Responses to coaches' emails

I don't think you need to respond if there is no interest on your son's part.  As for the others.  If you've got a school your son is intersted in....just go ahead and email the coach....especially if you know he's seen your son and expressed ANY interest...heck, even if he hasn't, an email won't hurt.  The questionaires are fine...go ahead and fill them out, but don't be afraid to email the coach directly.  You can find the coach's email on the school website....no always on the baseball page...but every school's athletic page has a "staff directory".  The email address for the coach will be there. My son emailed 75+ coaches about this time last year (he's a 2015).  We received varied responses...some personal, some generic...and some nothing at all.  The crazy part is one school we emailed several times...that never responded...not even once....ended up calling my son July 1st.  It was his first contact with them....and he committed to play for them less than 3 weeks later. 

Contact the schools he is interested in and sees himself attending/playing for. You are wasting everyone's time if you reach out to several schools you never intend to attend just to get a visit or get experience with the process.If he has one or two he can "fall back on" as a back up plan, visit those first but be upfront that you are early in the process.

www.recruitmenow.org is a low cost website and has a national database of coaches and you can blast 20 emails in one shot to schools of interest. They have form letters, and every email has your son's page link attached. You can also build a profile to included video for those coaches to watch. If the school or a coach clicks your link and visits your page, then they are logged and you can see how many times they visit and how many pages they view. Great tool, bargain price of $49 annually and it will augment what you do independently to land your kid a scholarship. I used this after talking with several friends and it helped us get my son a D1 offer and he accepted. It just so happens the school who looked at his profile the most is who landed him. Good luck!

Congrats on your son's showing at HeadFirst.  My guess is you have a pretty good idea of the type of school/fit/situation your son is interested in or you wouldn't have spent a good chunk of change at an academic showcase for a rising junior.  With that said, I think it is a good idea to cast a wide net based on his requirements (academic and athletic) to these various schools.   I'd leave yourself some wiggle room as kids sometimes change their mind....ie I don't want to be a physics major now I want to be an engineer.   So, if these schools are interested and their is a remote chance that he could go there....I would follow up with whatever information or communication makes sense.    If you are looking at high academic schools with baseball,  that party won't get started until next year.   So, there is a lot to learn about many of these schools.  I wouldn't take any sincere interest for granted, and I would follow up with any coach that reaches out.  If your son researches the school and determines it isn't for him (ie...don't have his major, urban campus, etc) then feel free to tell the coach.  He can handle it.  These coaches deal with this every day, and it is a good thing to close the door gently because you never know if you need to reopen that door.  These academic coaches move around quite a bit.   JMO.

As usual I agree with fenway. Always answer personal emails, even if your son is not interested in the program.It is a good problem to have to answer emails, and always fill out profiles. You never know when a coach will move from one program to another. Forget about the "come to my camp" generic emails. 

Everyone, thank you for your replies.   They are really helpful. I think, as this process moves along, my son will get a better and better idea of what schools are a good fit for him athletically and academically, which will also help him determine how to respond to the coaches. Just in the past few days, a few schools that he could really be interested in (both Ivy League schools and high academic mid D-1's that are not Ivies) have reached out to him (via email and telephone).  Knowing that they are interested in him for his baseball skills (and hoping he can continue the good grades and get the SAT scores), will allow him to "gently close the door" (fenwaysouth, I like the way you said that) on the schools that he really is not interested in.  (Of course, we will still keep some doors open for wiggle room.)  My biggest concern is that the schools move at different paces.  From what I understand, the schools he is most interested in (Ivies) move the slowest as they will want to see his SAT scores and junior year grades, while the non Ivy mid D-1's, which he is a bit less interested in, move faster.  The mid D-1's seem to be pushing him to go to their camps this fall and he is not inclined to go.  He is in the middle of his high school golf season and has not thrown a baseball since the showcase in early August.  He would have to really gear up to be able to pitch now.  I'm guessing he may be giving up some opportunities now by not going to those camps now, is that correct?

Yes, based on our experience you are dealing with two different recruiting timetables even though the schools are all considered D1.  For the most part, Ivys/Patriot League school are the last D1s to seek commitment for many reasons.  Their process is slightly different and involves a heavy hand from Admissions.  Keep in mind,  if Ivy Admissions doesn't get the necessary SAT scores from recruits, the baseball coach will be gently closing doors on the recruit.

Yes, he may be giving up some opportunities this Fall.  But he has time, and he is presumably healthy.  The break from pitching may be a good thing.   He should enjoy his golf season.

Your son's future challenge may be in deciding between the two types of schools given everything is great academically.  Possibly, he waits until he gets his SATs back and then thinks over next steps.  Many top Ivy/Patriot recruits will pass over other mid-D1 offers to commit to an Ivy/Patriot for a variety of reason.  It can be very challenging for a recruit if a mid-D1 offers (ie July) and he doesn't have an Ivy offer yet (ie August).  That is when it gets a little hairy as a few folks on this board can attest.  We'll cross that bridge if we get there.

Good luck!

Recognizing that there are two different timeframes for the Ivy/Patriot schools and the mid-D1 schools, is there an there an even different timeframe for what I think are low D1's -like Georgetown and Villanova?  Even though a number of Ivy schools contacted our son after Headfirst, we certainly know we need to have other non-Ivy options available, especially as we don't know what his SAT's or grades are going to look like this year.  He is interested in Georgetown and Villanova -both of whom attended the showcases he pitched in this summer. (Georgetown was at the first showcase, and Villanova was at the Headfirst showcase.)  Our son had even sent an email to the Georgetown coach before the showcase in June to let him know he was pitching.  Even though our son performed well at both showcases and numerous schools have reached out to him, neither of these schools have.  As a 2016, should he be reaching out to them now or is it too early?  Also, if he does reach out to them, would it be advisable to send them a link to the video we purchased at the showcase in June?  The video is very well made; however, it indicates how many miles per hour (81-84) he was pitching at that showcase.  At the Headfirst showcase, he pitched slightly faster (83-86), so I don't know if we should tell Georgetown he pitched faster at another showcase in August.  Do players ever talk about their pitching velocity in emails to the coaches or is that bad form?    

If you don't tell him about your velocity, there's no way they'll know.  It's perfectly fine to give them that information....as long as it's somewhere that's recognizable.  I wouldn't say "he threw 86 in a HS game"....without saying "verified by Coach X of Smith College"...or something along those lines.  If it was at a showcase, those numbers are likely verifiable by a coach if he wants to look into it.

Probably very similar to Patriot (even all Patriots aren't exactly the same). They need to be able to pre-qualify him academically to some extent before getting too serious, but they can get an idea from his GPA, transcripts, and PSAT. He should really call and find out for himself. I've found most of these coaches to be very accessible (to the student-athlete).

It's definitely not too early to start building a relationship, but probably too early for offers.

If it's an accurate representation of his pitching, then send it. I wouldn't worry about the velo at this stage. If they see something they like (size, body type, mechanics, etc), they will pay attention when he updates them next spring/summer with higher velos. Many of the RHPs going to schools in this category are probably sitting 86-88 during their jr/sr high school summer, so your son isn't far off.

For pitchers velo is just as important as GPA and SAT/ACT scores. IMO, he should include them all prominently (and follow Buckeye's advice about verification).

Thanks so much for your replies.  They are very helpful!