I mentioned on the Updates thread that I knew a kid who got an offer at a NESCAC school after just one Headfirst event. I think that's uncommon but I'm not sure if I'm right.
It would make sense to me if a coach liked a kid's performance at an event and contacted the kid's coach for more info and then pulled the trigger, but I'm at the age now where the only thing that makes sense to me is that nothing makes sense.
Others' thoughts and/or experiences?
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Offered him on the spot or started the process to get to an offer?
BTW, how is it you were the only one to get my joke in the other thread about Bob saying coaches would ask him to throw BP and I said I get that all the time as well
@TerribleBPthrower posted:Offered him on the spot or started the process to get to an offer?
I guess on the spot, with the assumption that the pre-read would be positive. The kid I'm thinking of knew after that one HF that he didn't need to do another event, so the coach must have been pretty certain he could get him in. I can check though. I'm trying to see what a player can avoid cost-wise and still have a chance. It may be a matter of good fortune. Say the kid is a good enough player and the grades/test scores are in the ballpark but he has a crappy showcase. Then what? I wasn't comfortable doing one event but maybe I could've been?
PM'ing you.
Wait, do you mean the one showcase was the only thing he does, other than high school ball?
Or that he had done other things (tournaments, PBR, camps) but a school only saw him once at a showcase and began the process?
I don't think anyone offers support on the spot, without the pre-read. Certainly some offered a visit before the pre-read, which were done very quickly. And Headfirst gives them test scores and GPA, I think.
Smoke, is the question “will a D3 coach see a kid at just one event, get an admissions pre-read, and make slot offer based just on that? Then, sure, that was Patrick’s experience, except the event wasn’t Headfirst; it was the NorCal World Series.
I believe that a HA D3 can offer after seeing a kid for the first time if some or all of the following happens:
1. The kid has reached out with some pertinent info prior to HF/Showball/other. This info includes a current official transcript from his school, a screenshot of an ACT/SAT (both very easy and my kid had those saved on his phone and he emailed those things several times to various HA coaches).
2. It also helps if the coach knows of/about the school the kid attends (right or wrong a lot of kids that go HA are kids from prep/private or elite public high schools) and knows the kind of kids they have offered and admitted in the past.
3. Video and metrics emailed or seen by HC/RC prior to event.
I believe that some players/parents have some idea of the landscape of recruiting these days while others know that baseball is their kids ticket to a highly selective school (like some parents/kids here).
I also believe that coaches who have been at places like Tufts/Johns Hopkins/others for a while know what a great pitcher or player at their level looks like when they are 17/18 years old and are ready to offer a stud who wants to attend. If the right kid knows he wants to go to Middlebury or Amherst (for myriad of reasons) it can be a one and done. These coaches are not recruiting the portal or waiting for mid season drop downs from D1.
Absolutely. A LHP throwing 90-91 is gonna get offers immediately, for instance. Same with a CF who runs 6.6
@3and2Fastball posted:Absolutely. A LHP throwing 90-91 is gonna get offers immediately, for instance. Same with a CF who runs 6.6
Oh, you're speaking of I Am That Guy's twin sons!
I guess I'm assuming that they wouldn't be available for stratospheric D3s, unless they had a passion for the liberal arts equal to their passion/mad skills with the alabaster spheroid, and if they didn't mind half their college baseball careers cancelled by college presidents named Karen or Ken.
@smokeminside posted:I mentioned on the Updates thread that I knew a kid who got an offer at a NESCAC school after just one Headfirst event. I think that's uncommon but I'm not sure if I'm right.
It would make sense to me if a coach liked a kid's performance at an event and contacted the kid's coach for more info and then pulled the trigger, but I'm at the age now where the only thing that makes sense to me is that nothing makes sense.
Others' thoughts and/or experiences?
Yes. I don't know if it is uncommon or common but I know a kid "extremely well" who was offered by a NESCAC school after one HeadFirst event. He met all the criteria @used2lurk detailed out and nailed the college as well.
Yes you can get D3 invitations to visit and do pre-reads, which turn into offers of slots, from schools who have only seen you at one Headfirst showcase. My son had a PG (tournament) and PBR (showcase) profile, had been at big tournaments, and had attended one HA school's camp, before HF. However, most of the schools who contacted him after HF had not seen him before, nor had he ever contacted them. He had a good showcase, and it was backed up by the other stuff - I'm not sure it would have had the same impact if that were all he had done.
We were flying totally blind, didn't have a clue what he should be doing, and travel coaches did not have much sense of the non-local HA scene. Not from an elite HS, and no-one from his school had done this before.
Btw, only one D3 coach ever reached out to either travel or HS coaches. I always thought that was strange. We did ask travel coaches to contact some D3 coaches, although they did not know them.
My kid was invited to attend a camp for NESCAC school. The next day the coach called the kid and offered him. He cleared the admissions pre-read without any help from the coaches (I am sure they very pleased about that as they are only allowed a handful of kids to put through admissions). He went to camp as a catcher but the coach told him he would be used as an OF and he was fine with that. His HS teammate was offered to a competing NESCAC school after a performance in a WWBA PG event last summer. I am not sure how much communications that player had with the school prior.
My kid went to HF as a rising junior (partly bc his dad didn't really know better, partly to let him get a feel for things). I doubt any D3 coaches even looked up from their clipboards when he pitched, given that he didn't yet have 3 years of HS grades. The boy did introduce himself to several coaches, including one from the school he now plays for and a couple of others that later made offers--all of them essentially said "keep your grades up, keep in touch, then maybe next year..." The only time these coaches actually watched him play would have been at Showball the summer before his senior year. He was focusing on schools in the mid-Atlantic and northeast, and we live in the south--HA D3s don't typically come to weekend tournaments down here.
The boy emailed information to coaches before Showball and did what he could to generate interest. There was a lot of email / text / phone back-and-forth after Showball, and I know coaches looked at his videos online. (Video is especially useful for pitchers. They seem to have it easier in recruiting in general.)
So a lot more went into it than just "being seen once." But yeah, I think it's fair to say they only saw him play once. If you lay the proper groundwork, that's enough, even if you aren't the next Roy Hobbs.
It's possible. RipkenFanSon went to Headfirst as a "rising junior". He did receive an offer from a HA D3 (10.5% acceptance rate last year) HC. This was from a school he hadn't researched or targeted. Son had transcripts available (and PSAT score), though I don't think he took first SAT until the fall junior year. Son liked the coach, but the school was further away, and was early enough in process for son, that he wanted to see if D1 HAs (especially Ivy) had any interest. We did notice that most schools (especially D3s at HF) were finishing up their "rising senior" recruits. The showcase did give him great early exposure though.
That’s interesting. Hadn’t heard of HA D3 offers summer of rising junior year. For some conferences, they wait for July 1st of rising senior year for official pre-read results but clearly that is just one HA conference (NESCAC) and pre-reads can likely be done differently.
