Do college recruiters or colleges in the US have foundation/AP programs for junior tennis players?

[TennisBro]

I have been looking into an option for my 16-year-old son, who's touring junior ITF tournaments and M15/M25 Futures and whom I have been homeschooling, to enter an academic foundation program alongside his tennis training and playing in the US. The choices to me seem unclear; some may be at the colleges to which my son would be accepted after finishing his foundation and some prep programs like at CTU (http://www.ctutennis.com/en/) which states that it guarantees the following college entry. But according to NCAA, those kinda guarantees are against regulations. My son is a Canadian and seeking a full scholarship as he is at the UTR 11, ranked in ATP doubles, men's ITF singles and in top 300 junior ITF. He's creating his profile on tennisrecruiting.net so that he gets noticed too. Judging by some of the discussions on this TTW site, I have noticed that some posters have pretty good knowledge in the field. So, would any of you be able to point me in the direction of how to go about a program with a college/foundation uni program coaching staff/tennis team with which my son could negotiate terms/conditions for tennis, studies and full scholarship?

 

[andfor]

If you are looking for a full men's D1 tennis scholarship, they are rare. While the new rule allowing for 10 full tennis scholarships was recently passed, I'm unaware of any program announcing they've opted in. Aside from your son's rankings, ratings and results, he sounds very good for 16 and will likely progress over the next year. During his senior year he'll need to be around a 12 UTR for D1 tennis, but that's mostly rule of thumb, sounds like he can get there. For a full D1 scholarship I'd guess he'd need to be around a 13+. For even better chances for a full scholarship, you may want to look at D2 and NAIA programs.

All that matters is what the coach is willing to offer in the end. I'd recommend your son get an email/letter writing campaign together along with a video attached and email coaches at programs he wants to target. Coaches emails are typically found on their team web page, some even have their phone numbers. I would leave out requesting a full tennis scholarship as that may diminish some coaches interest, up to you. There are ways a student could get a 50% tennis and supplement the remaining costs with academic scholarships, but for an international don't know how that works.

Good luck. Start reaching out to coaches now.

 

[jcgatennismom]

I have been looking into an option for my 16-year-old son, who's touring junior ITF tournaments and M15/M25 Futures and whom I have been homeschooling, to enter an academic foundation program alongside his tennis training and playing in the US. The choices to me seem unclear; some may be at the colleges to which my son would be accepted after finishing his foundation and some prep programs like at CTU (http://www.ctutennis.com/en/) which states that it guarantees the following college entry. But according to NCAA, those kinda guarantees are against regulations. My son is a Canadian and seeking a full scholarship as he is at the UTR 11, ranked in ATP doubles, men's ITF singles and in top 300 junior ITF. He's creating his profile on tennisrecruiting.net so that he gets noticed too. Judging by some of the discussions on this TTW site, I have noticed that some posters have pretty good knowledge in the field. So, would any of you be able to point me in the direction of how to go about a program with a college/foundation uni program coaching staff/tennis team with which my son could negotiate terms/conditions for tennis, studies and full scholarship?

I would suggest you join and post this question on the Facebook group parenting aces. There are free and premium memberships to parenting aces and a podcast.

That said I have never heard of an academic program that guarantees admission to a university and a spot on a team sports roster. I would be suspicious of such guarantees. Again the prior mentioned FB group could give a better answer. As long as your son doesn’t want to play for the Ivy’s, if your son meets NCAA international eligibility requirements and the coach wants him, the coach (not some academic program) can guarantee his admission. When my son was undergoing recruiting there were two P5 unis considered in top 100 interested in him. My son’s SAT scores were significantly lower than the average students and my son had taken only 1 AP course. Both coaches said not a problem. I will say my son’s test scores were good enough to earn some merit at another d1 university. Point is if a coach outside the Ivy and top D3 wants a player, he can get him/her in. However that does not mean the player can get in the specific college within a large flagship university. My son turned down an offer from a P5 uni for multiple reasons-one of which was their biz school was very competitive and coach said son wouldn’t be accepted for that major as a freshman but could apply as a soph.

If you are looking for an online school, I believe many top US juniors use the Laurel Springs program, and I assume they counsel families on course choices to prepare for more selective schools. Academics are important not just for acceptance but for merit scholarships as few players will get full scholarships. With the new NCAA settlement and so much $ going to football, few colleges will be able to afford to bump scholarships from 4.5 to 10. If there is a roster limit of 10 that is only 2.5 average per class year-assume 1.5 of those will be international, 1 will be American. If your son wants to play for a team that can get in NCAAs (top 40ish team outside mid major conference winners), there may be only 60ish spots for top internationals on those teams as an average each year-really less than that as some spots will be filled with transfers. So as prior poster said dont talk full ride with coaches esp not in initial Email. If u really want full ride, u may have to expand your options beyond top 40 d1 teams. If your son really wants to go pro, he should look for coach with track record and/or a college that hosts Future and CH events on campus. If your son is jr ITF 300 at 16, he could be top 100-200 or better by his jr year but the top schools will be looking for jr ITF 50 or even better teenagers with ATP points. If your son is winning matches at Futures playing current collegians, I think that would impress a college coach more than jr ITF wins unless your son is playing jr slams. To some degree, jr itf is overrated because it excludes talented players who can’t play jr ITF due to finances or conflicts with school. My son only played 3 ITFs-2 at 15 and one at 17 so his jr ITF ranking was never higher than 1500 but he beat a jr ITF player ranked in top 50 at a Futures. There are more opportunities at Futures in US than jr ITFs and look at UTR PTT events too. Juniors with high UTR committed to P4 unis play those events-at ones son played there were guys committed to top teams in SEC and big 10