Is it true colleges don't even consider your high school tennis resume?

[nadalfan007]

I've heard from many people that high school tennis is just for fun and even if you are a state champion, it doesn't help you get considered by colleges. Apparently, USTA tournaments are the only thing that matter, which I play in as well. Is this true or do they also take your high school tennis resume into account. Thanks.

[slice bh compliment]

I think a college coach primarily looks at national and sectional rankings. But it's nice to see a video, some dubs skills and some success on a team. Can't hurt, right?

[autumn_leaf]

unless it's a school well known for it's tennis i don't think scouts comes to the games. not from what i seen in my area at least. otherwise i would definately send in a video of a match so they can evaluate your skills and maybe come down for a match and see you in person.

[10isRocs]

From what I understand. high school tennis is basically irrelevant to college coaches. All that matters is national, 1st, sectional, 2nd. rankings. A lot of the top players are home schooled or in independent school programs because of thier travel/training schedule and they do not even play high school tennis. I think the better players in high school only play out of school pride and to enjoy the team setting because in most area, (except maybe So Cal) the level of play is very low.

[racingdad23]

Around here high school tennis is taken very seriously. Your top USTA players all attend and play high school tennis. High School Matches are a who's who of the strongest USTA players.

Looking at tennisrecruiting.com I've noticed many of the D1 r e c r u i t s have state championships on thier resumes. The coaches I've talked to have all been interested in High School performance especially on juniors that are unable to travel the National level tournament schedules.

So where some say high school tennis is not important I've found it to be completely the opposite. Maybe not as important as the USTA ranking but still a factor that many coaches do condsider during recruiting.

[kctennis1005]

actually many coaches are not even considering national and sectional rankings because people from weak sections are over ranked while people from socal and florida get screwed in the national rankings. tennisrecruting.net's rankings are now more important to most coaches than national rankings

[grizzly4life]

it sounds like high school tennis is redundant and of lesser value to college scouts. they have more than enough data from other sources. whereas in football they don't. basketball somewhat in-between i'd say.

[Swissv2]

It depends on where the school is.




If your state is not that big on tennis, and you win the state championship, Division 1 doesn't pay attention (that much). If you have a national ranking, that is taken more seriously. But, if you are from a very strong school district (tennis wise), then the championships you have participated in will be considered.

[Nitro]

Having played for and been recruited by a college team I can tell you that its almost impossible to tell what exactly they are considering. A guy who plays great on his hs tennis team but isn't terribly active in USTA tournaments isn't screwed. It is all dependent on what division you're talking about and what school you play for.

[ayyhwang]

Looking at the Princeton roster, the vast majority of players have 4-stars or more on the Tennisrecruiting network. so i'd say that usta tournaments matter a lot more than high school tennis if you're looking to get into a school based on your tennis skills

[mrmo1115]

Looking at the Princeton roster, the vast majority of players have 4-stars or more on the Tennisrecruiting network. so i'd say that usta tournaments matter a lot more than high school tennis if you're looking to get into a school based on your tennis skills

in fact i have a friend heading to princeton from ny who is really good by the name of coleman crutchfield i believe he also won the Mayor's Cup which is a tournament that is Non-Sactioned but it is a Scholastic event meaning for your school

[ayyhwang]

basically all of the division 1 schools look at your tennis recruiting profile because it means a lot.

[Zhou]

Minnesota is big on HS tennis. Wyatt Mccoy and Michael Sicora both play along with many good players.

[rosenstar]

I've heard from many people that high school tennis is just for fun and even if you are a state champion, it doesn't help you get considered by colleges. Apparently, USTA tournaments are the only thing that matter, which I play in as well. Is this true or do they also take your high school tennis resume into account. Thanks.

My experience shows that states are the only part (if any part) that a college coach will look at. It also depends on what school your going to.

My doubles partner is playing at Loyola, and small non-scholarship school in MD. As far as D1 teams go, it's on the very bottom. My partner is a very good player (usually beats me in 3 sets) and will probably enter the team as #3 or #4 on the ladder. He has played about 3 USTA tournaments and was able to make the team by results in states and reputation. His Sister played lacrosse at Loyola (same school) and his brother is on the naval academy football team. His mom is a top level (I believe P3 is the term) USPTA teaching pro. His family is known in the area for their athletisism. I believe this greatly helped him make the team. This is a very rear situation.

I had the opportunity to play at lehigh university (a mediocre D1 school in the patriot league). I didn't have a high USTA ranking (top 150 in Mid atlantic) but my success in states combined with a good video was enough to get me a spot on the bottom of the latter.

The next day I visited Virginia Tech and fell in love with it. I'm going to play club ball there instead. There, you'll need a national ranking to even be considered for the varsity team. One of the kids I talked to won the VA state tournament twice (not sure if singles or dubs) and the coach wouldn't even talk to him (which isn't surprising).

So as you can see, it's very subjective and greatly depends on the school your going to.

[dallasoliver]

I'll weigh in with my $0.02, although IMO many of the posts here already hit the nail on the head.

The criteria used by college coaches seems to vary widely from school to school. In general, schools like to understand the quality of the opponents that you play. And in general, it is much easier to see the quality of opponents for tournament play.

For most tournaments (USTA/ITF/Open/non-sanctioned), the match data has been "scrubbed" so that a coach can easily see the quality of opponents. Coaches can look at online drawsheets (USTA.com, TennisInformation.com, ITFTennis.com, etc.) or player records (USTA.com, TennisInformation.com, TennisRecruiting.net, ITFTennis.com) to see how a junior player has performed against different kinds of opponents.

For high school play, it is often difficult to understand the opposition. If you beat someone 6-0, 6-0 or 8-0, what does that mean? With some research, you can sometimes tell, but many people are not willing to put in that kind of time. There are many parts of the country where lots of junior players play both high school and USTA tennis... in those areas high school results (especially state tournaments) can count for much more.

USTA and ITF tournaments obviously have a bigger field to draw from. With district, section, national, supernational, and international events, junior players can compete in tournaments appropriate to their level - and rise to a level of competition that can showcase their skills.

That said, coaches have given us many, many different criteria on which they recruit. Rankings, quality of tournament, high school play, tournament titles, stroke mechanics, physical tools, conditioning, recommendations, test scores, grade point averages, sportsmanship awards, quality of character, work ethic, opinions from current team members, leadership on high school team, how a potential recruit presents him/herself, and many more traits have been mentioned to us when we ask coaches "What do you look for?"

So I wouldn't sweat it too much. High school tennis is a lot of fun and only comes once in your life, so play if you want. But you should probably strongly consider USTA tournaments if you want to open up your options.

[duketennisgal]

What I was told from several coaches is that while they do mainly look at tourneys they do look to high school because of how important doubles play is in the college game. Many tournaments (at least when I was playing juniors) don't have great doubles draws and the only place that the coaches can look to doubles play is the high school record.

[BullDogTennis]

[QUOTE=rosenstar;2290132]



The next day I visited Virginia Tech and fell in love with it. I'm going to play club ball there instead. There, you'll need a national ranking to even be considered for the varsity team. One of the kids I talked to won the VA state tournament twice (not sure if singles or dubs) and the coach wouldn't even talk to him (which isn't surprising).

QUOTE]

VT has a beautiful campus dont you think? Great Facilities also. i've visited up there and considered going there, dont know that i wanna go 7 hours away from home(live in the middle of TN) my first year in college.

[rosenstar]

VT has a beautiful campus dont you think? Great Facilities also. i've visited up there and considered going there, dont know that i wanna go 7 hours away from home(live in the middle of TN) my first year in college.

I loved it. Yeah it's about 6 hours away from me in MD, but We have close family friends who live in blacksburg so if I need an off campus home I can always stop by there.

[baseline08thrasher]

If you truly are a good player you will have success in the USTA tournaments.
I think those tournaments are so cruel in Southern California though.
So i'd say focus on the USTA tournies, and think of high school tennis as pride.
It looks good on your application.
I will aChIEVE.

[Carlo Colussi]

Sometimes it's true...

[cmb]

nope, college coaches look at wins and losses. Sometimes they dont even go by videos too much.

Bottom line, wins and losses