Prepared by Aphis Softball

Fastpitch Softball 18U Gold
To All Prospective Student Athletes
Basic Guidelines to follow

TIME LINE

Your Junior Year

1. Take your SAT & ACT (before June, so not to conflict with summer ball.)
2. Sign up with Collegiate Softball Connection around Jan.- Feb (or purchase the book Preparing to Play Softball at The Collegiate Level By Catharine Aradi).
3. Make a softball skills Video tape toward the middle or end of your high school season.
4. Have your player profile put together by May of your junior year. (Include High School Stats.)
5. Fill our your NCAA Clearinghouse application by the end of your junior year. (See your high school counselor.)
6. Send off your player profile and Tournament schedule toward the end of May. (Follow-up on all responses immediately.)

Your Senior Year

1. Fill out a Federal Financial aid form early in January of your senior year.  (See your counselor.)

NCAA Division I & Division II Rules to Follow

1. Coaches may not contact prospective recruits before Sept. 1^st of the players' junior year in high school.  You can call or write but they cannot call you or send any promotional softball material about their program.
2. Coaches may not contact you by phone or in person before July 1st after your junior year.
3. Coaches may not talk to senior players at tournaments until their team has been eliminated.  They can talk to a family member, which will constitute an official contact.
4. Coaches may only call prospective student athletes once a week.  (You may call them as often as you like.)
5. Coaches can only have 3 in person official contacts with a player.  (Parents talking to a coach is a contact.)
6. A player can only have 5 official visits.  (You must be in your senior year to take an official visit.)
7. Early signing period is during the 2nd & 3rd week of November of your senior year; the next signing period is in April of your senior year.

Please remember it's great to receive letters from schools and coaches, but most schools send out hundreds of letters to athletes.  This is only the first step in the recruiting process.  So don't slow down on marketing yourself because you are receiving some letters, no matter how interested the coach seems.  They are sending the same letter out to a lot of other athletes.  There are some athletes that will receive 50 to 100+ letters from different colleges, and some schools do heavy recruiting knowing they don't have enough scholarship money to go around.  Most programs will only be recruiting 3 to 4 players a year.  MARKETING YOURSELF AND FOLLOW-UP  IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS A COACH RECRUITING YOU.

NCAA Division I & Division II Academic Minimum Requirements