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Hello Parents!

We created this MAX Field Hockey U College Research & Management Tool to help young female athletes like your daughter find the best college fit for them- academically, athletically, and socially.  We want to help them find a place where they will be happy and succeed both on the field and in the classroom, and become prepared for the next phase of their life, whatever that may be.

There are certain parts of this college process that may seem stressful, confusing, and intimidating at times.  Try to remember that this is an exciting time!  There are a number of good options out there for every player that wants to play college field hockey.  It just takes a little work to find them (and that’s what we are here to help you with!).  While things may not turn out like how you’d expected them to in the beginning, the reality is that how the process plays out is often what is in the best interest of the individual.  An example of this is someone who has always dreamed of playing high level division I field hockey that doesn’t get recruited by any of those schools but ends up at an incredible Division III school- becomes a leader for her team, vies for a field hockey championship, excels in the classroom and gets a great internship that leads to a job after college and her new passion in life.  Does that sound so bad?

We are not trying to discourage players from trying to play Division I field hockey nor are we saying that you can’t play Division I field hockey, succeed in the classroom, be a leader, and get a great job after college.  We just want to help people realize that it is not the end of the world if your daughter does not play Division I field hockey.  There are so many high quality field hockey programs at great schools across all divisions!

Some of our advice for you:

• Become knowledgeable about the process.  Read through this Resource Center and The 10-Step Plan, learn about NCAA rules, the admissions and financial aid processes, etc.  The sooner you learn about all of this, the less stress and pressure you will feel later on as you move through each of the 10 steps.
• While your daughter may still be young and need some guidance, especially in certain aspects of the process like financials, try to let her take the driver’s seat.  This is her college experience and she is going to be the one living it out.
• Try not to worry about what other people think.  Focus on what is best for your daughter and try not to compare her to other players on her team.
• Let your daughter email and call the coaches and ask the majority of the questions while on campus.  Don’t do all of the talking for her.  College coaches want to get to know her as much as possible, see her maturity level, and determine if she is a good fit for their program.
• Try to listen and be supportive of her and what she wants, even if it’s not exactly what you’d like to see for her.
• Be realistic about her playing ability and try not to push her to play at a level she might not be ready for or even want to play at.

Some of you will realize through this process that you don’t want to make the commitment to play NCAA field hockey or maybe you found the school of your dreams but you won’t be able to play field hockey there.  The good news is that there are still opportunities for you to play field hockey at a wide variety of schools across the country at the club level!

An organized college club league exists and it is called the National Field Hockey League (NFHL).  College club field hockey comes with much less of a commitment than NCAA field hockey, but it can still be organized (with a game schedule and tournament participation) and competitive.  Programs are often run by the actual players and some may have coaches, others may not.  Two males are allowed on the field at a time per the NFHL rules (the GK does not count, so you could have 3 if your GK is a male).  There will most likely be a fee to participate since it is not an official NCAA athletic program supported by the athletics department.  The club programs generally fall under the schools Recreation and/or Intramural office.

If you think you may be interested in exploring the club option, visit the NFHL website to learn more: www.nationalfieldhockeyleague.com

All college field hockey programs are a part of and are governed by the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association).  There is currently no NAIA or Junior College/Community College field hockey in the U.S.  There is an organized College Club league called the National Field Hockey League (NFHL) that offers competitive playing opportunities with less of a time commitment than the NCAA level and also allows males to play.

The NCAA is split into three divisions (Division I, Division II, and Division III).  Member schools compete at one of those levels and have to comply with specific rules set for that level.  While there may be a wide range of schools and athletic programs within each, there are general philosophies and traits that schools in each division tend to share.  Division I is known to be the highest level of athletics, where the most athletic scholarship money is allowed, the highest budgets tend to exist, and the highest level of commitment is required of the student-athlete.  At the Division III level, the greatest emphasis is placed on academics and no athletic scholarships are allowed.  Division II falls somewhere in between and permits some athletic scholarships.  Note: there are many competitive conferences and teams within each division!

View some NCAA Recruiting Facts by Division

If you plan on playing at the NCAA Division I or II level you will need to be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center.  The NCAA Eligibility Center will screen you to make sure that you are, 1) academically qualified, and 2) an amateur student-athlete.  It is important to learn about eligibility early on the in the process because the courses you take in High School impact your eligibility.

Amateur Status:

The amateurism rule was created by the NCAA to ensure that students’ priority remains obtaining a quality education and that all student-athletes are competing equally.

You must be certified as an amateur student-athlete to participate in the NCAA (this includes international students).  The NCAA Eligibility Center determines amateur eligibility for Division I and II and the individual institutions determine it for Division III.

While we don’t forsee this being much of an issue for field hockey, it is still very important that you understand the rules because they can potentially prohibit you from competing in the NCAA.

In general, amateurism requirements do not allow:

• Contracts with professional teams
• Salary for participating in athletics
• Prize money above actual and necessary expenses
• Play with professionals
• Tryouts, practice or competition with a professional team
• Benefits from an agent or prospective agent
• Agreement to be represented by an agent
• Delayed initial full-time collegiate enrollment to participate in organized sports competition

To learn more and view definitions relating to amateurism, visit www.ncaa.org/amateurism.

Academic Qualifications:

Your academic eligibility is determined based on the following:
1) The Core Courses you take in High School
2) Your Test Scores (ACT/SAT)
3) Your Core Grade-Point Average

View the Quick Reference Guides to see the exact requirements for each category.  There are different requirement for Division I and Division II and there are some differences noted for students entering college before August 1, 2016 and after August 1, 2016.  Learn about these requirements early on the process so that you can plan your academic coursework accordingly.

NCAA Division I & II Initial Eligibility Quick Reference Guide

The following worksheets will help you monitor your progress in meeting the NCAA academic eligibility standards.  Your high school college counselor should be able to assist you with completing these:

Division I and Division II Worksheets

Note: At the Division III level, the NCAA eligibility center does not oversee academic eligibility.  The individual colleges set their own standards.

Highlight videos (also referred to as recruiting videos) allow college coaches to do an initial evaluation or further evaluation of your skills to determine if you are a good fit for their program.  Think of highlight videos as somewhat of a screening process.  Some college coaches receive hundreds of letters of interest from high school players wanting to attend their school.  It is not realistic for the coaches to watch in person every single player that writes them.  The highlight video allows coaches to quickly assess a player’s ability and narrow down these lists of interested players to the ones they believe have the potential to play for them.

Do you have to create and send out a highlight video?  Not necessarily.  Some college coaches may request that you send one.  Some players send them along with their initial contact.  It is your personal choice.  Sending a video adds a personal touch and may help determine early on in the process if a coach is interested in you.

Do I need to use an expensive and professional videographer?  Not necessarily.  Nowadays you can record games with a wide variety of devices and get pretty good quality footage and you can edit together some nice clips using free programs available on most of your home computers (like iMovie).  If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, there is most likely someone you know that can help you or do it for you.  If not, there are several services available that will do this for you for a fee, especially at some of the larger showcases and events.

Video Tips:

• Do not send full games unless a coach requests them.  College coaches are extremely busy and will not spend the time to sit down and watch much more than a couple of minutes of your video.  They also do not need anything crazy like special effects, music, etc.  Keep it simple.
• Limit your video to a couple minutes of skills drills (3-5 minutes), followed by 5-10 minutes of good game clips.  Remember to include what team you are playing for/jersey color and your uniform number so that college coaches can easily identify you.
• Make sure your video highlights your skills, athleticism, speed and work rate.  That is what most college coaches are going to be looking for.

Many players post their highlight videos on YouTube.
Watch a video on How-to upload a video to Youtube
2nd Video: Also explains how-to create an account

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the governing body for Division I, II and III college athletics.  The organization regulates several aspects of its member institutions and competition in field hockey, including recruiting, in order to maintain fair competition and a level playing field.  The following is an outline of the important NCAA rules and regulations relating to recruiting.  Compliance with these NCAA rules is very serious.  Breaking these rules can result in major penalties to the institutions, coaches and field hockey programs.  It is very important that you understand these rules and how they impact the recruiting process and your communications with college coaches.

Some Recruiting Terms (defined by the NCAA):

Note: The NCAA is working on recruiting reforms in additional areas.  Expect more changes to come soon [Read More]

Greyshirt
Typically in field hockey if you hear of a player “Grey Shirting” it means that they have left High School a semester early and have begun college in the Spring of what would have been their senior year of High School.  They have officially graduated early from High School and enrolled full-time in college a semester early.  The most common reason for this is a higher level player benefiting from off-season training with the college team before coming in for the Fall official season, which will enable them to potentially step into a bigger role.  It also allows the player to get a bit of a jump start and get acclimated to the academic course-load and student life prior to the Fall.  It may offer them the opportunity to take a lighter course-load during the Fall field hockey season as well.

The term “Grey Shirt” is used very differently in other sports and is in fact used more for students who struggle academically and delay full-time enrollment in college for sports like football.

Hardship Waiver:
Sometimes student-athletes may be granted a hardship waiver (or what some may refer to as a medical waiver) even if they have competed in official “intercollegiate competition.”  A hardship waiver is granted in cases of serious injury and it allows the student-athlete an additional year of eligibility.  Medical documentation must be submitted and the following criteria must be satisfied:

1) The injury/illness is a season-ending injury
2) The injury/illness occurs prior to the completion of the first half of the season
3) The injury/illness occurs when the student-athlete has not participated in more than the greater of three contests/dates of competition or 30% of the team’s scheduled contests/dates of competition during the team’s traditional season.

*Average Team Size = ~22

Athletics scholarships are awarded at the Division I and II levels.  Division III programs are not allowed to award financial aid based on athletics ability, but you may be able to receive academic scholarships or need-based financial aid.  The chart above shows the number of scholarships that each Division I and II institution may award for field hockey as regulated by the NCAA.  At the Division I level, college coaches may award a total of 12 scholarships.  The cost of tuition does not matter.  So, whether an institution’s total cost of attendance is $50,000 or $20,000- one full cost of attendance = 1.  It is up to the individual coaches to decide how they split up those scholarships.  They are not required to award 12 full scholarships.  They may award any combination of amounts.  For example: they may have 3 players on a full ride (1+1+1 = 3), 4 players on 50% (4×50% = 2), 2 players on 10% (2×10% = .2), etc. as long as the total number does not add up to more than 12.  For Division II, that total number cannot add up to more than 6.3.  While some of the top players in the country may be awarded full scholarships, most scholarships awarded for field hockey are partial scholarships.

The numbers above (12 and 6.3) are what is allowed by the NCAA, not necessarily what each school is able to offer.  If a program is not fully funded or if they are in a conference like the Ivy League where athletics scholarships are prohibited, these numbers may be less or even 0.

If all field hockey programs at the Division I and II levels were fully funded, there would be a total of 1,091.4 scholarships available.  This number is the total for all four classes (freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors), not just one incoming class.  So if you divide 1,091.4 by the four classes, there are approximately 273 scholarships available each year in field hockey.  Remember, the actual number is most likely less since not all programs are fully funded.

Another thing to consider is that many, if not most, international players are on full or close to full scholarships.  We counted there to be approximately 260 international players at the Division I level, which works out to about 65 international players per class.  So, you can see the total available scholarship number per year for U.S. players continue to shrink and move closer towards 200.

Our intention is not to discourage you about the potential to receive an athletics scholarship to play field hockey, but we do want to paint a realistic picture of the numbers.  You can assume there are somewhere around 200 scholarships available to U.S. recruits each year, but remember that is just a total number.  Most of those will be broken up into partial scholarships and awarded to many more than 200 players.

The terms of athletics scholarships are determined by the individual institutions.  The amount can be set to increase or decrease each year and can also vary depending on performance.  They are also not guaranteed for 4 years.  While Division I programs are permitted to offer multi-year scholarships, at a minimum, an athletics scholarship must be a one year academic agreement.  If you have been offered an athletics scholarship, make sure that you understand the terms and ask lots of “what if” questions so that you have a good sense of how things could play out.

*The NCAA reports in their College-Bound Student-Athlete Guide that recent statistics show about 2% of high school athletes are awarded athletics scholarships to compete in college.*

Financial Aid

There are several options available to help pay for your college education beyond a field hockey scholarship, including academic scholarships, local and national scholarships and need-based aid (grants and loans).  Your high school college counselor should be able to help you get started with this.  You should also check with the each school’s coaches or financial aid offices about the different options that may be available to you.

There is a term called “stacking,” which refers to the combining of athletics scholarships and/or merit scholarships with need-based aid.  At some schools, if you receive an athletic or merit scholarship and you were to receive need-based aid, the scholarship amount would be deducted from your need-based aid, so it would balance out.  At other schools, it may be dealt with differently.  The best way to find out the policy on stacking at the schools on your list is to ask them.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA):

FAFSA is the form used by the U.S. Department of Education to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) by conducting a “need analysis” based on financial information, such as income, assets and other household information, which you (and your parents if you are a dependent student) will be asked to provide. The form is submitted to, and processed by, a federal processor contracted by the U.S. Department of Education, and the results are electronically transmitted to the financial aid offices of the schools that you list on your application.

FAFSA is the application used by nearly all colleges and universities to determine eligibility for federal, state, and college-sponsored financial aid, including grants, educational loans, and work-study programs.

Completing the FAFSA form:
January 1st of your senior year is the first day you can submit your FAFSA form.  It is free to submit, so there is no reason not to apply!  They are evaluated on a first-come, first-served basis and funds are given out until they are depleted, so you will want to submit it asap no matter what your state’s deadline is or the federal deadline is (June 30th).  You do not need to be admitted to college to apply for financial aid, but you will need to be admitted to actually receive the funds.

• Visit the FAFSA website: https://fafsa.ed.gov
• View the FAFSA forecaster for an estimate of your eligibility for federal student aid: www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov

Calculating Net Price:
Calculate the amount of money your family can afford to pay for you to attend college each year.  Then use a net price calculator to determine the net price for each of the schools on your list.  The U.S. Department of Education has a free online site that will provide you with more information about what net price is and it also provides links to the net price calculator for each school.

Before you contact college coaches, make sure to consider your image and how you are portrayed online.  Employers have been known to look at potential employees social media accounts, college admissions staff may look at potential students accounts, and college coaches may look at your accounts!  The general rule: assume that college coaches and admissions offices are going to look at your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. accounts and plan accordingly.

It would be a shame if a college coach at one of your top schools saw something on your page or account they don’t like that makes them question your character.  It could be a red flag and they could remove you from or bump you down on their recruiting list.  Don’t let one post or photo that you or your friends though was funny inhibit you from achieving your goals or going to the school of your dreams.  It’s not worth it.

Tips:

• Make all of your social media accounts private.  Go to your privacy settings and select the most private option there is.  Don’t accept any request to be friends with someone or to allow them access to view your account, updates and personal photos unless they are a friend or someone you know.
• Clean up your walls, feeds, photos, updates and remove everything that may portray you negatively to a college coach (whether it is your post/photo or someone else’s).  Make sure you have no inappropriate photos or anything that could be interpreted as illegal activity.  If in doubt, delete it.
• Have one of your parents, or coaches or a trusted adult skim through your accounts and let you know if they see anything that might not portray you in the best light to a college coach or admissions counselor.
• Think twice when you are posting updates, comments, and photos in the future and make sure you consider how it could portray you to your potential college coach!

NOTE: When you get to college, you will most likely have to adhere to a social media policy created by the athletics department and possibly additional policies created by your field hockey coaches.  It is good practice for you to begin acting responsibly online and be mindful of what might not be appropriate or what may portray you and/or your team negatively.

Looking for more personalized one-on-one help with the process from an expert in the field?  For a fee, you can have an expert walk you throughout the entire process step-by-step and help you find a good fit for you academically and athletically.

[LEARN MORE]