HS freshmen committing to college

I wonder if you do know.  This actually evolved from a program hiring a head coach before they fielded a team, about 2-3 years before the team  took a step on the field. It has evolved and exploded from there, in part because the NCAA does nothing about it, colleges and college coaches have nothing to lose and parents and the media make it more than it, perhaps, should be.

The head coach who started this is now considered one of the very top and is signed with his University through something like 2026. He has commitments from a number of rising sophomores.

My son is 2018, position is catcher, and now very close to get offer from his dream school in pac12. We are still debating should we commit if the offer does come, as we figure there won't be many spots for catcher position on the team. If that dream school recruits other good catcher for the 2018 class, and I believe that's it, we'll miss that school, as I don't see many schools will recruit 2 catchers in the same class year. I know it's early for the players, but nowadays schools recruit early too, and more and more young talented players willing to commit early too. If it's a dream school with good academic and baseball programs, and if the offer is right, why not?

tao, if your son is getting an offer at this stage, he clearly is a very top talent.

It is pretty much a risk assessment.  It appears the upside has been captured.

The "why nots" could include  factors such as your son is taken "out" of the "recruitable" players, for the most part; the school guarantees nothing which can be enforced to obtain your son's verbal; the actual agreement won't be coming from the school until the NLI which is more than 2 years out;  the changes which can and do occur in the 11.7 allocations and a college staff and team when measured over that length of time.

Good luck to your son in making any decision on this or any following offer which likely will come his way.  That really is what this site is about. Hopefully having some answers to "why not" will allow your son and your family to have some breadth of .the risk aspects involved so that the best decision can be made. 

Yes, we did take the above points into our consideration, early commit definitely has risks as you described. Our thought process is, since the school is from highly-esteemed school, if they decommit my son from the reason that they see a better player in the next 2 years before we sign the NLI, or the scholarship is different from they originally verbally promised, I think that will hurt their school reputation. Certainly if my son messed up his grades, behaviors, or got hurt, that's different story. We are new to the recruiting process, I might be wrong, but that's our thought process.

Why would they stop recruiting for catchers?  They have nothing to loose.  If they find a "better" one, your out.  If not, they have you "locked" up.  It's all good for the school.  No good for the player. 

I wonder if this would stop if the NCAA allowed the NLI earlier -- when the commitment is made.  Then the schools would actually be on the hook.  My guess is they would be hesitant to sign kids too early. 

"if they decommit my son from the reason that they see a better player in the next 2 years before we sign the NLI, or the scholarship is different from they originally verbally promised, I think that will hurt their school reputation."

tao,  while I would like to agree with you and think other recruits and their parents would think this, experience says this is a non-issue in most situations. This is really a supply/demand situation and if the school were to decommit, it will likely be quickly forgotten or ignored by every recruit.  Most think it won't happen to them, until it does.

What I might suggest is to look at other ways to maximize the security. I would expect the college staff is working through someone, probably a travel coach, HS coach or both.  Those should be your son's sounding board and anchors for reliability of this HC and coaching staff with early verbals.  My view is most coaches stand by their word. Others have had experiences which demonstrate that is not universal.  Use every resource you can to understand the integrity and honesty of this staff to those to whom they obtained early verbals. Nothing will be 100% but if those you know and are relying upon can help with a larger sample group of early verbals over a number of years with solid references and results, I would think that is much more valuable in the decision making for your son than the perspective the coach or program will be impacted negatively if they don't honor the verbal.

I hope some of these thoughts and ideas are helpful.

BTW, thank you for stepping up and posting in this thread, most of which goes against the grain of your views.  That is how everyone benefits and I, for one, think it is great you posted.

Absolutely correct.

Why would a college recruit more catchers? Why not? A friend's son won a Gold Glove for catching in his region four strait years of high school. He was a PG Top 50 recruit. He was recruited, attended and played in a top ranked SEC program. In his recruiting class were two other top catchers. The all SEC catcher didn't sign and returned for senior year. An outfielder was converted into a catcher. He was good enough to be drafted. They were all drafted. One played left. One played first. My friend's son was redshirted. The next year the program brought in two more top catchers.

My friend's son had done nothing but caught since LL. Imagine learning how to play facing the hitter (first and third) for the first time in the SEC. His redshirt soph year he played a reasonable amount due to an injury to the 3b and also DHing. He didn't catch often until his redshirt junior year. He was THE catcher his redshirt senior year. 

Ironically, one of the catchers moved to first is the only one of all of them who made the majors... as a catcher. 

Horton?

Savage at UC Irvine.

Thus validating the adage, If you can hit, they'll find a place for you on the field.

Thank you! I am trying to bring it up to a 3.5 this year. (Should be easier since I am not taking Spanish.)