How to guage interest?

Your son is a 2011, so since Sept 1 they are allowed to be fairly direct: "You have been recommended to us as a player with the potential to play college baseball. We would like to begin the recruiting process...we want you to consider College X as a top choice" etc. But even those letters get sent out to a lot of potential recruits and can look like a form letter.

Questionnaires we take seriously, and he completes them and sends them back, even if it's not a place 2B is interested in right now. They wouldn't send those if they weren't interested at some level, and it's just polite. (Of course there are blue chippers who get tons of these and don't fill them all out, but that is not the case with us!) Camp invites, not so much. But if he is interested in that particular school, then we still consider going to the camp if we can do it. You never know what might result.

Yes, in my opinion it is absolutely appropriate to ask for feedback on camp participation. Many camps provide an evaluation as part of the package.

My feeling is that if he is interested in the school, even if it is a form letter or a camp invite, then follow up! Good luck!

Camps can get expensive, but we found them a good vehicle for getting a more "up close and personal" look at the coaches, the facilities, the campuses and the culture of the programs during the junior year fall, so that we could figure out what schools we wanted to target. We went to camps only at schools that met son's academic AND baseball goals.

Many camps promise that you'll get a written evaluation. If they make that promise, don't leave the camp without it in hand. If they don't promise one, then an e-mail expressing interest in the camp but asking if an evaluation will be provided is entirely proper. Because they want you and your money to come to the camp, they will likely cooperate with a polite request.

When you are standing on their soil, they can talk to you for as long as they are interested in talking to you. If they talk a lot, that indicates interest. If they seem in a hurry to move on, that can also be meaningful. Especially if they've already seen you in action at that point (hitting, fielding, pitching or whatever).

The key thing is to determine what schools interest YOU. Then be proactive. Try to elicit interest from the schools you want. You're a year away from your NLI signing period. You have time to shoot for exactly what YOU want right now. If for some reason those schools don't seem interested, there's plenty of time to adopt a fall back plan -- seeing if anyone's interested at all -- much later on.

I don't see any point in going to paid camps at schools you don't care about. Choose just a few, if even that.

If your son starts getting invited to "junior days" over the winter, great. If his whole junior season passes without anyone seeming all that interested, then maybe that will be the time to broaden the search and try to get more people to look at him over next summer.

I agree with everything Midlo Dad said.

2B went to a camp at a major D1 this summer, and was instructed to call after the camp to get the evaluation. We did. The eval came. The "comments" part was essentially his PG profile. But at least they looked at his PG profile!

First, understand that schools vary in their approach and the urgency with which they try to lock up players. Broadly speaking, upper level D1 schools are already courting 2011 players. Some of these schools have already received verbal commitments. Mid level D1 schools who play in mid level conferences typically haven't pushed hard yet. Lower level schools will wait longer yet, the better to see which players are available.

Regarding camps: Yes, participation at East Cobb is one way to get on mailing lists. A camp invitation is a good thing, and it is one way for a school to gauge the player's interest. It is also provides a reason for the player to call or email the coaches, and startup communication. However, the camp invitation that tends to show real interest on the part of a school is one that doesn't even appear on the school's website, or if it does, there is no way to sign up. These camps are quite nominal in cost (maybe $65/day), and promise no coaches from other schools. Many upper level D1 schools have these camps.

Players who are in the top handfull of players that a high level D1 school wants already have direct communication going on with the coaches. But players who are just outside that group may have had no contact at all. So a player who isn't in contact with coaches now should expect that he isn't a top choice. But he could be close.

If a player writes a coach to say he is interested in the school and the coach writes back to invite him to their camp, what does that mean as far as interest goes??

In General it's the same as getting your name off a mailing list. However - Did you send a video? - Is the camp limited in the number of players?- Is the camp inexpensive?- Did the letter say anything personal (ie. "we saw you play at x tournament" "we saw your video", "talked to your coach") All those are signs of legit. interest but not always. As you can see, camps are tricky. Did they send you a recruiting form even?

Thanks Lefty,

Yes he sent a video with the letter and his academic and athletic resume. He wrote to 4 schools all about the same time, give or take a day. 2 replied the following day and invited him to their camp. They referred to him by his first name and said things like, we have a few spots to fill at your position, they looked forward to following him, the camp would be a good chance to get in front of their coaching staff. 1 replied a week or so later after he followed up with a second letter with a very short email from the coach directed to him personally and asking if he could make it to their camp. At the time 2 of the schools did not have the camps posted on their web sites. The other did. The cost ranges from $40 to $70 and seem to be limited to the first 40 to 60 campers. A couple of weeks later the 2 followed up by sending him an email or the registration form. At the other one he had already registered. They didn't send a recruiting form but in his letter my son mentioned that he had completed their online prospective questionnaire. The 4th school never wrote back. His letter and video are probably the first time they heard anything about him because he's just started going to showcases.