1st phone call with coach of prospective school

Random assortment of questions my kid has been asked in early conversations:

• Where are you in this process? 
• Who else are you talking with?
• Where have you visited?
• What do you want to do (pitch or be a position player)?
• How's school going?
• How much do you know about [insert name of school]?

What are your grades/ test scores? Who else have you spoken with?  Those are two common questions.

What your son needs to ask the coach is:  where is he on the board? Where does he rank against other players they are recruiting at his position?

What your son needs to ask himself is : Am I ready to make a decision on where I will live , go to school and play baseball  for 4 years .....3 years from now?

BB-Mom,

Great news.  Beware though, a simple phone call with a coach rarely is executed on first try. Usually, the recruit, maybe like your son gets a message to call Coach Smith at Big State, and is provided the coach's cell.  On average it usually took my son 2-3 attempts, over a few days, to reach the coach.  Early on son would get frustrated.  I'd say, "These are busy guys, getting lots of phone calls, they have families, practices, just keep calling don't take it personally.  Keep calling."  

Probably the first of many calls, the bulk of which you won't even know about by the time your son commits somewhere.  If the process keeps rolling along you'll be talking with your son one day and he will say, "Oh yeah, forgot to tell you, I spoke with Coach Jones LAST WEEK.  I finally got him during my lunch period at school.  Call went well...............blah, blah."  This is where the rule of 3 comes in handy for him.  He will be in a rush between classes, these calls usually don't last more than 5-mins anyway.  If he has his "go to" 3 questions in his mind, he will always be ready to execute.  

And why 3?  When your son gets on phone he will get excited and maybe nervous or flustered.  All the rehearsing (which you should be doing with him btw) will go out window early on with these calls.  Most teens can remember 3 things in these situations!

Some great question examples above for you son by 2019 and SO.  But your son should always engage with the rule of 3, minimum.

Keep us posted!

2019Dad posted:

Random assortment of questions my kid has been asked in early conversations:

• Where are you in this process? 
• Who else are you talking with?
• Where have you visited?
• What do you want to do (pitch or be a position player)?
• How's school going?
• How much do you know about [insert name of school]?

When do you plan to make a decision?  that was one my son was not ready for the first time it was asked.

Son is a 2020 like yours.  Prep for this type of question "Are you ready to commit?"/"When do you think you will be ready to commit?"

Son and I talked about this before the first call and again before the first visit.  We decided to be upfront and tell all coaches that next summer is the earliest he would consider committing.  

Very good responses.

"What is the most important factor to you in choosing a school to attend?"

Tell your son to be honest. Don't tell the coach what you "think" he wants to hear. Be honest with him. That is what he wants to hear. That is what he hopes he hears.

Congrats many players dream of having a college coach call them. Many never realize that dream. Good luck.

Coaches are recruiters. They are salesman and very good at it. Succesful ones are very good at conversation and making a kid feel comfortable. They have talked to thousands of kids. They know what they are doing.

Heard my son tell a teammate before teammates first call (both HS sophmores). “Just relax. When he asks you if you want to become a (Fighting Seahawk) and help is win, don’t say yes, don’t say no, say you really like the program and its on your list“.

#1 Assistant Coach posted:

Most teens can remember 3 things in these situations!

Teens???

Son had one coach ask him "what will it take to get you to my school?" He said it felt like proposing marriage before you'd ever dated.

Eventually, it will be hard to tell the difference between calls from girls and calls from coaches. 2018 would look at his phone, interrupt whatever we were doing, walk out of the room and come back anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes later. The coaches were trying to build a personal relationship and some were very good. Others he felt became a little stalker like.

My son was home by himself on July 1st his junior year (first day coach could call at that time).  He said it went ok, though he wasn't a real talkative kid back then so I'm guessing the coach had to help him along lol.   He did get pretty good at it....I heard some of his other conversations with coaches and was actually pretty impressed with how he handled them.  The day before he was offered, the coach came to watch him throw.  He emailed him later that day and said "call me tomorrow morning and we'll talk about your future in our program".  Son called him the next day after his morning game....and I had to laugh. I was standing next to him...obviously only hearing one side of the conversation.  Son's portion of the conversation went like this:

Hi coach........yes.........we won......yes.........ok.......yes, they are good with it.........ok.......yes.......ok bye.   

That was it....offer made, offer accepted.  Entire conversation about 2 minutes. 

ABC