INTRODUCTION

June 15th has become one of the most anticipated dates in college field hockey. For many rising Juniors, it feels like the day when the entire recruiting process suddenly becomes real. Phones start buzzing, emails and Instagram follows start coming in. Some recruits will get overwhelmed with attention. Others will hear very little and immediately assume something has gone wrong.

Before anything else, understand this: June 15th is the beginning of a new stage in the recruiting process, not the end. It is not a reflection of your worth as a student-athlete. It is simply the first day that Division I college field hockey coaches can have recruiting conversations with you.

If you prepare the right way, June 15th can be exciting and productive. If you sit around waiting for coaches to discover you, it can become stressful and confusing very quickly.

And if you are reading this after June 15th, do not panic. It is not too late. But you do need to start now. The same steps still apply, but the longer you have waited to begin the process, the more urgency you need to bring to your research, recruiting resume, and outreach.

THE BASIC RULES

The first thing you need to understand is what June 15th actually means. For Division I field hockey recruits, June 15th after your Sophomore year is the date when coaches can begin recruiting communication with you. That includes calls, texts, emails, and social media messages.

Division II rules are different; Division II coaches have more flexibility and can communicate with recruits earlier than Division I coaches. Division III coaches also do not have to wait until June 15th to communicate with you. This is why some players will hear from Division II or Division III programs before they ever hear from a Division I program.

Official visits also have their own timelines. In most Division I sports, including field hockey, official visits can begin August 1 before your Junior year. Division II official visits can begin earlier, around June 15th before your Junior year. Division III official visits can begin January 1st of your Junior year.

As of July 1, 2023, there is no longer a limit on the total number of official visits a recruit can take to NCAA schools1. But that does not mean you can take unlimited official visits to the same school. In most cases, you are still limited to one official visit per school unless there is a coaching change.

Rules can change, and there are always sport, division, and school-specific details. When you are getting close to visits or offers, ask the coach to explain exactly what is allowed and what the school can provide. Do not assume. Ask.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL JUNE 15 TO START THE RECRUITING PROCESS

One of the mistakes recruits make is treating June 15th like the starting line; it’s not. If June 15th is the first day you start thinking seriously about recruiting, you are already behind the recruits who have done their research, built their resume, filled out questionnaires, and emailed coaches.

You need to be prepared before June 15th. That does not mean you need to have everything figured out. You are not expected to know exactly where you want to commit before your junior year even starts. But you should have a realistic list of schools, a strong recruiting resume, and a plan for outreach.

If June 15th has already passed, the message is not that you missed your chance; it’s that you need to move with purpose. You may need to compress work that other recruits spread out over several months. You may need to research schools, update your profile, fill out questionnaires, and send emails in a much shorter window. This is manageable, but you cannot keep waiting.

There are three big things you need to do before June 15, or as soon as possible if June 15 has already passed:

• Research. Build a realistic list of colleges that could fit you athletically, academically, socially, and financially.

• Build Your Recruiting Resume. Make sure coaches know your skills, academics, potential, motivation, and story.

• Outreach. Fill out recruiting questionnaires and send introductory emails to the coaches at schools that interest you.

If you do those three things well, you will be in a much better position when coaches start building and adjusting their recruiting lists.

RESEARCH: BUILD THE RIGHT COLLEGE LIST

The first step is research. You need to start building a list of potential college options that reflects your academic, athletic, and personal goals. This is exactly what your personalized FieldHockeyIntel Best Fit Report is designed to do. It identifies the divisions and colleges that align with your athletic ability, academic performance, long-term athletic and academic goals, and individual preferences.

What matters to you? Academic selectivity? Your intended major? A big school? Close to home? Warm weather? A city campus? A small college town? You need to start figuring out what you actually want for these upcoming four years of your life.

Ultimately, you are trying to find colleges that meet your expectations in four major areas: athletics, academics, social life, and intangibles. The athletic fit gets the most attention in recruiting, but it is only one part of the decision. A school can be a perfect athletic fit and a terrible academic or social one. That does not make it the right school for you.

Athletically, you need to know whether you are a realistic fit for the programs you are contacting.

Looking at a team's roster and the clubs its players come from, while also considering factors such as your position, technical skill level, and experience competing against high-level opponents, is a good starting point.

Teams routinely competing for conference and national championships may focus on athletes with extensive high-level club experience, national team experience, and a proven track record against elite competition. Less competitive programs may be more willing to recruit players with strong potential who are still developing technically or physically. But what you really want to know is how you compare to the players a college program typically recruits. This is where your FieldHockeyIntel Impact Rating can help.

Your Impact Rating is a numeric value (0-100) that reflects your ability to make an athletic impact at the collegiate level. This rating is derived from your Scout Report, which is an independent technical evaluation of raw game footage conducted by a former college coach. In addition to academic and personal criteria, your Best Fit Report matches are based on how your Impact Rating compares to the Impact Rating FieldHockeyIntel assigns to college programs.

FieldHockeyIntel categorizes colleges and universities within each division into one of four tiers – Elite, Power, Competitive, or Developing. These classifications are based on data from the previous three seasons and include elements such as conference schedule strength, conference and overall records, national tournament appearances, the number of players on the roster selected for Nexus events, (i.e., AAU Junior Olympics, Junior and Senior Nexus Championships, Junior National Camps) and the number of players on the roster who are members of the Junior and/or Senior U.S. Women’s National Team.

If you have an Impact Rating of 86.0 and a college you’re interested in has an average Impact Rating of 96.0, it probably won’t be a good fit. That does not mean you can never reach out to that school. It means you need to understand the gap and be within striking distance of closing it. You can learn more about Impact Ratings and Scout Reports at (https://fieldhockeyintel.com/articles/scout-reports).

BUILD YOUR RECRUITING RESUME

You may get some well-meaning but misguided advice about the recruiting process, such as “college field hockey recruiting is only about skill.” This is one of those statements that people get kind of right and very wrong at the same time. Of course, skills and performance matter, but not in the way that you might think. What matters most is how you will perform in college, not necessarily how you’re performing right now.

That means coaches are evaluating your potential and motivation. They are looking for signals that you are going to take your game to the next level in college. They are also looking for red flags like burnout, lack of improvement, poor communication, or signs that you may not want to keep playing field hockey once college gets hard.

Some student-athletes choose not to continue playing field hockey after their freshman year. That is not meant to scare you. It is meant to help you understand what coaches are trying to predict. They are not just asking, “How good is this player right now?” They are asking, “What kind of player is this recruit going to become and will they still be on our team in two or three years?” This means you need to tell the story of your potential.

College field hockey recruiting is a lot like job hunting. You need to build your resume and sell your potential to recruiters. Your skills and performance matter, but if you think that is all you need to highlight on your resume, you’re wrong. Your academics, leadership, potential and intangibles matter as well.  

A college coach may reach out to, and receive interest from, hundreds of recruits. But most college field hockey programs are looking to bring in a recruiting class of 4 to 8 freshman players. It will likely take more than a standout performance or impressive highlight video to earn that roster spot offer.

For field hockey, FieldHockeyIntel profiles give you some great tools to showcase your entire recruiting resume. Think of it as a LinkedIn made for field hockey recruits. You can add game stats, upload highlight/skills videos and raw game footage, display athletic and academic accomplishments, write an About Me that reflects your personality and potential, and share your contact information with coaches.

Do not skip the About Me. Coaches need more than just your game stats, athletic and academic accomplishments, and highlight videos. They need to understand who you are and why they should believe your best games are ahead of you. A guide to building your FieldHockeyIntel profile can be found at (https://fieldhockeyintel.com/articles/building-your-profile).

GETTING ON A COACH’S RADAR

Ideally, recruits should start reaching out to college coaches before June 15th. You need to fill out recruiting questionnaires and send introductory emails to the programs that interest you.

Division I coaches can receive communication from you before June 15th, but they cannot have recruiting communication with you until June 15th after your sophomore year. That does not mean your emails disappear into the void. Coaches are reading emails, reviewing questionnaire responses, and building their recruiting lists. They are trying to figure out who they want to contact when the rules allow them to do so.

Recruiting questionnaires matter because they put you into the coach’s database. Coaches use these databases to manage recruits through the recruiting process. If you only send an email and never fill out the questionnaire, you may be making it harder for the staff to track you. If you only fill out the questionnaire and never send an email, you may be sitting in a database with hundreds of other recruits and hoping someone notices you.

Do both.

Fill out the recruiting questionnaire and send a strong introductory email. You want to get on a coach’s radar before June 15th. You need a solid email that introduces who you are, why you are interested in the school, and why the coach should keep watching you. Here is a great place to start: https://fieldhockeyintel.com/articles/introductory-email-template.

You need to take an active role in your recruiting. Do not wait for coaches to contact you. That is the most common mistake recruits make every year. It does not matter if you are ranked #20 in your class. You are rolling the dice if you do not reach out to colleges that interest you. Coaches might assume you have your sights set somewhere else and do not want to waste their time recruiting you.

The amount of communication recruits receive on June 15th often reflects their outreach efforts leading up to that date. Coaches are not going to magically find every good fit on their own. It is up to you to get noticed.

How many colleges should you reach out to? It depends on the recruit, but reaching out to 3 or 4 colleges is not enough. Reaching out to 80 colleges is unrealistic to manage. The sweet spot for early outreach is typically somewhere between 15 and 30 colleges.

Your list will change. New schools will pop onto your radar. Other schools will drop off. The closer you get to committing, the narrower your list will become. But early in the process, you need options. You need conversations. You need information.

WHAT TO EXPECT ON JUNE 15TH

June 15th may not go exactly how you expect. Do not panic.

Some recruits will get flooded with communication. Some will get a handful of messages. Some will hear from schools they were not expecting and not hear from schools they thought would reach out. This is normal.

You should also be prepared for phone calls to happen much sooner than you expect. Coaches may want to get on the phone almost immediately after June 15th.

You need a strategy for these calls. Before you talk to a college coach, write down questions. Know what you want to learn about the school, the team, the coach, the training environment, the recruiting timeline, roster spots, scholarships, admissions, and visits. You do not need to sound like a corporate executive. But you do need to sound prepared. Here is a helpful guide: https://fieldhockeyintel.com/articles/talking-with-coaches.

June 15th is just the beginning. There is still a lot that is going to happen before you commit.

HOW TO HANDLE THE COMMUNICATION

When coaches start contacting you, stay organized. Track every school, coach, email, call, questionnaire, visit discussion, and next step. You will forget details if you try to keep everything in your head.

Be responsive. Try to answer coaches within 24 hours. You do not need to write a novel in every response, but you do need to show maturity and interest. If you are interested in a school, say so. If you are not interested, be respectful; if you need time to think, say that too.

Before phone calls, write down questions. After phone calls, write down notes. What did you like? What concerned you? What did the coach say about your skills and performance, roster spots, scholarships, the admissions process, or campus visits?

This is where recruiting starts to feel a lot more real. Coaches are evaluating you, but you are also evaluating them. Pay attention to how they communicate, whether they answer your questions directly, and whether you can see yourself spending four years with that coach and that team.

FINAL THOUGHTS

June 15th is exciting, but it can also create a lot of unnecessary stress. Some players will get more attention than they expected. Some will get less. Some will hear from the wrong schools. Some will not hear from the school they care about most.

Do not let one day define your recruiting journey.

And if June 15th has already passed, do not use that as an excuse to stay stuck. Start now. Research schools. Build your resume. Update your profile. Fill out questionnaires. Send emails. Prepare for calls. The longer you have waited, the more intentional you need to be.

The field hockey players who handle recruiting the best are usually the ones who take an active role early. They research schools, understand athletic fit, fill out questionnaires, and email coaches. They stay organized, communicate like adults, and keep updating coaches as they improve.

If you do those things, June 15th becomes a milestone instead of a mystery. It becomes one step in the process of finding a school where you can play field hockey, get a great education, and have an incredible college experience.

That is the goal. Not collecting the most calls on June 15th. Not chasing the biggest logo. Not panicking because someone else posted a screenshot of their inbox. The goal is finding the right fit.