Getting hopes up?

Has he taken his SAT yet? Or a PreSAT score sent to that college?

Just a guess on my part.

Newcomer....Be happy for him and for the family.

Let's hope that the "thrills" continue.

Tell him to work hard and good things will happen.

Check the website for various guidelines and have him attend a showcase or camp or two or three.

If they got his PSAT score, they wouldn't have said he was performing well academically!! His scores were not good. Today, we got his fall grades...not even a 3.0. After reading the many posts about academics, I'm just not clear why a college would pursue a player who isn't academically up to snuff. Anyway, our talk tonight will be about goals again...

Newcomer,
Welcome to the introductory "form letter".

Listen to Beenthere, your son is getting letters, be happy.

If you have concerns about his school work, then you know what he has to do so those letters can become a reality when the real stuff happens. That being, seeing your son play and asking for his HS transcript.

PSAT scores are NOT sent to colleges, even upon request. They are reported to your school, state education departments and the National Merit Scholarship Corp to see if you qualify for NM scholarships. Don't think coaches have any access to these. This from the PSAT Score Report received today by my son.

Newcomer as you know marks are important but he can still do the JUCO route and there is absolutly nothing wrong with that. It requires a little more plannind as to courses as has been discussed many times . Try to get him to get his marks up but some guys are just not academic and others need to get help.
I know several guys who are strong baseball guys who just are not academic. They are great JUCO guys. One wants to be a cabinet maker and that is not a D1 4 year program.
Don't despare but try to find out where he will fit and be happy.

Newcomer,
These baseball coaches just spent .37 cents to stir your son’s interest in their baseball program(s). That was their goal, and from your response, I would say they were fairly effective. So what do you do? Use that letter to your son’s advantage. There is nothing negative about the letter. It’s great that your son has gotten these and it should motivate him academically and athletically. It should also build his confidence know people are noticing him. Continue with your plan. The recruiting ride is full of turns and bumps and if you try to figure out each and every one of those turns and bumps you will drive yourself crazy.
Let me give you an example of what happened to me during my son’s recruitment. He received an invite to Mississippi State University’s baseball camp. Someone had marked a small red “X” on the portion of the brochure he was to fill out and send back. I looked at the red “X” and my mind started clicking. Hmmmm. This probably means the coach will pull him off to the side and talk to him. I wonder if any other players have “X’s” on their brochures. I know this means he’s will draw special attention. He attended the camp and nothing special happened. My son went on to sign with Auburn University. Coach Polk of MSU sent my son a hand written complimentary letter when he signed with Auburn and said he would always follow his progress. For the next four years my son continued to receive invites to the MSU baseball camp. It seems as if his name was stuck on a mailing list somewhere on the campus of Miss State. They all started with: “Dear baseball prospect,”
Enjoy the ride,
Fungo

Newcomer, your son is enjoying something that not a lot of kids get; though it does seem like it here on this website sometimes that letters from colleges go out to every kid in little league.

It sounds like your son received the exact same kind of letters my son got during his junior year. Some of them congratulated him on his academics and we went HUH? You see, my son has grades that are ok, but nothing to write home about. He's a great kid, just not the most academically inclined. He knows what he wants to do for a living, and is taking classes toward that end. He'll go the juco route, and hopefully will have the opportunity to play longer than a couple more years.

Keep this in mind; one day when I was talking with my son about these letters just being form letters and not as special as they may seem, he hit me with something I won't soon forget. He said "Dad, I know they don't know as much about me as the letter makes it sound like, but I'm just about the only kid on my high school team getting anything from colleges, so I'm ahead of the other guys". I thought that was pretty clear thinking on the part of a 16 yr. old.

I think Notre Dame has spent more than $15.00 on postage sending stuff to him, and he has no chance in this world of ever having the grades to attend that fine institution. A couple other east coast schools aren't far behind. Tell your son to enjoy the interest, and to bring his grades up so that he might make one of these schools part of his future.

Other side of the same coin...

My son has killer grades...4.85...but not a single one of his junior-year letters said anything about his academic progress, other than admonishing him to work hard in the classroom.

Fungo's right... The recruiting process is quite a roller coaster ride. It'll drive you nuts if you allow it. Enjoy the process, and don't think too much about anything you read. From our experience, the first REAL recruiting occurred in April of Jr. year when coaches were "entitled to one call", though we couldn't tell at the time. By that, I mean that as we trace backwards through the recruiting process, that was the earliest crossroad with a link to his eventual offers and signing.

It's all good. It's all fun. ...and it's all important. In spite of what I just said, remember that it's critical to respond to every inquiry and invitation. Coaches talk, and they do recommend prospects to one another. I wouldn't have believed that, but my son's scholarship is evidence to that fact.

Congratulations to you and your son for his accomplishments to date. ...and best wishes for the coming year.

Letters are cool. The tough part is finding the power bill after Jr. scatters the mail around looking for his recruiting mail.

We received those letters and when the coaches called, the first question they asked was "Now what really was your ACT score and what is your grade point?". These questions were asked before they asked how his season was going.

Your son must have the talent to get on their lists. You will find the right fit as the process moves forward. These things do have a way of settling down and working themselves out. My advice is to enjoy every part of the process. It only happens once and should be fun although stressful at times.

Newcomer,
You might want to speak with his guidance dept. to be sure he has all the courses required by NCAA clearing house.

Newcomer....I'm going to say something negative about those letters.....think sometimes they are more of a detriment then a help.......they can give a player and his family a false sense of security....when in reality most are form letters going out to thousands of kids...from each school!

We could have papered 2 walls in son's room with the letters he received.....but, because of what we read on this site....we still went about being pro-active in his recruitment process.

The letters are nice to receive....but son's time was better spent working at SAT prep and writing/calling coaches on his own.....

I'm going to offer a differing opinion from Red. My son got an unsolicited letter based on being seen at a tournament. Yes, it was a form letter, but included his team's name on it--so it was a bit personalized. It has led to his main college of interest and he's going for a visit the end of Feb. Point is, don't discount anything.

.

Newcomer...

I think you got it exactly right...

Be an "Excited Skeptic"

Some one much smarter than me (I know, that's everyone who has ever posted on the site!!...)synopsized recruiting like this. (I can't find the exact post but it stuck with me. My apologies to whoever did this first and better...)

Form Letters are GREAT...(so great that sometimes we got 2 or 3 from the same college!)
Personal letters are better...
Invitations to Junior Days are better than that..
Emails are better than that...
April Calls are better than that...
July Phone calls are better yet..
Offers of recruting trips are better than that..
Samll offers are worth getting excited about
Big offers are really worth getting excited about.

Now, while I would run down every lead with a vengence, and I would be gratified and use every letter for motivation, I would agree with much that was said above....stay on the development, stay on the grades, stay on the marketing, stay on the research...It is a LONG and very wild ride with twists and turns and dead ends and unexpected developments and "dead" schools coming to life and some popping up out of nowhere and others disappearing before your eyes...

and that is all if you are fortunate.

Newcomer.....In a related vein, We have a really great NorCal contingent around here who is more than happy to help...if there is anything that we can do for you in Nor Cal or beyond, let us know in a PM through this site.

JT...you are correct....the letters should not be ignored....and if a player has particular interest in a school....definitely follow-up....of all the "form" letters we received...they were all addressed to son personally.....and referenced his academics and baseball....

Just saying that some of son's teammates thought the letters were an indication that they would play college ball...and adopted an attitude that they didn't need to do anything else...but keep on playing high school baseball.....and......they are not now playing college ball....

The letters give you an "opening" to contact a coach at a school that you are interested in. It also gives you information about the school that you might not have otherwise known. While they may not be an indicator of an automatic scholarship offer, I know many ball players that never even received one!