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Reply to "Pay It Forward Recruiting Advice from a 2019 Mom"

Be a realist when it comes to your kids potential. It’s the rare parent that is objective about their kid’s skills and projection. If college ball is an aspiration, then have a qualified coach/scout (with no possible continued financial incentive) objectively evaluate your son. No evaluation will be perfect but having objective data will give you a solid base for what types of programs your son should realistically consider. Don’t base decisions on opinions of people you’re paying, could be paying, family or friends if you’re looking for objectivity.

At the end of my son’s HS junior year, he played for a summer 18U showcase team run by an MLB scout (no big org, just the scout and one team – very low cost). He told me my son projected to be a D1 ballplayer and that was a total shock to me. The next day I got serious about helping my son find a place to play after HS. He went the juco route, he only played 12 innings his freshman juco season, was all-conference as a juco sophomore, transferred and was a SEC starter as a junior. Projections are imperfect, but the pros have a pretty good idea of overall capability. Parental lack of objectivity has most of us wrong one direction or another…  

I’m a fan of picking a few schools that are both an academic and athletic skillset fit and going to their camps. Your son should email the coach before the start of camp to explain why he wants to be part of the program. He should get to camp early enough to introduce himself to the coach and reference the email to create a connection before the skills showcase. At the end of the camp, he should personally thank the coach and ask for specifics about what he needs to work on to become part of the organization. Doing these things should help him stand out, but ultimately, he will need to prove he’s physically got the chops to hang at the level

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