No — and in many ways, freshman year is the best time to start. Not because coaches will be offering scholarships (they will not), but because freshman year is when the foundation gets built: understanding how recruiting actually works, getting grades on track, learning what coaches evaluate, and starting to track stats and film in an organized way.

Athletes who wait until junior year to start learning the process are playing catch-up against athletes who have been preparing for two years. The work in freshman year is education and preparation, not outreach. That is exactly what AG2C is built for.

It is not too late, but the timeline is now compressed and the strategy has to change. A junior starting from scratch needs to move quickly on three fronts at the same time: building a complete recruiting profile, getting film in front of coaches, and identifying realistic programs at the right division level.

The honest truth is that some D1 programs finish their recruiting classes early — but most D2, D3, NAIA, and JUCO programs are actively recruiting juniors and seniors year-round. A junior with good grades, current film, and a focused outreach strategy has real options. The athletes who run out of runway are the ones who wait until senior fall to start.

Yes, and this is a more common situation than families realize. Seniors without offers tend to need three things: a realistic assessment of what level they can actually play at, a professional profile they can send to coaches that same day, and a focused outreach plan aimed at programs still building their class.

Roster spots open up late — coaches lose commits to transfers, injuries, or academic issues, and they need to fill those spots quickly. A senior with a polished profile and a specific target list can still find the right program. We are not going to tell you every senior lands somewhere — that would not be honest. But we will tell you that quitting in February of senior year is how you guarantee the outcome you do not want.

Most of the recruiting process happens before the decision is fully made, which means she does not need certainty to start. What she needs is information: what playing in college actually looks like at different division levels, what the academic and time commitment is, and whether programs exist where she could realistically compete.

Step 1 and Step 2 of our system are built exactly for this — they help her figure out whether college softball is for her, not just how to get recruited. Many families who start thinking recruiting is the goal realize partway through that the real goal is finding the right college, and softball is a tool that widens the options.

Right now our step-by-step content, examples, and tools are built specifically for college softball recruiting. The underlying principles — profile building, division selection, coach outreach, offer evaluation — apply to any sport, and the profile tool supports any sport. But families who want softball-specific coach lists, scholarship numbers, position-specific stats guidance, and tournament references will get the most out of the platform today.

The biggest difference is philosophy. Large recruiting services are built around exposure — get your athlete's name in front of as many coaches as possible and hope something sticks. AG2C is built around education and ownership — teach the athlete how recruiting actually works, give her the tools to run her own process, and produce a recruiting profile coaches actually want to open.

Practical differences:

• Price: We are $24.99/month or $199/year. Most traditional recruiting services charge $1,500–$3,500 upfront or through multi-year packages.
• Contracts: We have none. Cancel anytime.
• Who does the outreach: Your athlete does. College coaches recruit athletes, not services, and a service sending generic emails from a database does not replace an athlete writing her own.
• What you get: A complete step-by-step education, a professional recruiting profile, a college search dashboard, contact tracker, and the tools to run the process yourself.

If you want someone to do the work for you, we are not the right fit — and we will tell you that directly. If you want to understand how recruiting works and run the process yourself, we are built for you.

Not in the way the marketing implies. College coaches recruit athletes they can evaluate — video, stats, academics, and real interest from the athlete herself. A mass-exposure database does not change that. What changes outcomes is: current film, accurate grades, a professional profile, and consistent, well-written outreach from the athlete.

Any service — including us — that promises specific outcomes (offers, scholarships, commitments) is overpromising. Coaches make those decisions, and they are based on the athlete, not the platform. What a good platform does is give the athlete the tools to present herself clearly and the education to avoid the mistakes that cost families real opportunities.

No — and that is intentional. Your athlete sends her own emails, makes her own phone calls, and builds her own relationships with coaches. That is what college coaches respect and respond to. A database sending out mass emails with your athlete's name on them does not impress a coach and, in some cases, actively hurts her standing.

What AG2C does is give her the email templates, the coach contact strategy, the profile link to include, and the system to track who she has contacted and what the response was. The work is hers. The results are hers.

That depends on what you are currently getting and what part of the process you are in. If your existing service is providing real value — honest coaching, quality film evaluation, a profile coaches actually open — keep it. If it is functioning as an expensive directory and your daughter is not using it, that is a different conversation.

AG2C is inexpensive enough ($24.99/month) that many families use us alongside another service as the education and profile layer. There is no exclusivity required either way. Start with our 14-day free trial and see what fits.

Two options:

• Monthly: $24.99/month
• Yearly: $199/year (saves $100 — equivalent to $16.58/month)

Both plans include everything: the 7-step recruiting system, the college search dashboard with contact tracker, the recruiting profile builder, the parents portal, and every tool and resource on the platform. There are no tiered plans, no upsells, no "premium" features locked behind a higher price.

You sign up, get full access to everything on the platform for 14 days, and are not charged until day 15. If you cancel before day 15, you will not be billed at all. No forms to fill out, no phone calls — just cancel in your account.

Yes. No contracts, no minimum terms, no cancellation fees. Log into your account, cancel, and you will retain access through the end of your current billing period. You will not be billed again after that.

Each athlete needs her own membership because the recruiting profile and dashboard data are tied to a specific athlete — her stats, her target schools, her outreach history. Sharing one account gets messy quickly and coaches need each athlete's profile to be her own.

If you have multiple athletes and want a family discount, email us. We would rather work something out than have you choose between your daughters.

The profile URL is deactivated when the membership ends, meaning coaches who have the link will no longer be able to view it. Your daughter's content (photos, videos, stats, written material) belongs to her — we do not own it and we do not repurpose it. If she wants to reactivate later, her data is preserved in our system and the profile comes back exactly as she left it when she resumes membership.

The 14-day free trial is the refund window — use that time to evaluate whether the platform is right for your family. After the trial, we do not offer refunds on partial months, but you can cancel anytime and keep access through the end of your billing period.

No. The membership price is the full price. There are no per-email fees, no coach-contact fees, no "premium profile" upgrades, no character coaches or consultants being sold on top. If we ever add a service that costs extra, it will be genuinely optional and clearly labeled — not a feature we moved behind a paywall after you signed up.

The recruiting profile is a professional one-page website built specifically for your athlete. It has its own URL (for example, athletesgoing2college.com/softball/jane-smith-2028) and includes her bio, photos, stats, highlight video, academics, GPA and test scores, intended major, coach references, tournament schedule, and a direct contact button.

Every email your daughter sends to a college coach should include this link. When a coach clicks it, she gets everything she needs to evaluate the athlete in under two minutes, on any device, without searching through attachments or social media. Coaches repeatedly tell us this is what separates athletes who get responses from those who do not.

Yes. View a sample profile here. That is the exact format and functionality your athlete will have.

Your athlete does. All photos, videos, written content, and personal information belong to her. We host and display the profile, but we do not claim ownership, we do not sell the data, and we do not repurpose the content for marketing without permission. If she cancels, the content is hers and we do not retain or reuse it.

Yes. The profile includes a contact button that sends a message directly to the email address and phone number you specify. You choose whether that routes to the athlete, to a parent, or to both — we recommend both for athletes under 18. Parents should be CC'd on all coach communication for athletes in high school.

The profile is accessible to anyone who has the link — that is intentional, because coaches need to be able to open it from an email without logging in. But it is not indexed by Google by default and it is not listed in any public directory. The only way a coach gets to the profile is if your daughter sends them the link.

The profile also gives you control over what is shown. Home address is never displayed. Phone number and email are behind the contact button, not visible on the page. Photos, video, and stats are what coaches see.

A profile is not a service coaches sign up for — it is a webpage your athlete links in her email. From the coach's perspective, she clicks a link and lands on a clean page with everything she needs. She does not need to "recognize" AG2C; she just needs the page to load quickly, look professional, and contain the information she is looking for.

That is why profile quality matters far more than profile brand. Coaches we have spoken with consistently say the same thing: what matters is that video loads, stats are current, grades are visible, and contact info works.

Yes, and she should. Stats, schedule, and video are the three things that need to stay current — a profile with last season's stats or outdated video is worse than no profile. She can log in and update anytime; changes go live immediately.

The honest numbers, which we do not hide: of the roughly 400,000+ high school softball players in the U.S., only about 7–8% play in college at any level, and only a fraction of those receive athletic aid. Most of those who do get athletic aid receive partial scholarships, not full rides.

The scholarship picture by division, as of the 2025–26 academic year:

• NCAA D1 changed substantially when the House v. NCAA settlement took effect July 1, 2025. D1 softball now has a 25-player roster limit. Schools that opted into the settlement can offer scholarships to any or all of those 25 athletes — full, partial, or none — at the coach's discretion. Schools that did not opt in still operate under the previous 12-equivalency model. Either way, partial scholarships remain the norm. Most programs are not fully funding all 25 spots.
• NCAA D2 — 7.2 equivalencies per team, divided across the roster. Unaffected by the House settlement.
• NCAA D3 — No athletic scholarships, but often significant academic merit aid and need-based grants that can produce a lower net cost than a partial D1 offer.
• NAIA — 10 equivalencies per team, often at schools with significantly lower costs of attendance. Academic merit aid stacks more freely than at most NCAA programs.
• JUCO — 24 equivalencies per team at NJCAA D1, more than any NCAA division, at the lowest costs of attendance in college athletics.

The realistic path for most families is not a full athletic scholarship — it is a combination of partial athletic aid, academic scholarship, and need-based aid that makes the cost of a specific school manageable. Our College Cost Comparison Tool is built to show you the real net cost of every school on the list — because that is the number that matters, not the scholarship percentage.

Short version, honest framing:

• D1: Highest competition, biggest commitment (20+ hours/week in season), 25-player roster, scholarships distributed at the coach's discretion at schools that opted into the House settlement (or 12 equivalencies at schools that did not). Most national visibility. Hardest to get recruited into.
• D2: Very competitive softball at a less time-consuming lifestyle. 7.2 scholarships. Consistently undervalued — many D2 programs compete at a level very close to D1.
• D3: No athletic scholarships, but often strong academic aid and a genuine student-first experience. Competitive level varies widely by conference.
• NAIA: Athletic scholarships available, often more flexible than NCAA on eligibility, competitive play. Often overlooked by families who do not know NAIA exists.
• JUCO: Two-year path. Athletic scholarships, strong development programs, and a real option for athletes who need more playing time, higher grades, or a re-set before transferring to a four-year program.

Step 2 of the platform walks through how to honestly evaluate which level your daughter can compete at — including the hard conversation that her current level might not match her dream level.

Athletes can contact college coaches anytime — via email, the coach's camp registration, or tournament interactions. There are no rules limiting your daughter from reaching out. The rules only limit when coaches can respond directly.

For softball specifically, here is what matters:

• NCAA D1: June 15 after sophomore year. Before that date, D1 coaches cannot call, text, email, or have recruiting conversations with your daughter, her parents, or her current coaches. After that date, all forms of communication are allowed and off-campus contact and verbal offers can begin.
• NCAA D2: June 15 after sophomore year for off-campus contact. Email and other communication can happen earlier under D2 rules.
• NCAA D3: No restrictions. D3 coaches can communicate with athletes at any time.
• NAIA: No restrictions. NAIA coaches can contact athletes at any time during high school.
• JUCO: No restrictions, similar to NAIA.

The practical takeaway: the athlete does not wait for the coach. She initiates. A well-written email from a sophomore in March will not get a response from a D1 coach until June 15 of that year, but it will be read, and it will help the coach build her evaluation file. Step 1 covers the contact rules in detail and is updated when NCAA rules change.

There is no magic number, but a working target list for most athletes ends up in the 30–60 school range, split across divisions and fit tiers (reach, target, likely). Some families do more, some less. What matters more than the number is the quality of the outreach — personalized emails, current video, real follow-up — and the diversity of the list across divisions.

Athletes who only contact D1 programs and get no responses have a strategy problem, not a talent problem. A realistic list includes schools at every level where your daughter could genuinely compete and be happy.

NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) allows college athletes to earn money from endorsements, social media, and personal brand deals while competing. It applies once an athlete is enrolled in college — high school athletes cannot receive NIL deals tied to a specific college (though some state rules allow limited high school NIL activity outside of college recruiting).

For most recruiting families, NIL is relevant as a conversation — understanding what a program's NIL collective looks like, how that might factor into an offer, and whether it is a realistic income source for your daughter at that program. It is not usually the deciding factor in choosing a school, and it is not a replacement for athletic aid.

The NLI is a binding agreement between an athlete and an NCAA D1 or D2 institution. When she signs it, she commits to attend that school for one academic year in exchange for athletic aid. It is legally binding — breaking it has consequences, including losing a year of athletic eligibility at another NCAA school.

The NLI only applies to NCAA D1 and D2. D3 does not offer athletic aid, so there is no NLI. NAIA and JUCO have their own signing processes that are similar in spirit. Step 7 covers the NLI in detail, including what to review before signing and what happens if circumstances change.

Yes. One membership covers the athlete and her family. Parents and athletes log in with the same credentials and share the dashboard, the profile editor, and the contact tracker. We strongly recommend parents stay involved in the platform, especially for high school athletes — the recruiting process is a family process.

Not directly — accounts are per-athlete and do not have multi-user access at this time. But coaches can view the recruiting profile (it has its own public URL she can share) and can be listed as references on the profile. We have a separate Coaches Portal with resources for coaches who want to support their athletes' recruiting.

Everything works on desktop, tablet, and phone. The recruiting profile in particular is designed to look polished on the device a coach is most likely to open it on — often a phone, often while traveling. The dashboard and profile builder are easiest to work with on a laptop or tablet, but can be used from a phone.

We take data protection seriously. Accounts are protected with standard password security, data is hosted on secure infrastructure, and we do not sell or share personal information with third parties. Payment information is processed through a secure payment processor — we never store credit card numbers on our servers.

Full details are in our Privacy Policy. If you have specific security questions, email us and we will answer directly.

Email us at [email protected]. A real person responds — usually the same day, always within one business day. We are a small team, which means when you email us you are reaching the people who built the platform, not a tiered support queue.

Log in, go to My Account, and update payment details there. Billing changes take effect on the next billing cycle.