My son is a high school junior and has very good defensive stats as the starting varsity catcher for his small private HS team in California. He wants to try to play D3 at a school on the East Coast. He has a 3.7 GPA and a 27 ACT ( he will test again)
But he is experiencing a hitting slump.
How do D3 coaches treat HS stats from small private HS when there is a slump? He's going to 2 showcases this summer and will play on a travel team as well.
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The mechanics, composure and instincts he displays at showcases matters a lot more than high school. My son was asked the following stats ... sixty time, throwing velocity, gpa and sat scores. They talked with his travel coaches. They never spoke to his high school coach.
How does he hit when he is not slumping, not statistically, but contact or power (this is what will get their interest)? Make a skills video so that when you contact the coaches ahead of the showcase schedule they have your video, know your son will be there, and can see good swings and contact, and specific catching drills.
His contact and power are good. Glad to hear it may not all hinge on HS stats.
Both of his coaches have told me he has lots of "intangibles" - hustle, attitude, coach ability. Hope that can come through and that's valued.
Broc3248 posted:My son is a high school junior and has very good defensive stats as the starting varsity catcher for his small private HS team in California. He wants to try to play D3 at a school on the East Coast. He has a 3.7 GPA and a 27 ACT ( he will test again)
But he is experiencing a hitting slump.
How do D3 coaches treat HS stats from small private HS when there is a slump? He's going to 2 showcases this summer and will play on a travel team as well.
Sorry about the slump. High school stats don't mean much to college coaches. It probably is not as big of an issue as you think. College coaches want to see your son in action playing against similar or higher level people at the upcoming showcases and tournaments. In terms of hitting, college coaches look at hands, hand speed and how the bat comes through the hitting zone. My sons were pitchers. Not once did anybody ask about their high school ERA or wins/losses....it didn't matter much. It was about velocity, number of pitches, control, and composure when they came to see him at showcases, tournaments or camps. Depending on the college, they may ask about GPA and ACT stats which your son is not slumping. If they don't ask...remind them. Good luck!
I think I'm learning that what the coaches actually SEE is what really matters. So, get that video done if you haven't already, let the coaches know what showcases he'll be at, and follow up with them ahead of time.
High school stats matter little, or not at all as RJM says. Baseball tools matter.
College coaches will see your son at his showcases. This is the big Summer for him. His pop time, running speed, bat speed,...all that stuff will likely be measured at the showcases. Coaches will determine whether he's a baseball fit for their program based upon these tools and based upon what they see.
Your son's GPA is very good. His test score puts him in the ballpark of most D3's, though not all. Academically, standardized test scores matter most. It's how coaches can compare kids nationwide as there's so many differences between GPA/grading.
My 2012's high school coach was never contacted. My 2016's former coach was contacted a couple times. Never did the high school stats come up in the conversation.
Good luck!
His performance at the showcases (assuming the targeted coaches will be present) will carry far more weight than any HS stats. They want to see his mechanics and skill set and know about his grades and character. So, I agree with others that you don't have to worry about what stats they see.
However, some questions come to mind. Hitters go hot and cold but.... How long is the slump? If prolonged, what do you attribute it to? What is the quality of the league? Is he just hitting it hard at people? If not and if it is a weaker small school league, why is he having trouble squaring the ball up? You said he usually has good contact and power. Is there a hitch that has crept into his swing? Depending on the answers, proactive measures may be in order.
Just to echo Branson's comment about standardized test scores: Love 'em or hate 'em, at many high academic schools, it is one of the ONLY academic measurements that matters. Of course, grades have to be high, but if a kid has a high SAT in Walla Walla, it's gonna be a high SAT in NYC, too. GPA, not so much maybe.
Re: GPA ... Coaches will ask for unweighted GPA. There isn't an across the board standard for GPA. I've heard of kids having a 5.0 due to the level of courses they take. A 5.0 would have been impossible at my kid's high school. The only weighting at my kid's high school was private. Only the administration knew for the purpose of adjusting class rank. If it's an academic college they will follow by asking what level courses (AP, gifted, high honors, honors, standard). Some schools don't have all these classifications.
Ok, he's in a slump. Every player has one. Describe what's going on at the plate... Is he R or L? Making contact? Type of contact: weak ground balls - where? Foul balls or flyouts to IF or short OF? You have to figure out if there's a mechanical issue, or is he lacking any plan when he approaches the plate (approach).
Players/athletes can be their own worst enemy: over thinking. Clear the mechanical issue and focus on a good approach with the next AB. The last AB's have nothing to do with the current AB. The player was put on the team for a reason; the coach believes in him; he needs to believe in himself. Focusing on a hard hit up the middle really helps.
I've just worked with my 2018 over a similar thing. After cleaning up a mechanical issue we had to cleanse the space between the ears. He's back on track now.
What the others have said. And if he is willing to go all the way to the east coast. Throw in some of the Fly over schools. There are plenty of Good D3 programs out there that would love to have a kid form California.
Bishop, wish my son could get that idea and think it was his own!
This has all been very helpful.
It's hard to say where the hitting problem is. Sometimes he strikes out looking, sometimes swinging, sometimes it's a ground out or pop out....the coach said they adjusted something in his mechanics but not sure if that was catching or hitting related. Conversations between coach and parent are strongly discouraged at his school and my 17 yr old strongly discourages conversations with me and is quiet on a good day. Did I mention I'm his mom? I sense there are a lot of dads on this site 
I did ask my son if he wanted to change his private coach - but he said no.
Broc3248 posted:This has all been very helpful.
It's hard to say where the hitting problem is. Sometimes he strikes out looking, sometimes swinging, sometimes it's a ground out or pop out....the coach said they adjusted something in his mechanics but not sure if that was catching or hitting related. Conversations between coach and parent are strongly discouraged at his school and my 17 yr old strongly discourages conversations with me and is quiet on a good day. Did I mention I'm his mom? I sense there are a lot of dads on this site
I did ask my son if he wanted to change his private coach - but he said no.
Broc3248 - His mechanics may be fine, but has more to do with pitch recognition out of the pitchers hand. Just an idea...you may want to have his eyes checked. When he is catching, he knows what pitch is coming, where it is supposed to go and the approximate velocity. Hitting is an entirely different matter.
Sometimes it could be physical injury too. Last year, when my son was playing short stop, he jammed his left thumb when trying to tag a runner on 2B. He thought the left thumb shouldn't matter to batting, so didn't tell the coach and continued to play. In the next few weeks, we just saw his batting stats fell dramatically. His swing was just a little bit slower and just a tiny bit less powerful, but that's enough for a lot of outs. Once his thumb cured, his batting was back to normal. I'm not sure if the coach noticed it or not, but his stats at beginning of season and at end of season were both great; there was just a black hole in the middle for a few weeks. He didn't tell anyone about the injury, so coach and other player probably thought he had a slump. I'm happy nobody offered suggestions to change his swing mechanics.
Question to the forum: in this situation, should he tell coach and get benched? Or continue to play but let stats drop?
