My son is a RHP and wants to wait to attend college camps in the summer. Rather than going to any camps in Jan/Feb. But I worry spots will be filled and summer will be too late for him. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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100% no for D3. You're fine there. For D1, a fair amount of slots filled. Not entirely, HA will have more than others, but a more limited amount of opportunities.
He should go in Jan/Feb if possible and if he wants to. I added the qualifier because it sounds like he does not want to go.
For most mid-level D1 programs, there will be several open positions this summer. A lefty pitcher from my boy's school committed to to a pretty good mid-level D1 in spring of his senior year.
Depending on the types of schools he is targeting, it may be risky to wait. What is the reason that he wants to wait? If he has been resting his arm and has not yet fully ramped up, that makes sense.
He wanted to rest his arm and try to get more velocity. And he’s going to high academic camps. He’s at 88mph 6’3” 200lbs, so I think he should not wait. But he thinks he needs more velocity. I’m not sure how much is enough.
First, don't just go to camps blind; make contact beforehand, and if possible, have a summer coach also contact them. Depending on league, some high academic D1s are looking for 88+ with over 6', so he's there. Does he have video, and was 88 measured 3rd-party (PBR, PG, etc.)? Will he be playing this summer in tournaments where they will be? Now is exactly the right time to send emails to schools of interest with any and all of this info, get on their radar, and ask them where they would like to see him.
He has 3rd party velocity pitching video. And emails coaches. But Jan/feb vs waiting until summer has been the family debate
He’s only interested in HA schools.
What division HA? D1 HA like Cal or UCLA? He’s very, very late already. HA D1 like UCSD or UCD? Getting very late. HA D3 like Pomona Pitzer or Claremont Mudd Scripps? Take your time. The summer is fine.
My son was not high academic. He had several low level D1 offers, but hit 90 the summer before his senior year and committed to a a state school D1 in September. So I would say you have time and a couple of miles an hour can matter.
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate all your insights and knowledge. I’ll get him into some winter camps now. He want to use baseball as a hook to help him get into the best academic school possible. He’s looking at schools like John Hopkins, Georgetown, Penn, Colombia. Nothing on the west coast since that’s where we live and he wants the “away from home” college experience.
Don't fly cross-country just for Johns Hopkins, a D3; they will be recruiting next summer and fall, as will the other D3s.
RHPinSF posted:Thanks everyone. I really appreciate all your insights and knowledge. I’ll get him into some winter camps now. He want to use baseball as a hook to help him get into the best academic school possible. He’s looking at schools like John Hopkins, Georgetown, Penn, Colombia. Nothing on the west coast since that’s where we live and he wants the “away from home” college experience.
Most of those schools you still have time. There's a great June camp at Richmond you may want to consider that typically has a lot of HA D1/D3 schools attend. Only one that may be late is Penn, that coach likes to get the jump on the other Ivy's by recruiting early. However he focuses on lefties given the park dimensions.
Wechson posted:RHPinSF posted:Thanks everyone. I really appreciate all your insights and knowledge. I’ll get him into some winter camps now. He want to use baseball as a hook to help him get into the best academic school possible. He’s looking at schools like John Hopkins, Georgetown, Penn, Colombia. Nothing on the west coast since that’s where we live and he wants the “away from home” college experience.
Most of those schools you still have time. There's a great June camp at Richmond you may want to consider that typically has a lot of HA D1/D3 schools attend. Only one that may be late is Penn, that coach likes to get the jump on the other Ivy's by recruiting early. However he focuses on lefties given the park dimensions.
Tracy Woodson at UR is one of my favorite coaches. If you can get to one of those camps and they have the coaches that you want to be in front of, it's win-win.
If you wait, don't wait on the emails and phone calls. Contact them early, which is now, and often. Show that you have a lot of interest and you can send stats and video from HS season since there is very little chance they will come watch him play. If they respond with a lot of interest, then you may consider going to one of them but as has been said don't go blindly.
Thank you for that advice. He needs to stay in touch with the schools he’s interested in - and has a real chance to get into and play for. I’ll make sure he continues to stay connected.
RHPinSF posted:Thank you for that advice. He needs to stay in touch with the schools he’s interested in - and has a real chance to get into and play for. I’ll make sure he continues to stay connected.
Here's another point for discussion. Coaches generally communicate via email. Kids our age have a difficult time with email, being trained on text. This goes for EVERY kid, even the super achievers. I know some parents who make their kids take 100% of the email responsiblity, and other parents who take full control of the process. I think it's ok to create a hybrid model, that's totally up to you. But it's something to consider because leaving it up to your athlete to fully communicate with coaches consistently (other than via ext) is a risk. You have to be on it. IMO they have time to improve their communication skills, they have a very limited window to get the recruitment process right.
Perfect Game lists 6 commits for Penn in the 2021 class. So again, don't fly across the country without making sure that they have actual interest in him, and did not simply say "come to our camp" - which is the usual response to introductory emails.
Wechson posted:RHPinSF posted:Thank you for that advice. He needs to stay in touch with the schools he’s interested in - and has a real chance to get into and play for. I’ll make sure he continues to stay connected.
Coaches generally communicate via email. Kids our age have a difficult time with email, being trained on text. This goes for EVERY kid, even the super achievers. I know some parents who make their kids take 100% of the email responsiblity, and other parents who take full control of the process. I think it's ok to create a hybrid model, that's totally up to you. But it's something to consider because leaving it up to your athlete to fully communicate with coaches consistently (other than via ext) is a risk. You have to be on it. IMO they have time to improve their communication skills, they have a very limited window to get the recruitment process right.
I totally disagree with this. My son and I both had access to his email address for the reasons you state — I wanted to make sure he was staying on top of communications with coaches. But what I soon learned was that people inviting him to camps and asking for money emailed. Coaches who wanted him to play baseball at their school texted and called.
These guys (coaches) are in the business of recruiting high school age guys. Figuring how how best to communicate with the kids is their job and the good ones know what they're doing.
I've said it before, son maintained a list of 10 or more coaches that he texted after every game with his stats, what he thought went well or poorly, when he was next slated to pitch. We didn't know he was doing it until I rebuked him for spending too much time texting instead of talking to us and he explained what he was doing.
Bottom line is — if your kid really wants to play at the college level they need to take responsibility for getting themselves there. All we as parents can do it provide the tools — equipment, training, a phone to use in communicating with coaches, etc. The kids have to use them.
Iowa Mom ^^ yes, agree on texting calling if a coach is actually recruiting.
Boys do need to own it.
Iowamom23 posted:Wechson posted:RHPinSF posted:Thank you for that advice. He needs to stay in touch with the schools he’s interested in - and has a real chance to get into and play for. I’ll make sure he continues to stay connected.
Coaches generally communicate via email. Kids our age have a difficult time with email, being trained on text. This goes for EVERY kid, even the super achievers. I know some parents who make their kids take 100% of the email responsiblity, and other parents who take full control of the process. I think it's ok to create a hybrid model, that's totally up to you. But it's something to consider because leaving it up to your athlete to fully communicate with coaches consistently (other than via ext) is a risk. You have to be on it. IMO they have time to improve their communication skills, they have a very limited window to get the recruitment process right.
I totally disagree with this. My son and I both had access to his email address for the reasons you state — I wanted to make sure he was staying on top of communications with coaches. But what I soon learned was that people inviting him to camps and asking for money emailed. Coaches who wanted him to play baseball at their school texted and called.
These guys (coaches) are in the business of recruiting high school age guys. Figuring how how best to communicate with the kids is their job and the good ones know what they're doing.
I've said it before, son maintained a list of 10 or more coaches that he texted after every game with his stats, what he thought went well or poorly, when he was next slated to pitch. We didn't know he was doing it until I rebuked him for spending too much time texting instead of talking to us and he explained what he was doing.
Bottom line is — if your kid really wants to play at the college level they need to take responsibility for getting themselves there. All we as parents can do it provide the tools — equipment, training, a phone to use in communicating with coaches, etc. The kids have to use them.
I think you both have good points. We are monitoring our son's email to make sure he doesn't miss anything, but he is responsible for responding to coaches. We will sometimes talk about some things to say in an email, but he is the one who actually decides what to write (and I try to proofread before he hits send). I think this is good experience for him.
Since my 2021 son is looking at only HA schools, his recruiting is really just starting to heat up. He is communicating with coaches only through email right now, not text or phone, but none of them have seen him play yet, so that make sense. They are emailing him, and he is emailing them, mostly about academics and high school and travel schedules for spring and summer. A few have let him know they will be following him and have asked him to keep them updated on his high school season.
We have warned him that at some point he may start getting texts or calls from coaches who have seen him play and are interested. We have talked with him about how important it is to put his best foot forward if he gets any calls or texts and to tell us if he does.
Is he ramped up? Throwing max or close to it? Be at your best at any camp, or showcase. There are no excuses. Coaches will evaluate what the see that day. We learned this the hard way.
Not too late, just risky. HA is delay to the D1s as most 2021 slots in major D1s are full since Fall.
We know Brown, Columbia, Harvard are still open and recruiting, but I would suggest not waiting. Standford is done. Notre Dame already has 12 (but was playing catch up after a complete wipe of the coaching staff last summer). Duke has 12. Vandy has 20.
We did the hybrid approach and that worked to decrease the noise but like others have said - interested coaches called or texted. We did get invited to UVA via email but at the end it was all Text.
Hopefully you have a good relationship with your travel team and they have good relationships with school and will work on your son's behalf, if not, you need to get on one that does. That connection is a gamechanger!
Eokerholm posted:Not too late, just risky. HA is delay to the D1s as most 2021 slots in major D1s are full since Fall.
We know Brown, Columbia, Harvard are still open and recruiting, but I would suggest not waiting. Standford is done. Notre Dame already has 12 (but was playing catch up after a complete wipe of the coaching staff last summer). Duke has 12. Vandy has 20.
We did the hybrid approach and that worked to decrease the noise but like others have said - interested coaches called or texted. We did get invited to UVA via email but at the end it was all Text.Hopefully you have a good relationship with your travel team and they have good relationships with school and will work on your son's behalf, if not, you need to get on one that does. That connection is a gamechanger!
Pretty much all Ivy's other than Penn, who likes to get the jump on the division, are still very open to 2021 prospects.
Eokerholm posted:Not too late, just risky. HA is delay to the D1s as most 2021 slots in major D1s are full since Fall.
We know Brown, Columbia, Harvard are still open and recruiting, but I would suggest not waiting. Standford is done. Notre Dame already has 12 (but was playing catch up after a complete wipe of the coaching staff last summer). Duke has 12. Vandy has 20.
We did the hybrid approach and that worked to decrease the noise but like others have said - interested coaches called or texted. We did get invited to UVA via email but at the end it was all Text.Hopefully you have a good relationship with your travel team and they have good relationships with school and will work on your son's behalf, if not, you need to get on one that does. That connection is a gamechanger!
Where can I find a travel team that is till looking for players??
you got the quote mixed up there.....
Going to take some leg work but reach out to the top organizations here. (go after some in your region or area)
https://www.perfectgame.org/Ra...m/Default.aspx?R=272
You'll need a good profile with lots of stats/videos/velo/awards, etc. In order to get them interested in taking a stranger.
That's what we did for my son. Our local travel team didn't travel East in the Fall and we heard back from Elite and East Cobb and chose East Cobb. We did WWBA in Ft Meyers and WWBA Championship in Jupiter with the East Cobb Astros. Best decision we made for catapulting his exposure on a quality, legit, known team with great relationships with schools on the East Coast.
So, if you look at https://www.perfectgame.org/Co...legeCommitments.aspx , you'll see the following data as of today:
Class of 2020 College Commitments - 4,740 now posted
Class of 2021 College Commitments - 1,269 now posted
Class of 2022 College Commitments - 415 now posted
This suggests (i.e., at least to me) that, for the 2021 class, roughly 3500 additional commitments will be posted/occur on PG by this time next year. Given that that college teams are likely ramping up for their spring baseball seasons, and are probably not singularly focused on recruiting at the moment, I would also offer that a lot of work will be done by colleges this summer in filling out the 2021 class (i.e., bringing the current 1269 commits up to 4720 commits). I think that the numbers offer an objective answer.
So, I would suggest, on this basis, that the summer is not too late and will offer many opportunities to those who have what colleges are seeking.
I would still take the good advice of the other posters and reach out to coaches in advance of whatever showcase or camp you're attending. That seems logical and is not very different than giving an employer a resume before a job interview. I would also use this pocket of time to get bigger and stronger, study hard at school, and work on the SAT/ACT.
Good luck to you and your son!!!
I hope that his dream of playing college baseball comes to fruition!
jbench posted:So, if you look at https://www.perfectgame.org/Co...legeCommitments.aspx , you'll see the following data as of today:
Class of 2020 College Commitments - 4,740 now posted
Class of 2021 College Commitments - 1,269 now posted
Class of 2022 College Commitments - 415 now posted
Class of 2019 has 6653 commitments, that is really a more useful total, since those guys are actually in college now. Meaning that between January of senior year of HS and the start of college, there will be another 1900 commitments.
Yes for all 301 D1 schools that is correct. Lots of offers and spots remaining. If the goal is to play at ANY D1 college level, yes lots of spots left. The numbers are with you.
If the goal is to reach top 50 (D1 or PG or whatever you want to use to rank), they're practically full for 2021.
If you expand it out to Top 100, then yes some have a few spots remaining based on average class size.
Not saying it's impossible, but that it would be prudent to get ahead of it. They typically have to see you play in order to invite to camp (unless bulk email auto response to a questionnaire (Duke and others)).
Go to PG events this summer. Attend some camps. Tryout for Area Code for further exposure, but you had to throw above 90 as a 2021 this summer to be kept. They didn't keep a single pitcher less than 90. Command didn't matter, that was obvious.
Summer of 2020 is fine for a 2021 for every level except maybe the top fifty D1 programs.
For the top fifty an undeclared prospect better be overwhelming. Then programs are willing to screw a declared and make him #36 on a 35 man roster.
RJM posted:Summer of 2020 is fine for a 2021 for every level except maybe the top fifty D1 programs.
For the top fifty an undeclared prospect better be overwhelming. Then programs are willing to screw a declared and make him #36 on a 35 man roster.
Watching a P5 that had 12 freshmen commits in fall of senior year, added 5 more after November, and have now cut 5 just before the season starts - 3 of the original ones and 2 of the late adds. They never stop recruiting.
anotherparent posted:RJM posted:Summer of 2020 is fine for a 2021 for every level except maybe the top fifty D1 programs.
For the top fifty an undeclared prospect better be overwhelming. Then programs are willing to screw a declared and make him #36 on a 35 man roster.
Watching a P5 that had 12 freshmen commits in fall of senior year, added 5 more after November, and have now cut 5 just before the season starts - 3 of the original ones and 2 of the late adds. They never stop recruiting.
Yep and we were at UNC in late July and Coach Forbes told us they never stop recruiting. They had a 2019 recruit coming for the 2019 class and school was starting in 2 weeks. There is no timeline on recruiting. Play the odds and wait and see what you get. The fight for the final few spots is a tough one.
anotherparent posted:RJM posted:Summer of 2020 is fine for a 2021 for every level except maybe the top fifty D1 programs.
For the top fifty an undeclared prospect better be overwhelming. Then programs are willing to screw a declared and make him #36 on a 35 man roster.
Watching a P5 that had 12 freshmen commits in fall of senior year, added 5 more after November, and have now cut 5 just before the season starts - 3 of the original ones and 2 of the late adds. They never stop recruiting.
The player recruited late better be sure he’s the stud bumping another player versus position insurance and risking getting cut before the season starts.
RJM posted:The player recruited late better be sure he’s the stud bumping another player versus position insurance and risking getting cut before the season starts.
I think they had some of each of those. Plus a bunch of transfers/jucos and others. Kind of like a 2-year-old grabbing more candy and dropping and stepping on what he was already holding.
Another P5 I was watching had 14 freshmen in the fall, only 5 freshmen on the final roster today.