Contacting coaches - How much is too much?

I think you can reach a point of too much...or lets say, "enough."  Have you?  I don't know.  Maybe...maybe not.  We treated these things as kind of...'get a feel for their response'...i.e. reciprocal interest or not?  And go from there.

On talking to coaches after events as a junior...at least as of a few years ago, that was not allowed.  Most coaches will be polite and respond briefly, but then try and 'escape' (so to speak).  They wouldn't want other coaches seeing them talking.

Make sense?  3FingeredGlove may have an update to second part of my post?  Rules might have changed?

One of the major benefits of attending camps and showcases is the ability for underclassmen players to speak with coaches onsite who are in attendance. I have seen this done routinely at many camps/showcases........both during and between the scheduled events and after the program has been completed and people onsite are getting ready to leave.

I will be very interested...and surprised...to learn that this might be a violation of NCAA rules

[As far as what constitutes "too much" contact, I think contact that includes news....such as updated GPA, SAT/ACT results, team schedules, showcase schedules...is never too much contact.]

With your son being a 2015 (current junior), in-person communications right now are not permitted UNLESS they are conducted on the campus of the school whose coaches he's talking to (at a camp or an "unofficial visit").

If the showcase you mention was held on the campus of school # 1, then school # 1 was OK to talk to your son, but school # 2 was not.  This could explain why one of them was willing to talk, while the other made it a point not to put himself in a situation where someone could claim a violation had occurred.  Inferring a lack of interest, as you have, could well be a mistake.  If your son remains interested, he should continue to contact them and see how they respond.  Perhaps they would like to have him come to their campus at some point so they could talk more freely.

On the other hand, if this showcase was on neither school's campus, you might want to make a mental note as to which coach is scrupulously following the rules, and which one is not.  My own feeling is that while the NCAA rules are byzantine and worthy of our disdain, a coach who is willing to violate them in one instance is often willing to violate them in other instances, too, and that can lead to your son playing somewhere during a period of recruiting rules violations sanctions a few years down the road.

VARHP,

You might suggest to your son that he make a phone call.  I've found this to be better than e-mail for judging real interest. Have 2015 send an e-mail (maybe to the PC) asking for a good date/time for him to call.  If no response, that's one indication of interest level.  If your son does get the coach on the phone, he will probably get a better idea of where he stands.

Since this is his top choice, he might want to make a few calls to other schools to get some experience first, if he hasn't already.

Good luck.

Midlo Dad has it right.  Events on their own campus...they can talk to you.  Events off their campus, they cannot unless rules have changed.  No more than a polite greeting.

I believe it is against the rules also.  However, it must be quite prevalent.  son approached a coach from a good D-1 and coach politely said, "you know I can't talk to you right now."  Son was misinformed by a teammate who,already had two,D-1's talk to him. This was just last week.

Good advice.  I would add that you should keep calling, because they can't call back. So if they e-mail and say call at 5, and they don't answer, call again in a half hour.  The coach's my son is dealing with say keep trying.

Agree with this. Guess it all depends what the meaning of "talk" is.

At many camps/showcases, coaches who are not from the host school run stations during drills and coach teams that compete in games. There is a whole lot of talking going on between "hi, how are ya" at one extreme and "I'll offer you 50% right here on the spot" on the other.

Interesting conversation, and some helpful insights & advice - thanks.

To clarify, I think the "talking" after the non-host showcase was very simple; probably the most said to my kid was "Hi Joe, good to see you, you did a good job". There were other players who also approached the scout after the showcase; I have no reason to assume there were any in depth discussions.

My son's summer travel coach had instructed him to ask for an "evaluation" from each college coach that son requested to see him pitch at games. Is this common/allowed?

VARHP - I wouldn't read much into who said "hi" and who did not.  With our older son in particular, many said "hi" but many who did not were significantly interested (or not).  

There's one school in particular...that almost seemed to hide.  In fact when our older son was heading into his senior year and being heavily recruited (back then, 2003, the timeline was later)...the head coach called me in the car on our way to the event to tell me they would not show any interest after the event (when they were allowed), but that we could be certain that they were in fact interested.  He didn't want to make it obvious in front of others.

Anyways, on your last question...we never asked for an "evaluation" from any coach through 2 sons being recruited.  Oh, I guess both of our sons asked a coach during a phone call what they thought he needed to work on, but nothing more.

My view...in the business world, is that very few people wanna hear the truth if its not all positive and so I personally prefer not to be asked in an 'interview' type of situation.

Bottom line...I don't know whats the best thing.  We did not, but I'm not dismissing your travel coach's view on this.

Trying to find if this question has been answered somewhere and this thread is the closest I could find:

Going to a showcase where there will be both D1 and DIII coaches.  Are the rules different for the the DI coaches with respect to how much they can talk to players/recruit at the showcase vs. what the DIII coaches can discuss?

Don't want my son to go up to a coach to talk and end up putting the coach in an awkward situation.

I think the rules for DI and DIII are the same with regard to off campus contact. No contact until after junior year of high school. After that, pretty much unlimited during normal contact periods.

You can download the NCAA manuals for free at http://www.ncaapublications.com.

I think it depends on what year your son is. If he is 2016, they can talk to him

twoson - I am assuming you are talking about HeadFirst which begins this week.  In this case the event is technically a "Camp" and not a "Showcase" meaning that coaches that are IN UNIFORM are acting as "instructors" and are free to talk to the player at any time.

Let me also chime in on the "he said hi and that must mean something", comments presented here.  The only thing that means something is when a coach calls your son and tells him directly that he is interested in your son playing at coach's university.  Everything that happens before that moment is just information gathering.  Many coaches that were ultimately interested in son as a recruit said nothing to our son before that call and, several coaches who where very nice to son at events turned out to never have been interested.  Please, Please, Please, try not to read intent from casual interactions.  That will cause you way to much stress in an already stressful process.  Real recruitment is not ambiguous.

+1  Could not agree more. Most of these coaches are just good people, polite and courteous.  They will say hello and be nice (especially if mama is..well...you know).  Don't read a thing into it.  In fact, the RC where my son committed actually gave him a little bit of the cold shoulder at a showcase very early on...even though I knew they were interested.  My son approached him to chat (allowed at this event) and there were many, many other coaches around.  It was clear to me what he was doing...he didn't want other coaches to know of his interest.  He shook my son's hand and quickly turned and walked away.

I cant find the exact reference.  Similar situations have come up and we have been getting direct emails from division 3 coaches prior to Sept 1 of Junior year.  When I went to look up contact definitions rules and calendar, D1 and 2, seemed to be defined in the same way but they didnt seem to have regulations on D3.  Maybe because they are not allowed athletic scholarships, only financial aid packets.  I believe I found the guidelines at NCAA.org while looking up Graduation success rates.  Google search college baseball recruiting calendar, I will try and follow up soon