good too.

 

[Matt (Chicago)]

My daughter was all New England at a D3 Nescac school in track. I would say that you're going to have to be fairly disciplined but you can also have a full college experience. More so than d1 for sure. She did a semester abroad, played in a college musical ensemble (they helped arrange for her to get back from a meet in time for her concert one night). She was active in a group on campus that arranged speakers. As I said you have to be organized but it is definitely a good experience. My other daughter played golf at the same school. The only drawback to that was she regularly kicked my butt since she played every day. That was less intense since the season was relatively short. But her experience was really good too.

you might want to repost that without the link you included there...

 

[KemBuckets21]

Not so Funny story...My sister was a beast at lacrosse. Her sophomore/junior We started getting letters from Dartmouth, Florida, BU, NEU, Uconn, and she was even eventually recruited by UVA, Dook, and UNC by her senior year. She had ADD so it was hard for her to focus on her SAT's which she needed to nail to get into some of those more competitive schools. She ended up falling short (by a fairly significant margin) of the minimum score she needed to get into Dartmouth whose coach loved her game. She ended up at Springfield, where she played really well, but she dropped out of school after her first year because she said LAX stopped being fun for her because of all of the practice and school work she had to balance...My point is, it was still difficult to balance academics and athletics at a D3 school. That probably doesn't help, but it's true.

 

[intlzncster]

you might want to repost that without the link you included there...

I havent laughed so hard on the boneyard in a long, long time (maybe at BigErn's misfortune), but this was so so good. Opened it in a Starbucks, and was like...whooops!! ahahhaa Good catch Matt.

NB: to be fair, you should probably take the link out of your reply so as not to be hypocritical. JMO

 

[Scottzer]

I am talking basketball or, possibly, track at a highly competitive D3 school like MIT. How do kids get exposure to those sorts of schools? Track is easy to gauge as one can look at times but how good does a kid have to be to play a sport like basketball at a D3 school? And does it actually help to gain admission? And then, once there, how brutal is balancing basketball with a major like Physics or Engineering? I suspect it is doable if one doesn't party much or piss away time on a lot of other extracurriculars.

I would like some insights as to how the recruiting process works. Also, how demanding is it compared to D1 sports? If a kid has a tough major at a highly competitive school, is it still possible to balance academics and a sport?

1) it absolutely helps with the admission process. I spent a couple years at Eastern (track and field), and decided to transfer. In that case, I wasn't allowed to speak directly with the coaches (so I spoke with captains), and had been told that I had been flagged (in a positive way). Normally, at that time they accepted 27 percent of transfers, but I'm not sure a 3.7 glad from Eastern would have done the trick.
With a major like physics, I'd think it'd be rather strenuous. Though only history, I took a number of courses with an advisor with a rep for failing seniors in survey courses and expectations of nothing but the best. I had to drop track one year and returned the next.

 

[Scottzer]

Oh, and track and field typically had practices of 90 minutes m-f, plus 3-4 days of one hour weight training sessions, sometimes right before practice. You get out of practice exhausted, eat, crash, and try to get your homework and papers done.