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HS coach change in Jr Year

quillgirlquillgirl100+ posts
My Jr-yr son is getting ready to send out first contact letters. His HS team has a new coach for the upcoming year, but he has not seen my son play. Should we list him as the contact, or should we list his former coach until the new one has seen him? His summer league coach has seen him in more games, so should he make a note of that?

Also, do we list his batting stats for HS as well as summer? Or combine them for the year? The HS data indicates his ability as a sophomore playing varsity ball in a very competitive sub-region vs. primarily Jr & Sr talent (PA=51, AV=.340, fielding=.960) while his summer league was also very competitive, but against national 16U talent (PA=71, AV=.424, SL%=.610) Trying to determine what is relevant and indicative of his abilities. I will say his school season against talented older pitchers made him ready for the summer against his own age group.

Also, we are getting ready to showcase in the next few months. Should he take bio information with him and give to coaches in whose programs he is most interested, or wait to get home?

Thanks!
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Midlo DadMidlo Dad10,000+ posts
Coaches: Give them both coaches' contact information with an explanatory note.

Stats: Generally the approach is to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. In your case both sets of stats are positive. Present them both. Your audience understands the difference between the two types of competition.

Presenting info: Why not both? Show that you've got your act together, then show your interest by pursuing the schools actively.

I suppose you can overdo anything, but I don't think you're crossing that line if you double up on these few things. I can't see any reason to hold back on information that may help your son's cause.
obradyobrady500+ posts
Remember, these letters are just a "getting to know you". No coach is going to make an offer based on this information or what a coach says, unless the coach already has an established relationship with the college guy. You just want to get the door open and get the college to come see for themselves or at least consult someone they trust.

Main thing - don't get caught in an exaggeration or worse, a down right fib.
Last edited by obrady
quillgirlquillgirl100+ posts
obrady,
Be assured no one in this house would make the grave error of fibbing or exaggerating on a bio or intro letter. Stats can be verified with a phone call to a coach, so why risk lying?

We are simply trying to decide how to proceed given that our son's new HS school coach has never seen him play (other than a single summer practice) at a fairly crucial time--his junior year. We're excited to have this new coach, and maybe it won't matter that he hasn't seen our son. There may be no contact until he is closer to his senior year and has played some games under the new guy.

Bottom line: We need to provide contact info for his HS on these first letters. Our question is do we make that contact be a coach who hasn't ever seen him play a game, or list last year's coach who has seen him play but isn't his HS coach anymore. We'll probably list his summer coach just because he HAS seen him play many games, and will likely be his coach next summer as well.
Last edited by quillgirl
YoungGunDadYoungGunDadHSBaseballWeb member since 2005
Hey Quill, good seeing you again!

We had the very same situation after my son's sophomore year,i.e. former coach fired and new coach from out of state coming in. We didn't (and wouldn't) list the former coach for 2 reasons: 1- Son played JV both years prior to his Junior year, and 2- the former coach was a horse's arse thus why he got fired!

Son and I talked and decided to march on and be honest on his letters he sent out. List his summer league coach with stats, and under where we listed his high school, coach, etc. we simply stated something to the effect: New coach in transit - 1st year.

I think by you listing his sophomore stats with coach listed or not, any coach will be able to see that he is a player with great potential and talent.

Good luck!
G 2024GradDAD10+ posts
quillgirl,

You need to keep all the coaches your son has played for on your contact information. Reason being if a coach is able to see your son play and is interested he will want as much feedback on him as possible. Good college recruiters are very thorough and check all sources to find out about work ethic, attitude, off field problems, etc...

One more piece of advice if I may. Don't send some big packet of information about your son with stats, photos, clippings, etc... You will just end up putting a lot of work into something that will not get read. Just keep it simple. I don't care if you have a Phd in English, you just can't sell your son to a coach in a letter. The only thing scouts trust is their eyes.
B brod100+ posts
Don't stress about the opinion of high school coaches (current or former) at this point. Given the fact that your high school coach is new, it is more important that you have an established/well respected summer team which played national tournaments.

Colleges need to see you play. College coaches will call your coaches to confirm you are a team player and hustle. I assume your son already does those things. Some high school coaches will cooperate. Some will not.

I disagree with 2024GradDad - everything gets read that you send in. Make sure it is accurate.

And I don't know about handing out packets of info on your kid at showcases...Doesn't anyone else think that is overdoing it? Let the showcase performance market your kid.
H Homerun041,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by brod:

And I don't know about handing out packets of info on your kid at showcases...Doesn't anyone else think that is overdoing it? Let the showcase performance market your kid.

I missed if anyone suggested that a parent or player hand out packets at a showcase or event. I saw a father walking around at an event handing out a packet unsolicited to coaches and scouts of their son and it was such a turnoff and the coaches were looking at each other like asking if that really just happened.

What does work, for HS and summer coaches, is hand out updated rosters at games or tournaments of all their players on the team with their current information, but not just for one player.
Last edited by Homerun04
AM AL MA 08100+ posts
Hi guillgirl, looks like some good suggestions for you to consider.

I wanted to support what MidloDad said about "pursuing the schools actively." That really paid off for my son. We actively pursued son's top choices by going to their camps, attending football and basketball games, and simple unofficial visits coordinated with the coaches and stopping by unannounced and sit in the stands to watch a practice or inter-squad games. We got a lot of face time with the coaches. Camps were very telling; coaches were always pleasent to all campers, but you could certainly tell WHO they were most interested in by how much time they spent with the player.

GOOD LUCK

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