Contact Tracking

Not to be funny but a legal pad and pen.

When he complained about my writing near the end of the process when he wanted to go back and review things I put it in an excel spread.

Excel spreadsheet will work just fine.

One of the frequent posters on this site signs his messages with, "And if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plan."

Your post made me go back and look at the spreadsheet my son, wife, and I put together going into his junior year high school season. It's a list of schools my son thought he might be interested in. It has columns for everything you'd expect--majors, tuition cost, admissions selectivity, and so forth. And it has space to summarize contacts with those schools.

I mention our spreadsheet because NONE of the schools on it were on the table when my son made his decision.

As parents, we really want to believe our planning, analytical, and management skills can ensure a more successful recruiting experience for our kids. But the reality we found was that the only contacts that mattered were the ones coaches initiated when they decided they wanted him. Those contacts were unambiguous and required very little tracking.

I'm not saying you shouldn't manage your contacts or plan your camps and showcases based on where your son thinks he wants to go. Quite the contrary. But I think Eisenhower's comment that "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything" applies. The value of laying everything out beforehand is that it allows you to think in an orderly manner when things start happening fast.

Best wishes

Listen, recently a parent told me that they had contacted dozens of schools and not heard back positively from one. They really couldn't understand because their son was a two way guy and and really good student always on a winning team. They even sent DVD's, developed a website, what did they miss?

Actually, I just made that up but it does sound familiar right?

I beleive that all the contacting in the world won't make a darn bit of difference until the right coach/scout actually watches you play.

Spreadsheets are fine, but swampboy is correct, when you look back most likely the school your son ends up at was never on that sheet. Is this something that is necessary or something that keeps you busy during the process? I am not sure about anyone else, but we tried to spend as little time on that stuff as possible, someone gave us that advice years ago and I still pass it on, even though times have changed, the whole permise remains the same.

And my advice is to allow your son to take part in the process, this should not be your project alone. This is the first step in the growing up process, decisions should be made together.

We used the notebook method, when someone called we wrote it down, and we just sent out whatever questionares that he got and he was interested in and what programs appeared to be good fits (we eliminated early).

quote:

I mention our spreadsheet because NONE of the schools on it were on the table when my son made his decision.

So true. The first time around we(I?) did the spreadsheet thing, its busy work. However it is helpful to keep the contact info, you never know, and I would recomend using Outlook or whatever e-mail program you utilize. You can also create a folder for the e-mails if you like. You can type a lot of info into a contact record in most e-mail programs. No special program or custom spreadsheet is really needed.

The second time around my son just keep the phone numbers to the coaches he was interested in on his cell phone and did not worry about tracking his contacts with them. If he lost his phone it wouldn't have been a big deal as the schools that are really interested will call your son if they have not heard from him recently, If your son has to call the school/coach all the time, the interest level is.........

In my book; do you need a spreadsheet to track your girlfriends? You know who is giving you love? Recruiting is like dating; you make a lot of moves, some get rejected, some will give you a wink. Until the night is over you don't know who will be your gal.

If you need a spreadsheet to keep track of "which line you used on which girl" then you may want one to keep track of what is going on with the colleges that you are trying to "date."

Spreadsheets are fine for those that need to keep order and feel a bit in control. When all is said and done, they will see that all that work probably wasn't necessary.

I actually am one that believes that one doesn't have to fill out and return everything they receive. If you do a reliable showcase when the time is right for a good evaluation, take tests when recommended, apply for the clearing house, that should lead you in a good direction as to where might be a good fit. Then you can concentrate on those type of programs.

I am also a firm beleiver in keeping all things as simple as possible as to not overwhelm.

A few weeks back, one of the posters said it's not who you want but, who wants you.

It is my nature to plan as I've mentioned in other posts, I have a database with over 800 schools in it. I used this to broadcast wide and far on a free website to get a sense of the schools that might be interested in my 2014.

The result of all of this was that we began communications with about a dozen different schools. In the last couple of weeks, 22 distinct coaches have viewed his videos etc.

I will say that many of the schools I spoke with (I initiated the calls), were not on our original watch list. Right now we have a list of about 80 and 20 are on the short list.

I must say that there are some schools that we might not have put a lot of effort into originally. For example, if you are from Ontario, Canada, you dont have the expectation that California and Florida schools will be that interested.

Our summer travel organization says research the schools. I've done a lot of research now. I actually went through all 8 Ontario travel clubs and researched what schools their players have gone to. I've researched where our own team travels to. Some D1 coaches from nearby states I've talked to have indicated that players from our team have been desirable but, they have never been able to get one (every senior player on our roster gets at least one scholarship offer). The numbers tend to bear that out. The travel routes tend to show it too. Most guys are not heading to Michigan, Ohio, or Upper New York.

Getting back to it, I now have this list of a dozen or so interesting schools. I have a list of probably ten more that are closeby and over time, we should get in to see. I probably have twenty more that my sons travel team will play against sometime before or during his senior year.

My point is having the list will help. This list is not necessarily a wish list either - there is a bit of substance to it. We can plan to visit or travel to HS Prospect Camps. We can send out summer travel schedules to a more likely target audience. We have a mailing list when we update the videos (I have to get some good pick-off footage this summer).

Before I began this, I really didnt think it would matter much this year. In more than one conversation though (mid-to high D1's), I am glad I started the process. My son has a bit of time to go to nearby camps etc. before his travel program kicks into high gear in his Junior year. Based upon the schedules I see, time will be of the essence then.

Having the plan may do nothing more than help us to sift out what is relevant in the process. I can attest that in the past couple of weeks, my perspective has changed many times.

I also agree that in the end, things will likely be crystal clear and management tools such as these will become irrelevant.

Perhaps because you are in Canada you may need to have a data base of well over 800 schools in it.

Your son is a 2014, things change, he will change, coaches change. What you are doing is opening a line of communication and that is a good thing. No one ever said NOT to develop a plan.

I think I was the one who said it's not who you want, but who wants you.

I stick by my original thought.

Thanks TPM:

I wanted to say that it was you that said that but, couldn’t remember. I’m amazed that people didn’t latch onto that thought for a bit longer.

Quite a while back there seemed to be more information available on the internet. I imported that data back then and then updated it more recently.

You are right in that living where we live, we need to broadcast. In a way though, it helps because we look at it like “leave no stone unturned”.

My guy is already physically big enough to be on a D1 Pitching roster so, I’m pretty sure that’s why there has been some interest. I also realize that interest is just that.

He’s got four years to move mid-70’s to 90’s and maintain his grades. Still, it puts a spring in his step now when he’s going to his workouts knowing that there is interest there. I think he has been unsure about where he fits up until this last year. Each year for the past three years, he has pitched successfully against guys a year or two older. I have never seen him so confident as he is right now about his pitching. He has a conviction about success and the organization he is with is well-known for their work ethic. I don’t know where this is all going to end up but, I am pretty sure he will reach his genetic limit in the process.

He has a good year in front of him this year. Less load and some time to really experiment.

notlong--
What free website did you use?

beRecruited

Notlongtilicantcatchim,

I have seen more than one baseball player from Canada playing for a college in the deep south.

Most were at Jucos and some were at 4 year schools but if the player is good you can go to a lot of colleges. Mind you a lot of college like pitchers from up north because they unlike the kids from the south have not throwed as much and their arms do not have the wear that they do down here. It is all about being seen to know if a college wants you or not and what they are looking for to fill their team.

Hi Pony:

When my son was young, we used to go to Florida camps a lot during our March Break. We are with a club team that has sent its entire graduating roster to US schools every year for more than ten years. There are several teams here with year-round programs that are set up for the same thing.

I have heard similar comments about scouts looking for arms here because they are not burnt out.

I think a lot of kids here go to JUCO’s for a number of reasons. For example, our hitters do not see the same quality of pitching for extended periods of time from a young age. Our pitchers are held off from throwing a curve until much later – thus, our hitters do not see curves (and better quality curves) until later. For that reason, I think a lot of positional players choose to get some “greening” at a JUCO. Also, our entrance marks are geared towards Grade 11 and Grade 12 marks. The mindset of a young ball player, who typically does not make one of these travel teams until 16U, is that their freshman and sophomore marks are not as important. In truth though, 8 or 9 of their 16 NCAA credits occur during this time. My son is a freshman and I have really hammered him on his first term Science exam. He (and I) spent 28 hours over 8 days just to move his 77% term mark to an 82% final mark (enough to be a 4.0 rather than a 3.0 course). We don’t have a very broad base of acceptable courses either. You have to do this largely on Math Science and English.

In our case, we have a good idea of the courses our son will take all the way through to Grade 12. In some ways, it is a little easier at exam time. The exams that matter are the NCAA ones – I could care less about the others.

I think those two factors right there dictate a lot of what goes on for players from the north.

All in all though, about a hundred guys from the Great White North head south each fall.

Part of our packing list for our players is a note book. They put dates on each page and make notes of any and every phone call they get or make starting July 1. Jot down information about each call and then you have it as a reference. For the guys getting calls from many schools, dedicate pages per school.

However you decide, make it fun. It's really pretty interesting to gp back 5-6 years later and read it all. It also helps if you have a second son going through it at a later time. Track the coaches..