Is there anywhere that I can search and find a list of particular High School and find out how many NLI's came from that High School in 2017, 2016, etc?
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It would be more important to find out by travel program. It’s where more exposure comes from.
So, I think you are trying to connect the dots on something that doesn't exist. NLIs are legal documents between a recruit and a University or College. In that context, the high school has no involvement in this legal agreement or data to collect. Since it is a binding legal document I suspect there would be some privacy wrapped around it, and it would not be shared publically. The closest the high schools are going to get to an NLI would be a signing day ceremony which is a celebration of their achievement for friends, family, and coaches. I've been to a few of these, and each high school has their own way of doing things. My oldest son's high school had a ceremony just for him, and it included the local paper and news. My youngest son's high school only had D1 athletes with NLIs to sign.
It has been a few years since I've been to this website. There is a lot of information about the NLI and the process here if you are interested. What I learned a few years ago was there are some points that you have to read between the lines, and understand what the document is and not. http://www.nationalletter.org/aboutTheNli/index.html
Good luck!
Thanks RJM. Let me ask the question this way. My 2022 has the option of going to 2 different, but local, High Schools. Both with decent baseball programs. What would be a determining factor(s), baseball focused, in your decision of which HS to attend?
My uneducated thoughts were to lean towards the HS which has more kids signing NLI's...no?
I understand your thinking, but I would choose the school based on other factors, like academic strength, especially if the baseball stuff is similar. The question could be what are the coaches like? If you really want to do NLI research you may be able to search archives of the local papers. I know I’m able to do that where I am. there’s a list of NLI signees and their schools, both college and high school, that I can research.
JMO.
Good suggestions. I'd also go to their games. You can learn a lot that way. Practices too, if they are open. (Though attending practice as a parent is a different topic)
Orlando2022Dad posted:Thanks RJM. Let me ask the question this way. My 2022 has the option of going to 2 different, but local, High Schools. Both with decent baseball programs. What would be a determining factor(s), baseball focused, in your decision of which HS to attend?
My uneducated thoughts were to lean towards the HS which has more kids signing NLI's...no?
I’ve already been down this path. The no brainer choice was the best academic option. I was surprised to discover our high school’s gifted program was better than a highly regarded private’s regular academic program with a USA Today Top 25 baseball program. The best baseball option is the best available travel option. It’s where players are seen by the most coaches. The best travel programs have contacts to market their players.
100% agree with RJM as my son had a similar choice....local school near our house that had one of the best baseball coach & program in the area and another school designated as a Center Base Gifted program focused on engineering. He selected the better academic choice for him and played for a high exposure travel team. It worked out well for us.
Good luck! As always, JMO.
I 100% agree with RJM. My 2022 is on a wait list for a HS that has good sports programs but is a academic powerhouse. His back up school has strong academics as well and very good sports program. If he has the skills to play at the collegiate level, his travel team will ensure his exposure.
Which one does your son want to go to?
Go44dad posted:Which one does your son want to go to?
He's indifferent. He's got friends going to both...
http://www.thebaseballcube.com
^^^^^ I LOVE this site!
Just type in the high school name, (or player, or college, or team) and all the players that were drafted, played pro, or college, will pop up. Just remember that not all players may have signed a NLI, but you will know who played D1 ball.
It is a one-guy-operation, but boy, I use that site all the time to keep up with players.
D3 schools won't be listed, but they don't sign an NLI.
RJM posted:It would be more important to find out by travel program. It’s where more exposure comes from.
This is the correct answer...
If baseball in college is your son's goal, it doesn't matter a whit which HS program is "better." College coaches recruit players, not teams, high schools or coaches. Additionally, HS games - because the season coincides with the college season - are not representative of how college coaches recruit. (While a few games may be seen by the college RC/HC, it's not the prime use of the coach's time during the college season.)
College coaches and scouts go to where a potential recuit/draftee plays. Doesn't matter whether it's a school which has difficulty even fielding a team, a huge city HS, or one located three hours drive into the desert.
As others have noted, academics are the real key for the future. Look at the academic profiles of the schools and see if there is a difference. (That having been said, ironically, if your son is a great self-motivated student, it may be better to go to the LOWER academic school if he's topish of his HS class at the lesser academic school; then if he was middle of the class in the better school. College admissions evaluate a kid based upon his HS, not compared to all other HS's. [For example. A kid will not be "penalized" if his HS offers a limited number of AP class's when compared to another HS which offers many - assuming he takes all those offered.])
I have digressed to college admissions for regular kids (unhooked) because you need to hedge your bets - injuries, girls, and life have ways of interfering with plans to play in college.
My son played for a small HS (120 guys/120 girls) with starting players who last played in little league minors. Every caught fly ball was a cause for celebration; every successful ground ball was almost a school holiday, etc. The league was similar. Didn't stop scouts and the occasional local coach from watching entire games where S pitched. He was drafted out of HS and had multiple offers. (It also helped him socially, as the shy introvert developed into a campus legend.)
PS. We were very concerned about the small HS in deciding where to send him. He actually enrolled in the large public HS and played with them summer before 9th. We met with the guidance counselor and learned that academically, it would run out of math for him in 10th and he would either need to repeat classes (which he had aced) or go to the local CC (before he had a driver's license), AP classes (35 kids) would be dropped if not fully enrolled, and that cirriculum wasn't individually developed. The small HS offered APs often with single digit enrollment and developed cirriculum geared to the kid. So, for us, that won out.
Orlando2022Dad posted:Thanks RJM. Let me ask the question this way. My 2022 has the option of going to 2 different, but local, High Schools. Both with decent baseball programs. What would be a determining factor(s), baseball focused, in your decision of which HS to attend?
My uneducated thoughts were to lean towards the HS which has more kids signing NLI's...no?
The number of NLI's signed by kids from a particular school has almost as much do do with the school as what their mascot is. Sure some schools have more kids go on to college than others....but I'll guarantee you that those same schools have more kids playing for the top travel programs. Unless your son ends up being a stud that's getting 100% baseball money (which is highly unlikely) you're going to want the academic money he gets also.....which in a lot of cases is MORE than the baseball money. I guess if one team has had 20 kids go on to play college ball the past 5 years and the other has had none, then yes maybe there's something to it....other than that, baseball would be pretty low on the list of priorities if you were choosing a HS.
Another thing to consider, is that coaches come and go...Even long time coaches that you would think wouldn't leave do. So the best school now, may not be the best school by 2022.
My 2018 went to the HS in the town where he grew up. We only have one. The baseball was mediocre at best, hadn't had a winning season in years. We never talked about switching schools, we talked about how to make the school better.
Son's class started playing baseball together with VERY GOOD youth coaches when they were 9. Two played varsity as freshman. Last year as juniors they went undefeated in the conference, got two games into the post season for the first time ever, and out of this year's starters we have two Power 5, D1 commits, two NAIA commits, another couple who will play D2 or D3.
The HS program didn't make these kids. The kids made the HS program.
Iowamom23 posted:My 2018 went to the HS in the town where he grew up. We only have one. The baseball was mediocre at best, hadn't had a winning season in years. We never talked about switching schools, we talked about how to make the school better.
Son's class started playing baseball together with VERY GOOD youth coaches when they were 9. Two played varsity as freshman. Last year as juniors they went undefeated in the conference, got two games into the post season for the first time ever, and out of this year's starters we have two Power 5, D1 commits, two NAIA commits, another couple who will play D2 or D3.
The HS program didn't make these kids. The kids made the HS program.
Iowamom....curious, because it kind of goes back to my earlier post about travel programs. How many college coaches did you see at your HS games last year when they were juniors? I'm assuming that most, if not all of those guys played on good travel teams?
Buckeye 2015 posted:Iowamom23 posted:My 2018 went to the HS in the town where he grew up. We only have one. The baseball was mediocre at best, hadn't had a winning season in years. We never talked about switching schools, we talked about how to make the school better.
Son's class started playing baseball together with VERY GOOD youth coaches when they were 9. Two played varsity as freshman. Last year as juniors they went undefeated in the conference, got two games into the post season for the first time ever, and out of this year's starters we have two Power 5, D1 commits, two NAIA commits, another couple who will play D2 or D3.
The HS program didn't make these kids. The kids made the HS program.
Iowamom....curious, because it kind of goes back to my earlier post about travel programs. How many college coaches did you see at your HS games last year when they were juniors? I'm assuming that most, if not all of those guys played on good travel teams?
We play summer baseball, so while your kids are playing travel, ours are playing HS and the college season is over, so I saw more at my son's HS games than travel games, except for a PG tournament he played at Cedar Rapids and Jupiter. Many of them played travel, but on different teams there were very good for teams from Iowa — few national contenders in that group.
Most HS games had one or two coaches there, then toward the end of the season, we had five to eight at my son's starts. Many from around Iowa, but also Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, South Carolina and I'm sure others that I didn't realize.
Orlando2022Dad posted:Thanks RJM. Let me ask the question this way. My 2022 has the option of going to 2 different, but local, High Schools. Both with decent baseball programs. What would be a determining factor(s), baseball focused, in your decision of which HS to attend?
My uneducated thoughts were to lean towards the HS which has more kids signing NLI's...no?
NO. If you are not a fully trained baseball player by the time you set foot into high school you aren't making the team at a good baseball school. They don't create good players, they just receive them. Therefore, the NLI's have no bearing on how good the program is. However, state championships do. My son goes to a 7A school, that's the largest in GA, but there is a 5A school down the street that plays poorer competition. What class is the school, who do they play against, those are the questions that will tell you which baseball program is better.
Having said that I can now say that the academics of a school count in baseball land too. If one high school has a 75% graduation rate and the SAT scores are always low then your kid will not be prepped to be in college, and coaches will know that. Being on the baseball team in college is like having a full time job, they don't want kids that will flunk out their first year. Being in a good high school, taking advanced courses (which is called rigor), is what many coaches say is the deciding factor when choosing their team. Of course the kid throwing 92 has a lot of options, but what about the kid throwing 86? His high school could be the deciding factor on if he gets to play baseball at the college he wants to.
Orlando2022Dad posted:Thanks RJM. Let me ask the question this way. My 2022 has the option of going to 2 different, but local, High Schools. Both with decent baseball programs. What would be a determining factor(s), baseball focused, in your decision of which HS to attend?
The one with the prettiest girls.
Shoveit4Ks posted:Orlando2022Dad posted:Thanks RJM. Let me ask the question this way. My 2022 has the option of going to 2 different, but local, High Schools. Both with decent baseball programs. What would be a determining factor(s), baseball focused, in your decision of which HS to attend?
The one with the prettiest girls.
School for academics, travel ball for baseball, beach for girls. I remember one time telling a friend if he could put the throw (football) over her blanket I’ll make the saving catch and start a conversation.