I found this article "A raw look inside college baseball recruiting." It's several years old (the coach who wrote the email has since moved to another college), but it contains some nuggets of information which may help those heading into the recruiting process.
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Thanks for sharing!
Should be required reading by all going through the recruiting process.
great read. I've passed it on to my husband. many thanks!!
Great article. Thank you for sharing.
I'd like to add that as parents, you need to let your child handle the majority of the interaction with these coaches. Over the past couple of years I've seen some parents say and do things while speaking to, or trying to speak to, a college coach that were downright embarrassing.
Just my opinion here, but what I've done with my son is educate him on as much as possible regarding colleges and college baseball and let him speak for himself.
Great article. I'd appreciate the promptness and honest of coach's response. It is much better than the "no comments but tons of camp invite" approach many other colleges use. I hope all college coaches are like coach Smith.
Coach Smith has been very entertaining on twitter concerning recruiting lately. There are some great nuggets of info on his twitter feed.
If any HS parents and younger out there are looking for words of wisdom/explanation from the coach side, I strongly recommend that you follow the above link kindly provided by MMM.
Thx for this!
I did enjoy reading it. What I don't understand are parents/players expectations. I have no experience in the recruiting game but that is how i would think a coach looks at players who don't meet their programs standards. I wouldn't pursue a college who turned me down, unless I improved a considerable amount. What I don't think alot of people including myself is where does your son fits in the baseball hierarchy. On to the next one once the coach lets you know it isn't in his program. I don't think this is one of those situations you can talk them into taking you .
This should be pinned at the top of the forum and required reading. The twitter feed, what is available is interesting.
That dad needs to join this website!
Off topic but can't get the Twitter feed to work well. Anybody else having difficulty?
I think the PG response was deleted.
At a September mandatory players and at least one parent meeting my son's high school coach asked how many wanted to play college baseball. Everyone raised their hand. Then he asked how many believe they can play D1. Everyone raised his hand. The coach chuckled (he played for a ranked D2). He asked how many have attended a D1 game. Three raised their hands. The coach commented the three who have attended a D1 game are the only one's he believes to be D1 prospects at the moment. Then he asked what players were doing in the summer and the off season. Only three were playing on high end travel teams. Guess which three.
The conversation was a wake up call for a lot of players. From my son's junior year twelve kids from that roster went on to play college ball. Three went D1 as the coach predicted. Two went D2. All the rest played D3. Two kids whose fathers always thought they were studs in the making from 9-14 never had an impact on varsity and didn't play college ball.
I took one of the dads whose son went on to play D3 to one of my son's scout league games. When he saw the pitching velocity and kids had no trouble hitting his only comment was, "Holy Sh**! I had no idea!"
It appears the dad of the pitcher who wrote Tracy Smith had no idea.
No, but it's too bad the tweets from PG that Smith references were deleted.
Thx. I'm new to the Twitter thing. Probably obvious. 
smokeminside posted:Thx. I'm new to the Twitter thing. Probably obvious.
Do what I did. Ask your kid for help. 
But kids don't use Twitter (or Facebook). They're on SnapChat and Instagram.
Read That article a couple years ago. Still amazing to think a coach actually responded to a prospect they were not interested in. While not pleasant, that is very helpful to the player and parents.
Thx Goosegg. I recall reading this a few years and thinking highly of Coach Smith's professional approach. No doubt there are many players/parents that get into college baseball recruiting with no clue or sense of the process. Coach Smith's approach left me with one thought......why can't more college coaches humanize this process with professionalism, encouragement, and a dose of reality. If there as one thing that annoyed my son more than anything it was a College Coach (aka....a grown up) lying to his face about their interest in him. It happened more times than he cared to remember, and he remembered every word....trust me.
Fast forward a few years and I see this lack of professionalism is still alive and well. I've assisted or coached many potential college recruits over the last 6-7 years with mostly high academic recruiting and they shared some of the recruit/coach communications with me. Most high academic recruits are at the mercy of Admissions, so the Coaches have an out in some situations but it still happens there too. But the traditional D1/D2 schools there is no excuse. Coaches need to be realistic and direct with the recruits and I don't see that nearly enough.
Sorry, I will get off my soap box. But this topic hit a nerve with me. It is great to see a shining example of exactly how it should be handled.
Fenway,
I agree with you, but to be honest I think that the top programs do a good job of explaining why the player is not a good fit for their program when they make coach contact, we just don't hear about it. its not something that a dad or mom wants others to know, that a coach of some very big program was brutally honest and they still don't get it .
can you imagine how many videos these guys get daily? Its kind of like a job interview, you send your resume, probably along with 100's of others, and we all know that a no response means no interest. Why can't parents understand that concept. I do not feel a coach has to reply to unsolicited videos and letters. Their only response can be in the form of a camp, and that's understandable. This also comes down to not pursuing an opportunity that is more suited to the player. And we know that in most cases a very large percentage of players will never meet the requirements from the programs they first pursue.
I am not talking about the player that has been courted seriously and then never hears anything. That's wrong.
I agree with Fenway completely! It was once explained to us that there is no "upside" for a college coach to discourage a recruit. We would be grateful to receive the type of letter referenced above, because it would allow our son to further refine his college search.
As far as "parents/recruits having unrealistic expectations," the college that a student attends as an undergraduate often sets the course for the rest of that student's life. For example, for many students, the type of rigor the student experiences as an undergraduate determines if they are admitted to the right masters program, med-school, law school, engineering program etc. The type of college program determines the level of debt that the student will have to pay off after receiving their bachelors degree (private D3 vs. state school D1 or D2). The location/size of college programs determines the ability to participate in Internships or specialized classes often not found at smaller schools/rural areas. Not all players have the same long term goals.
I agree that Coach Smith's response was terrific, but the thing that astounds me about that blog post is that a dad of a 5'10" RHP topping out at 81 mph really, truly thought that a Power 5 program should be and would be interested in his son. I mean, all dads are delusional to a certain extent, but some are more delusional than others!
It is true many parents and recruits don't know where to start, don't understand the process, and don't know where their talents fit. All of that is on the recruit to figure out.
Coach Smith's example was a "softball" or "textbook" example of how that should be handled. Most situations are not going to be that clear, in fact they are murkier. However, there comes a time when a Coach sees a recruit again or multiple times and knows that recruit needs to stay on his list or get on somebody else's list. Simply telling a recruit we continue to be interested in you (with reasons why) or we aren't interested in you (reason's why) will save everyone a lot of time and money. It is mean-spirited to keep dragging a recruit along when the coach has no intention of considering him or offering him. Why in the world doesn't this happen more especially with face to face meetings? This is exactly what happened to my oldest son when he was called to campus to visit a (then) top 5 program. The RC had seen my son pitch a dozen times over the spring/summer at various PG and other events over two years. They had a RHP de-commit from his recruiting class, and had an open roster spot. On campus, we got the dog & pony, and grand tour which was extremely impressive. At the end of the meeting, we had some action items and they had action items that were very clearly defined by timeline. They kept telling my son they were extremely interested, yada yada yada and they would be in touch to finalize an offer letter within the week. Thankfully, my son is pretty level headed and thought this through. He thought this was very flattering, but not for him. He called the Coach two weeks later to let him know he wasn't interested. In my way of thinking, my 17 year old son did a better job of handling this than the 40 year old recruiting coach (later became Head Coach) who did not follow through on his promise. I know my son is not the first or last person this has happened to, and there are many out there with similar experiences. I'm willing to bet there are a lot of recruits who would have been crushed by these unrealized RC promises. Based on the responses in this thread many understand my point exactly. I just find it utterly ridiculous and unprofessional that this behavior continues. They hold a lot of power in their hands. I can't help wondering how much training these assistant coaches or recruiting coaches receive in dealing with these type of issues.
Over time, Coach Smith will continue to get a lot of respect from travel coaches and people in the know. He's doing it the right way.
As always, JMO.
Going through the recruiting process can be a great life lesson before entering the business world. No different then competing for that account/contract/job etc.. and the decision maker will lead you on without any honesty or even an explanation of why they have said "no" by their actions or lack of.
There are many posts on this site that help guide the player to ask "qualifier" type questions to their recruiter. This will eventually weed out the schools that do not have genuine interest.
Playing the game of baseball teaches how to deal with failure/rejection and if a player is lucky enough to be recruited, by any division, then consider it another learning opportunity.
