Iowamom23 posted:Wechson posted:RHPinSF posted:Thank you for that advice. He needs to stay in touch with the schools he’s interested in - and has a real chance to get into and play for. I’ll make sure he continues to stay connected.
Coaches generally communicate via email. Kids our age have a difficult time with email, being trained on text. This goes for EVERY kid, even the super achievers. I know some parents who make their kids take 100% of the email responsiblity, and other parents who take full control of the process. I think it's ok to create a hybrid model, that's totally up to you. But it's something to consider because leaving it up to your athlete to fully communicate with coaches consistently (other than via ext) is a risk. You have to be on it. IMO they have time to improve their communication skills, they have a very limited window to get the recruitment process right.
I totally disagree with this. My son and I both had access to his email address for the reasons you state — I wanted to make sure he was staying on top of communications with coaches. But what I soon learned was that people inviting him to camps and asking for money emailed. Coaches who wanted him to play baseball at their school texted and called.
These guys (coaches) are in the business of recruiting high school age guys. Figuring how how best to communicate with the kids is their job and the good ones know what they're doing.
I've said it before, son maintained a list of 10 or more coaches that he texted after every game with his stats, what he thought went well or poorly, when he was next slated to pitch. We didn't know he was doing it until I rebuked him for spending too much time texting instead of talking to us and he explained what he was doing.
Bottom line is — if your kid really wants to play at the college level they need to take responsibility for getting themselves there. All we as parents can do it provide the tools — equipment, training, a phone to use in communicating with coaches, etc. The kids have to use them.
I think you both have good points. We are monitoring our son's email to make sure he doesn't miss anything, but he is responsible for responding to coaches. We will sometimes talk about some things to say in an email, but he is the one who actually decides what to write (and I try to proofread before he hits send). I think this is good experience for him.
Since my 2021 son is looking at only HA schools, his recruiting is really just starting to heat up. He is communicating with coaches only through email right now, not text or phone, but none of them have seen him play yet, so that make sense. They are emailing him, and he is emailing them, mostly about academics and high school and travel schedules for spring and summer. A few have let him know they will be following him and have asked him to keep them updated on his high school season.
We have warned him that at some point he may start getting texts or calls from coaches who have seen him play and are interested. We have talked with him about how important it is to put his best foot forward if he gets any calls or texts and to tell us if he does.