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Just wondering from those with experience... the final Headfirst and Showball camps of the summer happened last week.  How long do the HA D3 coaches take until they move on prospects from the showcases?  In other words, if my kid has not heard anything by "date X," then he probably won't... what's date X?

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My son had good activity at the camp.  He got inbounds from the night it ended and up to two weeks later. He committed within 4 weeks of the end of HF (we went the last days too).  The activity at the camp was somewhat driven by his outreach prior to the camp but most inbounds post camp were from different schools than who he contacted.  One came from coaches who worked the dugout in one of the games and my son that night said the coach was awesome so he was happy when they reached out but they were too far away.  He ended up where he targeted and is happy with the decision.

Last edited by Gunner Mack Jr.

Should have specified this....

My son's a 2022.  He has written emails proactively and as follow-up for well over a year, sent tons of videos, even handwrote some notes to coaches.  Coaches were complimentary at showcase and very friendly/positive, but there have been crickets since.

I think that he did well at Headfirst, but I'm his dad.  I honestly just want to know, at what point should he throw in the towel hoping for post-Headfirst interest?

Which HF was he at? We were at the last one on LI. What position(s) does he play and what were his metrics? Did any coaches saying anything specific to him about his play? For example, during the coach contact period one of the coaches told my son he had a great knuckle ball and asked where he learned it and how long he's been throwing it. Then they got talking about academics and whether he liked pitching or catching better. Coach told him they try to always have 4 catchers on the roster (1 per year) and they try to take 3 pitchers per year. The next day that coach was "roaming" and came to watch my son play.

I think pitchers, especially LHP's, get a lot more attention than position players at HF camps.   Feel like the position players have to work it even more.   I would go look at the schools where he is the best fit academically and athletically, go to the baseball website of that college and find out when their fall camp is held.  My son's school holds the prospect camp 3 weeks from tomorrow, so they are coming up.   Do not go to the camp though unless you speak with the RC and they show some interest.  There could be 100 kids at a prospect camp and you are either a "camper" or a "prospect".  You have to make sure you are the latter.

I think pitchers, especially LHP's, get a lot more attention than position players at HF camps.   Feel like the position players have to work it even more.   I would go look at the schools where he is the best fit academically and athletically, go to the baseball website of that college and find out when their fall camp is held.  My son's school holds the prospect camp 3 weeks from tomorrow, so they are coming up.   Do not go to the camp though unless you speak with the RC and they show some interest.  There could be 100 kids at a prospect camp and you are either a "camper" or a "prospect".  You have to make sure you are the latter.

Any chance you know the site where a lot of schools advertise their camps? There used to be a site that had a ton of them listed but I can’t remember what it is

I have a 2022 as well, so we are in the same critical timeframe. First contact/interest was right there in the dugout after pitching during the game on Sunday.  One text that night, a couple the next day.  Camp ended on a Thursday, all was quiet on the weekend (which freaked me out of course) but then emails started to come in Monday.  Maybe there was another event over the weekend, maybe they spent time with their wives, who knows? I would say the two weeks after were the key window.  Although, Lefty just got an email SIX WEEKS after camp from a school we were not expecting to contact him.  Funny part, he responded to the "I'd like to introduce myself prior to Showball" email Lefty had sent him 7.5 weeks ago, can you imagine how many emails a coach must have received between?  Request was for transcripts and asking if he had any more events scheduled.  We'll see if anything comes of it. But, I feel like @Gunner Mack Jr. will call me out on it, my kid is a LHP But he doesn't throw gas, so he's not a unicorn.  

One thing that's been said but bears repeating - a lot depends on where you are on a coach's board.  If you're at the top of the LHP list, you'll probably hear within days.  If coach fails to land the guys at the top of the board, he moves down, and other phones start ringing.

@NotMadeOf$$ posted:

Just wondering from those with experience... the final Headfirst and Showball camps of the summer happened last week.  How long do the HA D3 coaches take until they move on prospects from the showcases?  In other words, if my kid has not heard anything by "date X," then he probably won't... what's date X?

I'd say the range is minutes to 2 weeks.  The typical order of events is to get the recruits grades/SATs/ACTs (transcripts) if they don't already have them.  If they have the transcripts then the coaches kind of know the probability of getting past admissions so they will offer up a prospect camp to further evaluate and get more coaching eyes on the recruits.   My son attended a prospect camp and there were about 40-50 kids from all around the country. 

10 years ago, they would also offer up an opportunity to come to campus and spend time with the team overnight (unofficial visit) before being offered.  With Covid-19, I'm guessing that (overnight)  is no longer a possibility.  At the same time, a recruit may do a formal pre-read or he may have to wait for the Coach to make that call.  A lot of this back and forth between athletics and admissions is handled by an academic liaison and can vary a little bit between schools.

Additionally, if your son hasn't heard back from his top choices where he has a fair chance of being recruited, I would pick up the phone.   No text or email...phone.    Take the initiative.

Good luck!

I am admittedly less experienced with D3 recruiting than others so maybe it's not my place to chime in. But I will say that there are still quite a few kids who are visiting and talking to lower level D1s. Money offers. I know plenty who are taking visits and plan to make a decision by the end of August. This is uncharacteristic and at this point D1s are rounding out their recruiting classes with walk-ons and late blooming arms. My guess is that Covid and the new transfer rules likely pushed this timeline back. So I'm sure there are D3s, especially HAs, that are waiting for a bunch of guys that are still "talking" to D1 schools to stop "talking" to D1 schools.

@JCG posted:

You can't count on PG for that info. Not every family and player feels a need to post. Of those that do, many don't do so until they are accepted early admission.  We didn't post, and told very few people until he knew he was in. Didn't want to jinx it!

Thanks. This is what I was wondering about. Over the years there are several committed to these schools that have played few if any PG events. It seems updating the PG profile is probably very low on their list of things to do.

@JCG posted:

One thing that's been said but bears repeating - a lot depends on where you are on a coach's board.  If you're at the top of the LHP list, you'll probably hear within days.  If coach fails to land the guys at the top of the board, he moves down, and other phones start ringing.

My son got some very solid interest at the end of August.  We'll never know whether it was because those coaches only got things going then (I think one said after the HC could access Headfirst video), or because others higher on the board turned them down.

I will say that my son got a lot of emails right after HF.  The ones that were clearly not fits for one reason or another, he wrote and said thank you, but I think your school is not a fit.  The ones that were his top choices he talked to/sent transcripts, they offered him slots over the phone, and then he made plans to visit.  There were others that were in between, and were form letters, that he may not have replied to at all.  So the coaches, too, are dealing with kids and trying to figure out their boards all this month.

There are several HA D3’s with zero commits right now. Is that normal for this time of year or is it a result of Covid chaos? I imagine a number of them are waiting on test scores to be able to get them through admissions

Completely agree with JCG about the jinx.  However, the flow at D3s also is that campus overnight visits happen in September and even into October, after which kids commit (to apply ED).

A lot of good info above. Son is still hearing from schools for the first time.  Others have offered and are subtly pressuring him to commit. He’s not ready to do that because there are a couple more invites he wants to follow up on.

and he’s heard that some schools are almost done recruiting while others seem to be just starting to get commits  

covid is making everything unpredictable.
🙄

Last edited by smokeminside
@Senna posted:

I think this is the one that some of us remember.

https://find.abcsportscamps.co...ords=&city_sel=0

I saw this one last night. The one I was thinking of looked different. It had all the college logos and names on one screen. You could then filter it by division. It had a much easier interface than this one and was only colleges.

This camp site does have some useful info if you click through it or search by name/region

So what is the earliest someone could be committed and admitted to a typical Ivy or HA?

I know an Ivy commit that was offered and verballed over the Holidays of their high school sophomore year.  It did not work out for the recruit as the Ivy pulled their offer the following year under some very arbitrary excuses.   From my last conversation with the family everything turned out extremely well, and the son is at a D3 HA today after transferring from a D1 P5 as a freshman walk-on when the Ivy didn't pan out.  This recruit and family had quite a journey but he is exactly where he should be today.

Ivy ED admissions was early December for us.   Whether an Ivy recruit is an ED applicant or an ED applicant with a Likely Letter it is still the same official date for formal admissions notification via web portal login.  I believe many  D3 HAs also have a ED admissions notification in early December.

Last edited by fenwaysouth

I see now why some folks don’t want to jinx the commitment. How often do Ivy/HA recruits not get admitted? It seems like the coaches are pretty thorough vetting their prospects academically early in the process.

Only known a few in 10+ years observing the Ivy process that was offered and committed that did not go as planned.  The coaches and admissions do thorough vet the prospects early and often.   Academic decline or perceived academic decline is usually at the top of the list.  Yes, they are hard-asses about it.

My advice...if an Ivy coach is hedging and will not come out directly with an offer then the recruit better figure out why.   You need to have a really good idea why an Ivy Coach is interested in you.   Always try to think like an Ivy coach when going through the Ivy recruiting process...what do I bring to the table to make the team better athletically and academically to make the coaches life easier.

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