Communication

We know the feeling. My advise is to cast a wide net. Contact any school your son might be interested in. At this point you have to assume they are not interested. Just curious did you let your son's #1 choice know that another school was interested? Sometimes this will garnish interest.

I'm just curious how much the camp cost? Going through the recruiting process now with my 2013, it's been a roller coaster ride.

99% of what the folks on this board tell you is accurate, but until you have lived through it, you just don't know.

I'm sure that camps are a recruiting tool, but from what we have seen, most are money makers... We have had more success going to camps where the only coaches there are for that particular school and not going to the camps that advertise 20 plus schools more exposure etc.....

If a school likes your 2013 player they will contact you. I'm not opposed to contacting the schools you are interested in, but if you call and they do not return the call, then chances are they are not interested , at least in the short term.

My 2013 approach is to target schools that he feels his talents will get him on the field not just the roster. And a program where the coach is calling you rather than you calling the coach.

Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by bacdorslider:

We have had more success going to camps where the only coaches there are for that particular school and not going to the camps that advertise 20 plus schools more exposure etc.....

This was precisely that - a college event on their campus, their coaches only and we went because they kept emailing and said they liked his videos, etc., and wanted to have their whole staff evaluate him.

My 2013 went to PG last summer, prior to the PG event he had a D1 school emailing him and asking him where and when he played, what team he was on, and basically telling us that he would meet us at the field, 2013 threw a no-hitter, but the coach never showed... Maybe he saw someone he liked better, maybe his daughter was sick who knows.

2013 sent him a follow up email and we never heard from him again. At that point 2013 crossed them off his list. The coach could have explained why he didn't show but he didn't.

I feel your pain, but I also think you know the answers to your questions. You tried, it doesn't look like its gonna work.

Even my older son who had his choice of nearly any school...experienced some of this with certain schools. They make their decisions...you need to read the signals and move on if thats what the signals say. It really and truly is not personal. You need to accept that.

Good luck. I know it can be tough, but maybe the time to reflect on the frustrating times can be put off until after you find the match you're looking for.

quote:

Originally posted by 2013 Parent:
This topic has been touched on in a variety of manners in multiple strains, and many of us have been experiencing some of this.

2013 received personal emails throughout the summer inviting him to attend one of the camps this school would be offering, saying it was the only way this school recruited. E-mail conversations took place back and forth about his skills and their needs. RC was very responsive to questions and always replied within an hour or two.

Made the trip to the camp - six hours each way, hotel room and food. Great campus, excellent camp, but coaches never mentioned the "next steps" and they didn't pull any kids aside during the event.

2013 sent his thank-you follow up email the next day expressing interest in the school and program. Nothing.

Sent another email the next week with an update about his admission status, etc., inquiring about feedback from the camp. Nothing.

Called the next week, left a voice mail saying he was following up on his emails, that they had been very responsive before the camp, knows they are busy but he would really like to know what they thought of him or if he just doesn't fit their needs. Nothing.

Folks on these boards have said not to take it personally. That's tough.

What's particularly ironic about this situation is that a coach from another school had contacted 2013 for a potential visit and he replied immediately, thanking the coach and saying that he really appreciated it but the size and location of the school just aren't a good fit. That coach replied to 2013 and thanked him so much for letting him know, and said, "you have no idea how many kids never bother to reply to tell me they aren't interested."

We know exactly how frustrating that is.

I feel ya, no doubt it's frustrating. I tend to agree with others, it's important to cast out a wide net...that's what many of these programs are doing, so your son should do the same.

I'm curious, how did your son stack up against the other players at the camp? Also, have you and him seen this particular college team play in competition, either in practice or a live game situation? I only ask because that's the best way to honestly assess the possibilities of playing at that university. Best of luck to your son....

quote:

Originally posted by bacdorslider:
99% of what the folks on this board tell you is accurate, but until you have lived through it, you just don't know.

I know one thing, I would never commit time and money to a program that tells you that they recruit primarily from their camps. Maybe one that is close by but not so far.

Camps are predominetly in existance to provide additional income for their programs. What better way is there to raise money than give you the impression that you can't come unless you attend camp. How successful can the program be if a coach goes by a weekend camp to sign their players?

Definetly cast a wide net, but make sure that what you do makes sense to you, and fits your budget. Remember that college costs are extremely high, and don't go spending what you may need later on.

If you want to spend money for a good reason, attend camps that have a reputation that offers great instruction to make you a better player.
There are many good ones out there.

If you brought your son to that camp on the premise that he had a chance to be offered a scholarhip and not heard from anyone, I think I would have picked up the phone myself by now.

JMO.

quote:

Remember that college costs are extremely high, and don't go spending what you may need later on.

Succinct and great advice! Some of the best I've read on here...ever.

2013 Parent,

Was this the first camp your son attended? What position does he play? Has he received any phone calls from any one this fall? Are you targeting schools at all levels?

One thing that seems to be working for us is to do a little research about the camp. Are there any older players that you know that have attended the same camp in the past ? Did you research the school and look at their roster? Do they mostly take in-state players? Lots of questions to answer prior to going to the camp.

The camp emails, and emails from vol asst. coaches are nice but it's about the money most of the time.

To be clear, this was far from 2013's first showcase or camp, and his net is pretty wide. He's done a few visits, with a few overnights scheduled as well.

His performance at the camp was among the best that day (probably top 3). We didn't see day one, so we can't make any comparison there.

Our frustration was with the lack of feedback or response.

Full disclosure: they emailed him last night and gave him their assessment of his skills . . . some very positive, and one suggestion for improvement.

quote:

Originally posted by 2013 Parent:
To be clear, this was far from 2013's first showcase or camp, and his net is pretty wide. He's done a few visits, with a few overnights scheduled as well.

His performance at the camp was among the best that day (probably top 3). We didn't see day one, so we can't make any comparison there.

Our frustration was with the lack of feedback or response.

Full disclosure: they emailed him last night and gave him their assessment of his skills . . . some very positive, and one suggestion for improvement.

Stay patient, and let it play out. Most -- but not all -- times, this is a slow moving process. When a school wants you, you will know. They are comparing him to other players. Usually, when it takes as long as you describe, it means they are pursuing someone else first. If that player declines (or simply lets an offer expire), that's when they will get back to your son. If they never get back to you, it speaks for itself.

Also, your perception (positive or negative) of how your son performed could be very, very different from what any particular school thinks. If it is feedback or response you seek, you may end up disappointed more often than not.

daddys evaluation dooes not count

I agree with jemaz.

Adding one thing if your son was high on their list he would have heard from them the next day.

My son was pursued by some programs where he was not their priority. He knew it and he ended up following advice to stick with the ones that really were interested.

Sometimes players keep searching because the options they have aren't to their liking. While I understand that there might not be any offers as yet, stay focused on ones that might best fit your sons needs, not just for baseball but academically and socially and that may not be in the division he prefers.

2013 Parent,

We really feel your pain! One of the toughest things that we have learned about the recruiting process is that some college programs seem to be okay with misrepresenting their level of interest in order to make money off of a players desire to attend a great college and play baseball at the next level. It is always unfortunate that some programs think that this is okay, but worse still for families that really cannot afford these camps and sacrafice in other ways so that their sons can have an opportunity to attend a great school.

We may regret this, and our son is still a 2014, but we are sending our regrets for any camp invite that seems unrealistic, is further than we can afford to travel, or for programs that have shown no interest before the camp invite and do not send an email explaining where they have seen our son play.

Of course based on our current way of choosing camps, we would have attended the camp that you referenced...

nrver cross any shool off the list---also no two coaches recruit in the same manner

By November, I would bet most D1s are thru with 2013 recruiting. Am I wrong? The NLI day is very close

Mid and Low D1 in our area are still recruiting 2013's .... the big guys are done.

All of us who have been through the process feel for you. Just keep working the plan and make sure you have a back up option in place.

My son did not commit until May 1st of his Sr year, and he had two D1's coming to his HS Sr season games to see him play. I know of several players who did not commit until May/June time frame. One is pitching for a top 25 D1 program.

Almost all of the late adds are for pitchers however.

D3's will start to get heavy as soon as they figure out who has signed NLI's so there is lots of time left, but it can be frustrating particularly they manner in which college coaches communicate, or don't.

Keep the faith.

quote:

Originally posted by whammer31:
By November, I would bet most D1s are thru with 2013 recruiting. Am I wrong? The NLI day is very close

It's earlier now than it once was, but a lot still goes on into the spring and summer.

took my kid to his first college showcase camp this weekend. he is young and I just wanted to give him an idea of how they are run and what would be expected of him. it was close to home and did not involve hotel rooms or much gas, but it did for alot of the other kids and parents who showed up. I have read enough on here to have expected it to be mainly about the money but was surprised to see how much about the money it actually was about. one kid came over and asked his dad if they could go home becasue nobody was paying attention to what they were doing. will be a long time before we go back to something like this.

I think College camps are where having a well respected coach can really come in to play. My son found camps to be his best recruiting source but we did not ever go unless his coach actually spoke to the coaches at the school and inquired specifically about their needs. Most of these schools at least knew of my son, perhaps had watched him develop and wanted another look but we never believed an email was directed just to him no matter how personal it appeared. If they didn't return our coaches call regarding our son, then it was clear he wasn't on the board.

We used our club coach and his great reputation to qualify each opportunity. In this way, son was always placed on the team of true prospects that the coaches actually watched. We found that if there were a 100 kids at camp, perhaps 90 were simply raising funds for the schools and the other 10 really had a solid look.

Camps are great tools if you have done your work in advance...like communicated to coaches, had them watch you in previous games and come to understand their recruiting needs. If you just show up and expect to be spotted I think it has a solid chance of being a disappointment but same is true of showcases etc.

quote:

Originally posted by wattsboro:
I have read enough on here to have expected it to be mainly about the money but was surprised to see how much about the money it actually was about.

Camps are ALL about the money, but some programs take pride in their programs and run their camps the same way. They do a good job and word spreads and that means their camps will be filled to capacity every time. Many large program camps ask smaller program camps to attend. Stanford's camps have coaches from across the country attend to help them in their recruiting.

Absolutely players are invited because of recruiting interest. This makes for a good unofficial visit and a time to extend an offer.

But the bottom line is that camps are for raising money, your best option is to attend an event where there will be coaches to see you PLAY and watch how you go about your business in the dugout with teammates that you are familiar with.

Bum, Jr. got interest from his (first) D1 school at a college camp when he was a 15 y.o. 145 lb. freshman. Any venue is good for exposure if you have talent. Caveat emptor.

I would go to a camp only if you want the instruction they are actually selling.

If you think about it from the coach's perspective, it is easy to see how unlikely it is that his recruiting plan would rely on camps to turn up previously unknown players who might help his program. He might use the camp to get another look at replacement-level prospects, and he might use it to keep contingency-list players interested in his program. And, sure, the coach might hope he catches lightning in a bottle and some kid will show up with obvious tools, but he isn't planning on it.

If a coach has seen you play and invites you to camp, he's hoping you'll think it means he's interested and wants his colleagues to see you. Theoretically, that could happen I suppose. But don't bet on it. The reality is that if he has seen you play and invites you to camp, it means he didn't see enough to put you on his list of primary targets.

My son once made an unofficial visit to a school on the day they were holding a camp. The head coach told him to come in through a side door because the campers would be coming in the front door the same time we arrived.

During our visit, which lasted three or four hours and included tours of the campus and housing as well as the baseball facilities, we were interrupted a couple times by coaches who needed to talk briefly to their boss. None of these conversations included any references to the talent at the camp. The camp was just something they were doing to pay the bills, and the coaches were trying to minimize its disruption of their regular work.

Toward the end of the visit, my son expressed regret that he hadn't been able to meet the pitching coach, who was busy with the camp. No problem. The HC walked us down to the gym and pulled the pitching coach from the conditioning station he was running and let the two of them walk away for a get-acquainted chat.

It was obvious from their crestfallen faces that several campers figured it out. They had been busting their butts, hoping to impress the coach with their work effort. But when the head coach walked in with a very large kid and pulled the pitching coach aside, they realized what was happening: recruiting was indeed happening on campus that day, but it wasn't happening at the camp. They had been sold instruction, but they had bought a dream. And the dream wasn't going to come true that day.

You're known by the company you keep. If you paid money to join a large herd of unevaluated hopefuls at a cattle-call camp, you self-selected yourself to be one of the herd. That's not the coaches saying you're one of the masses; that's you telling the coaches you're just another face in the crowd.

These observations may apply less to the prospect camps that are limited to just a few dozen players or to lower division schools that can't travel as much to see out-of-state prospects. But in general, the few players I've seen who attracted interest at camps were of a calibre that they also attracted interest at showcases and tournaments.

quote:

Originally posted by Swampboy:
These observations may apply less to the prospect camps that are limited to just a few dozen players or to lower division schools that can't travel as much to see out-of-state prospects. But in general, the few players I've seen who attracted interest at camps were of a calibre that they also attracted interest at showcases and tournaments.

Great post Swampboy! 2015 son attended his first D1 camp this past weekend after being invited by the coaching staff at a showcase event. I was shocked at how many players were clearly not D1 caliber. Only about 5% of the players stood out as legitimate prospects. I wondered how many of the campers had ever been to a D1 game to see what a athlete at that level looks like.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:

quote:

Originally posted by bacdorslider:
99% of what the folks on this board tell you is accurate, but until you have lived through it, you just don't know.

I know one thing, I would never commit time and money to a program that tells you that they recruit primarily from their camps. Maybe one that is close by but not so far.

Camps are predominetly in existance to provide additional income for their programs. What better way is there to raise money than give you the impression that you can't come unless you attend camp. How successful can the program be if a coach goes by a weekend camp to sign their players?

Definetly cast a wide net, but make sure that what you do makes sense to you, and fits your budget. Remember that college costs are extremely high, and don't go spending what you may need later on.

If you want to spend money for a good reason, attend camps that have a reputation that offers great instruction to make you a better player.
There are many good ones out there.

If you brought your son to that camp on the premise that he had a chance to be offered a scholarhip and not heard from anyone, I think I would have picked up the phone myself by now.

JMO.

we had a d1 from nebraska that was interested in junior.they saw his video on line and of course invited him to their camp.they too mentioned they get about 60 percent of their players from their camp..this does not surprise me in the least bit.if you are truly interested in the school why not attend their camp.they did follow up with us twice personally to see if we were attending.we decided even though it was a d1 school with a chance for a partial scholarship that it was too far away.junior opted for a d3 that was close to home.

Only a fraction of high school baseball players go on to play college baseball. While the percentage of college baseball-qualified players at a school's camp might be somewhat higher than that of all high school programs, it's still the case that only a fraction of the participants at a college camp would be considered qualified to play past high school...especially at those held by top programs.

If a school hasn't already seen a player and made a concerted, highly targeted, highly personalized effort to attract that player to their camp, it's unlikely that they're going to discover a player they haven't seen and have already placed on their "recruited" list. The exception to this occurs when a player is being actively recruited by a program considered a direct competitor. When that's the case, the staff putting on the camp may be expected to pay closer attention to the camper's performance. When this occurs, the player should let the camp's coaching staff know in advance that he's being actively recruited by the competitor and is using the camp to get to know them...and vice versa. As a practical matter, this doesn't occur all that often because programs that compete head-to-head against one another usually attend pretty much the same set of tournaments and showcases; so, they tend to have seen and generally follow the same set of recruits.

A final word about camps: If your primary goal for attending a camp is to be seen and evaluated by the coaches who are there, for heaven's sake, ACT LIKE YOU WANT TO BE THERE! Whenever I've observed camps, there's always been a significant portion of the participants who act nonchalant and seem relatively disinterested. I don't know whether they consider it cool or what; but, I can tell you for certain that it makes the coaches' job of identifying the players who have enough desire to step up to the rigors of college baseball a lot easier.

Hustle, attitude, interest level, and respect count every bit as much at camp as a player's baseball skills. There's no greater headache for a coach than to attract a highly skilled player to his program and find out once he gets there that he doesn't have the right "makeup" to cut it in the many ways required of a student-athlete. Their observations during camp are considered important to their evaluation of "makeup."

So, if you attend, hustle at all times, don't do anything that would be considered disrespectful of the game, consistently demonstrate your interest in the school and in improving yourself as a player. There are too many great players out there who consistently do those sorts of things for you to approach it any other way.