Do coaches ever offer sight unseen?

Not a dumb question; don't worry.

It is not impossible to get recruited without a coach seeing you; it may be near impossible to get a scholarship (at least your first year).

Coaches recruit players that they want in their program. The traditional way is by being seen playing. However, you are not the only one that can not make the events where coaches congregate.

My starting point is for you to visit the schools where you have an interest. Be prepared; have your transcripts ready, test score ready and be prepared to talk with the coach. Make a good impression; Coaches want kids that are academically qualified that can contribute to their program.

If you can interest a coach; he may ask for video or references. Will it happen everywhere; no, but it does happen (it did for my son).

If you can't go where they are for a showcase; at least go see the schools where you may fit academically, socially and from a baseball prospective. At a minimum, you will learn something about the school and if you are well prepared, have a good story, you may interest a coach in following you.

Good luck!

Here's a thought: Try to get in front of area professional scouts and/or the operators of area baseball development facilities; baseball people who are capable of objectively evaluating your skills. The "fraternity" of which they are a part includes college recruiters, some of whom will work as assistant coaches at colleges outside of your immediate area. It's not unusual for them to pick up the phone after seeing an impressive player and call one of their friends who is a college recruiter.

If you're uncertain as to who your area scouts or baseball development facility operators are, check with your travel team or high school coach. Chances are that they'll be able to recommend some names to you.

Best of luck to you!

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Welcome aboard the HSBBW Idahojoe. You've received good advice from both ILVBB and Prepster. I'm sure others will respond too.

Take a good look around the entire site...there's helpful information everywhere. To save time you may want to pass by my posts..."where seldom is heard an intelligent word, and replies are too wordy all day."

Enjoy your trek. You're definitely starting down the right path!



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If you really want it that bad then get a part-time job and pay for the showcase yourself if your folks can't. I put myself thru OSU by working two jobs and taking loans out.

Ok, thanks for the responses. I learned today my team will be going to CA next summer for a tourny. It's a pretty centralized tourny, so I thought I'd do some research and contact some schools down there who could see me in person down there. My next question is if I contact coaches and some of them end up showing up to this tournament will a coach be turned off because I invited multiple coaches to see me play and it wasn't just him? I'm just wondering because I could see someone thinking "Oh, this guy just wasted my time. He isn't actually interested in my school." Could that be true or am I way off on that note?

I want to get in contact with as many colleges as possible because that will likely be my only chance to be seen down there before it's decision time.

It can happen but I think it would more from the junior college levels.
My son had recieved numerous offers from JC's all based on recommendations from references.

At the risk of being repetitive as I've told this story on this site a couple of times before, my son was seen a Perfect Game showcase by an ML scout who called a coach in his home state about him. In a few days the coach contacted son and asked for video which we then sent. A few days later, the coach than invited my son for an official visit and made an offer. This is a DII school where workouts were allowed. We brought son's stuff and asked the coach if he wanted to see him workout but he said he saw enough on the video and he also trusted the scout's opinion. Also some Juco's invited him for a visit based on video's or personel recomendations also. So it is possible, but I still recommend trying to get in front of as many coaches as possible. In the California tournament, I would invite as many coaches as possible. They will probably watch other players too, especially pitchers who are always in demand.

Mark B:

I currently hold 2 part time jobs, as well as school work, and baseball.

When you got to pay for gas, that takes huge chunks out of savings.

Thank you to the last two posters. From what I was told it is a highly competitive tourny so there is a chance some of those coaches were already planning on being there. I've been browsing the threads on here and I've learned a ton in just a couple hours.

Well you've come to the right place believe me! Welcome to the HSBBW.

Idahojoe, you came to the right place. Welcome aboard, HSBBW has many parents/coaches/players that offer a ton of information.

Here is what our son Pop Up did that helped open a few doors and we are from the same area as you.

Apply to the Area Code tryouts, its easy and online. If all you do is get invited to the tryout you'll still get plenty of exposure. The coach that recruited our son saw him at the tryouts. There is no cost to attend.

Also look into Baseball NW in Oregon, he does tryouts and you may be invited to play in the NW Championships, a very well scouted tournament. Our son did that and we enjoyed the first year, second it rained out. Just check out their website for more information.

It is possible to get on a CA team, but most likely only the JCs will recruit. Just look at USC, UCLA, etc's rosters and you'll understand why. Son's current coach told me that due to the out of state tuition costs, very few out of state players can afford to attend them. You may get a letter or two from them, our son did, but nothing ever came of them.

Good luck and do keep us updated on your progress.

References can assist at all levels of college baseball. It depends upon (1) the playing level of the player observed and (2) the quality of the observer's network.

It can happen, I had a player a couple of years ago that had a heart of a lion and played the game fearlessly, not a ton of talent but his work ethic was fantastic. His biggest problem, 5'6" middle infield.His dream was to play college baseball in the U.S.,very hard because we live in Canada so you need to be very good to be noticed up here. Anyway, he played his senior year and only one coach from North Carolina really liked him, however his team was already set and could not use our guy. Late August I received a call from a JC in California from a coach looking for a middle guy. I told him about our guy, he was hesitant because he had never seen him and his size was a concern. I knew the California coach and the North Carolina coach knew each other very well so I put forward that the NC coach really liked our guy and then suggested that the Cali coach contact the NC coach. He agreed to talk to the coach.Two nights later I got a call from my former player, he was over the moon! He had a week to report to California, he went, succeeded there and finished his final two years at an NAIA school in Kansas!
sorry to be so long winded but you can see contacts are important

idahojoe, I had signed kids sight unseen before. The way I learned of them was through a couple of steps: 1) record a video of you playing (batting, fielding grounders, pitching-game film is great, but I'd rather see the tools), 2) email coach with link to video online (youtube), or mail video.

You will not get a big scholarship offer sight unseen, but you can at least get some contact to outside schools.

What area(s) are you looking at and what levels?

prospect coach - the right contacts especially. Guys like you who work for their kids...congrats.

BP is a good org; i'm sure afew would be intersted in hearing more of your experiences - there are lots I'm sure, don't know if they are all PG rated! I don't mean that sarcastically, you've been there for more than a cup of coffee... never a dull moment at one of your games either.

slider38 you have a PM

quote:

You will not get a big scholarship offer sight unseen,

My son had a few offers sight unseen. The video I made showed everything a coach needed to see.
Several clips of high level games and the scholarship we accepted was ecellent. His coach never saw him until he arrived on campus.
We didn't do any showcases either.
One offer came from a Long Island Tournament when he pitched against the LI Tigers but even that was from a roving scout who recommended him.
There were some who wanted to see him before offering but mostly JCs in Florida.
I do think showcases are important but we didn't have the time. A well done video can generate interest and a great scholarship.

Prospect coach are you with Bullet Proof ?

idahoejoe,
Welcome to the HSBBW.
Money is tight, I am not too sure that coaches offer scholarships sight unseen these days. It is true that coaches have contacts and that helps in the recruiting process, however as stated, it does not usually bring a big scholarship, don't beleive everything you read here.

Would any of you offer sight unseen (if you were a coach), unless of course I were made to beleive that this player was the greatest since sliced bread, or I was having trouble recruiting because my program wasn't going where it should (which happens often when you take players you are not familiar with because you don't get out there and recruit).

A lot of points made on this thread. Something that has not been brought up is this. Do you really want to go play for a coach that has not seen you actually play? Talk about a shot in the dark situation. He has never seen you play. You really have no idea if he actually thinks you can play for him or not. He is taking a chance on what he has heard. Your taking a chance that he is going to like what he sees once you arrive on campus.

When a coach recruites you based on his observations from watching you actually play what he is saying is "I saw you play and I am convinced that you can play for us. So I am going to offer you this amount of money to come here and play for us. Why? Because I saw you play and I believe your our guy."

Do you really want to go somewhere with all these questions surrounding you?

Sight unseen does happen. But its from someone that the staff trusts because their information has been spot on in the past and they are a very trusted source. But the vast majority of the time information from these sources is good enough to get them to come actually see you play. Not sign you sight unseen.

I agree with you CM, the info should be good enough to motivate the coach to come watch you, or an invite to camp so he can determine if you will be right for his program or not.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I am a firm beleiver that both coach and player should have some type of first hand knowledge about each other, not through others.

JMO.

quote:

Originally posted by idahojoe:
Ok, thanks for the responses. I learned today my team will be going to CA next summer for a tourny. It's a pretty centralized tourny, so I thought I'd do some research and contact some schools down there who could see me in person down there. My next question is if I contact coaches and some of them end up showing up to this tournament will a coach be turned off because I invited multiple coaches to see me play and it wasn't just him? I'm just wondering because I could see someone thinking "Oh, this guy just wasted my time. He isn't actually interested in my school." Could that be true or am I way off on that note?

I want to get in contact with as many colleges as possible because that will likely be my only chance to be seen down there before it's decision time.

Joe, there is a great source of info in this thread no doubt about it.

I'd highly suggest that you write each of the college programs you might be interested in attending and wait patiently for them to respond to you, either by phone call, email or snail mail. It would help if you have a video of you or provide your coaches letter of recommendation for you.

Also, when you are playing, you never know who is watching. Many umpires, bird dogs, alumni, etc., all will spread the word about players that they may have been impressed with. The information network today is much more enhanced, thus it will help provide you with sources to be seen and a chance to play baseball at the next level after high school.

I had recruited players years ago sight unseen, but I had built a network of contacts that I relied on their word and it was a reciprocal relationship.

Good luck to you and please post to let us know where you decide to go.

Coach May that's a great point I haven't really thought of. Hopefully I can work enough to make the money to go to Jupiter next fall so I can get exposed to coaches all over the country. Is October of your Senior year too late to get an offer though?

I'll have the NW schools covered with my summer schedule, I'm going to CA for a tourny this summer, so as previously mentioned I'll work my butt off to contact coaches, send them my video, get them interested.

So I have the west coast covered. That leaves alot of the US left. A big thing for me is getting out of the rain. So if it's not too late to get offers out of Jupiter, are Texas schools, Arkansas schools, Oklahoma schools, that region represented well at Jupiter?

That's a big thing for me: Getting out of the rain. You might ask me why I keep asking about schools so far from home, it's because my goal is to get out of the rainy NW.

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Don't forget about the upper Midwest...




By the way...I grew up in Tillamook. We didn't have bases, we had buoys!




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I have known many players that got their first offer during the spring of their senior season during their hs season. And I have known several that got offers after they graduated from high school that summer. There is plenty of time for you even though it may not feel like it. Jupiter is represented by college coaches from coast to coast. Good luck

Idahojoe,

What tournament are you coming to in California?

We have had a few players offered sight unseen. We mentioned them to the coach and they did some homework. We had a Midwest school recommended a guy of ours he had seen to another school who offered him big from that colleges recommendation. The thing to remember about coming to California. You are really going to have to really stand out. Schools do go out of the area but the are usually the rather exceptional player. Let's put it this way..There are California players looking to leave the state to get a better chance of continuing their careers. Now, if you are looking at DII and DIII your chances are greater.