2019Dad posted:#1 Assistant Coach posted:Perhaps to further define a HSBBWeb "unicorn" more clearly, is a kid who is highly focused on the academic component of the recruitment choice. Gov and Fenway shed light on that aspect, and it is a VITAL component of the choice for a lot of kids. All too often the "go where you're loved" mantra (I believe) is geared toward who is showing you the best scholarship, best academic money, or whatever. My son found himself in a position where he was courting high academic D-3s and some reasonably high academic D-1s. Had offers from several D-1s, one was 50% (athletic and baseball), and another 80% (academic and baseball). But was still on verge of accepting a very high academic D-3 with $0 due solely to the quality of education and degree.
At last minute an offer from a high academic D-1 came in and son took that. So mine was almost a unicorn, and I would have been thrilled if he was. BTW, the one D-3 he was on verge of committing to was a California LAC that had a guy drafted in 5th Rd last year. So I guess he'd be a unicorn too?
This is a little noted aspect of recruiting. It is widely understood, I think, that most players (and parents) highly value, say, an SEC, ACC, PAC12, or Big 12 program -- it is considered to be objective reality, not snobbishness or anything of the sort, that OF COURSE those are the most highly desirable programs. OF COURSE that is where kids want to go play. #1 Assistant Coach makes the point that for some kids, that is not necessarily the case. Sure, there are a few exceptions (Stanford, Duke, UVa, Vandy, Cal, Notre Dame?), but for the kids/parents referenced by #1 Assistant Coach, the academics are more important than the baseball. Not "equally important" not "also important" but "more important." I know a kid who turned down UCLA for Harvard; he didn't do it for the baseball or the weather. Last weekend I overheard a coach at a Mountain West program ask an MLB scout about a kid, and the scout said, in essence, and in a nice way, "he's not going to be interested in your school."
As the AD at my son's HS said in a parent meeting about recruiting: "There are 300 D1 programs and you folks are only interested in about 35 of them." I don't think that is the majority of the kids/parents out there, but it's not unicornish-ish either. And for those kids for whom academics are more important than baseball, if they can't achieve one of those 35 schools, they would rather go D3 than play for one of the other 260 D1 programs.
2019 you hit it on the head. So many different types of kids and different types of families (socioeconomic, parental feelings about various schools with different priorities; so many different types of recruiting experiences and situations.