Etiquette Question

If you have verbaled and are committed to this program I can see your dilema. You have no LOI in hand. I would keep the door open and continue to complete questionnaires.

Until you have a signed contract (LOI) you are still available to receive offers and opportunities.

I understand that you gave your word, but this business of baseball can be fickle, and as you state the coach may not even be there in 2015.

This is an issue many have with early verbals.

No one is going to look out for te best interests of your son, other than you and your family. Do not delegate that away, especially before you have a signed contract.

quote:

Originally posted by pink lady:
2015 has verbally committed to a college program, is in love with the program, the coaches, the school, etc. However, we continue to get questionnaires in the mail, asking him to fill out and return to the schools. What is the right response? Does he fill them out, knowing he is all set, or does he ignore them? With the amount of time between now and his NLI, does he keep sending these in "just in case" of a coaching change at his chosen school? Thanks for any advice.

You can do it all you want. On the other hand, a commitment ought to mean a commitment. The school, likewise, can continue to look at players who it might ultimately like better than your son. (I have seen this happen). If that is the case and the coach rescinds the offer to your son, you will not be pleased. It works both ways. I would stop filling out the forms now -- unless the commitment is not really a commitment.

quote:

2015 has verbally committed to a college program, is in love with the program, the coaches, the school, etc. However, we continue to get questionnaires in the mail, asking him to fill out and return to the schools. What is the right response? Does he fill them out, knowing he is all set, or does he ignore them? With the amount of time between now and his NLI, does he keep sending these in "just in case" of a coaching change at his chosen school? Thanks for any advice.

Congrats pink lady on your son's verbal committment. I would ignore questionaires in the mail.....that is mass marketing.

Your son should be prepared to answer personal emails, or any phone calls from previosly interested coaches. That needs to be handled more delicately. If you read this message board long enough, you know that things can happen. I personally know situations with early committments where scholarships have been reduced (or eliminated) by a coach right before an NLI signing date. It is always a good idea to treat others as you would want to be treated, but protect yourself. Especially with the more elite teams as people are willing to do anything to get on those teams. It is a shark tank, and alot can happen in two years.

Congratulations.

Your son has made a commitment. A commitment means that if another coach calls the player has to be honest with his intentions. It is true that the mailings are just mass marketing.

The coach has made a commitment as well, but as stated above anything can happen betwen now and when he signs his NLI.

I am curious as to why a player commits so early, it's not necessary, if the coach REALLY wants him, the spot will be there without taking oneself off the market to other programs.

quote:

Originally posted by pink lady:
2015 has verbally committed to a college program, is in love with the program, the coaches, the school, etc.

Herein lays the dilemma of committing early. The relief of having the decision behind you is replaced with the uneasiness of hoping nothing messes it up.

I agree with others, he's made a commitment and so has the program. Although neither of you has a legal responsibility to honor that commitment, both sides expect the other to honor theirs. Once he and the head coach shook hands, they each made a commitment that is as good as their word.

There are a few questions to consider, like do I trust the coach? What is the likelihood the coaching staff is going to be there in the fall of 2015? What is his history with early commits?

Of course these questions should've been asked and answered before the handshake. Still you need to look out for #1 and do what you think is best.

When my son committed, although quite a bit later in the process, he immediately stopped looking. He still answered his phone, but immediately told the the coach he'd committed and to where. To a man, they congratulated him and said to give them a call if anything changed.

Even after verbally committing to a four year college out of state, we still had Junior Colleges that wanted our son to commit to them in case the other commitment fell through. We didn't do it though.

have your son call the coach and explain his dilemma----he should tell the coach he needs a nli or a personnal letter so he can tellothers he is officially committed

quote:

he should tell the coach he needs a nli

Since he is a soph he will not be receiving this until November, 2014 TRhit.

I hold myself out as a person of integrity. And your word is your word. But I have seen some of these situations go south in a significant way, and would not want that to happen to my son.

If a player is good enough to be recruited as a Sophomore, would he not be more valuable as a Junior or Senior?

I see no benefit to verbaling so early and not giving your son the opportunity to be sought after.

I know of an excellent Short Stop that was recruited by a top D1 here in Florida. He verbaled as a Sophomore as well and the family was excited, and many were jealous over his good fortune.

However, when he arrived on campus there were a couple of MIF's in front of him. He spent very limited time subbing in the OF and may have played an inning or two in the infield. When his sophomore season arrived and begining in the Fall he began to see that his time would continue to be limited. So he transferred to a JUCO where he was able to start and play each day. This year he transfered to a strong D2 where he hopes to get his innings in as the starting Short Stop.

If not for the early verbal to the Dream School, his education and opportunity to play ball would have been less tumultuous.

Why give it away so early? If you are a player you should continue to develop and become stronger and more desireable each season that passes.

Either way, Congratulations to your son!

floridafan, I totally agree. I just don't see that anything gained outweighs the possibilities for a premier player, in other words one who is good enough to be committed as a freshman or sophomore to a major university. A player like that has so many options and so many things can change in a year or two. If he's truly good enough to start as a freshman or sophomore at that school then the offer is not going to go away. If he digresses as a player, then he shouldn't go to that school for baseball anyway as he may rarely see the field. I honestly think that sometimes it's the excitement of being given an opportunity to be connected to that school for a few years before the real work begins that attracts early commitments.

I have to admit that that if my own son had been given the chance to commit at the University of Texas as a sophomore, he and I would have been so excited that we would have probably not even explored whether UT was truly a good fit or whether Coach Garrido and his system is the type he really wanted to play in.

But in hindsight, it would have been the name that was 90% of the attraction. I probably wouldn't have even tried to explore whether the roster would have allowed him to play after a year or two. This site and examples such as floridafan offered have taught me to see that a player must often explore many possibilities and not himself in too early. A player talented enough to be offered so early must have all sorts of great things that can happen.

Yes and he'll miss out on his Official Visits to other schools....

mark read my entire post

So what has been typical of early commits as far as scholarship percentage goes? If a kids commits early, does the school seem to offer more to get him? Or if the same kid "waits", is the majority of scholarship money used up by others who signed before him? Appreciate any insights people have on the timing of all this. Thanks!

if the school wants you they will find the money

quote:

Originally posted by CH10Dad:
So what has been typical of early commits as far as scholarship percentage goes? If a kids commits early, does the school seem to offer more to get him? Or if the same kid "waits", is the majority of scholarship money used up by others who signed before him? Appreciate any insights people have on the timing of all this. Thanks!

A minimum of 25% must be offered. I don't think that committing early makes a difference in the amount, and it may not be about the amount but the program in particular for the player. Once again keep in mind that it is only a verbal commitment, nothing is official until an NLI is signed, and then that only provides aid, not playing time or even a place on the roster.

Mark is correct, the player cannot ask for an NLI as he is only a sophmore. NCAA does not allow anything in writing like it used to for verbal agreements.

I am in complete agreement with FF's last post and others. One thing to keep in mind is that many alumni's players do try to commit very early. My son has a few friend who committed early because genrations in their family attended the same program. Alumni's children or grandchildren can qualify for funds set aside for that purpose.

The whole idea is that if a player committs early and then wondering what to do about those letters and later phone calls that continue (keep in mind that verbal agreements are not always public knowledge) then perhaps it was not the right time to committ.

The player signs with the program through the coaches offer, if he leaves one should understand where they stand with that verbal agreement and who will honor it if he leaves. JMO.

Best of luck.

In my opinion, once you verbally commit to a school, you are done. In my experience during the recruiting of my son, most schools will not recruit you if they know you are commited elsewhere (I know there are exceptions). In fact, in camp at Boston College, Coach Gambino went out of his way to tell parents that he absolutely would not talk to a kid who already committed. I think this is the way baseball handles things (I'm not sure how football does it) Once my son commited to a D1 school, other schools that had interest in him just told him "good luck" and the phone stopped ringing.

In my mind, your son needs to understand that a committment to a school is just that, a committment. My son was offered a number of scholarships to a number of very good D1 schools. Each one he turned down he knew that the position on the roster that was offered to him would be offered to other kids and it may not be available to him down the road. He also knew that he was not going to accept an offer from a school and still look for a "better" alternative.

Questionairres/emails are typcially sent out to get you to attend a camp. Since your son already committed, I wouldn't worry about these questionairres. The college committed to you and you need to stick with that. Hopefully, your son commited to the school and not just the coach. If, for whatever reason, the coach leaves by the time he goes there, you can de-committ and given your son already has a commitment given he is a 2015 grad, he should find a good place to play.

quote:

Originally posted by floridafan:

"I see no benefit to verbaling so early and not giving your son the opportunity to be sought after."

This is a bit off-topic from the OP's question, and my family doesn't have the experience of others here (my son is also a 2015), but I think I have to agree here. I had this exact conversation with a very respected local coach (former MiLB an MLB player, scout, current USA Baseball Regional Director, and my son's coach for some national PG events) and he voiced this opinion as well. In his view (paraphrasing here), the player is making a commitment at a relatively low point in the spectrum of his expected value, and in most cases removing his leverage to get better offers if he continues to improve while leaving himself vulnerable to a reduction in the offer if things go south in some way (stalled improvement, injury, etc.).

I'm sure that finding a program with such significant interest (and with which you are so enamored) so early is flattering, and a bit of a relief. However, even though there may be some circumstances where it makes sense to go ahead and verbally commit, I have to think in most cases it makes more sense to wait.

Thanks for all the good advice and opinions. Son is 100% in, I was the one wondering what to do with the questionnaires. He was throwing them away, but I thought it was rude to not respond (and some of the envelopes are very pretty). I guess I was just raised southern! Only time will tell if his early commit was right or wrong, but for him, it was THE school he has wanted to go to since he could talk, it's 20 minutes from home, they offer a major he would pursue at any college he attended, and after meeting the coaching staff, it fit for him.

Pink Lady, congrats to your son.

I have to admit to having a question about the possibility that what is important to a high school sophomore might not be important to a high school senior, but it sounds like your son is confident that he won't waiver in his choice.

Good luck, and please keep us posted!

I TOTALLY DISAGREE REGARDING THE QUESTIONNAIRES



YHEY ARE NOT MASS MAILINGS



RETURN THEM WITH A NOTE EXPLAINING YOUR STATUS