Field Level Follow

What is his 60 time?

Similar thing has happened to my son. My son created a free NCSA profile and he's now got 7 D1 schools following him. At some point NCSA had an open window where we could actually see who's following him. They were all super expensive private schools he'snot interested in. They've never reached out and he regularly updates his profile. That's just his experience. He also has a field level profile. He's had less interest on that one.

“Following” on social media could mean they plan to invite him to a camp.

A player is being recruited when they start getting repeated phone calls from coaches and offers.  Anything else prior to that is just noise.  Try to take it with a grain of salt until insider Baseball people or D1 coaches tell him that he’s a potential D1 player

My D3 kid had all kinds of great games against “D1 commit pitchers” in travel ball.  It never meant anything other than building his confidence as a hitter.

Most of those D1 commits never played D1 by the way, 3/4 of them are now in JUCO or D3.  You aren’t an actual D1 player until you play in a D1 game.  Being a D1 commit does not in the slightest make you a D1 player.  So many of those kids get cut in fall ball of freshman year, or never play and transfer down

Good point on the D1 committ vs. player. I've seen that, too, with a lot of local kids that have committed to high and mid-level DI and either don't play at all or transfer out.

Forgot about the camp "invites." That's a good point also. Thanks for the reminder that some of this is about cashola.

Same thing with my son a couple years ago, his travel team set up his Field Level account and we posted some stuff.  Anyway, he got a couple D1 follows.  I believe schools put in certain criteria and if you pop into that search they can decide to follow.  Ie,  the school might search for Pitchers, put in Height filter, etc. area of the country, etc. and then follow the lot.

He also had a follow from an ACC school that had a clear tie to the travel program owner, and I often wondered if that school followed everyone in the program at 16u up.

It's been a while but I believe you can, through FieldLevel, reach out to those following and pursue it further, treat it like a hand-raising lead.

PS. I also believe the evaluations done by his coaches that are either requested by you or in our case done as part of the setup by the travel program, may include information that attracts a certain level school.. Of course you aren't able to read them in FieldLevel.  wonder if you are able to request seeing them, since what a coach says can affect your recruiting.

My son graduated HS in 2015.  The minute we started using Field Level (probably at 14u or so) he started getting camp invites from anyone and everyone.   You mention they requested contact info from the HS coach?  Was that it?  Just contact info?  If so I'd expect to see a camp invite soon.   If he is hitting against D1 commits I assume that means he played varsity this past Spring (so at least a rising sophomore?)  If so I wouldn't be afraid to hit up a showcase....though with the new rules with regard to coaches contacting recruits that started June 1st I'm not sure how the showcase circuit will compare to what it's been in the past since contact that directly involves recruiting discussions can't start until Aug 1st of the player's Junior year.....though I'm sure there are already coaches that are disguising those conversations....but there can be no offers

Until people start reaching out or getting back to him it is nothing. Harsh but true. Can't think of how much time we had spent thinking about this school coming to watch or that school following on social media. It was all a waste of time and effort. They were either having conversations about him playing at their school or they weren't.

By the time the second came around there was no sweat because you know what's real and what's not.

Until there are conversations about financial aid, campus visits, grades, there is nothing.

Yup. This is the second one but first one was in the depths of Covid hell so hard to use that experience at all. Appreciate it.

Re committing to,D1 versus playing D1

I was at a state high school championship game this week. I watched part of the game with the AD and head coach of the host college. The host college is a repeatedly ranked D3 program. I asked if they had any commits on the field. They said both shortstops.

All three pitchers were D1 commits. One was a Top 50 program. The other two were lesser D1 conferences. The coach added experience says at least one of three will finish their college baseball careers pitching for him.

The lesser D1 pitching commit demonstrably out pitched the Top 50 pitching commit. At the high school level having the command to knock a freckle of a gnat’s ass often works better than higher velocity and physical size. The 5’11” 88-90 pitcher threw a two hit shut out with one walk. He was on the edge of the strike zone for seven innings.

The Top 50 recruit was 6’3” throwing about 93. The other team caught up to him second time through for one big inning.

This article by my friend and fellow coach, Wayne Mazzoni, may explain the recruiting process in a real way. It starts with thousands of PSA's per school. Times that by the number of schools ...... it's a grind for coaches and PSA's alike

While some of the numbers varies sport by sport, this should give you an idea of how drastic the recruiting funnel is for most college coaches.

• Coaches will mail or email somewhere in the range of 10,000 players per recruiting class. They get these lists from camps they attend, recruiting questionnaires, or get lists from sport specific recruiting services.
• They might watch a few thousand videos that are on YouTube, social media, or sent directly by text or emails.
• Again sport dependent, but most coaches will see at least 1,000 players in person at games, camps, or tournaments.
• Typically coaches will make calls to a few hundred players.
• Somewhere in the range of 100 or so on campus visits will take place.
• Generally make scholarship or roster spot offers to 20 to 30 players (football maybe up to 100).
• Sign a recruiting class of as low as 5 (basketball), most sports 8-12, football up to 25.

All of this works out that at a particular school a coach might bring in .001% of the kids that they started out contacting.

For many, the recruiting process will be MUCH harder than anything they've faced on the field. More competition, more highs and lows, more confusion, and more pressure than ever before.

Keep grinding!

Coach Mazz

Coach Wayne Mazzoni / 30 Year College Coach

@Ozone posted:

This article by my friend and fellow coach, Wayne Mazzoni, may explain the recruiting process in a real way. It starts with thousands of PSA's per school. Times that by the number of schools ...... it's a grind for coaches and PSA's alike

While some of the numbers varies sport by sport, this should give you an idea of how drastic the recruiting funnel is for most college coaches.

• Coaches will mail or email somewhere in the range of 10,000 players per recruiting class. They get these lists from camps they attend, recruiting questionnaires, or get lists from sport specific recruiting services.
• They might watch a few thousand videos that are on YouTube, social media, or sent directly by text or emails.
• Again sport dependent, but most coaches will see at least 1,000 players in person at games, camps, or tournaments.
• Typically coaches will make calls to a few hundred players.
• Somewhere in the range of 100 or so on campus visits will take place.
• Generally make scholarship or roster spot offers to 20 to 30 players (football maybe up to 100).
• Sign a recruiting class of as low as 5 (basketball), most sports 8-12, football up to 25.

All of this works out that at a particular school a coach might bring in .001% of the kids that they started out contacting.

For many, the recruiting process will be MUCH harder than anything they've faced on the field. More competition, more highs and lows, more confusion, and more pressure than ever before.

Keep grinding!

Coach Mazz

Coach Wayne Mazzoni / 30 Year College Coach / Recruiting Expert

Set up a free recruiting consult

How come the recruiting expert has only been able to recruit well enough to have 3 winning seasons in his nearly 20 years with his current program?

All I can say is, it ain't easy. The competition is fierce, the funding is terrible, and the kids are smarter than the coaches. There are way more average teams than top end programs. The object is not to produce pro players, but to produce amazing young men and Coach Mazz has always done the latter.

Hi, I’m not wading into any of this stuff but I will say I don’t like being pitched on this site at all. I know of Coach Mazz. No issue with him but it’s disappointing for this site. This has always been a pretty open and straightforward forum between parents and other baseball folks. Not a lead generation tool.

@Ozone posted:

This article by my friend and fellow coach, Wayne Mazzoni, may explain the recruiting process in a real way. It starts with thousands of PSA's per school. Times that by the number of schools ...... it's a grind for coaches and PSA's alike

While some of the numbers varies sport by sport, this should give you an idea of how drastic the recruiting funnel is for most college coaches.

• Coaches will mail or email somewhere in the range of 10,000 players per recruiting class. They get these lists from camps they attend, recruiting questionnaires, or get lists from sport specific recruiting services.
• They might watch a few thousand videos that are on YouTube, social media, or sent directly by text or emails.
• Again sport dependent, but most coaches will see at least 1,000 players in person at games, camps, or tournaments.
• Typically coaches will make calls to a few hundred players.
• Somewhere in the range of 100 or so on campus visits will take place.
• Generally make scholarship or roster spot offers to 20 to 30 players (football maybe up to 100).
• Sign a recruiting class of as low as 5 (basketball), most sports 8-12, football up to 25.

All of this works out that at a particular school a coach might bring in .001% of the kids that they started out contacting.

For many, the recruiting process will be MUCH harder than anything they've faced on the field. More competition, more highs and lows, more confusion, and more pressure than ever before.

Keep grinding!

Coach Mazz

Coach Wayne Mazzoni / 30 Year College Coach / Recruiting Expert

Set up a free recruiting consult

This post was information until the link at the end. At that point it became spam.

Understand completely, and I didn't mean to give him an ad. Should have left that link out, but my copy and paste skills are limited. I did think the article was worth the read to explain how many PSA's go through the meat grinder. As a D3 coach, I get the remnants of the D1, D2 cast-offs. Most of which should start at D3 and transfer up when ready.

@Ozone posted:

Understand completely, and I didn't mean to give him an ad. Should have left that link out, but my copy and paste skills are limited. I did think the article was worth the read to explain how many PSA's go through the meat grinder. As a D3 coach, I get the remnants of the D1, D2 cast-offs. Most of which should start at D3 and transfer up when ready.

IMO scouting services (PG, PBR, VTool, etc.) are largely responsible for kids having their sights set too high. Countless tweets by non-baseball people declaring that kids are D1 players (when they aren’t qualified to make that determination) inflate the egos of both players and parents. It serves no helpful purpose whatsoever other than to feed the delusion. I cant substantiate what I’m about to say with empirical data, but it seems to me that close to half the players that enter college baseball do so at a level that’s too high for their skill set.

You, sir ... are on the money. There are very few Blue Chippers with an easy path. Anyone worth their salt will open the conversation with some great D3 opportunities. Then, after putting that out to the player and getting his input, may work up the ladder. I never listen to a parent, and I never listen to a player that quotes them. I like to talk to kids they play with or against and umpires that see them often. It tells a bigger story.

@adbono posted:

IMO scouting services (PG, PBR, VTool, etc.) are largely responsible for kids having their sights set too high. Countless tweets by non-baseball people declaring that kids are D1 players (when they aren’t qualified to make that determination) inflate the egos of both players and parents. It serves no helpful purpose whatsoever other than to feed the delusion. I cant substantiate what I’m about to say with empirical data, but it seems to me that close to half the players that enter college baseball do so at a level that’s too high for their skill set.

I don’t know if the “Half the players” comment is valid, but I would say more than half the freshman players (college & HS) and their parent’s expectations verses reality are vastly different. For many, tossing the expectations and getting busy is what seems to differentiate those that have a good experience from those that don’t – regardless of results.

@Ozone, The cool thing is that you have a lot of strong opinions on this platform, and many come from subject matter experts with years of experience. You have the guy that started the Area Code games, parents with kids in the college world series, parents with kids in the top 10 MLB prospects, parents of pro ballplayers, parents who've put multiple kids through college programs, parents that have played at the highest levels and they all have one thing in common - they're trying to help parents going through similar experiences without asking for anything in return. You're going to get some bristling whenever a post appears to be in someones self-interest.