This tweet just came across...
Congrats to 2019 __________ committing to @HailStateBB and @Coach_Cohen. Big time left side stick and catcher. @PerfectGameUSA @PGTMc
— East Coast Baseball (@eastcoastbball) November 11, 2014
Congrats to that young man and family.
However, I've got to think this is groundbreaking. Wow!
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College orientation before high school orientation. Total lunacy. I lose respect for these colleges and their coaches. Let them scramble earlier and earlier (in the maternity ward even? how bout at the sperm banks) to secure potential players. Why would I want my kid playing for these types of schools?
Whoa....
Let's not forget he's a young 2019.Chance to be an impact player at the next level.Tons of upside.....Blah Blah Blah. I wonder if the announcement was made between SpongeBob episodes or right after iCarly ?
Nor should you be able to! the kids parents have lost their minds IMO
Crazy
whose to say coaches will be around
Players need to be aware of how many kids a college has in their position. He's already declared as a C. What happens when he's a Sr. and he sees 3 other C who r better than him already at that school? What if he chooses a major school doesn't have or he doesn't like feel of school or program.
bragging rights imo
Recruiting run amok.
It's the student who usually gets the short end of the stick on excessively early recruiting and verbals. If the NCAA really wanted to act in the best interest of the student-athlete they would put an end to contact between coaches and players before junior year. Then let the binding NLI be signed junior year.
I realize a lot of very early commits don't think any further than a pro career and little about education and degree. But for those who do how many kids know what they want for a major or in a college when they are high school freshmen and sophs? This early recruiting is the norm for female sports given girls physically mature much sooner than boys. My daughter wasn't even a top D1 softball recruit and had to make a decision after soph year of high school or she would have been left out.
There's more out there if you Google. It does sound like he's a stud.
And just to take the devil's advocate position, the 3 current HS underclassmen I have seen play a lot personally who have major D1 commitments were just as clearly top dogs as eight-graders as they are now.
But that said... the whole thing is just crazy and ridiculous.
It's the student who usually gets the short end of the stick on excessively early recruiting and verbals. If the NCAA really wanted to act in the best interest of the student-athlete they would put an end to contact between coaches and players before junior year. Then let the binding NLI be signed junior year.
I realize a lot of very early commits don't think any further than a pro career and little about education and degree. But for those who do how many kids know what they want for a major or in a college when they are high school freshmen and sophs? This early recruiting is the norm for female sports given girls physically mature much sooner than boys. My daughter wasn't even a top D1 softball recruit and had to make a decision after soph year of high school or she would have been left out.
I think the bolded is very good idea!! I know several kids in our general area that are 2017's and have given verbals to some top schools, ACC and SEC (NC being one so they aren't bottom feeding) and I think they are crazy, how many 17's really have an idea of where they want to go and for what? keep in mind these were late summer / September commits...like before or at very start of school year!
How can this be in the best interest of the kids, what are the parents thinking?
I saw that tweet last night and just shook my head. Just my opinion, but I think that family is out of their minds. They are taking all the risk and the school is taking none. Absolutely ridiculous, and in reality, in no one's best interest. I completely agree with RJM's suggestion.
I would say that in general more bad things than good happen to early commits.
Parents, kids & coaches are all losing their minds.
UVA recently signed a 2018 that I completely support for a lot of reasons. Paramount on my list of why I support the family choosing UVA while their son is a 9th grader is UVA is an ELITE ACADEMIC institution.
Meanwhile I read somewhere that Mississippi St ranked 73rd…. in the south! Not 73 in the country… in the south!
In my eyes there is a very short list of schools I can give a kid a blessing to for the extremely early commitments. The school must be elite academically & elite on the baseball field. Pull up a Top 25 list of schools and baseball. There are not a lot of crossover. Ironically the 2 teams in the Championship of the CWS both meet my criteria. Otherwise I count maybe 3 or 4 others.
Perhaps we are all missing something with this news of an 8th grader "committing". Does his uncle coach on the team? Grand father the president of the college? I feel like something like that might help me wrap my head around this story.
Rich
How can this be in the best interest of the kids, what are the parents thinking?
Honestly, that was my first thought.
However, I'm going to keep an open mind that both the recruit and his parents know everything there is to know about college baseball recruiting and have explored all options relative to their son's baseball and academic talents by 8th grade. 
This is the craziest thing I've ever read
However, I've got to think this is groundbreaking. Wow!
I think they broke that ground in 2010 with Luke Alexander (2015 who was an 8th grader at the time), if not earlier.
I will speculate that he's a local kid, MSU is his dream school, knowledgeable people are projecting him to play at that level... so I can understand him wanting to make it "official". But I'm pretty sure that if he develops into one of the top catchers in the country, MSU will still be interested in him in 2018.
I hate to get into this fracas since 1) I do not know all the facts (or even much of the facts) and 2) my son will sign his NLI with Mississippi State tomorrow morning but:
Maybe the family has ties, etc with Mississippi State
Maybe he is really that good athletically and both sides are willing to take the chance
Maybe he/family feels like MSU is a better fit for this young man
Maybe if every college (without mentioning any specific college) was on an even playing field about scholarships, etc then some situations that are uncomfortable to some wouldn't take place
Maybe he won't even go to college if he is that good athletically
Maybe if an academically endowed child can choose a college at an early age, maybe it is okay for someone not as endowed can also
Although this early commitment may not be right for many or even most, it doesn't not necessarily make it wrong in this individual case, IMO.
And if we are going to change the rules about commitment periods and allowed scholarships (academic, need and athletic), let us also change when the colleges can pay for official visits. As it stands now, it appears that most verbal baseball commitments are having to be made prior when official visits may be made
Just my quick thoughts and maybe I'm not correct. I've been wrong before and will be in the future.
I think the BIG fundamental problem with this, is that the ONLY risk resides with the player. I agree, if a school is this hot on a kid this early, they won't pass him up if he is what they projected in a few years.
Taking a kid off the market this young, and allowing the school to hold all the cards, in my opinion is not worth the risk. The only way in my opinion this would be ok, is if the family knows someone very well that they trust at this school, and they have been given assurance that if the school ends up missing on their talent evaluation, they will still honor the scholarship offer.
Redfish....your point about official visits is right on. My son is a 2015....signing on Thursday. He committed at the end of July. I would say 75% of 2015's had committed by then. His official visit was in October....lol, and because he was committed, he only took 1. Granted, we had visited other schools before he committed, but obviously no "official" visit...meaning no staying in the dorms....no games with the other students/players, etc, etc. Why not let players take official visits the fall of their junior year...instead of the fall of their senior year...it would make so much more sense.
I believe many people have heard of the UofK 8th grade commit Michael Avery, if not the story is here. Just another "bad things happen to early commits". This was for Basketball.
http://www.thepostgame.com/blo...grade-commitment-ken
As always there is a little back story and while Avery was in 8th grade, I believe he had been held back a couple of times and was a 16YO at that grade level. My son's 8th grade team played Avery's 8th grade school team and while he was good, (and this was before the story broke) I never considered him a top 10 college BB player. He did not have the size and skills and the two years age difference likely had a lot to do with the skill gap. (BTW my son's team beat them, not that it matters much other than he did not dominate our team)
Again to me there is nothing to gain, and only bad things can happen.
Redfish....your point about official visits is right on. My son is a 2015....signing on Thursday. He committed at the end of July. I would say 75% of 2015's had committed by then. His official visit was in October....lol, and because he was committed, he only took 1. Granted, we had visited other schools before he committed, but obviously no "official" visit...meaning no staying in the dorms....no games with the other students/players, etc, etc. Why not let players take official visits the fall of their junior year...instead of the fall of their senior year...it would make so much more sense.
Buckeye, same here. We took some unofficial visits because we could afford to do so but I had to miss work to do it. There may have been some schools further away from home that if had we been able to do an official visit earlier, we may have gone on them. We did one OV...a celebratory visit and it cemented my son's (and our) commitment to MSU. He couldn't not be happier.
Some families are not able to go many unofficial visits.
I think the BIG fundamental problem with this, is that the ONLY risk resides with the player. I agree, if a school is this hot on a kid this early, they won't pass him up if he is what they projected in a few years.
Taking a kid off the market this young, and allowing the school to hold all the cards, in my opinion is not worth the risk. The only way in my opinion this would be ok, is if the family knows someone very well that they trust at this school, and they have been given assurance that if the school ends up missing on their talent evaluation, they will still honor the scholarship offer.
What your saying sounds nice, but I am sure it is far from reality. If the kid stinks, they won't honor a dang thing, and I think we all know that. Even if they did, they will find a way to subtly run the kid off. Way too much risk for the kid...
As the parent of a 7th grader...I can see why the parents chose to accept.
1. The school is very close to home.
2. They don't have to spend thousands of dollars on showcases and hotel rooms to promote their child.
3. Rather than focusing on writing college coaches and shooting skill videos the kid can just focus on school...no pressure to be seen by the scouts.
There is a kid in our local high school who committed to a D1 during his 10th grade year and basically the parents were so grateful because the "kid" is a 6'5 RHP who touches 95...and his life is a circus!
He was being inundated with unofficial requests, friends of friends calling him up talking about their program and in short the pressure of the constant random contact was ruining his life. The kid couldn't go to the movies without being worried he was going to get ambushed! What kind of life is that for a 15 year old?
When you commit the circus supposedly ends, so this kid can go through High School secure in where he will be going to college and in a way I think that is worth the 5 year out commitment.
CaCO3Girl,
1 & 3, sure. RE #2, I'm not so sure. For the kid to develop to be what MSU expects him to be in 5 years, he's going to need to face a lot of top competition. He may get that for a short HS season, but he probably won't get that playing something inexpensive like legion in the summer. He'll probably need to travel in order to face really good pitching.
As the parent of a 7th grader...I can see why the parents chose to accept.
1. The school is very close to home.
2. They don't have to spend thousands of dollars on showcases and hotel rooms to promote their child.
3. Rather than focusing on writing college coaches and shooting skill videos the kid can just focus on school...no pressure to be seen by the scouts.
There is a kid in our local high school who committed to a D1 during his 10th grade year and basically the parents were so grateful because the "kid" is a 6'5 RHP who touches 95...and his life is a circus!
He was being inundated with unofficial requests, friends of friends calling him up talking about their program and in short the pressure of the constant random contact was ruining his life. The kid couldn't go to the movies without being worried he was going to get ambushed! What kind of life is that for a 15 year old?
When you commit the circus supposedly ends, so this kid can go through High School secure in where he will be going to college and in a way I think that is worth the 5 year out commitment.
So let's say they do exactly that......skip the showcases, save the money. They don't write or contact any coaches, visit any schools, etc. Now let's say the kid develops. but not like some thought he would. Still a D1 kid, but not an SEC type player. The kid gets to August or September before his senior year and M State (in this case - could be any school) calls and says, you haven't developed like we hoped you would, you're not really hitting, the arm strength wasn't quite what we thought it would be - we've given your money to another player we just saw at XX showcase.
It happens. I know kids who were committed that it happened to. Where does that kid stand now?? He's been "off the market" since 8th grade, hasn't showcased, and now has no relationships with other schools or coaches. Not a place I'd want my kid to be in. I know the circus thing is tough when you are sought after - #9 is 6'3 and throws 93. However, it's a lot better than being weeks away from NLI day and having no deal at all. Just my opinion.
The other problem with saying the kid doesn't have to showcase, so they can save money theory, is if he is an elite prospect he'll need to showcase for the pro guys. Also, if he is that good, he'll be contacted by advisors and pro scouts. They aren't saving much stress by committing early.
RRF brings up a very good point, we dont know all of the facts.
Perhaps the players family has strong ties to the program, parents are alumni, siblings attend, the player has been to their camps since he began walking.
For some families, there are entire families that attend and the player wants to attend AND play a sport. If things change later on, than they change, but if the player is that special he most likely will never set foot on a college campus.
Whatever you do, DO NOT committ for some the reasons that were given here. Anyone getting early interest will never have to send videos or not have to attend every showcase or tournament year after year but rather be a bit more selective in what would be a good fit. While some may think it gives the player time to concentrate on school, it also may become a time the player slacks off because he feels that he is already committed.
If you have a player that shows talent very early on, its best to do your homework early so that your son will not be overwhelmed and that you learn as the parent how to cope. Trust me its manageable.
I dont feel that committing that early really is beneficial, but that doesnt mean that it is wrong for someone else's player to do so. I saw son's grades do a dip after he committed and he gave up some of his classes he really didnt need anymore for his senior year. He actually had enough credits to graduate early, maybe this player might as well.
The other problem with saying the kid doesn't have to showcase, so they can save money theory, is if he is an elite prospect he'll need to showcase for the pro guys. Also, if he is that good, he'll be contacted by advisors and pro scouts. They aren't saving much stress by committing early.
True. I also wonder about some of the verbals and what the school is really expecting. MSU, for example, got a verbal out of Hunter Milligan, a 2017 from Greenbrier, AR last summer. He had already been fought over between Arkansas, Ole Miss and MSU. I was at an Arkansas camp this month and their RC was complaining about MSU snagging the kid so early, but I also got the impression that they were ready to start the same process. However, the Milligan kid is a 6' 4" lefty throwing 90+ right now. How much more does he really need to improve to be out of their reach in June of 2017?
The other problem with saying the kid doesn't have to showcase, so they can save money theory, is if he is an elite prospect he'll need to showcase for the pro guys. Also, if he is that good, he'll be contacted by advisors and pro scouts. They aren't saving much stress by committing early.
True. I also wonder about some of the verbals and what the school is really expecting. MSU, for example, got a verbal out of Hunter Milligan, a 2017 from Greenbrier, AR last summer. He had already been fought over between Arkansas, Ole Miss and MSU. I was at an Arkansas camp this month and their RC was complaining about MSU snagging the kid so early, but I also got the impression that they were ready to start the same process. However, the Milligan kid is a 6' 4" lefty throwing 90+ right now. How much more does he really need to improve to be out of their reach in June of 2017?
Your example of 2017 signing early with those skills makes sense. I am not sure that an 8th grader signing is the same though.
The other problem with saying the kid doesn't have to showcase, so they can save money theory, is if he is an elite prospect he'll need to showcase for the pro guys. Also, if he is that good, he'll be contacted by advisors and pro scouts. They aren't saving much stress by committing early.
True. I also wonder about some of the verbals and what the school is really expecting. MSU, for example, got a verbal out of Hunter Milligan, a 2017 from Greenbrier, AR last summer. He had already been fought over between Arkansas, Ole Miss and MSU. I was at an Arkansas camp this month and their RC was complaining about MSU snagging the kid so early, but I also got the impression that they were ready to start the same process. However, the Milligan kid is a 6' 4" lefty throwing 90+ right now. How much more does he really need to improve to be out of their reach in June of 2017?
Your example of 2017 signing early with those skills makes sense. I am not sure that an 8th grader signing is the same though.
Your post is a good example of the quick change in the culture of recruiting. Now, the argument is that it seems reasonable for a freshman to commit, but not an 8th grader. Personally, I don't have a strong position on the issue, but it's certainly sliding quickly to earlier and earlier commits being the norm.
CaCO3Girl,
1 & 3, sure. RE #2, I'm not so sure. For the kid to develop to be what MSU expects him to be in 5 years, he's going to need to face a lot of top competition. He may get that for a short HS season, but he probably won't get that playing something inexpensive like legion in the summer. He'll probably need to travel in order to face really good pitching.
Kids who are good enough to verbal real early will keep showcasing for the pro scouts. They're potential top draft choices.
CaCO3Girl,
1 & 3, sure. RE #2, I'm not so sure. For the kid to develop to be what MSU expects him to be in 5 years, he's going to need to face a lot of top competition. He may get that for a short HS season, but he probably won't get that playing something inexpensive like legion in the summer. He'll probably need to travel in order to face really good pitching.
Kids who are good enough to verbal real early will keep showcasing for the pro scouts. They're potential top draft choices.
Yeah that's true. One of my kid's teammates verballed as a sophomore, and he's been playing on a scout team. But I think that is free. They just have to pay travel expenses.
AS for Roothog's comment. True, but this 8th grader has to be well on this side of puberty. There's a hard line there that I can't believe anyone would cross.
There aint much going on in Misissippi and i bet, like RedFish said....local kid, dream school. Great baseball (They have their own Logo) and emerging SEC power in football. Cool for the kid at such a young age, but it is defintely in the schools favor as no one willl talk to the kid at all, due to his verbal committment. Great job Coach Minge #HailState
I just looked up an article on Kelly. He seems to be a legit talent, showing Harper type power at the plate at a very early age. He is quoted as being him and his brother being HUGE State fans, so I do believe it is his dream school. He goes to a private school where he was a starter on V his 7th grade year. Only time will tell, but the kid sounded well rounded in his responses and may just be one of the "freaks" as his summer coach said.
My 2018 son is 6'2 170 throwing 87, ranked 1 or 2 in state..... already getting attention from D1 schools even though he has not even played a jv game yet.
Having gone through a little of the recruiting stuff with 2013 and 2014 and 2016 , reading and talking to folks on this board.......
He will not over showcase, he will not committ until after soph season at earliest....
Way too much downside for player.... coaches might not even be at the school by the time he gets there. He might change his mind... he might not develop.... he might get lazy....
I can't imagine an 8th grader committing. It makes no sense for either side.
Even among freshmen, I think it's far too soon. Might make an exception in cases of a "package deal" involving an older brother, but not even sure about that.
If he's that good, its a shame that his options are being taken away from him, even if he thinks that is his dream school.
