emails to coaches

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but found this thread very valuable. We actually used the advice in this thread to send out a round of emails to coaches last night. My son, a 2023, received a good grade at the PG 14u National. On top of that he received a good ranking, both state and national, from PG for the 2023 rankings. I figured why not send out some emails while the getting is good. 

We sent out a few emails last night. We received one response so far.

But thanks for everyone who contributed to this string. It was very helpful. 

ARCEKU21 posted:

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but found this thread very valuable. We actually used the advice in this thread to send out a round of emails to coaches last night. My son, a 2023, received a good grade at the PG 14u National. On top of that he received a good ranking, both state and national, from PG for the 2023 rankings. I figured why not send out some emails while the getting is good. 

We sent out a few emails last night. We received one response so far.

But thanks for everyone who contributed to this string. It was very helpful. 

You’re most likely 2 years too early, unless your son has off the charts measurables before he plays his first freshman HS game.  If not, it’s only going to result in spam emails to attend camps, which he’s too young to attend.

Take a step back and let him focus on High School: grades, social interaction, EC activities, making the HS team, etc.

That makes him a freshman? I think two years too early is stretching it, but maybe a year. Probably does need to make the HS team, and possibly have some varsity time under his belt before you get too serious. We went to son's first showcase after his freshman season.

What it's probably NOT too early to do is drive through some campuses when you're in the neighborhood, get the feel of big school, little school; high academic vs. party central; wide open green spaces vs. urban cluster. Makes no difference about the baseball if your kid hates the atmosphere of the institution.

Every kid is different.  I don't see any problem with attending showcases and sending out some emails summer before freshman year.  People also need to realize that not all schools are alike.  If we waited until my son had varsity experience to push recruiting, it would have been too late.  My son committed to a top 25 P5 after sophomore year, where he rode the bench all year at our school.  It was the same scenario for another kid on our team who just committed to a top 25 P5 after riding the bench his sophomore year. If your son got noticed or a write up as a rising freshman, his measurables were pretty good.  We did the same thing.  One showcase before freshman year, where he got write ups.  Then we did several showcases and started sending emails summer after freshman year and started really getting traction on recruiting.  In my opinion, if he did well, it doesn't hurt to let the coaches see his name a few times. Maybe his name will ring a bell when they see him play.

The suggestion that a Kid wait until they play Varsity to reach out to colleges is ridiculous.  Varsity where?  Some of the kids from this message board would be the greatest ballplayer, as a freshman, in the history of many schools in Wisconsin whereas might not start varsity until an upperclassman in a Baseball hotbed.

Even in my son's conference, in some high schools any functional athlete who could run a 8 flat 60 could start Varsity as a freshman, however at the Top 2 programs you better be a D1 prospect to have a shot at starting.  It is all over the place.

Agree that it’s not a one size fits all process. Between the 14 National Showcase, Future Stars Series, and the USA NTIS, we ran into a bunch of 2023’s who are already committed. Not just the top kids to P5 schools, but the next tier schools as well. My son’s showcase team has 3 players who already committed with several others with offers already. In talking with some of these parents the theme was the same, don’t sit back and wait for them to come to you. Put your name in front of them sooner than later so that you get on their radar. Even if a school hasn’t started recruiting your class yet they will possibly keep a list of names to look at when they do. 

Any parent that is letting their 2023 commit to a mid-major D1 or below is not very well informed. If the kid is good enough as a frosh to garner a D1 commitment, why commit that early to a program that isn’t P5? It all sounds a little suspect to me, don’t believe everything people tell you regarding offer and commitments, because believe it or not, people stretch the truth.

Also, most non-P5 wait to see who develops before making an offer. I am just really skeptical of parents who say these things.

I agree about committing that early to a non P5 school that early, but these players have their commitments listed in their PG profiles as well. I don’t think there would be any benefit to doing that if it wasn’t true. My thought is that it would hinder them and detract P5 schools if they saw that. These schools included Florida Int’l, Louisiana Lafayette, Bethune-Cookman, San Diego State, Alabama State. 

At the same time, there are handful of kids that we ran into that are committed to P5 schools like Vandy, Alabama, Miami, Florida State, Mississippi State and a few more.

I would not let my 2023 commit to any of the first batch of schools you mentioned...that’s just crazy. Basically let the schools take you off the recruiting market and the players/families essentially sold themselves short. Second group of schools are no brainers.

How are we defining "commit?"  Verbal or an actual written contract?  Grads and seeing actual transcripts and ACT or SAT scores seem to be a big deal with D1's, how does a kid with neither get signed to a D1 program?  Are grades and test scores not as important as most have suggested?

Since they are 2023 grads, it is a verbal commitment. 

2022 grad posted:

How are we defining "commit?"  Verbal or an actual written contract?  Grads and seeing actual transcripts and ACT or SAT scores seem to be a big deal with D1's, how does a kid with neither get signed to a D1 program?  Are grades and test scores not as important as most have suggested?

Until Senior year in November, all commits are verbal. In terms of scores, It’s all relative. If your kid is a complete stud and it’s not a HA D1, the scores matter very little. If your kid is really good and wants to go to Stanford, they matter much more, if your kid wants to go to a HA D3 or an IVY,  scores matter a LOT.

2022 grad posted:

How are we defining "commit?"  Verbal or an actual written contract?  Grads and seeing actual transcripts and ACT or SAT scores seem to be a big deal with D1's, how does a kid with neither get signed to a D1 program?  Are grades and test scores not as important as most have suggested?

I've never had a D1 ask for my sons' ACT or SAT scores or GPA officially until after the offer was made and between my two lefties we had every ACC, SEC, and the top of the Big 12.  They asked how grades were and test scores but never asked for it.  The same way I talk about showcasing early, which I am a fan of if you have something to showcase which for a young player is projectability, you need to take the tests early so that you have some clue.  I had a friend's son who took it as an 8th grader and made 25 so he had something to tell coaches.  Coaches will normally ask how are your grades and then move on.  Now HA is a different subject.  But we never even blinked at the HA stuff. 

If the last two posts are correct, then someone saying they are committed to a college HS freshman year means little.  So much could happen over the next 3 years changing that commit.  What is HA?

High academic - highly selective academic schools