A good time of the year to take a visit to a college campus is September or October. You aren’t in basketball season and college programs are also not in season.
During this time of the year, college programs are focused on getting their players settled into the new school year, pre-season workouts, community service activities, high school visits, and scheduling unofficial and official visits.
What’s the difference between an official and unofficial visit?
An official visit is a visit paid for by the school. Only seniors take official visits. An unofficial visit is any visit to a college campus paid for by you or your family members.
Reasons to take an Unofficial Visit
- For The Experience – The first reason to make an unofficial visit is to get the experience of being on a college campus and around the women’s basketball program. The first visit you take will lay the foundation of what that experience is like and things to compare once you take more visits.
- Show Interest in a Program – When you tell a college coach that you would like to come by and visit, that shows that you are interested in that program.
- Establish/Nurture Relationship – Visiting a campus helps establish a relationship with the coaches or continues to nurture the relationship, if you have been communicating with a college coach or coaching staff.
- Learn More – Visiting a college gives you the opportunity to learn more about a school’s campus life, academics, facilities, and also the city.
- Meet People – When you visit a campus, you get the opportunity to meet people beyond the coaching staff and players. You could meet the strength and conditioning coaches, athletic training staff, graduate assistants, and also athletic administrators and more.
7 Types of Unofficial Visits
When you think of an unofficial visit, most mainly think about visiting a campus to get a campus tour. There are many other ways to take an unofficial visit.
Local Visit – Visiting your local school can be your very first unofficial visit. It’s the least expensive because it doesn’t require you to travel out of town.
Invited Visit – When schools have interest in a player, they will invite them to come visit for an Unofficial or Underclassmen Day. These will likely be at least a half a day of activities consisting of a tour of campus, interacting with the players and may involve other players they are recruiting.
Academic Visit – You can go through a school’s Admission Department to schedule a Campus Tour and also learn about a school’s academics and student programs.
Game Day Visit – As a recruit, you and 2 guests are allowed free admissions to attend any women’s basketball college game.
Open Practice Visit – Programs host Open Practices for the public to attend or you can ask to attend a practice.
Pop up Visit – If you are planning to be in the area or attending an Academic Visit, call the Women’s Basketball Office to see if you can stop by.
Elite Camp – This is a form of an unofficial visit. Since you are already on campus for the camp, extend your visit by requesting a tour by the staff before or after the camp.
Unofficial Visit vs Official Visit
Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help:
- Girls Basketball Recruitment Roadmap How to get Women’s Basketball College Coaches to Recruit You
- 101 Girls Basketball Motivation Quotes Join 300+ who have used my book for daily motivation and inspiration
- How to Increase Your Confidence in Girls Basketball 100+ have used my book to raise their confidence, get out of a slump, or overcome a bad game
- Skills Evaluation I will evaluate a highlight video or game footage to help you understand your skills
- Train with Coach Po (Memphis, TN) Work directly with me on improving your fundamental skills, adding advanced skills and raising your IQ
I welcome you to always reply to my weekly emails with questions, comments or suggestions.
Thanks for reading! Tell your friends to subscribe to Rise and Grind also!
Talk to you next week!
-Coach Po