when to start preparing for college tennis?

[donnyz89]

If I have an interested in pursuing tennis after highschool... when should I start preparing? and how should I do so? I'm a junior right now and just finished my season with a .500 record at 1 singles... not spectacular at all I have to admit. I would say I'm a 3.5-4.0 player. My goal would be a lower ranked DIII school with a good academic profile, I dont expect to get any scholarship. When should I start looking, where should I look, any good articles or advices on what I should do and when should I do it? Over the summer I plan on just playing tennis everyday, entering tournaments, taking lessons... same with winter but I'll be applying after this summer. I've been looking at players from our conference from the past that plays in college tennis and their record in highschool and sections, they seem to be within reach for me. Where can I learn more info on this.

thanks...

 

[serveitup911]

Here is a link to a thread that I started about this. It has a lot of useful information about when and how to contact coaches. It is a research paper, so it is long and formal, but it may help you.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=91288

 

[str33t]

What school do you play for?

 

[AndyP]

Expect no scholarship, because D3 give no scholarships.
NYU is a great school with crappy sports.

 

[serveitup911]

What school do you play for?

Who, me? I play for Furman, a small DI school in Greenville, SC. We have a pretty good team, though. We were ranked as high as #59 during the season and we made the NCAA tournament. We are playing Georgia in the first round on Saturday.

 

[donnyz89]

Here is a link to a thread that I started about this. It has a lot of useful information about when and how to contact coaches. It is a research paper, so it is long and formal, but it may help you.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=91288

i read your paper... but like i said, im not expecting to play for a D1 school with scholarships. and where I am right now, im nowhere near good enough for college tennis yet.

 

[serveitup911]

OK. Sorry if it didn't help. I thought it might have some info on when and how you should contact coaches.

 

[10ispro]

NCAA Compliance and Eligibity doe snot allow a Coach to contact you before your junior year. The Fall of your senior year is when you shoudl start taking your college visit trips and visiting campuses and checking out teams.

but to answer your question about when should you start preparing...I start everyone as a freshman who wants to play tennis in College on the path.
There are several recruiting sights and services, which many coaches will use to track players and base their initial contacts.
http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/list.asp?id=2069
http://www.berecruited.com/college-recruiting-tennis.html
http://www.collegetennisonline.com/recruit/default.aspx

Since you are starting kind of late, what you need to do now is maximize your exposure and results. Send letters to some Coaches at schools you may be interestedin expressing interest in their program.
Important thing is to make yourself known. Then Start playing alot of tournaments.
spend all summer building your ranking-its the 1st thing Most Colleges will look at and look for, b/c honestly regardless of the school-everyone wants the superstar player.
a Good ranking also shows that you are dedicated to your sport and discplined enough to play at a consistent level. It is also a reasonable garuage of your skill and abilities without the coach ever seeing you play.

 

[johnkidd]

donnyz, You should look into the school I played at University of Findlay in Findlay Ohio. They are DII and play a lot of Michigan schools in their leauge. They do have some scholarship money. They just built six new courts four matches. This was long overdue because they knocked two out on campus back in the early 90's and this had been on the books for over a decade.

Other then that just keep playing tournaments and practicing.

 

[donnyz89]

what kind of record/skill do you have to be to make these teams? I am all set academically and I want a good school academically too. I mean, top 30 districts? top 100 section? 4.0? whats a safe bet or something to strive for.

I dont have THAT much time to get better, i have this summer, winter to play. I have to apply in fall too.

 

[johnkidd]

http://athletics.findlay.edu/sports/default.asp?id=23

You can check out the team and their results here. Academics are pretty solid depending on what you want to go into. I Majored in Fnance and Accounting and also did my MBA their. It's a private school which most DIII schools will be. There is also a link to the school on the website.