Junior Day

I understand your concern being that it is far away and that it is an investment on your part. Since this is a college that your son is interested in I would attend if possible. You have to look at it realistically and determine if your son has the ability to play at the school. Is this a top level D1 program, mid level D1, low level D1, D2, etc?

Yes they will make money of the camps BUT the camps are where most of these schools have an opportunity to see kids that are 800+ miles away. I would contact the coach and find out where he heard about your son from? A lot of recruiting is done through networking with other coaches. Coaches know coaches and names are exchanged.

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Welcome to the HSBBW!

Congrtas on the invite! Exciting!

Observations...food for thought...

1. School YOUR SON likes? YOUR SON wants to explore? "Select Group"? LHP? High GPA? Assured that he is a guy they are interested in? I assume that geography is not a "killing issue" for your son? I'd likley go. Now if it was a school that made no sense at all I understand but something that looks like a good fit is a go for me.

2. The only way to start get a real feel for the recuiting process, for the schools, for the differences between schools and coaches and programs is to do it, to go visit. Can't do it wthout gettng a look. You need to contrast and compare. Look at it as education, education $ well spent if that helps.

3. Junior day is a way to enourage recruits to come see what they have, tour the school, meet the coaches. They put on their best face, for their best date and hope to have players walking away wanting more. Camps are good but many many camps are predominantly revenue producers for the programs. Junior day invites are more rare than camp invites. You might get 3 junior day invites and 20 camp invites. You arrive, get name tags, get a tour of the school, meet with the coaches as a group, maybe meet with the academic people, maybe admissions, have lunch, then see a ballgame. It's a really cool, particularly for the young man who is being courted. Very exciting for him.

4. While I don't like being defensive, Going, particularly that far, sends a real message. Not going sends a message to a school that you just might not be very interested. The reality is that it is a courting process. They want to be wanted as much as you do. They see interest they get excited. Is your son willing to potentially risk breaking off the relationship this early? For many of us, it was best to court everybody, then weed down. Rather than being selective early.

5. $? While I believe that the value of the whole process is the lessons learned and while I figured it was all a win even if it ended today...at this point you have so much emotion, time, dreams and $ invested that it deserves to be seen through to conclusion baring some real hardship or catatrophy. In one way of thinking, You've been waiting, preparing, planning for a junor day invite for a decade.

6. IMO, money well spent. Great family trip to begin to explore colleges, baseball or not. You'll walk away with all kinds of ideas that you need to get started on the process of selecting a school....baseball or not.

7. Great reward for a kid who has worked his tail off for years.

8. If you REALLY want to press them, tell them it is a long haul, and ask them how many players are coming. We went to about 6 junior days and the #'s ranged from 20-100 players. Now while neither of the schools they attended are the may that we went to junior days at, the experience was pricless later in the recruting process.

44
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All good points so far!

The other thing to consider is that if the school is 800 miles away, will that allow you to attend many of his games?

My Son's school is over 300 miles away and there are times I wish he was closer.

gitnby makes a very valid point with the distance from home. Our oldest son played college baseball nearly 300 miles away from home. This was a big topic of discussion as our youngest son was making his college choice. Not only did mom and dad miss seeing oldest son play, but I think younger sis and brother missed it as much or more.

Youngest son decided that playing close to home in college would be a strong factor in his decision.
After traveling all over this country to play ball in his youth, he chose a great school not 30 miles away from home. He gets the opportunity to play in front of friends and family when ever they choose to drop in and see him.

Dad thinks young son likes the potential life-line to be nearby as well. I know of many players that have traveled far to play college ball, I am thankful we will get the opportunity to see young son play nearby and often.

Every post in this thread is excellent and demonstrates the collective wisdom of the site.

I think playing close to home is a personal decision that does not necessarily have a right or wrong answer. The Jr. Day allows a student to find out if that particular campus and location is "personally" right for them and their faimily's respective circumstances.

I can offer some long distance perspective. We are obviously from Cleveland and my son played 750 miles away near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For his goals, we felt it was imperative to play in the south. We typically travelled four times per year there - once in the fall and three times in the spring. Also, I am guessing we actually saw about 80% of all his games (the last two years anyways) on Internet video. Is video the same as being there in person? - of course not. Is it a pretty good substitute? - I think so. Even without the video, my son would have made the same choice and we would have supported him. I should add, that before video there was audio. Baseball is a cool sport in that regard. We have found that listening to a game is a very satisfying experience as well.

quote:

Originally posted by observer44:
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4. ..., Going, particularly that far, sends a real message. Not going sends a message to a school that you just might not be very interested. .

IMHO this part from obs44 pretty much sums it up. You really have to decide if the school is a contender from your perspective. If so, then go for it. Many kids from my neck of the woods end up no more than 4 hours drive away. 800 miles makes it a real big issue concerning travel to and from the school for the player and the parents. Only you can decide if it is worth the effort! I believe the coach wants to see you pursue the school just as much as you want to see him pursue your son.

If you don't go, be sure to communicate with the coaches that you are interested in going to the school and playing baseball there and just can't make the trip at this time.

A few things here;

How do you know the school has not seen him or someone they rely on has not seen your son play?

Why does distance matter where he attends college? The boy should go where he wants to go for his needs not yours--my guy went 2000 miles away--he was overjoyed to be there--I didn't get to one game but missed none on the radio--We never had distance enter the picture during recruiting

It is not the end of the game if the boy does not attend junior day---in this economy the coach and his staff can certainly undertsand why at this point in time it is not feasible to be there---if he cannot attend have the boy phone them and say thanx for the invite and explain why he cannot be there

There are many things that matter concerning where you go to college regardless of whether you play baseball or not. Distance matters to some, and like you, it does not for others. I live in the southeast and there are plenty of good baseball programs close to home. If you live in the great white north and want to play baseball in a warmer climate you are going to travel farther away.

IMO it is more of a commitment to go 800 miles or 2000 miles away to school; namely time and money. My son travels 100 miles and is overjoyed to be there. I really enjoy having a 100 mile trip to see my son; there is also much less risk to my son traveling home in 1.5 hours. I agree that you have to meet "his" needs and most important decisions involve trade offs and weighted factors against the pros and cons you put together. Distance is a factor in this decision; in your case it got no weight.

For my son it would depend on where it is on his list. If it is THE school then we are there. Top 5 probably. Below this maybe not. Personal decision. Either way I would be talking to the coach to get more details, if you can't get there take a look at the schools schedule, your son's schedule and talk to the coach about where and when he could see your son play. This will also give you an idea on how serious they are.

Agree with BOF.

They don't make money on junior days. There is no revenue. Typically they'll give you tickets to (since we're speaking of January) a home basketball game, but everything else is on your dime.

That being said, they will all be there, and they will put on the dog and pony show for your son and the other boys. It's a chance to see what they want you to see, about their campus and their baseball facilities and program. It's also a chance for them to see your son, whom someone must've put them onto, in the flesh and to see what kind of a kid he is. (So make sure he takes the visit seriously, as it is just as easy to make a negative impression as a positive one.)

Where I agree with BOF is, when you're weighing whether to make the 800 mile trip you need to consider whether this school is really on your son's short list. If he's just enjoying all the attention from a lot of schools, then it's time to have a talk with him about a more structured approach to his recruiting. If he's only being pursued by a very few programs, then I wouldn't be quick to pass up this opportunity. If this is his dream school, then YES YES YES you should definitely go.

Decide where you are on that spectrum and you'll have answered your own question about whether going is worth your time and money.

quote:

Originally posted by AL MA 08:
There are many things that matter concerning where you go to college regardless of whether you play baseball or not. Distance matters to some, and like you, it does not for others. I live in the southeast and there are plenty of good baseball programs close to home. If you live in the great white north and want to play baseball in a warmer climate you are going to travel farther away.

IMO it is more of a commitment to go 800 miles or 2000 miles away to school; namely time and money. My son travels 100 miles and is overjoyed to be there. I really enjoy having a 100 mile trip to see my son; there is also much less risk to my son traveling home in 1.5 hours. I agree that you have to meet "his" needs and most important decisions involve trade offs and weighted factors against the pros and cons you put together. Distance is a factor in this decision; in your case it got no weight.

You bring up some really good points and one (distance) that should be considered in the recruiting process.
Besides the obvious, it can be very expensive to send your player farther from home. If you cannot afford to travel to see him, he has to understand that before decisions are made.
Like CD, we sent ours about 750 miles from home. We went up every fall, and about 3 times during season, depending on whether he played in Miami or in Tallahassee or Atlanta which was closer than South Carolina. It worked for him because many of the players were far from home and parents didn't
come often, the parents that attended every game made sure that all players got cheered for when the parents were missing. With large attendances, he got a lot of fan support as well.
My son had a great college experience, great coaching staff, but probably would admit he wished the school was closer. It is very important that your son have a great support system, that doesn't include you being there for games.
I understand that this is about our sons playing, but we too as families want to be able to share in our players experiences, it becomes part of our lives as well. Things have become a bit easier these days, with TV coverage and webTV, it makes it a bit easier to adjust to the distance.
I would call the coach and have a discussion regarding how many players he is expecting, we got the same invitation to one school and there were about 75-100 in attendance. Junior days can be a good thing, but it doesn't affect being seriously recruited later on if you attend or not.
What you might want to consider is a unofficial in the spring, when you can watch the team.

Welcome and best of luck.

Thanks to everybody for your great responses. Bottom line I guess is to have some serious discussions with our son about his college choices! He has always said he doesn't care how far away he has to go if he can get a chance to play ball at a good school. But I'm not sure a 17 year old kid who has only lived in a small rural community all of his life is capable of understanding exactly what that'll mean - but then again I guess if he wants to give it a try we wouldn't stop him. When I mentioned that might mean most of his family and friends may never get to see him play I could see a different look on his face! Although as someone mentioned, we live up in the great north and don't have near the opportunities that are available in other areas of the country so it can make distance a tougher issue. We are really inexperienced at this recruiting thing - just barely getting started - late bloomers compared to many of you!!! So all of the input and everybody's own life experiences sure help. We'd hate to try to figure this all out by ourselves! Our son would really like to check out this school so we are contemplating the junior day visit - will probably take you up on your suggestion to find out how many will be there or if we are better off waiting until spring for an unofficial visit and catch a ballgame. Thanks again everyone.

You also need to consider distance as it relates to the school's point of view!
Most rosters will have a majority of in-state kids, some as high as 90%+.

There are many advantages to doing so, not the least of which is the cost for the parents. This may not be a factor at private schools?

A 50% offer to an in-state recruit could be worth twice as much to the parents as one where they have to pay non-resident tuition.

When they recruit outside of their normal range, they are doing so because the player is outstanding, or because they can't attract the local kids.

If it's because the player is outstanding, then the closer to home schools will usually be recruiting the kid, too!

quote:

Instate Junior Day-March 1st

-Sam Cunningham
-Marcus Trotter(potential JD offer)
-Michael Trotter
-Sean Marshall(Potential JD offer)
-Trey Delmer(potential offer, I personally dont think we will)
-Zac Epping(potential JD offer)
-Matt Eggen(Potential JD offer)
-Leighton Settle(Potenial JD offer, personally i wouldnt bother wasting my time)
-Marquis Mason(potenial JD offer, offer might come later....)
OL/DL Dallas Lewallen (6-6, 265) - Berlin, WI
FB/LB A.J. Armstrong (6-2, 230) - Neenah, WI
QB Justin Sinz (6-4, 220) - Edgar, WI
OL/DE Kyle Costigan (6-5, 250) - Muskego, WI\
TE Mitchell Ziegler (6-3, 225) - Kenosha (Bradford), WI
Konrad Zagzebski
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JOSHUA47


May I ask what school "we" is?

Are these Junior days considered an official visit if they give the athlete and parents lunch, dinner, and a ticket to a basketball game? I assume not because we are paying our own way there and lodging but I wanted to get other's opinions.

If it is not an officail visit which can't take place till senior year...all they can give you is a ticket to a sporting event...they can not pay for lunch or dinner....

2011mom
I went through the same thing. My son was interested in two schools that were 500 - 750 miles from home, they cotacted us with generic invites but expressed personal interest. Both schools are D1 and have great to excellent academic reputations. I would gladly help him get there if baseball isn't in the equation. We went to both during the fall/winter period to reciprocate the interest. Only time will tell if he ends up at either but we are very happy with the results. They conducted the evaluations in very different ways and we got a chance to evaluate them too. It is also a chance for your son to engage in the process and consider the distance, campus, climate, look and feel etc of what each school offers. It also gave us a contrast to the local schools so we could weigh the pros and cons. If your son has genuine interest in a school, it is a relistic target for his baseball/academic skills and you have the resources to investigate...go for it. This is a one time process for him and you don't want to have regrets if you don't and wish you had later.

There can be no "official visits" until fall of the HS senior year, after Sept. 1.

All junior days are "unofficial visits". No free lodging or other travel expenses. Up to three free tickets to some game (football, basketball or baseball, whatever) for mom, dad and son.

The big advantage is not having your expenses paid. It's knowing that they are interested enough in you to have you come by early, and in getting the opportunity to speak with them face to face. When you're standing on their soil, unlimited talking is permitted. Lots of scholarship deals are offered, negotiated, even shaken on during these visits.

My son got his first baseball scholarship offer on a Junior Day visit. It surprised us as we weren't expecting that! So you really never know what can happen when you make a Junior Day visit. As it turns out, he ended up not accepting their offer, but he was honest with them about not being ready to "pull the trigger" until all the visits he wanted to make had been made. They offered him in February of 2009 and he accepted an offer in July of 2009. They were very patient because they truly wanted him, but didn't force their hand. If I had had my way, I would've had him accept right away as it was an awesome offer! They say though, that when it's right, your son will know and it's true. He floated away from the school that he accepted the offer from. It felt right and felt like home (even though it is 300 miles away ) and he couldn't be more thrilled with his decision.