Is it Too late for a Scholarship?

It's too late if you are sitting around waiting for the coach.
I am not sure what advice to give, school begins for most in about a month, you have not given enough info as to the situation.

Yes. HS coaches can rarely help, so that is not a big surprise.

Pitching and travel ball doesn't tell us much. Have any coaches made contact, have you been to any showcases? If not. . .the only option may be to try to walk on somewhere. Probably a Juco or low d2/D3 at this point, especially if his grades are good.

quote:

Originally posted by Pitcher-mom:
I thought his HS Coach was going to help? but didn't.

If you're new to the recruiting process, read the quote above and remember it.

It's an unfortunate fact that many high school coaches do not actively assist their players in getting to the next level. Using parents as a resource, the player needs to recognize that it's his responsibility for taking the lead in his recruiting process.

Because many college baseball questionnaires call for the high school coach's input, the player needs to establish a workable system for seeing that his coach follows through on the requests that are made of him.

In our case, my son's high school coach could be described as a "tweener." He had the best of intentions; but, he was a procrastinator. For that reason, my son would (1) make a copy of the questionnaire (his portion completed) before giving it to his coach, (2) give it to the coach with an addressed, pre-stamped envelope (if it needed to be mailed by the coach), (3) maintain a checklist of questionnaires he'd given his coach, and (4) follow up with him periodically to see which ones he'd sent in.

This might seem extreme to you; but, it was the only method that would assure my son that his coach had followed through.

Fortunately, there are quite a few high school coaches who do take an active and constructive role in their players' next step. However, as in every other portion of the recruiting process, the player should take nothing for granted going in.

It might be too late, but there also might be programs that have lost pitchers due to the draft, injury or transfer. If you son has already enrolled at a school, perhaps your coach (or travel coach) could call and see if your son could get a try out. Contact coaches he has worked with pitching wise, baseball is a small community. Our son decided to go JUCO, but just yesterday signed his NLI to play at a DI. (It's not a top 40 razzle dazzle school, but we think it is a good fit) He graduated in June, and really exploded late in the season and over the first part of summer. So it can happen.

Prepster's situation is not unusual. Our hs coach promised a player who wanted to walk on at his college that the college coach had been contacted. After the tryout, the college coach said to the player, "If I'd known you were trying out, I would have saved you a space." We team parent heard the story but didn't really believe it. Until it happened to others. The hs coach has lost so much credibility that he could have Derek Jeter to shop around and no one would believe him!

The guy I work with's son is going to sign a 65% deal this weekend. Yes it is late, but there are programs filling holes right now so it isn't too late.

" In our case, my son's high school coach could be described as a "tweener." He had the best of intentions; but, he was a procrastinator. For that reason, my son would (1) make a copy of the questionnaire (his portion completed) before giving it to his coach, (2) give it to the coach with an addressed, pre-stamped envelope (if it needed to be mailed by the coach), (3) maintain a checklist of questionnaires he'd given his coach, and (4) follow up with him periodically to see which ones he'd sent in."


Great system! Thanks for sharing that --- I have marked this as a 'favorite' and plan to set this system up with my 2013 boy so he can stay on top of things with his HS coach.

Thanks.

My 2011 filled out lots of questionnaires from D1 to D3 but I dont recall seeing one that called for HS coach input prior to submittal. Using the HS coach as the excuse for not creating interest in the student athlete is simply a copout.

We had quite a few of them that called for the high school coach's comments. The list and process I described weren't created out of thin air as a make-work project.

It is only too late if your time line dictates that its too late. If your son really wants to get a scholarship ( oppose to walking on ), he might have to do a 5th year of high school. This "PG" year ( post graduate) is actually pretty common and a lot of kids do it for various reasons ( injuries, need an extra year of growth, etc.)

I played in a prep-school league where half the teams we played against had 5th years on the roster. Some of my friends did it and ended up getting very good offers from colleges. It is a very real option at this point in the process.


For this year, I would say 99% it is far too late for a scholarship. (There are junior colleges he can go to, which is cheaper, where he can hopefully excel and land offers from there.)


Ken Jacobi

Author of "Going with the Pitch: Adjusting to Baseball, School, and Life as a Division I College Athlete"

It is not too late. I just had a pitcher sign a couple days ago and got an email from a major college looking for a 3B or pitcher.

If he isn't playing in front of college coaches this summer, it's too late for now. Walking on is likely the only shot if he's not playing this summer.

At this point you are dependent upon a school picking you as opposed to you picking the school.

I thought I'd already posted here but guess I did something wrong. Bummer.

We had a RHP pitcher, 2011, signed by a very solid D1 program a couple of weeks ago, early July, nice offer > 70%.

The coach was at a local Colorado tournament, on vacation and looking for pitchers. The pitcher should have gone early but for some reason didn't.

The young man's pitching lights out for us now given the confidence he's newly found

If you get to some good tourneys real quick, it is possible. Check the PG bulletin board for players wanted. I play on a team of mixed ages and an older (2011)teammate of mine got signed 2 days ago at the BCS finals in Ft. Myers. He a great player, but was injured part of last year so didn't get seen much.

quote:

Originally posted by Harv:


We had a RHP pitcher, 2011, signed by a very solid D1 program a couple of weeks ago, early July, nice offer > 70%.

I that all athletic dollars? Please be more specific.

It still not too late. We have a 3B/RHP talking with three schools right now.

A young man who played with my younger son's travel team just received a scholarship offer from Kansas State U a week ago after seeing him for the first time in an AAU tournament. The young man had already committed to a very good Juco and now has some quick thinking to do after a visit this week. So apparently it's STILL not too late.

We just had a 2011 player commit to a Big West school a few days ago. I just got an email from a DII in Missouri looking for a pitcher.

GV

IT IS THAT TIME---SCHOLL READY TO START AND PLAYERS DO NOT SHOW YP FOR VARIOUS REAsons--spots open up---I got cals yesterday from d-2 and d-3 coaches askiing about players