DIII Advice Needed

[Deleted member 740774]

Hey I'm a junior in high school who really wants to play college tennis. i'm a 1 star, 9 utr with good high school experience (district champ sophomore year etc). i realize D1 isn't a possibility, and it sounds like too much of a load anyway. For D3 I've been looking at Wheaton College in Illinois among others. What's the timeline for me? Should I be contacting coaches? Should I make a recruiting video? I figured it's early to be making a video. Should I have some goals for college tennis like 10 UTR or 2 star? Thanks

 

[jcgatennismom]

Contact coaches now. Coaches do a lot of recruiting junior year; D1 coaches can contact players as of 9/1 of junior year, but often watch players the summer before. I think D3 could contact earlier. Send video and Email with SAT/ACT scores, GPA, any major tournament wins. My son knows someone who plays for Wheaton in Illinois and likes it. At D3 schools, students may have to provide some of their own tennis equipment. Unlike D1, schools dont necessarily supply strings, shoes, racquets, etc. Not all D1 schools provide racquets! Since D3 only provides merit and need-based aid, you will want to prepare for Dec/Jan etc ACT/SAT tests to maximize scores and aid. It looks like the higher players on the lineup at Wheaton are 9.5+ so maybe reaching 2 stars and at least a 9.5 UTR should be your goal. The guy my son knew was a 2 star.

Definitely contact D3 coaches in fall before the busier dual season starts in Jan/Feb. Maybe include your tournament schedule if you play any tournaments within a several hour drive of colleges of interest. I dont know how much D3 coaches travel. D1 coaches travel a lot, and usually watch US recruits at more than 1 tournament. I know the coaches of the top D3 coaches do travel to national tournaments, but I dont know the range of travel for the rest. My son got a lot of Emails from D3 coaches but because he wanted to play D1, he didnt follow up with the D3 coaches. Good luck.

 

[atatu]

My son is kind of in the same boat and one thing I'd recommend is signing up for a membership on tennis recruiting, because they have some really good articles that answer the questions you posed above and it's not particularly expensive.

http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/articles/recruiting_101.asp

 

[tennisbuck]

Wheaton College players don't play matches on Sunday's. At ITAs this fall, one of their players was forced to withdraw from consolation for this reason

 

[tennisjon]

Wheaton College players don't play matches on Sunday's. At ITAs this fall, one of their players was forced to withdraw from consolation for this reason

At my school, we can't play Friday night to Saturday night, which makes playing ITAs impossible.

 

[Deleted member 740774]

Wheaton College players don't play matches on Sunday's. At ITAs this fall, one of their players was forced to withdraw from consolation for this reason

Is this a college wide thing?, I'd imagine it was the individual player's decision.

 

[Ihatetennis]

Is this a college wide thing?, I'd imagine it was the individual player's decision.

College wide, hope college also does it

 

[Nathan Benoit]

Make sure to check out NAIA schools as well. I'm a senior in high school, a one star, and a level 9 UTR and I have one full ride offer and possibly another full ride offer. Both to NAIA schools. It's good competition too because unlike the NCAA you can play professional tennis and then play at an NAIA school. Some foreign players are 30 years old that played pro tennis first and then got a full ride to an NAIA school. Not a lot of people know about this though.

 

[Ihatetennis]

Make sure to check out NAIA schools as well. I'm a senior in high school, a one star, and a level 9 UTR and I have one full ride offer and possibly another full ride offer. Both to NAIA schools. It's good competition too because unlike the NCAA you can play professional tennis and then play at an NAIA school. Some foreign players are 30 years old that played pro tennis first and then got a full ride to an NAIA school. Not a lot of people know about this though.

Not to be a di.K

But naia schools typically aren't good in academics. And the ones that are, have guys way better than 9 utr.

Full rides are awesome, but not if your university is battling being unaccredited

 

[Doubles]

Not to be a di.K

But naia schools typically aren't good in academics. And the ones that are, have guys way better than 9 utr.

Full rides are awesome, but not if your university is battling being unaccredited

I'm not certain about things like accreditation at NAIA schools, but I do know that the one's at the top of the rankings have legitimate UTR 12's 13's and maybe even higher.

 

[jcgatennismom]

I'm not certain about things like accreditation at NAIA schools, but I do know that the one's at the top of the rankings have legitimate UTR 12's 13's and maybe even higher.

Georgia Gwinnett College which has won the NAIA national championship several years in a row used to have some 14 players-now the team has one high 13 and two 13s. With the NAIA, the best season is fall when they get to play the best D2, D3 teams in the Oracle Cup. In the spring, when they play mostly NAIA, they usually win 9-0. The power rankings of NAIA (top 6 players' UTR) ranges from 40s to 60s; there are actually some lower but they may not have all their roster players added. Many of the NAIA teams would be killed by high school tennis teams; a lot of HS teams in our area would have a Power ranking of 65+ and the singles players are almost all 11.

Before you decide to play for a NAIA, consider if you would enjoy playing tennis on campus at a better school. Many club teams at state flagship schools would probably beat NAIA teams, and in addition club tennis is coed. For a 9UTR, there may be some D3 teams that would be better academic options, and if you qualify for merit or need, you could possibly get a decent package.

 

[Nathan Benoit]

I guess it does depend a lot on what you are planning on studying as well. If you want to study Biochemistry or something like that then NAIA probably won't be the best option. But for something like business, I definitely think it's worth looking at especially since Division III doesn't offer athletic scholarships.


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[kingcheetah]

Hey I'm a junior in high school who really wants to play college tennis. i'm a 1 star, 9 utr with good high school experience (district champ sophomore year etc). i realize D1 isn't a possibility, and it sounds like too much of a load anyway. For D3 I've been looking at Wheaton College in Illinois among others. What's the timeline for me? Should I be contacting coaches? Should I make a recruiting video? I figured it's early to be making a video. Should I have some goals for college tennis like 10 UTR or 2 star? Thanks

Contacting coaches can't hurt, it gets you on their radar, and you could ask them for any specific advice too, it would show you value their input in your development/eagerness to improve. Wait until start of Senior year for a video. As far as goals, there's the obvious one of improving as much as you can, but I'd say focus on playing as many high-caliber events as you can, try and face challenging competition. The ITA summer circuit is a good option for right before senior year as well (It'll get you used to format, even if d3 doesn't have the d1 "no let rule")

 

[doublebach]

Contacting coaches can't hurt, it gets you on their radar, and you could ask them for any specific advice too, it would show you value their input in your development/eagerness to improve. Wait until start of Senior year for a video. As far as goals, there's the obvious one of improving as much as you can, but I'd say focus on playing as many high-caliber events as you can, try and face challenging competition. The ITA summer circuit is a good option for right before senior year as well (It'll get you used to format, even if d3 doesn't have the d1 "no let rule")

What's the deal with the ITA summer circuit? Does the high school player need to be a certain caliber to get in? I noticed a two-star acquaintance of ours played in one last July.

 

[jcgatennismom]

What's the deal with the ITA summer circuit? Does the high school player need to be a certain caliber to get in? I noticed a two-star acquaintance of ours played in one last July.

The ITA summer circuits are open tournaments; anyone who bought a membership could apply; there may have been a special rate for juniors. We paid for a membership, but then my son did not end up signing up for any tournaments as he was busy with other long tournaments. Also the two closest to us were full of other juniors; the seeds were mainly the seeds from the recent summer sectional-maybe two of the seeds were college players. In our area, the better college players played men's $ tourneys or Futures Qualifying. There were a lot of rising college freshmen plus rising high school sophs and juniors. Most of the college players who signed up were D1 bench players and D3 players with a few exceptions. I heard the ones in Texas had actual lineup players from the in state D1 universities, and I think the ******* ITAs hosted by colleges had their players play. The tourneys were a mixed bag, and depending on which type of registration was used, players could not even see who had already signed up. Tournament directors could choose what tournament management software to use and there were at least 3 different systems used which also affected if results downloaded into UTR.

For college players who did not get much play during the dual match season, for D2/D3 players, for talented high school players who didnt play USTA, and for 3 star and some 4 star juniors and higher, it makes sense to play the ITAs. For guys who already play in the lineup for d1 or top sectional/national juniors, there may be other summer options that are more competitive or there could be some ITAs that will be great competition. Most of the ITAs were 64 or 128 draw with only the losers in the 1st round or 1st 2 rounds going into consolation. A talented player could have 2 easy rounds and then lose in the R16 or QFs with only getting to play one good match. Before this year, I think the summer circuits did have quarterfinal playoffs. The last 8 players standing would probably be competitive. Since they upped the number of tourneys from 30ish to 50ish, I think the tourneys would be better with a limited draw of 32 and 64 rather than up to 128 with selection based on UTR rather than date of entry. There are enough tourneys so if a certain site had a harder draws, applicants could probably get in their 2nd choice. The open draw was good for some high school players who played singles on state playoff level teams; I saw that at least two guys like that who finished 2nd at several ITAs without much of a USTA background. To some degree, even the Qualis of Futures are like that-almost anyone can get in. The tourneys start out with 200+ on the alternate list, and by the time the tourney starts, the Q draws have byes. A player could get a top D1 player or a US junior who played in a boys Grand Slam in the Q first round (actual the top D1s would be seeds so they would 2nd rounders) or a player could get 2 easy rounds with guys who wouldnt make his high school team. UTR of Bham Futures Q draw ranged from 8 to 14+. UTR of summer circuits probably ranged from 8 to low 13, with maybe 1-2 seeds at 13+, rest of seeds high 11s to high 12s, and a lot of players 9.5-11.5 uTR.