Before you get started on the college planning and softball recruiting process, just know there’s a lot for you to do and keep track of during your high school years. At times the process may feel overwhelming and stressful to you.
Be sure to check in with your parents or guardians, your coaches (both high school and summer team), and your high school counselors along the way – they can all provide tremendous support in helping you on your journey. You’re in charge but you’re not alone.
Here are the 5 key parts of your guide to the college softball recruiting process.
1. Know your “what” and “why”
It all starts here - knowing “what” you want out of your college experience socially, academically, athletically, and financially; and knowing “why” you want to play softball in college. Start your recruiting process by reading and answering the questions in our post "Do you know your ‘what’ and ‘why’ when it comes to preparing for college as a high school softball player?”.
2. Find your best fit
This step boils down to you figuring out which schools to consider playing at based on the best combined academic, athletic, and financial fit for you. We’ve created three resources to help you get started on understanding your best fit so take a read of all three so you can realistically assess the best options for you by the beginning of your junior year in high school:
- “What are the academic requirements to play college softball?”
- “What are the athletic requirements to play college softball?”
- “What does it cost to play college softball?”
3. Get organized and track your progress
You drive the college softball recruiting process. It’s never too early to get to work building your player profile and developing your list of colleges and coaches you want to potentially reach out to. We’ve created two free tools to help guide you all the way through the college softball recruiting process:
- Use the MyNextPlay Tracker so you’ll always know where to find your academic and athletic information, and where you can create and manage your target list of colleges.
- Check out the MyNextPlay Timeline to see what specific college planning and recruiting tasks you should be doing during each semester (and summer) from 9th grade through high school graduation. Down in part 5 we have links to Timelines broken down by high school grade level.
If you and your family are looking for a recruiting service to help you organize and track your progress, there are many options out there, and here are a few of the bigger ones worth checking out: SportsRecruits, NCSA, FieldLevel, and CaptainU.
Okay, you have the first 3 parts of this guide down, and you also have a couple tools that will help you dive into the college baseball recruiting process. The next two parts of the guide are where you really get active in the college planning and softball recruiting process.
4. Build your list of target colleges, pull together all your recruiting information, and start engaging with college coaches
It's never too early to build your first list of 5-10 colleges where you could see yourself attending and playing softball. This is something you can start doing as early as the end of 9th grade or the fall semester of 10th grade. Your list of target schools will help keep you focused, and it will help you stay engaged with your parents, coaches, and counselors as you move forward on this process.
Once you have your first list of colleges, start pulling together the recruiting information you'll want share with college coaches. This should be easy to do if you're using the MyNextPlay Tracker or another recruiting service that helps you organize all this information.
Here's the short list of the most important recruiting information you'll need when you're ready to start emailing and texting college coaches:
- Your academic information: High school transcript, test scores (ACT or SAT), and any Honors and AP elective classes. Also, be prepared to share with coaches the majors you might be interested in studying in college.
- Your athletic information: Core softball metrics (either as a position player or pitcher), high school varsity season statistics, and any evaluations or assessments you’ve gotten from attending recruiting events or other evaluations.
- Your highlight video: Develop a high quality video that you can upload and share with college coaches so they can see you run, hit, field, and throw if you’re a position player, or see your mechanics and different pitches if you’re a pitcher. To get some ideas on how to put your video together, read “How to create your college softball recruiting video” from NCSA College Recruiting.
- Your references: High school coach and summer ball coaches will be important for your college softball recruiting process, and high school teachers, counselors, and non-softball coaches will be important for your college application process.
- Your recruiting events: List any recruiting assessments, showcase camps, and tournaments where you've participated, and any of these same events that you plan to attend in the future, especially those recruiting events where coaches from the colleges in which you’re most interested are scheduled to attend. MyNextPlay may be able to provide financial assistance for attending a recruiting event - apply here.
- Your email templates: Start drafting the different emails that you'll want to send to college coaches. Be sure to do your research so you can highlight why each program is on your list, and be sure to proof-read your emails to make sure they are well organized, personally drafted, and include the important information from the list above so they grab the coach's attention.
5. Use your grade level timeline to keep working through your college planning and recruiting tasks every semester
Once you've completed the tasks above, you'll be in the flow of the college planning and recruiting process, and you'll have developed a good foundation of information that you'll be able to share with anyone who's helping you on this journey.
Moving forward you'll be working hard to:
- Improve your academic and athletic profile
- Update your college list and engage college coaches at your target schools
- Complete other college planning and recruiting tasks that you need to finish this semester or summer
MyNextPlay has created grade-level timelines that breakdown these tasks for each semester and summer from 9th grade through the day you set foot on the college campus of your choice:
- 9th Grade Timeline
- 10th Grade Timeline
- 11th Grade Timeline
- 12th Grade Timeline
We're always working to update and improve these timelines, so please share your feedback on any of these timelines here.
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Every high school softball player who thinks about playing college softball asks this question: “How does college softball recruiting work?” How do you find your way to playing college softball if you’re not among the top 2% of high school softball players that the top Division I programs are actively recruiting?
For the other 98% of you, it’s about taking control. To play softball in college you’ll have to play offense in high school when it comes to the college softball recruiting process. To help you navigate this process we’ve created two guides that will help you get going on your college softball recruiting journey:
- The first version is a simple 3 step guide for those of you who want to dive right in and get started.
- Further down in this post we’ve mapped out the recruiting process in a 9 step guide for those of you looking to understand how to navigate the recruiting process in more detail.
Before you get started on the college softball recruiting process, just know there’s a lot for you to do and track during your high school years on your path to college. At times the process will feel overwhelming and stressful. Be sure to check in with your parents or guardians, your coaches (both high school and summer ball), and your high school counselors along the way – they can all provide tremendous support in helping you on your journey. You’re in charge but you’re not alone.
3 step guide to the college softball recruiting process
1. Know your “what” and “why”
It all starts here - knowing “what” you want out of your college experience socially, academically, athletically, and financially; and knowing “why” you want to play softball in college. Start your recruiting process by reading and answering the questions in our post “Do you know your ‘what’ and ‘why’ when it comes to preparing for college as a high school softball player?”.
2. Find your best fit
This step boils down to you figuring out which schools to consider playing at based on the best combined academic, athletic, and financial fit for you. We’ve created three resources to help you get started on understanding your best fit so take a read of all three so you can realistically assess the best options for you by the beginning of your junior year in high school:
- “What are the academic requirements to play college softball?”
- “What are the athletic requirements to play college softball?”
- “What does it cost to play college softball?”
3. Recruit yourself!
You drive the college softball recruiting process. It’s never too early to get to work building your player profile and developing your list of colleges and coaches you want to potentially reach out to. We’ve created two free tools to help guide you all the way through the college softball recruiting process:
- Use the MyNextPlay Tracker so you’ll always know where to find your academic and athletic information, and where you can create and manage your prospective list of colleges.
- Check out the MyNextPlay Timeline to see what specific things you should be doing as part of your college planning and recruiting process during each semester (and summer) from 9th grade through high school graduation.
Okay, you’ve got the key 3 steps and tools to help you dive into the college softball recruiting process so many of you are ready to get going! Below we’ve created a detailed 9 step guide that lays out these 3 main steps in more detail so you and your parents / guardians have what you need to take matters into your own hands – especially if you don’t have (or want to spend) the money to pay a recruiting service to help you through the process.
9 step guide to the college softball recruiting process
1. You drive the process, so get organized
This is the most important thing to know about college softball recruiting: You drive the process. You can work with your parents, coaches, and high school counselor, but you need to take the lead and make it happen.
- Use the MyNextPlay Tracker so you’ll always know where to find your academic and athletic information, and where you can create and manage your prospective list of colleges.
- Check out the MyNextPlay Timeline to see what specific things you should be doing as part of your college planning and recruiting process during each semester (and summer) from 9th grade through high school graduation.
2. Academics have to be your top priority
The better you do academically in high school over your first three years, the more options you’ll have when it comes to picking where you want to attend and play college softball. Learn more about what it takes to be academically eligible for each level of college softball by reading our article “What are the academic requirements to play college softball?”.
3. Know what level and colleges will be the best fit for you
You should start by thinking about the types of schools you want to consider. A few questions to ask yourself here are “What size of school do I want to attend?,” “Where in the country do I want to go to college?,” and “What type of academic experience do I want in college?” To help you answer these and other questions, read our article “Do you know your "what" and "why" when it comes to preparing for college?”
Work with your coaches to really understand what level you can play at as a player. Know where your core softball metrics (speed, hitting, throwing) stack up and whether you’re on the path to be a DI, DII, DIII, or NAIA prospect coming out of high school. Check out more details in our article “What are the athletic requirements to play college softball?”
Attending a softball recruiting event can help you figure out what level is best for you to focus on when you start building your list of target colleges. (MyNextPlay can provide financial assistance for attending one of these events; apply here.)
4.Build your list of target colleges and start engaging with coaches at these schools
Based on your athletic profile and academic interests, build your first list of 10-15 colleges where you could see yourself attending and playing softball. This is something you can start doing as early as the end of fall semester during 10th grade, maybe even earlier. Lists of target schools are powerful; don’t hesitate.
Get your recruiting video, academic information, and athletic data and stats together. This should be easy to do if you’ve been keeping it all current in your MyNextPlay Tracker! Start reaching out to coaches to express your interest in playing in their program, and share the following information in your emails:
- Your academic information – high school transcript, test scores (ACT or SAT), and any Honors and AP elective classes. Also, be prepared to share with coaches the majors you might be interested in studying in college.
- Your athletic information – core softball metrics (either as a position player or pitcher), high school varsity season statistics, and any evaluations or assessments you’ve gotten from attending recruiting showcase events.
- Your highlight video – develop a high quality video that you can upload and share with college coaches so they can see you run, hit, field, and throw if you’re a position player, or see your mechanics and different pitches if you’re a pitcher. To get some ideas on how to put your video together, read “How to create your college softball recruiting video”, from NCSA College Recruiting.
- Your references – high school coach and summer ball coach will be important for the college softball recruiting process, and high school teachers, counselors, non-softball coaches, and any outside references (like a job supervisor) will be important for the college application process.
Find the recruiting events – assessments, camps, and tournaments – where you can play in front of coaches from the colleges you’re most interested in attending. (MyNextPlay can provide financial assistance for attending a showcase; apply here.)
Follow your MyNextPlay Timeline to stay current on what you should be focused on during your college planning and recruiting process.
5. Ramp up your college coach outreach during 11th grade
As your sophomore year of high school comes to a close, now’s the time to really focus on the top college programs on your list. Send college coaches information on where you’ll be playing during the summer. Be sure to take the time to talk with college coaches at tournaments and recruiting showcase events that you attend during the summer.
Offer to send any information that college coaches may want from you for their “early read” process – this is a process where coaches submit your transcript, test scores, and other academic information to their admissions department to assess the likelihood of you being admitted to their school.
A really important part of the process at this stage is understanding where you fit in the recruiting priorities of the schools you are most interested in attending. You should feel confident in asking the coach, “Where do I fit in terms of your recruiting class?” A good coach will be direct with you so you know whether you’ll receive an offer from that program before you begin the college application process.
6. Keep refining your college list and engaging with coaches
From the beginning of your junior year all the way through the college application process during the fall of your senior year, you’ll be narrowing your target list of colleges and continuing to talk to college coaches to figure out which college and program will be the best fit for you.
Your list that started with 10-15 colleges, will drop to 7-8 … and then perhaps 3-4 … and finally down to the one that you pick to attend and where you’ll play college softball.
7. Get ready for the final stretch during 12th grade fall semester
If you’ve received an “offer” – either a scholarship offer from a DI, DII, or NAIA school, or a verbal offer from an Ivy League or DIII coach (which includes confirmation that admissions gave a “thumbs up” to your early read information) – then congratulations, you’ll just need to complete the admissions application for that one school.
If you haven’t received an offer and are still considering a number of schools, keep reaching out to the college coaches at the programs you are most interested in attending to see what opportunity you may have to play at their school if accepted. If you’ve been developing relationships with coaches and programs over the last year or so, you may have an opportunity to walk on to the program if you get accepted to the school.
Also, early in the fall (like September), you can attend showcase events that are specifically set up for “uncommitted” players. These showcases can be good opportunities for you to get seen by – and to meet in person with – coaches who are still looking to fill roster spots.
8. Work with your family on the financial aid process
Unless you’re receiving a full-ride scholarship that will cover 100% of your college expenses (unlikely), you and your parents will need to fund some amount of your college attendance.
For those of you looking at Ivy League, DIII, or some NAIA schools, there will be no athletic scholarships so you’ll need to plan to fund your college experience from a combination of your own funds and financial aid that you are awarded from the school you choose to attend. Read our overview “What does it cost to play college softball?” to learn more about how the financial aid process works.
If you receive an offer of any type (for example, a DI athletic scholarship or DIII verbal offer that you’ll be on the team), you and your parents/guardians will want to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.
Talk to the college coach about how the school’s financial aid department can provide details that will allow you and your parents/guardians to understand the amount you’ll have to pay to attend the college and how much of the total cost of attendance will be made available through other sources like academic scholarships, grants, student loans, and work study.
9. Decision time!
The first big decision you’ll make is that you want to play college softball. As you can see in the first 8 steps, it takes energy and focus.
The second major decision you’ll have to then make is which school you choose to attend? You may have more than one coach coming on strong for you to play for them. Remember, like we said at the beginning: You are driving this process. That includes the ultimate decision of which college and softball program you say yes to!
