After You Verbally Commit

@Francis7 posted:

After he verbally committed and posted it on social media, there were some recruiting coaches who "unfollowed" him on social media.

Is this common?

I would guess they just need to narrow down what is served up to them on social media. Why would you care once you were committed somewhere else?

How did you know your son was unfollowed on twitter?

As far as the "unfollowing," I'm going off what he's telling me. He's much more savvy  with the social media apps than me.

As far as why do I care, it's just curiosity.

Personally, for the record, I have ZERO doubts that he made the right decision. I could probably list 20 reasons why I believe he made the perfect choice - right school, right campus, right part of the country, right coach, right baseball program, right conference, etc. Literally, I have zero concerns. If there's a box, it's been checked with his selection. And, I am very excited for him.

However, there's always the SLIM CHANCE that something could happen. Maybe COVID-19 wrecks the school funding and they drop baseball? Maybe the coach moves to another school? Maybe some super-duper Juco kid raises his hand and the school has no choice but to offer him my son's spot? All of this is unlikely. But, we've all heard of stranger things. Bottom line, until you sign the NLI, stuff can happen.

That said, I would think maybe it makes sense for a another coach to keep tabs on a kid. (And, some are...it's not all who have unfollowed, just a few.)

Only thing I can think of is maybe they no longer have the need at that position and year, or, they know their situation couldn't beat what he's been offered?

Anyway, I'm not losing sleep over it. Again, I was just curious if this is common practice and how it worked.

@Francis7 posted:

Only thing I can think of is maybe they no longer have the need at that position and year, or, they know their situation couldn't beat what he's been offered?

Francis,

There are probably a few reasons why they might have unfollowed your son.

But more than likely the answer is that they just have zero interest and have moved on.

It's not personal.

It is common.   My son was unfollowed by several after making his announcement.   They have so many recruits they are trying to keep up with that it helps them to reduce their social media feeds to the recruits that are "still in play" for them. 

Sorry I was just looking for an excuse to post this...

Francis,

Does your son continue to follow every school that he reached out to before he verballed?  Probably not.   

From my perspective, it is the same idea for the RC as well as for your son...focus on what matters.

JMO. 

@fenwaysouth posted:

Francis,

Does your son continue to follow every school that he reached out to before he verballed?  Probably not.   

From my perspective, it is the same idea for the RC as well as for your son...focus on what matters.

JMO.

He actually does still have some contact with A FEW of the other schools. 99.9% of the time it's the coach reaching out. He recently had one connect with him asking for a favor. "We really are interested in XYZ and we know he's in your area. Can you give us his contact number?" But, it's not often or with many. Just the few where he really hit it off with the coach and they made a personal connection.

That said, he's 100% focused on his school of choice. Even though he's 18 months out, it's like he's there already. He talks to the coaches, he's made friends with some on the team via social media, and he's training with one eye on the upcoming HS season but with another eye on where he needs to be for the college in 18 months.

@Francis7 posted:

He actually does still have some contact with A FEW of the other schools. 99.9% of the time it's the coach reaching out. He recently had one connect with him asking for a favor. "We really are interested in XYZ and we know he's in your area. Can you give us his contact number?" But, it's not often or with many. Just the few where he really hit it off with the coach and they made a personal connection.

That said, he's 100% focused on his school of choice. Even though he's 18 months out, it's like he's there already. He talks to the coaches, he's made friends with some on the team via social media, and he's training with one eye on the upcoming HS season but with another eye on where he needs to be for the college in 18 months.

Dumb/newbie question.   Do kids often decommit/get flipped?  Do coaches keep working kids that have verballed to another school? Does that really happen outside of the upper echelon of D1 players.  I know how it works in football...  I also always wonder when I see a player who has committed a school that seems like  a reach for them and they really aren't a draft player and they keep going to showcase after showcase and posting about it.  What do the coaches think?  Do they ever consider pulling the offer?  Is this typical or not a good look?

@KennieProton posted:

Dumb/newbie question.   Do kids often decommit/get flipped?  Do coaches keep working kids that have verballed to another school? Does that really happen outside of the upper echelon of D1 players.  I know how it works in football...  I also always wonder when I see a player who has committed a school that seems like  a reach for them and they really aren't a draft player and they keep going to showcase after showcase and posting about it.  What do the coaches think?  Do they ever consider pulling the offer?  Is this typical or not a good look?

No, it doesn't happen often.  When players call a coach to let them know they committed elsewhere, it is not uncommon for a coach to say, "If anything changes, let us know".  Most coaches will not contact a player after they commit.  Players that I know that continue to go to showcases are either doing them because they are an invite only, trying to challenge themselves, or working towards the draft.   It is also good to stay relevant.  Coaches may not be reaching out, but they pay attention and if something does happen, it's good to have a reputation as a good player and documentation to prove it.

I will agree with Francis that some coaches still keep contact information and will randomly contact.  I had a HC that recruited my son heavily contact me to get an evaluation on a player in our conference and another that played on our travel team.  My son also has been contacted by several that wanted his opinion on a player that he played with as to how he was as a teammate because there were some rumors he was a bad teammate.  He also has had several stop him at tournaments after he committed to check in and see how life was going.  I think they were genuinely interested in him since they had gotten to  know him and us so well.  Others showed no interest in him after he told them he committed.  Some is just personality and make-up.

The interesting part is when he was being recruited there were some who recruited his brother 8 years earlier that were still RC's or HC's that remembered my middle son's baby brother.  It was amazing how many contacted my middle son to get him to put in a good word for them or get information from him about his little brother, like 20 plus.

@KennieProton posted:

Dumb/newbie question.   Do kids often decommit/get flipped?  Do coaches keep working kids that have verballed to another school? Does that really happen outside of the upper echelon of D1 players.  I know how it works in football...  I also always wonder when I see a player who has committed a school that seems like  a reach for them and they really aren't a draft player and they keep going to showcase after showcase and posting about it.  What do the coaches think?  Do they ever consider pulling the offer?  Is this typical or not a good look?

We know a kid who has been committed to a high level D1 for a while now. It's one of the top ranked D1 schools in the country. If you look him up now, it says he's committed to that school. (He can't sign until November.) Yet, "the gossip" is that he's not going to that school and will be attending a local D1 program. I've heard the rumor from more than one person and they all are much closer to the player than me.

Time will tell. And, it's just busy hens gossip stuff now. But, if it turns out true, then I guess maybe SOMETIMES things do change after committing. MAYBE?

.............knew who started this thread, just by it's title.  "I can name that poster in 1 sentence Alex....".

Enjoy the ride Francis.  Lighten up.  The hard work is over.

@KennieProton posted:

Dumb/newbie question.   Do kids often decommit/get flipped?  Do coaches keep working kids that have verballed to another school? Does that really happen outside of the upper echelon of D1 players.  I know how it works in football...  I also always wonder when I see a player who has committed a school that seems like  a reach for them and they really aren't a draft player and they keep going to showcase after showcase and posting about it.  What do the coaches think?  Do they ever consider pulling the offer?  Is this typical or not a good look?

No question is ever dumb!

Once the recruit commits recruiting essentially stops. It is unethical for a coach to try to flip the recruit. There are coaches out there that continually push it, and I personally wouldn't want my son or daughter to be involved with these coaches.

This is why for some players committing early is not in their best interest.

Football is a different animal so you cant compare.

JMO

If a coach continues to follow a prospect after committing its because it’s a player he really wanted. If something flips it will be in his social media posts.The coach will want to know and make contact. But baseball commits tend to stick, unlike many in football and basketball. Maybe it’s because NLI’s are signed before senior season in baseball.

Francis, it’s time for you to relax and your son to amp up bigger, faster, stronger, more skilled and keeping his grades up while enjoying playing the game.

I agree with TPM, as I typically do. ;-)    There is no dumb question, and it is unethical for a coach to try to flip a recruit.  I think it is fine for a coach to continue to follow a committed recruit.   There is no harm in that, and that is out of the recruit's control.  Frankly, the RC or HC should have much better things to do with their time.   Qualifier:  this coming from a parent who's son didn't really have to deal with social media 10 years ago.   Social media was just getting started and the advice we were given is to post only milestones, team/player accomplishments, and to stay away from anything resembling drinking, drugs, girls, and foul language.  Clearly, it is a different world today

Conversely, what is appropriate for a committed recruit.   My son had two HA HCs (who had previously offered) request that my son "stay in touch" and reach out if something happened that was unforeseen.   So essentially 2 coaches out of roughly 15 that had shown interest my son kept in touch with.   From the recruits perspective, I see nothing wrong with that especially if you are looking at elite athletic (P5) or elite academic schools...these opportunities are limited.   What I would have a problem with is if my kid was keeping in touch with 15 coaches that have moved on in their recruiting efforts, and he has a ton of work to do junior/senior year including AP, Honors or Capstone projects.  Again, focus on what matters today.

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

I'm going to flip this topic on its time axis ...

What does it mean when a coach or program starts to follow an underclassman in HS?

I have a 2024 that is picking up increased social media attention after the PG rankings for the class of 2024 were updated in late November, and after he completed several online college baseball Recruiting Questionnaires over the recent holiday break.

If a D1 P5 baseball program starts following my son on Instagram and on Twitter ... should we read into it that the school has identified him as a potential recruit?  Or, do schools typically follow all kids that fill out their Recruiting Questionnaire web form?

I doubt they follow everyone.

@mjd-dad posted:

Or, do schools typically follow all kids that fill out their Recruiting Questionnaire web form?

One slow day I filled out a few dozen recruiting questionnaires for schools my son was potentially interested in.  Even when we are contacted by schools who are interested in him, we are asked to fill them out again.  I don't know that they do anything with these forms. I am sure it's a mixed bag.

@KennieProton posted:

One slow day I filled out a few dozen recruiting questionnaires for schools my son was potentially interested in.  Even when we are contacted by schools who are interested in him, we are asked to fill them out again.  I don't know that they do anything with these forms. I am sure it's a mixed bag.

There could be lots of reasons why you are asked to fill out the questionnaires multiple times, just not important ones most likely.

However, I suggest that your son fill out them himself.  Players need to own the process, not mom or dad.

@KennieProton posted:

One slow day I filled out a few dozen recruiting questionnaires for schools my son was potentially interested in.  Even when we are contacted by schools who are interested in him, we are asked to fill them out again.  I don't know that they do anything with these forms. I am sure it's a mixed bag.

This was close to my son's experience.  It almost seemed like if they asked you to fill out the questionnaire you knew they weren't interested.

@mjd-dad posted:

I'm going to flip this topic on its time axis ...

What does it mean when a coach or program starts to follow an underclassman in HS?

I have a 2024 that is picking up increased social media attention after the PG rankings for the class of 2024 were updated in late November, and after he completed several online college baseball Recruiting Questionnaires over the recent holiday break.

If a D1 P5 baseball program starts following my son on Instagram and on Twitter ... should we read into it that the school has identified him as a potential recruit?  Or, do schools typically follow all kids that fill out their Recruiting Questionnaire web form?

Simply put, it's the first step in a long process, and I don't believe they follow everyone that completes a questionnaire.  I will never forget driving back from the first PG 14U Select Festival, and my son was in the back seat listing all of these schools and coaches who began following him on social media after watching him on TV the night before.  It was a pretty cool moment, and a realization that the time had come to begin understanding the recruiting process.  He's now in the SEC.

If your son has any remote interest in the school, I would suggest he send the coach a message thanking the coach for following him.  Ideally, you may include the contact information for the travel ball or HS coach.  The college coach is not able to respond, however he can reach out to others if/when they want to dig a little deeper.

Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

@LeftyDadP9 posted:

Simply put, it's the first step in a long process, and I don't believe they follow everyone that completes a questionnaire.  I will never forget driving back from the first PG 14U Select Festival, and my son was in the back seat listing all of these schools and coaches who began following him on social media after watching him on TV the night before.  It was a pretty cool moment, and a realization that the time had come to begin understanding the recruiting process.  He's now in the SEC.

If your son has any remote interest in the school, I would suggest he send the coach a message thanking the coach for following him.  Ideally, you may include the contact information for the travel ball or HS coach.  The college coach is not able to respond, however he can reach out to others if/when they want to dig a little deeper.

Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

This right here.

I would add even if your son doesn't have an interest at that time, reply with courtesy. Interests change as the world comes into focus for 14 year old / all of us.  Plus, once a school throws an offer to a school, word gets around and RC's take a second and third look.

@4arms posted:

It is common.   My son was unfollowed by several after making his announcement.   They have so many recruits they are trying to keep up with that it helps them to reduce their social media feeds to the recruits that are "still in play" for them.

I agree. For young kids an unfollow is often taken very personally (kinda like "I don't like you") but the coach likely just uses the follows as an organization tool and once he committed he focusses on other guys and doesn't want his timelime to be flooded with other stuff as those social media hours are actually work hours for him and if you have to read something at work you also don't read more than you need.

So it might be simple time management for the coach to unfollow guys he is no longer recruiting but for a kid this can be tough considering how much of a kids social life in these days is on social media.

@Smitty28 posted:

This was close to my son's experience.  It almost seemed like if they asked you to fill out the questionnaire you knew they weren't interested.

This is not exactly what I was saying.  If we were asked to fill one out, we usually heard something. I was just saying that I'm not sure where they go or who manages them and they don't seem to know who has what. It might just be COVID and no one is in the facility offices. 

I would guess that alot of them would unfollow him....if for no other reason than to clean up their newsfeed a little bit  I followed college baseball teams from all over the country while my son was in HS and while he played in college.  He's done now and other than a few that I still have a connection to (his friends, former teammates, etc) I don't follow more than a dozen or so now.  I have no need to know what Southwest Tech State University baseball is up to today lol

As time goes on the use of social media has changed in recruiting. When my kids went through recruiting they were told to stay away from social media. One of my daughter’s softball teammates lost an offer because a picture with a beer in her hand was tagged to her page from someone else who attended the party.

My daughter said she didn’t have time for Facebook. Even now she barely uses it except for vacation and dog pictures due to her professional and potential future political career. Her black lab made the well known Dogist Facebook page. My son changed his name on his Facebook page from high school recruiting through college. Call me Ismael. As an adult he says he doesn’t have time for Facebook.

Locally, where I live now there was recently a lawsuit over a college prospect, high school lacrosse player being suspended from the team due to a picture with a beer can being tagged to his page. The suspension was reduced from the season to one week.

the unethical recruiting definitely happens. We know a local guy this fall that was hit up by 6 schools after his verbal to D1 this summer and then UNC reached out and offered a month out from NLI. (saw the texts and heard about the calls). That wasn't cool.

NE HA reached out after Covid and the NCAA ruling to see if everything was good at GT. My son thanked him for checking but that he was solid at GT.

I do think the early offers and the 23s, 24s, 25s, have a good chance of change, as priorities and mindset shifts from 8th or 9th grade to 10th or 11th...

I do get the RC reaching out after the offer. I think that is where Baseball should be able to say, like football and basketball, I got an offer today from.....  As they might come as a surprise to other programs to go straight verbal afterwards....  I know a lot do not want to feel pushed or pressured by other programs, as there are some that are super aggressive and offer early, but I do think it would be OK to share what offers were made. I've never understood what that was/is taboo.

I think the unfollow is to reduce the noise they have in their feeds, imaging all the content they have to sift through to stay on top of the guys that are still interested.... My son dropped following all the schools he was following after committing. So did I, for the most part.

I just wish there was a way to get all the football stuff off my twitter feed.....couldn't care less about it.

I suspect it’s “normal” for a coach or RC to unfollow if they lose the recruit. I’d also think it may be good to stay connected in case of a transfer or unexpected need for the player to move elsewhere. It’s been several years since my son was on the board and his wasn’t a typical/traditional process, however only a few coaches at the time used Twitter and DM’d him as most used cell phones and email. When he did come back on the market, he was flooded with comms about offers.

@Eokerholm posted:

I do think the early offers and the 23s, 24s, 25s, have a good chance of change, as priorities and mindset shifts from 8th or 9th grade to 10th or 11th...

Thanks for the GREAT post.

What did you mean by this? That there will be a lot of moving around or that things will settle down? I really hope COVID doesn't bleed out into 25, for everyone's sake.  Mine is a '23

The younger offers, off of video only, with no campus visits or face to face with coaches will lead to issues both ways.

A lot of the flopping happens on the younger commits (both ways) as they don’t continue to progress or flame out or grow or decline.

Additionally, I don’t think the 8th and 9th graders have the maturity (as a whole, I’m sure there are exceptions) to seriously consider life changing decisions, locations, and ramifications of picking a school and program that early. What happens when coaches staff changes....verbals go bye bye. You’re betting those coaches are going to be there in 4-5 years when you show....

“I think that is where Baseball should be able to say, like football and basketball, I got an offer today from.....  As they might come as a surprise to other programs to go straight verbal afterwards...”

I think it is ok in baseball to say, I got an offer today....you just say it in a one on one conversation, not on Twitter.

@Go44dad posted:

This right here.

I would add even if your son doesn't have an interest at that time, reply with courtesy. Interests change as the world comes into focus for 14 year old / all of us.  Plus, once a school throws an offer to a school, word gets around and RC's take a second and third look.

A lesson I learned long ago is you never know who your future boss might be. My son wants eventually to coach and teach — we told him to always be respectful of every coach, assistant coach, graduate assistant he met along the way because you never know who might eventually be hiring or in a position to offer a recommendation for a job that you want. Even the guys who got mad when he chose a different school.

I don’t think HS kids, in any sport, should post on any social media platform a statement like, “I am blessed to receive an offer from __________.”  To me, it’s really bad form and it reflects negatively on the kid. I have had this conversation with a lot of college baseball coaches and I’m yet to hear a dissenting opinion.

@adbono posted:

I don’t think HS kids, in any sport, should post on any social media platform a statement like, “I am blessed to receive an offer from __________.”  To me, it’s really bad form and it reflects negatively on the kid. I have had this conversation with a lot of college baseball coaches and I’m yet to hear a dissenting opinion.

Agree, but when Footballers and Basketballers do it....I can see why baseball would want to. Also the dual sport guys - the footballers are the ones posting about Baseball offers, which is taboo.

Nice to inform other schools that are or may be interested in you where you are in the process with other schools.  I know they don't like to be pushed or rushed, but made aware isn't a bad thing. I know they asked who else are you talking to and where are you in the process, in case they were late to the game, etc.  Kinda puts the kid in a weird situation.

I'm not a fan of deadlines, but understand it is a business and people have only so many slots and only so much scholarship money, so awareness isn't that much of a bad thing is it? How does it reflect badly with said coaches?

The only ones that really break the taboo are the football/baseball guys..... I'm going to narrow down and picking top 10, top 5, etc. just seems silly and more self serving (totally agree).

Not a fan of it but I'm convinced across the board in all sports it works.  I have watched a kid over the past year that posted every one of his offers.  He went from small D1 offers and NAIA offers to bigger D1 offers to small P5 offers to top 4 P5 offers.  The more offers he got the more his stock rose because his play on the field was not much higher than last year.  I'm convinced that everybody saw their competition making offers and figured there was something they were missing and didn't want to miss out.  Again, not a fan of it but it does work.

@PitchingFan posted:

Not a fan of it but I'm convinced across the board in all sports it works.  I have watched a kid over the past year that posted every one of his offers.  He went from small D1 offers and NAIA offers to bigger D1 offers to small P5 offers to top 4 P5 offers.  The more offers he got the more his stock rose because his play on the field was not much higher than last year.  I'm convinced that everybody saw their competition making offers and figured there was something they were missing and didn't want to miss out.  Again, not a fan of it but it does work.

What grad year is he?

2021 but I know a lot of kids who have worked the system in various sports that it has worked for.  Mine never did it except when he committed and when he signed NLI.  Every time I see it in various sports I think it is self-promotion but I also know it works.  There are coaches in all sports that recognize that if others are given offers then someone must see something.