Division II Fall visits . . .

[Lax818]

My son has been invited for an official fall visit to a Division II school. He has already had an "unofficial" summer visit to that school which included an admissions interview and campus tour. He also spent 2 hours with the coach during the visit.

The coach has asked my son to bring his lax gear with him. I assume that he will do some work (try-out?) with the team during practice.

Is this common for Division II? Is it a good sign? Are there any restrictions as far as practicing with the team during the visit?

THANKS!

[CTLAX8]

Is he a senior or junior?

[Lax818]

I think you may be right. I know that it is common for basketball recruits at high major schools to participate in "pick-up" games with the team they are visiting but I believe that there can be no coaches involved in the pick up game.

[Lax818]

He is a senior and has already registered with the NCAA Clearing House.

[truth]

I'm pretty sure you can't practice or do anything with the team playing wise. I remember on all of my OVs that was a pretty big thing, especially when you see the team playing, all you want to do is pick up a stick, but you can't. Granted that was DI, although I don't think DII rules that different, so I have no idea what the coach is going ask of him. Maybe he'll play around with some of the older guys outside of practice, that might be okay.


DII colleges are allowed to have student athletes visit and practice. The rules and regs are spelled out somewhere on the NCAA website. I would assume the
word "tryout" is not permitted.

[truth]

The NCAA site is so hard to navigate, I ended up going to 2-3 DII school's athletic websites, and the regs are spelled out there.

[CorsairKid]

I practiced with a division 2 team last spring. You can practice with the team as long as you are not in season. Luckily my season started 2 days later than my official visit.

[Lax818]

My son did make the visit to the school and he got to practice on Friday afternoon and play in a scrimmage on Saturday morning.

At first he was real nervous because he felt he was being evaluated and that it was a "try-out."

However, prior to the practice the coach assured him it wasn't a pass or fail situation and that it was an opportunity for my son to evaluate how he would fit-in and feel about playing with this team.

The players treated him great and he really liked the team members. He was also impressed about how "serious" the player's were in practice about improving their games.

Finally, the most important thing he got from this experience was the confidence, that although he still had a lot to learn about their defensive system, he did have the skills to play defense at this level (high DivII).

This experience has really helped him play more aggressively with his fall travel team and with the two indoor teams he's playing on this winter.