Hindsight: Recruiting mistakes

I'll add one more caveat. We're in the thick of this nerve-wracking recruiting process with our 2010 son. But it's very clear he needs to learn certain things for himself (What's the real difference between DI vs DIII? How do I mesh with the coach and team? Do I want this academic environment?)

In short - we can't TELL him anything! Despite the fact that are pretty certain we know more than he does.

The more of this process he does for himself and 'owns', the better his decision-making. We're letting him drive the process (even though I sometimes feel I've taken on a second job as his administrative assistant). So far, he's doing his homework, writing the coaches, and attending to the grades.

And we just have to hope that it all works out the way it's meant to.....

That's another good point, BB. Be patient, though. Believe it or not, our oldest (21) has come back and told us we were "right" about a couple of things!

We got a letter from our then-22-yr-old daughter one summer telling us how right we'd been about so many things. As Mark Twain said, "But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years!"

Patience, patience, patience....

fanofthegame,
Alot of the academic issues my son has have started to to sink into his thick skull (I was tempted to use a 2x4 with a nail). Do I think his senior year will be better..yes, but like he says "I have already shot myself in the foot for not listening to you". Between injuries and academics, his junior year was a total bust.

My son has always had an interest in the military and probably was going to pursue it after college. Now he gets to pursue it without a commisssion....not exactly the preferred method of military life but one that will teach him some things that he has ignored. Hopefully, he will listen to my advice on survival in the military or he will get a very rude awakening.

The Corps is very,very good at getting a young man's attention. Many of you know exactly what I mean and are the better for it.

S.Abrahms,

I hope the best for your son.I think for some young men the military is a fine decision. I hope it all works out and he will begin to listen as time goes on. We just all need to remember what we were like at 17,18 and 19.
My parents never were involved with my school, tests scores, SAT , if you asked them they wouldn't of known.I took care of all of it,they cared about school but parents today are way more involved.
Maybe becasue its gotten so competitve to get into college so we push harder.
As far as fit , it is true what Coach May says, it depends on each family and their circumstances.For us financially the JC was a good choice, and he did'nt have a lot of options,for others its going to a Big school and working their way into the line up.One isnt better than another, and I dont think its a wrong deciaion if players want a better chance to play right away. It is their baseball, some dont want to sit , some do.
I think the main point of all these different threads is this: Whatever choice your son makes after HS, he just needs to keep his grades up, so he doesn't lose options. Keep all options open in case something comes along.If you blow the grades you have no options,but a junior college, and as mentioned before that isn't guaranteed play time either. Lots of those freshmen D1 guys decide to come back and they are good players.

I give this speech every year. "Its alot better to learn from others mistakes than it is to learn from your own." I go on to use myself as an example for all the players. But I also understand that at that age you think you know it all. You think you got it all figured out. And sometimes you have to get hit right in the head with a 2 by 4 to actually believe that it hurts to get hit in the head with a 2 by 4. Its all part of growing up and learning. The more things we can help kids avoid and learn by learning from our mistakes and others mistakes the fewer times they have to get hit by that 2 by 4. But lets face it they all are going to have to take their lumps just some a little more often than others. But the beauty of all of this is those lumps can make you a better person in the end and allow you to teach others down the road.

As much as we would all love to shelter our children our players etc from these bumps and never see them have to learn these tough life lessons we have to understand we can not shelter them from all of them. We teach we talk to try to guide them but in the end they are the one that must walk their own road. And along the way they are going to stumble and they are going to have some tough times. But we pray and we continue to assist them along the way and it is a wonderful feeling of pride in the end when we see them actually get it. Its all part of growing up and becoming a man both in the game of baseball and life itself.

Everytime I hear about the military I get a bad feeling. Back in 1966 I was a young outlaw living the life of Riley. Then I got one of those draft notices. No problem, I had a long list of injuries and so I pulled together the xrays from the doc and went to the recieving center. Figured I'd be back on the bus headed for home as soon as the physical was over. Well... I was right about the bus, but the one they put me on was headed to Ft Leonard Wood for Boot Camp! The beginning of two very long years in the military.

Of course, I might have felt different if it were West Point and baseball. The mental part made that impossible in my case.

PG thats funny to me! My dad was career military. All three of my brothers went in the military two made careers out of the military. As a frustrated guy out of hs and working 40 hours a week at a job I hated I woke up one day and went to the recruiters office. I took the asvab test and made the appointment to get on the bus in Durham for the short trip to Raleigh the next morning to get sworn in. I was sitting on the bus in Durham waiting for it to depart when a car pulls up. This very angry mom gets out and heads straight to the bus. "My son is not going in the Army. One of my boys is going to college." She comes on the bus , takes me by the arm and drags me to the car.

Dad is sitting in the car and says "Boy just shut up and understand your mom is determined your going back to school. So be quiet and do what she says." I did in fact enter college the next semester and the rest is history. I thank God everyday that mom did what mom did. But I sure was the most embarrassed guy in the world that day. LOL

By the way my older brother got his college degree from Baylor while serving in the military. My next brother got his degree from North Carolina Central Univ after getting out. I respect everyone that has ever served it is a most honorable profession. But sometimes moms just got to do what they got to do!

quote:

Originally posted by BobbleheadDoll:
You can use all the logic but you can't tell what will happen.
How would you like to be a SR and told by the new coaching staff that your role would be to mentor the freshmen and sophs ? ie SRs would not start conference games no matter how well you threw..
Coaching changes are the biggest problem and their is no way to predict that. I have seen very successful coaches leave a program after recruiting players. There is no way to anticipate this change.

BHD,
This statement makes no sense. If you are speaking about the team your player was on, I noticed quite a few seniors started.
Coaches play the best players (no matter what their class), if a senior and a freshman are of equal ability, the senior will get more work at first, because experience sometimes rules over inexperience.
Most college coaches expect their older players to mentor the younger players. Actually, this is something that is considered when a coach recruits a player, will he provide leadership to others as he grows and matures.

Hokieone brings up very important points, however, for some programs will recruit same position players and convert them 9point #4). That's why it's good idea to not limit yourself to one position (not pitchers).
As to #3, you will now see more seniors on rosters due to new transfer rules, whereas in the past they left for other programs or the coach ran them off. Lack of seniors may also mean the program gets lots of player drafted.

Coaching changes can not be avoided, that's why it is very important not to choose the program for the coaching staff only. Baseball should be only one part of the college experience.

JMO

TPM if you read it I said "CONFERENCE GAMES"

quote:

Coaches play the best players (no matter what their class), if a senior and a freshman are of equal ability, the senior will get more work at first, because experience sometimes rules over inexperience.
Most college coaches expect their older players to mentor the younger players

Why do you think I posted what I did ? What happened was unusual and totally unpredictable.
2 of our most successful pitchers were seniors. One was pitcher of the week in the Big South. He was always a top 4-5 guy. Sometimes coaches don't do what is logical. Mi son had several non conference starts and some conference relief work. Yes the SRs were upset but they did what they had to do.
The new coaches had nothing to do with recruiting and said they were looking forward to next year and wanted to see what they had to work with. Not exactly inspiring.
Don't always trust your logic.

Just to be clear, we wouldn't have changed a thing in the recruiting process. BB was a small part of the experience.

BHD,
I did see that. That's why it made no sense (your post).

The the non conference games were against much tougher teams than in the conference (exception of 3 teams, IMO). Air Force, South Carolina, College of Charleston, Auburn, Tenn, Furman, Georgia Southern, these are tough teams. As a senior I would take that as a challenge. Perhaps that is where he felt he needed them the most, let his younger players develop against the less competitive conference teams.

TPM I wasn't complaining about my son's situation. It might have sounded that way.
He was told he would start against the best teams like USC etc. I was hoping for a tougher run at the conference because we have some strong pitchers. I was hoping for a better showing in the conference.

My point was that you can't always control your college BB experience even though you do your due diligence.

quote:

What I don't understand is why some parents spend so much effort in making their players better, but less effort in making them better students.

It's not really difficult to say to them, if you don't improve your grades, no sports. That will get their attention real quick.

TPM, you are right on the money. Take it from a dad who failed his son, if I had to do it all over again. No sports period without grades.

Not sure how you failed your son. They have to take responsibility for their academics as well as their sports.

PUHD,
You have been very honest regarding your son's situation and a good example of how not to do things. Thanks for all of your input.
But don't blame yourself, there does come a time when they have to take responsibility.
I hope that parents reading this will realize how much more is involved than just being talented on the field.
You do not have to be an A+ student, you just need to show the coaches that you can handle the rigors of a college and baseball schedule. That's more what they are looking for.