Cut to the chase

2013, that coach is a breath of fresh air, good for him for being honest with you.

Had a SS come into the program at Army. He was a 28th rd. pick in the previous draft out of HS and elected to go to college. He wound up leaving after one year, but much of that had to do with wanting to play pro ball and not have a military obligation after graduation...however...

A number of people remarked that the coach screwed him over because he should have played him more. There were 4 major problems with that though...

SS, senior, former conf. player of the year, former rookie of the year, 3 year starter and wound up being 10th rd draft pick.

3b, senior, all conf, leading avg. hitter on the team.

2b, junior, all conf, former rookie player of the year, 3 yr starter, eventual team capt.

1b, senior, all conf, lead league in extra base hits for 2 years, 3 year starter.

The point is, in spite of the fact that this kid could play, there was nowhere to put him. He knew that going in.

CPLZ, so the main point with this player wasn't playing time, but not wanting to commit to service. Why in the world would he have joined the program to begin with? Last minute, decided Pro ball vs Army?

Curious indeed.

Might have been misinformed by his Army recruiter on how the system actually works. Learned that pro-ball would not be an option and departed. Maybe?

quote:

Originally posted by 2013 Parent:
Keeping it all in perspective, it's all about the right player in the right position with the right vacancy.

Very true. And so one needs to look closely as the prospect of if and when the opportunity will present itself. It may not be in the Freshman year and if so or even the Sophomore year. But when the opportunity presents itself, the player needs to be ready to perform at the expected level of play.

quote:

Originally posted by BK_Razorback:
Might have been misinformed by his Army recruiter on how the system actually works. Learned that pro-ball would not be an option and departed. Maybe?

Army Recruiters are not involved in the West Point process, and no, there were no unfulfilled promises regarding the military and pro ball. Everything is usually very clearly understood

quote:

Originally posted by Pop Up Hitter dad:
CPLZ, so the main point with this player wasn't playing time, but not wanting to commit to service. Why in the world would he have joined the program to begin with? Last minute, decided Pro ball vs Army?

Curious indeed.

It was a very unique situation. My take on it, and this is just my opinion... Dad was enamored with West Point and wanted to be the father of a kid who went to WP, that part was very obvious. I do believe that there was a larger plan however. You can attend a service academy for up to two years and leave at any time with no obligation, monetarily or militarily. However, once you start your junior year, you are committed to 5 years of military service, graduate or not. It was commonly believed that this kid would not make the junior committment and would bail and transfer to a regular school so that he could pursue baseball, another obvious goal of Dad.

He left after freshman year instead of sophomore year because Dad learned to hate the coach, as many parents and players in that program do. Having said that, the camaraderie between the players usually overcomes whatever feelings they have for the coach. In this case however, I believe they just executed their plan a year earlier than prognosticated.

quote:

Originally posted by Pop Up Hitter dad:
2013, that coach is a breath of fresh air, good for him for being honest with you.

Had to revisit this strain today . . .

Several weeks have passed and we're now seeing the value of your words. Many coaches haven't returned a phone call or an email, but the form invitations to camps keep coming from their schools. 2013 even finally sent a note to the staff of the first school who called him on July 1 and politely asked if they really want to see him at camp. No reply, so we have our answer.

Another coach did email today to say they've filled their spots.

Having a definite answer is just so much better. We're finding that many coaches have left the schools during the past couple of months, too (perhaps this is normal) so 2013 is following up with the new staff just in case . . .

Just keep doing what you are doing. We found that things really heated up in Sept. & October, at least for us.

Yes September and October were very active as well for my son. He had some Mild interest during the summer and some coaches come out to see him pitch but most he never heard from again. But once september hit his senior year they came out of the woodwork. Of coarse most of them were D3.

Turned out D3 was fine because generally the D3 schools that were interested in him met his academic and social profile and athletic profile he was looking for in a school.

quote:

BK_Razorback
Member

Posted July 13, 2012 08:27 AM Hide Post
Might have been misinformed by his Army recruiter on how the system actually works. Learned that pro-ball would not be an option and departed. Maybe?

Army recruiters do not misrepresent anything and haven't for 30 years.

Only the best of the best recruit.

This is a subject that has been brought up many times over the many years that I have been here.

If a coach is seriously pursuing a player and has decided that he is not able to play for him because of skill level, grades, test scores, no money (or for whatever else reason) the coach definetly should (and the better ones do) let the recruit know he needs to follow other options.

Serious recruiting means different things to different people. I considered son seriously being recruited when he heard from the coach weekly, coach had come to watch him play, asked for a transcript and test scores, discussed scholarship options and received an invitation to an OV (I understand that the OV doesn't mean as much as it did before recruits starting committing very early).

I think the problem lies when players receive letters, emails, camp invites as first inquiries and maybe a phone call and then it ends. This offends some, I can understand why but IMO this is not being seriously recruited.

The players and their families who have the least anxiety over the process are those that truly understand what being recruited seriously means.

JMO.

Well said TPM, and so very true.

For most people this is not a process that comes naturally, and there are many nuances to it. Unless you come to a place like HSBBWeb or talk to someone who has been through it, would you know what to expect in college baseball recruiting. I think many people go into this process with very high expectations just because they don't know what they don't know. Each experience with each coach along the way helps to give that recruit a new perspective. Some coaches are good at letting recruits down, others don't communicate at all, and others string them along. It is reality, and sometimes very hard for a 17 or 18 year old kid to accept. I don't recall any conversations remotely resembling what the OP described. Typically, "no communication" by the coach meant that we're not interested anymore.

Being around this for the last three summers you knew it was serious when a college coach would go talk to your head coach in the middle of the game and tell them to have a certain player call them right after it was over. That pretty much sums it up that they have serious interest. In those situations things tend to happen pretty quickly.

We had a kid this summer who could flat out hit, but was not a big kid. A college coach came to specifically watch this one player. He saw what he needed to see after the first at bat, talked to our coach during the game and an offer was made very soon after.

If you have had contact with a coach via phone, email etc. if they come to see you play you should have a pretty good idea very soon after if they have interest. They will reach out to you if they like what they saw. It might be in the form of an offer or it might be that you looked good but they want to follow you longer to evaluate you over more than one game. If you hear nothing there is a good chance it's not a good fit.

quote:

Originally posted by warningtrack:
Being around this for the last three summers you knew it was serious when a college coach would go talk to your head coach in the middle of the game and tell them to have a certain player call them right after it was over. That pretty much sums it up that they have serious interest. In those situations things tend to happen pretty quickly.

We had a kid this summer who could flat out hit, but was not a big kid. A college coach came to specifically watch this one player. He saw what he needed to see after the first at bat, talked to our coach during the game and an offer was made very soon after.

If you have had contact with a coach via phone, email etc. if they come to see you play you should have a pretty good idea very soon after if they have interest. They will reach out to you if they like what they saw. It might be in the form of an offer or it might be that you looked good but they want to follow you longer to evaluate you over more than one game. If you hear nothing there is a good chance it's not a good fit.

The problem is identifying just what serious interest is. It is very obvious when it is happening; and until then it's just not!

Exactly right warningtrack and birdman.

I agree that it's USUALLY obvious when coaches are interested. During my son's junior year we had some serious interest from a few coaches and they kept in contact via e-mail. The one school my son was most interested in, his "dream school", we sent e-mails and left messages, but never heard anything back. We thought there was absolutely no interest and turned our attention away and to those schools who were showing a lot of interest.

Then when my son traveled to play at the Area Code event, his Area Code team had a couple of warm up games played at this "dream school" of his, which he had never heard from. Apparently they had been watching him at a distance and with these warm up games the HC saw him play up close for a longer period and before the second game was over, the coach asked to have us meet him in his office right after that last warm up game was over. And it was at that very time the coach made a good offer and because this was the "dream school" my son wanted, we accepted the offer on the spot and the rest in history.

The hardest part of this was that these other coaches that were showing interest and were trying to find out just how interested WE were in them. And as we put off making any kind of commitment, feeling it was way too early to make a decision, it became apparent that we couldn't wait too long or the coaches would certainly lose interest and look elsewhere and we would lose our windows of opportunity.

Yeah, I think how this worked out in our case was pretty unusual. But it does go to show that you just never know what might pop up. So I feel it pays to be patient whether there's a lot of interest being shown or little or none and you just gotta play the hand you're dealt the best you can.