doing it on your own

I am a partner in a service that provides parents and atheletes the tools to "do it on their own" efficiently. There is no better way than to market yourself as most DII and DIII coaches I have spoken to simply throw the paper resumes out....they want to SEE the kid play. The site is myinstantreplay.com and I think you will see we approach the recruiting aspect of sports from quite a different angle.

jwrabel,
We faxed info to the coaches when asked. They sort of liked that.
I could just see my son's recruiting coach being told he could go visit a players "website". He'd pass on it in a flash.
College coaches are very simply guys, and they like to know the players they are recruiting are very simple guys as well.

Attend a well attended showcase, camp, wood bat tournament, money well sent. JMO.

If anyone needs help doing it on their own, contact me, happy to offer suggestions...for free!

Just for anyones information let it be known that we include the marketing aspect in our showcase tuition fee--- the time frame is unlimited--that is why we have the 800 number-- if you need help call the 800 number--we have been there and done that---

Basically if you attend one of our showcases you have us to assist you as you do it "alone".

TR,
Was making a point here, I don't like those that come to advertise but have nothing else to offer.

I know you understood that, just wanted to clarify, for others.

Tiger Paw Mom,

I did not come to advertise. A previous post mentioned our site and I just wanted to tell the story myself. I have been upfront in who I am. I don't quite get the "have nothing else to offer" comment, I am a coach and former college player who experienced the recruiting process (at the DII and DIII) level and understand what the process entails. I had never heard of some of the schools that sent me information and remember how difficult it was to find inormation on the schools to see if they offered the degree I was interetsed in or to learn more about the programs. Myinstantreplay can help players do that. Most if not all DI recruits don't need our service. But there are thousands of good baseball players who never get noticed for whatever reason and our site is merely one of many tools available to try and make sure that doesn't happen, just like attending showcases, wood bat tournaments, etc. I did not mean to cause such a fuss. I have said enough about our service and won't mention it again unless asked.

I do apologize if I have offended you. The above post describes your services as possibly a valuable tool for recruiting.
I just find it very much a coincidence that a new poster comes on asking about the website, the next day the person involved shows up, happens all of the time.
MN-Mom is the owner of the website. Maybe being here a while I am too protective of her and the former owners interests. You see, if someone who is a new poster comes on to endorse a site, a team, a product whatever, and someone uses it and it turns out to not be a good experience they may go back and hold the site responsible. We have had a situation happen where parents were not happy and then the come here with major complaints without going directly to the source. MN-Mom runs a business also and is busy and now she has this dilemma on how to handle this situation which shouldn't have involved the HSBBW to begin with. Sounds crazy, but parents can get out of control sometimes, me maybe being one of them. I hope that you understand.
The best part about this site is that we are parents helping parents or students with no experience other than our own kids going through it. There is enough information provided for someone to realize it takes work and can be achieved without having fear of wasting money.
I was thinking the other day about approximately how much money we had put into the process over the years, going back to high school. I would say it equalled one half of a years tuition at Clemson. That is not alot compared to some stories I hear. It took a lot of planning and figuring out how to spend the money wisely. For us it was travel baseball, getting him out there and being SEEN in the flesh, not posting on a website waiting for someone to come along and find him. I think that is the message here. We tell parents time after time to get OUT and be SEEN.
One of the reasons it worked for us, is because we were in the event and marketing business for many years. I knew nothing about college recruiting, in fact I didn't even know about Clemson until my son got a letter. So for lack of experience in that, we used our marketing experience. No matter HOW good I thought my son was, or how good he was, no one was going to find him sitting at home waiting for the college recruiter to call a coach. From my expeience, I try to help others as best as I can.

I feel that most recruiters have good intentions, but when given the money, they themselves don't know how to handle things. It is a VERY big undertaking. It is a business and for me, just because you may have been a former coach, scout, player does not mean that you have the business expertise to help someone. Most people are internet users and know all you have to do is do a search on google and every college d1,d2,d3,NAI, juco etc. in the country will pop up. It takes time and effort, it is the players and parents responsibility to see it happen, don't put your future in someone else's hands. Fungo posted about that, it was a great post.

I have a friend that called me to ask me if I ever heard of XYZ company. He was willing to shell out 2500 for their services. They knew that their son was not D1 material, but the recruiter said it didn't matter, he could make it appear as if he was, to get interest. My answer was, what are you going to do when they SEE him play. I tried to hook them up with a summer travel team. They said it was too expensive. Everyone of the teams I refered them too were up in Atlanta last week and will play in Jupiter this fall.
It angered me that this recruiter was going to do this and I do hope they stayed away. I have much distrust in these people.
My son played for a coach who ran his team like TR does. It also was a business, not for profit necessarily but to get his kids out there to be seen and help in the process. The first day of practice, you were given sheets about how to write a proper baseball resume, what to include, what not to include. And how to contact college coaches. And the coach made it his business to contact college coaches while in town or that area and to play at colleges campuses. He was trying to teach tehm the business side of recruiting, something that every summer coach who has HS kids on their team should do. HS coaches do it too, but only can spend the season with them. Junior summer, my son traveled to Omaha for the CWS and played in a tournament, played in Atlanta and almost every college campus in FL. He was being recruited by many schools before that, but come July 1st we received calls from schools who never sent on questionaire. It was well worth the 2500 it cost us.

We always could use more advice on the recruiting process in this thread, I think that it would be a great idea if you could pop in on a regular basis and answer questions for those that ask. This might also benefit you business wise as well, though I have found many people along the way with the attitude, why give advise for free when I can charge for it.
I understand where you are coming from now and I hope that you understand me as well.

Tiger Paw Mom,

As I said earlier, I din't mean to create problems for anyone, including MN-mom. I will say to everyone reading this post we are not affiliated with or endorsed by Hsbaseballweb.com in any way shape or form. I undestand and respect your concern for the person who runs this site. I am not here to take advantage of anyone, and I agree that there are services that do do that. Please understand that we are not a database site that coaches come visit and I do not think any player should wait for some coach to see them...we are both on the same page that playing in showcases and being seen is the most important thing any player can do. There are many resources on the internet to use to find schools, we have just made it a little easier by creating a database of every NCAA, NAIA and JUCo that offers sports and then providing the ability to search that database by sport, division and state. This just makes it easier to get information faster as we link to every colleges website. Additionally, we encourage our users to email the college coaches letting them know they are interested in their particular school and provide a link to the player website. The information there (stats, schedule, academic, awards, video, etc) allows a coach to evaluate and make a decision if he wants to pursue or move on. We are a substitute for making dvd and videos, writing individual letters and mailing them all out in an effort to be proactive...you can do all that on one site. I agree, no one is served by simply creating a website and waiting for coaches to somehow find it. We used the internet because it is efficient and every college coach has an email address. As I said earlier, for most if not all DI players, they do not need to do alot of marketing, and would not need to pay for a serice like ours...if your good enough and play enough, coaches will find you at that level. Our site was created for those thousands of other players who fill out the DIII and DII rosters, where coaches do not have recruiting budgets to speak of and can't travel aound the country to find players. We try to bring the players to them by combining a comprehensive database of schools and a website they can maintain on a daily basis with accurate and timely information. We don't have coaches "searching" our site for players, we tell the players to research the schools they are interested in, and then let them know you are out there.

I will continue to come to this site because I find it very informative. As far as answering questions, I would be more than happy. Most parents need to expose their kids through as many tournaments and teams as possible. Playing is the best way to be recruited...you and many other posters have already said the same. It doesn't hurt to be proactive as well. Our site is one tool to help you be proactive. Not the only way, but one way to do it. I stand by our product and am not ashamed to talk about in detail...I think it can help alot of kids without bankruting the parents. But if I can be of any help to anyone, I have already listed my email and contact information. I will continue to check in. It is a great site. As I said before, good luck and continued success.