JAMESB, as mentioned HS stats from his team don't mean anything. And comparing his stats to another players doesn't mean anything as well. The college recruiting process is very difficult to interpert and you will drive yourself mad comparing your son to others and wondering why this kid was tapped while your son was not. Coaches look for different things. Some coaches may want the tall lanky kid while others may want to see a specific action on the kids swing, or they may look at his approach at the plate. Comparing statistics between your son and others will not overcome any of the non-measurable nuances the recruiters maybe looking at.
It sounds like your son is a position player. If I am correct then these are the things the college guys will be looking at. They are also the skills that will be measured / evaluated at a showcase:
- 60 yard time
- Batted Ball Exit Velocity
- Eval of a batting practice that will consist of 8-10 pitches or so
- Eval of a fielding session. If an outfielder, fly balls and ground balls followed by a throw to a specific position. If an infielder, grounders to left and then grounders to right with a throw to first. Figure 8 to 10 balls for each skill. If an infielder some of them will need to be backhands.
- Position throwing velocity.
At this point, your son is way behind in the recruiting process. Most of the better players committed to their colleges before the start of their Sr year of HS. Most of them signed their NLIs in November of last year or April of this year. This would have covered the NCAA D1's and NCAA D2's. After the April signing period the D1's and D2's are usually fully committed. This leaves the D3, Juco, and NAIA schools as options for those who did not commit. Yes their maybe some exceptions, but for the most part D1 and D2 are off the table once the Sr year of HS starts, unless they are already recruiting you. By the end of the Sr. year baseball season most of the D3's, Juco's and NAIA schools have also stopped recruiting the 2017s and focus on the next year players.
My advice to you would be this. Find a place to get your son evaluated. As I mentioned earlier PBR Illinois maybe good. Elite Baseball Training in Chicago is respected and offers an eval service. Make sure its the one owned by Justin Stone. There are a couple of other programs in the area calling themselves things like Chicago Elite, Illinois Elite, etc. You can check with The Bulls Sox academy and see if they can help, but they mostly specialize in training not evals. Or you could check with some of the top travel teams in the area (Elite Baseball (again Justin Stone), Sparks, Longshots, or 29ers) and see if they can you evaluate your son.
I would also put together a video of your son. It should only be about 3 minutes long or so. There is no need for game footage. Take him to some place where he can take BP. Film 8 to 10 balls from the side looking directly at him. Film 8 to 10 balls from behind. Its ok to edit the video down and show his best stuff. When we did this for my son we just filmed an entire 30 minute BP session and edited it down to his best looking swings. You will then need some video of his field position. If he is an infielder 5 balls right at him, 5 to his left, 5 to his right. Some should be backhanders and all of them should show him throwing to the 1b (unless 1b then throw to 3b). If he is an outfielder. 5 pops right at him, followed by 5 pops over his head, followed by 5 grounders. All of them should show him deeper in the outfield with him throwing to a cut. If he is a catcher, you are going to want to show 5 good caught pitcher and 5 down in the dirt that he has to block, followed by 4 pitches he catches, pops up and throws down to 2b. All of this sounds like a lot but you should be able to cut it down to a 3 minute clip. No music, no talking, etc. At the beginning of the video you should have a splash screen showing his bio info. Name, HS, travel team, contact info, position, height and weight.
Once you have the eval and the video put together you can then start contacting coaches. I would concentrate on the area D3's. Try Augustana, Illinois Wesleyan, Milliken, Carthage, WI-Whiteware etc in the area. I would caution that many of the D3 programs will carry 50+ players and only about 20 get to ever see the field. Its the nature of D3 baseball. They can bring in as many kids as they want so many will over recruit. If you kid is as good as you feel they can prove it at make the active roster. Another avenue would be the Juco's in the area. Im not as familiar with them but its pretty much the same. Finally, there are still some(not many) D1's looking to fill in holes by players lost to the draft. As many of them already had a recruiting depth chart my guess is many of them have already filled the gaps.
Good luck to you and your son.