college showcases

I have ran the showcase circuit with one of my sons over the last couple of years. My experience was that some were better than others. Many times we would go to a "Showcase" an no college scouts would be there. The few that would come were looking for the one or two players that everyone already knew about. The exception to that was the Fall Perfect Game World Wood Bat Showcase. I never saw so many scouts and they were looking for players. If you can get there, you should go. It is usually in October.
Otherwise, if you are having fun, keep going to as many as you can. You never know what might happen. Best of Luck!

You might also want to ask your coach these questions.

quote:

Originally posted by Texan:
You might also want to ask your coach these questions.

I agree. I was at UTA yesterday and there were zero college coaches and 1 scout there. Not even Coach Curtis was there and it is his field. I think the fall showcases are a good thing. There are certain ones that are better attended than others.

In regards to time a college coach can spend watching high schoolers it goes like this in this order:

1. Summer time
2. Fall time
3. Spring time

But, I have seen more college coaches out in the spring the last 2-3 years than I did ever before.

There is a lot of JUCO ball going on now during the weekends. I saw plenty of coaches at TCU this weekend for the JUCO games.

I'm sure some of them may be looking for some immediate help. Just another place for them to scout/recruit.

Highschoolplayer,

I will make a recommendation.

Make a short list of schools you would be interested in attending.

Maybe 5-10 Juco's and 5 Small Universities and 5 Large Ones (if there are that many).

Go online and retrieve phone numbers and names of the coaches for such schools. If you are having problems, let me know and I will help with info.

Contact these coaches personally. For some schools, the assistants may be the recruiting coordinater so see if you can gather that info. online or by phone. You need to talk to the coach who does the recruiting.

I know it may be intimidating at times to talk to a college coach. But trust me, coaches are impressed by a player who takes matters into their own hands. It shows you really want to play. Rarely, will these guys pass you off as just another player. If they do, keep at it anyway.

If you are truely interested in attending that college and playing in their program, let them know that.

Have your info. ready if needed......

SAT, GPA, Class Rank, and Schedule...

Generally these coaches will clue you in on a tryout date or even ask you to come up and workout with the team one day.

Building a personal relationship will help in great ways. When you show up to a open tryout, introduce yourself by mentioning you talked by phone in the past.

There are plenty of programs who are in need of players that have desire to play. If you want it, it's there. But attending showcases can be a "luck of the draw" kind of thing unless your name in on the recruiting short list already. Keep going to them, just build a phone call relationship if possible with them.

Again, you may have trouble spitting out the words on your first few phone calls...but that's OK. Keep at it. This will help you in the real world when looking for a job down the road.

If you need help, let me know.

Good luck.

Great advice KG. Just wondering, when dealing with schools far away, would you still say phone calls are necessary? Also, a kid calling a school does not fall under any recruiting faults does it? I've always heard about how many times a school can contact a kid, but not if a kid contacting a school counts as a school contact. I get the assumption that it isn't prohibited to any extent.

Also just an addition (and this may be included under workouts, just clarifying): camps put on by the schools help and I think can prove very benefitial as well.

DTiger,

If you are interested in an out of state school, a phone call is the best thing a player could do to start this process.

Many schools do not have the budget to get out of state and cover it with huge success. A phone call can help this process greatly.

A phone call by an interested player is not prohibited in any way.

Proud of you, KG. A helpful post.

NCAA allows tryouts at juco's. It doesn't allow them at D1 schools. Those schools plan a day where they have 40 or more come to see the campus, talk to the coaches, have lunch, and have a talk about the program. It is done in the Junior year (Junior Day). You can go on as many visits as you want, to schools of your choice. You may only attend five schools on official visits. Official visits being paid for by the school. Any more than five come on your dime.

Thanks again KG. I have been e-mailing a good group of schools for quite a while. I'm assuming a phone call looks much more impressive. Maybe for the next few schools I need to contact I will do that.

quote:

Originally posted by Texan:
Proud of you, KG. A helpful post.

Save it.

KG,

Great advice to Highschoolplayer!

Don't forget about filling out their athletic questionaire.
I would also suggest you follow up all your e-mails witha phone call. Some coaches are very busy and the hardest thing about phone calls is reaching them.
Fill out the questionaire,email and follow up witha phone call and refer to the email/questionaire.

thanks KG,
I have just started to get my letter to the coaches out. So should I call them already or should I wait until I get a brochure or anything like that. By the way I am a junior and I was told that we aren't allowed to be contacted by coaches at this time? I'm not sure. I'd like to hear back from KG because i have a list set of schools that i would like to go to.
Thanks

Dtiger, what schools have you been in contact with through e-mail. call me if you don't want to post it.
dc

HSP, go to the NCAA website & download the "Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete".

NCAA recruting info

highschoolplayer,

As a junior they can send you information but can't talk to you until after July 1st.

Go to this link then click on Sports other than Football and Basketball for DI info. (this is the coach's instructions on dos/dont's and the timeline they have to follow)

NCAA info.

there is also info. on DII and DIII.

GOOD LUCK....

OBN, if I recall properly, the student may contact the coach.

I believe the contact date has changed, D-1 schools can begin contacting you by telephone on Sept 1st of your junior year.

Emails, text messages and your calls to them are OK anytime. As are unofficial visits.

I have also found that if your summer or high school coaches are willing to make a phone call to the school(s) you are interested in, on your behalf, it is more effective than you calling yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by highschoolplayer:
thanks KG,
I have just started to get my letter to the coaches out. So should I call them already or should I wait until I get a brochure or anything like that. By the way I am a junior and I was told that we aren't allowed to be contacted by coaches at this time? I'm not sure. I'd like to hear back from KG because i have a list set of schools that i would like to go to.
Thanks

Give it time in the mail to get to the coach. Then call him and say something like........

"Just wanted to touch base with you. You may have recieved my info. and was hoping to get a tryout date if possible."

Express how much you are interested in that particular program. Give the reasons.

Again, in my opinion, a phone call goes a long way. Then use follow up calls.

Opportunities are built on relationships. Always remember this. As it will help you in all avenues of life.

The more personal the relationship you can build with a particular coach, the better chance for an opportunity to happen with that situation.

Or, you will just become another piece of paper in a huge stack.

And I will stress, there are no rules against a player calling a coach at anytime. If you aren't sure of any rule, let the coach be the one to tell you what he can and can't do. Rules change so often and there are different sets for different levels.

so should i call the coach before i send him an email/letter or after. the first letter is mostly saying that you are interested in the baseball program and that you would like to recieve further information correct?

Yes, the student can initiate contact but the coaches are bound to the guideline est. by the NCAA. From the link I provided, dated 8/1/06 it still states the July 1st date for personal contact by coach and written contact is 9/1.

But that could have been updated, I am just going by the link which is the coaches guidelines.

quote:

Originally posted by highschoolplayer:
so should i call the coach before i send him an email/letter or after. the first letter is mostly saying that you are interested in the baseball program and that you would like to recieve further information correct?

Personally, there is no wrong time to call the coach. It's up to you.

You can wait until your mail is recieved by coach before the call, or you can give him a call now.

If I were recommending my son, this is what I would say to do.................

1. Make your list of shools
2. Get the contact names and numbers
3. Make the call
4. Wait a month or so to see if you get a information card to fill out.
5. If no card, call again.

Sending information is good. Usually it will initiate them sending you a return information sheet to put in their file.

But again, if you are not on the "top 25" lists of recruits.......sending info. often gets stuffed away. Not in all cases, but it happens.

Let me give you an example........

While coaching the DBAT team a few years ago, Cade Griffis would get countless calls, emails, letters, ect. expressing how they were interested in the summer program.

Usually, I would recieve the info. through forwarded emails or be given letters to follow up on.

From there, I could look up a players info. and ask around.

But sometimes Cade would just give my phone number to the interested party and I would get a phone call.

When that happens, the coach is on the spot. He will either give you a date or at least a plan of action of when to see you. If he seems less interested, then you know right then what you are dealing with at times.

For me personally, when I got a phone call from an interested player (not a parent ), I always was impressed by a contact made this way. It usually meant this player was truely interested in our particular program.

When a player is truely interested in attending a particular school or program, this helps the recruiting process for coaches. Now they can use their efforts to deal with players that have interest already rather than wasting their time with players whos intrest is suspect to begin with.

Ken,

Some kids are very quite and it's hard to get them to make these calls. Heck, my son is so shy he turns red just sending an email. Just because a parent makes a call to get the ball rolling does not mean his son is any less interested than the next player and I think it would be an injustice if some coaches felt that way. Adam has sent out a few emails and has had two coaches call and leave messages. In this case, I make him return the calls. I think this breaks the ice and he will become more comfortable calling a coach in the future.

I know a lot of people won't agree with thsi but I did all the calls. When the coach was interested he would then talk to my son. Mainly to see if he was interested in the school. I explained that my son picked out the schools and I called to make initial contact. Believe it or not I did not have one coach question why he didn't call. As negotiations progressed they would ask when they could talk to him. He also is very quiet but not too shy. I had toll free and enjoyed the talks I had. Many coaches I had to call several times to reach them.
There is no one right way but this worked well for us.

Parents,

You are more than welcome to make the calls. I never said there was anything wrong with that.

But............

Again, the issue here is to seperate yourself from the generic "interested" player.

I personally, as well as many coaches I know, think it's more productive when a player can make that call.

Plus, parents probably won't be making too many phone calls to set up job interviews one day.

The boys have gotta learn sometime...

He has got a job by himself and he is now working on campus. Did that all by himself. You see his ability to do the phoning was not an growing up issue. It was more practical for me to do it. I spoke to 25-30 coaches and not one questioned my calling. I enjoyed it and the coaches did as well. He even did an unofficial visit at UNLV all by himself. No coaches or anyone with him. 3000 miles from home.
This is not a matter of growing up it is a matter of proper use of resources. His DVD was the thing that would separate him from others. Most of my son's teammates didn't want to go far from home. He did because of the experience. He could have gone to a D1 school just minutes away with all his buddies. My wife and I still can't believe he wanted to go so far by himself. He is one mature young man. He has complements from coach and school officials on his behaviour.

LV is only 1240 miles.

It's also good to know something about the programs and schools you are interested in. Don't just be interested because they are D-whatever schools in your geographic choice.Do your homework, invest some time. It should be apparent to the coach when you talk to him that you are not just calling him from a list of 50 schools without any specific interest or knowledge. This is especially important for players who are not being recruited. If your calls sound like telemarketing and your e-mails look like spam they are less likely to be well received. I also believe it is better for the player to call but if the player can't then the parent should. Any well prepared call makes a better impression than no call.

I just checked it on microsoft map .UNLV is 2300 miles from my front door. That is a long way from home.

Another really tough aspect is to try to reasonably know your level of potential and play. If you are not a top prospect being actively recruited it is hard, especially as a junior to know exactly where you'll fit, but having an objective scouting report or two or three is helpful. If you are not being recruited you probably want to pick a number of schools at different levels of competition (even within the divisions some schools are much more competitive than others). Shoot high, medium and have some fallbacks, too. You want to have options, if possible. This is part of your homework. You continue this process right up until you sign somewhere, even if it is not until the summer after you graduate.

Krace4

Good advice.............

In our case my son was prepared to sit out a year to get a school he wanted. It helped in negotiating the scholarship. He was very particular about the location and the conference. He wanted to pitch against top 10 schools. The worst thing that can happen is you get beat up and that message is loud and clear. I feel if you try and set limits you will not achive any higer than the limits you set.
I say go for it and let them send you home.

Having just been through this with a son who was not a top prospect, I can't say what will work for everyone but I can say what worked for him. He's now in a baseball program he really likes at a school he loves.

Even though top D1 prospects are the main focus here, I'm gonna guess there are alot of non-top-D1 prospects out there that want to play baseball in college, and the recruiting process for them is different. Most of my posts are directed toward that crowd. And not going straight to a 4 year D1 right out of high school doesn't mean you won't end up there. If my son was ready to pitch D1 right out of high school I'm pretty sure that's what he'd be doing.

Thanks for your posts, K4.

K4 makes a good point. How do you know for certain where your son fits on the recruiting scale? For instance, my older son received recruiting letters from lots of schools, but one in particular mailed him every week. Then when July 1 rolled around - nothing. Guiding your son toward his proper destination is tough. While I agree with our Canuck friend about aiming high, there also has to be a dose of realism mixed in with the rose-colored koolaid.

(hows that for mixing metaphors! )

Just an important note. I got a letter from a school and it asked for my academic courses and grades in those courses from sophomore and junior years. It's important for any parent that has a kid looking into getting into a high level school, it's very evident, if you don't pass the academic standards, it doesn't matter how good you are.