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Reply to "Long distance and HC exposure"

Long415,

We live in Southern California and my son was mostly interested in HA schools on the east coast, so we had the same challenge.  My son did a few things to specifically get on the radar and get the attention he needed to get offers:

1) created a realistic list of schools that fit academically and athletically.  This was harder than you'd think because his early ACT and SAT scores were low (lower than we knew he was capable of), and it took tutoring and a few attempts to get his scores where they needed to be for HA schools.  He also changed dramatically physically over a two year period (grew 8"+ and added 30+ pounds over 2 years) so his exit velo, throwing velo and pop time improved dramatically by his junior year and he became a D1 prospect.  His target list changed constantly as new schools came into play or fell off the list.

2) was part of a national travel program that made many trips to the east coast each summer and fall.  This was very useful since coaches on the east coast will make the trip to Georgia or Florida to see a player play, but they aren't likely to spend much time (or any) in California.  Tournament play against top competition is the best way for a coach to see a player.

3) made heavy use of video to get the coaches initial attention.  There are many threads on this site that discuss videos.  My son kept his to 90-120 seconds of cage swings, in-game at-bats and some in-game defensive work (son is a catcher).  The videos were updated regularly to keep them fresh and show new material.  He included GPA, test scores, key baseball metrics (no stats).  The videos were attached to intro or update emails.

4) He kept coaches at his target list of schools aware of his progress and game schedule with regular emails.  Many of these emails went unanswered.  Some went unanswered for a long time until the coaches responded.   Some coaches were aggressive early in their response and dialog, others stayed in the background and then came out of nowhere to show intense interest.  You just never know so keep up the work of engaging coaches - if you have the right target schools he will find success.

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