Approaching a college coach

You may get different opinions but IMO it is not OK.  If your travel team is playing in front of college coaches, the travel coach should be aware and handle any interest that comes up. Usually, at such events, travel coach will make available rosters with basic info on players that RC's can grab and they will contact coach or player if there is interest.  Without the roster sheets, the same still applies.  If player knows a school of interest will be in attendance, player should be contacting school in advance and initiating dialog.  Never dad. Dad initiating communication will generally be a red flag if anything to RC/College coaches.  

In my son's case, his coach takes care of all communications with any college coaches. At some point my son gave his coach a list of 10 dream and 10 reality schools. Whenever a college coach is interested in a player they go directly to son's coach. No need to hear from dad.

My son does send emails out to his school's of interest on his own. And when he gets word from his coach, does call any interested college coaches. Even though he's a 2017 now, college coaches apparently do continue to make their initial contact through his travel coach.

Stick to a pre event email from the player with same info.  Can't really do much damage there.

Sounds fine to me.  Just make sure you include your son's 12u Cooperstown stats. 

I can't think of a time when it's a good idea for a parent to approach a coach or scout at an event with the intent of familiarizing his/her son with him. All it is likely to do is cause the coach or recruiter to think that the player has an over-eager parent in front of him.

 

If your son is particularly interested in the school, there's nothing wrong with him dropping the coach a short message after the event, saying that he saw him in attendance, explaining why his program/school is of particular interest to him, and giving the coach some idea of how he might see him again (i.e. upcoming tournament/showcase schedule).

 

 

This is fine as long as the travel team carries credibility with coaches and scouts. In many/most cases, that's true.

 

However, it's not always the case. If you suspect that your travel team coach lacks credibility or is perceived as being one who pre-selects which players he recommends to which schools, consider this a yellow flag.

Prepster,

I agree. I watched first and when I saw who was going to him before the games at Lake Point, it became obvious that they trust his opinion. I should have mentioned that first as not every coach is like that.

No, no no

your son and/or his coaches should be in charge of his recruitment/communication

Ive seen coaches pass out player info before a game, and I've seen coaches watch games and seek out coaches for info. 

Does your son know u r considering doing this? Mine would have been embarrassed to say the least. 

My rule of thumb for parents talking with coaches is to limit the conversation to the weather.

When any coach is ready to talk to you, he will let you know, until then, just sit back and enjoy the ride!!!

What we did as a team for my daughter was that parents made profiles and emailed them to the team coaches.  They then made a team handout.  At each game, a parent was put in charge of placing these handouts in a spot on the backstop where coaches could approach the handouts without parental interference.  I'd have to say that rarely did we play a game without several coaches grabbing a handout. 

I guess my take is that the college coach who your son is interested in playing for, should probably already had that profile via e-mail attachment or through regular mail. Hopefully before any tourney/showcase the coach would know a little about your son and his level of interest based on correspondences sent BY SON. G.P.A/SAT/ACT/Transcript updates are always good too. An occasional dad wave is ok. I limited my coach interactions to unofficial visits on campus or offers. Even then son did most of the talking. Son's Legion coach was a good liaison between son and college coaches who may have requested "additional info."

 

So the short answer to your question IMHO....no.

Parents NEVER talk to the College recruiting coaches. ONLY THE PLAYER talks to them. The same goes for email or phone correspondence.PLAYERS ONLY!

The only time that it is appropriate for a Parent to talk to the coaches is if the player has been OFFERED and you need to discuss financial details ( School tuition 'Net Gap' costs for your family ) or possibly if your son is already a  PROSPECT at the school and there are significant travel expenses ( Air travel) for a campus visit. You may then place a call qualifying the schools need for recruitment of players in your sons recruitment class at your sons position and confirmation of his ranking on 'The Board' at his position. And even then, that conversation needs to be brief, direct and business like with no player 'advertisement' or 'infomercials' like : "Jr just hit a game winning home run last night" Just cost related stuff: 'I'm prepared to fly him to Pennsylvania but it's costly can you explain where he is at on the recruiting board'

 

 

Thank you all for your opinion. Great stuff.