Junior or Senior year

Junior year.

Most often word will travel about a talented ball player while they are sophmores and juniors. When one gets the notice of college coaches, they will ask the player to participate in one tournament or another where they can see the in action during the summer after junior year.

Since schedules are pretty much the same in spring, college coaches are involved with their college team.

If a player has a break out year in his senior year, word travels as well.

I wouldn't say one year is any more important than the other......your question must have to do with the importance from the receruiting aspect......I would bet there are thousands of seniors hoping to win state championships, regardless of their status with colleges.....that makes this senior year pretty important.

The other part of this is that there are such a small percentage of kids who have signed letters of intent, and thus for the vast majority of kids this senior season may determine where they go in their baseball future.

A very good question and this question has some definite answers. We have to assume you are speaking about the baseball season of the high school player wanting to move into college baseball. First let me point out that academics is ALWAYS important in getting to play college baseball. But from a baseball standpoint the junior year is without a doubt the most important year for the high school player. A player needs to work toward positioning himself to sign a NLI during the early signing period. This can only be done PRIOR to the start of his senior season! This is not saying a player MUST sign during the early signing period but by positioning himself to do so, he greatly increases his options. For the most part once a player signs the NLI, his high school baseball from that point on will not impact his future as a college baseball player. This alone makes the junior year the most important. Of course as with everything there are exceptions. One exception is the player that fails to sign prior to the start of the baseball season of his senior year. In this case the senior year becomes the important year.
If a player wants to be drafted out of high school then the scenario changes drastically. The player’s senior season becomes the most important season for the pro draft. Scouts that were quietly looking at players as juniors will increase their scouting/recruiting activity tenfold during the player’s senior year. I wouldn’t count on the draft because it can be a huge letdown.
Fungo

I have to agree with Fungo; especially if you are talking about the baseball side of things.

Not saying it is right but in my experience, when you are recruiting you look at Sophomore's and Junior's; the ones that catch your eye. You then follow their progress each year. Usually I have my mind made up by the end of the players Junior year as to whether he is a player we want to bring into the program. If I have a player that I like but can't make up my mind on and I believe if he develops he can play in the program then I will see him play his Senior year (some kids develop later than others). It does not mean if I see a Senior that can play in the program while I am looking at someone else that I will ignore him.

This is my technique and it works for me; we have had some great players come through the system and then move on to 4 year colleges.

As it relates to the draft, it is important to have a great year as a Junior but even more important to have an outstanding Senior year; it will raise your stock. As Fungo stated don't count on the draft coming out of HS.

O42

In our situation, the summer between JR and SR year was the key. Its hard to get noticed in the Midwest when you're playing baseball in March and April. The weather is dicey and not many college scouts will travel here and risk the weather. They could end up sitting in a hotel watching a steady rain with 45 degree temps!
We heard from a handful of colleges during my son's Jr year and they were all within a 100 mile radius. It wasn't until he was seen during the summer that the interest from more distant schools picked up. He played U18 and men's open tournaments/leagues with one trip to a CA showcase. The summer attention was the most significant!

Generally speaking, unless you live near a population center or a lot of campuses, you won't get the looks during the school season as during the summer/fall.

The lists for the colleges are built during the sophomore/frshman years during the summer/fall. The players they are most interested in will be followed during the spring of their junior year, but they will really concentrate and go see them during the summer and fall. I'm speaking mainly D1 here.

.... but over half of the players signed to play in college are signed in the spring of their senior seasons. The senior year can be very important and a lot of D1 schools are looking to pick up seniors in the spring. There are still quite a few signings, even on the D1 level.

Excellent topic! And one that I wish I had knowledge of well before my '05 had been at that point. Our story is one of great contrast.

First, a bit of background. I have two sons, one who graduated in '05 and one who will graduate in '07. We live in Montana, which has NO high school baseball, although we do have a relatively strong Legion program. It is rare that a player from Montana goes directly to a four year program (it does happen, but not very often.) In our community, I don't know that there has ever been someone go directly to a four year program. We have had a few over the years that have gone to a JUCO, then 4 year, and a couple that have managed to make it to the minors for a while.

With my '05, because of lack of knowledge, we did not really get serious about "going to find a school/program" until he was into his Senior year. Notice I say going to them, because they are not going to come to us. My son had decided that he wanted to go south (somewhat) in order to have more cooperative weather. Since I have family in Kansas, and KS has a very strong JUCO league, we made 4 trips to Ks his Senior year (1500 miles one way). The last trip was in June, just after he graduated, and we were able to secure a position and a small scholarship, and he was/is thrilled. But it was very challenging trying to make this happen from a long distance without the coaches having an opportunity to see him play. We started late because we didn't know any better.

With my '07, things are much different. He is a Junior now, but is on the radar screen of several Major DI schools, including his dream school. I should also make note that there are some substantive differences between my two sons. My '05 is a late bloomer, somewhat smaller than average, and underdeveloped as a player. My '07 has always been a big kid. He is now, 6' and 225 lbs, and a strong LHP/1B. His wrong handedness definitely gives him an advantage as far as interest is concerned.

However, the significant point is that we started much much earlier with my '07. Last year as a sophmore-junior, he went to a camp at what has become his #1 school choice. That was very good for him. He was exposed to the coaches and to the school. The coaches basically told him that if he were a Sr. this year, he would probably be recruited on the basis of his bat, but that they really liked the fact that as a pitcher, he still had a couple of years to develop. He received a letter from them last week in which they told him that he is very high in their recruiting plans. He also went to a fall showcase at a large DI. That was his first showcase, and he did not perform as well as he would have liked, but he learned from the experience.

We are now putting together a strategy for the all important Jr-Sr summer. This will include an indoor pitcher camp at a relatively close DI (about 4 hours away), Legion program starts in March, early summer (June) we want to do a PG event, we are hoping to do Stanford's camp the first part of July, the Legion program ends at the end of July, in the fall we hope to participate on a team for the AZ Fall Classic, and hope to participate in Jupiter next October.

With the exception of the winter pitching clinic, none of these are close by, there fore none of these are inexpensive. But we consider it to be an investment in his future.

My point in disclosing this is to point out the differences between what we did with my '05, and what we are doing with my '07. Those of you who are parents of younger kids take note, with baseball, you cannot wait until the Senior year. If you are an '06, or a parent of an '06, don't despair because there are still opportunities, but you will need to become more proactive in pursuing them.

montanadad:

We have a very similar situation with our two boys. . We're much more on top of it with the '07 than we were for the '05.

Keep us posted...take care of the big sky!

As many have said for college recruiting, the Junior year, then more critically, the summer between the Junior and Senior year are key.

One thing we found about that summer: planning well in advance is crucial, and be very selective about what college camps you squeeze in. Since you have to pay to attend a college camp, it either needs to be a 'broad' one that has a lot of different college coaches attending (like Stanford), or one where there has been clear communication between your son and that college that there's a high degree of mutual interest that's going to be 'explored' more deeply at the camp by both parties. Otherwise it's just another random camp in an already busy and expensive summer. The summer recruiting is all about putting yourself in front of either a lot of college coaches at the same time, or in front of those coaches that have expressed a specific interest.

Plan on taking a lot of time off from work to play taxi driver. Obviously my son was able to drive himself to many local games, events, etc. But the summer was so packed with overlapping events that he was often just beat ... and I really didn't want him driving on the freeways by himself at 8:00 PM after his third straight full-day tryout session to drive to a college camp 1.5 hours away. For me it was just a safety issue. The worst week of the summer, he had Sat/Sun full day tryouts for North/South Junior All-stars, Monday full-day tryout for Angels Elite, Tues/Wedn all-day Pepperdine camp, Wedn night drive back for Connie Mac night game at UCI, Thur HS double header in San Clemente, Fri all-day Area Code tryout at USC, Sat/Sun HS double headers, Sun night Connie Mac game, then rolled straight into a three day camp at LB State, followed by more Connie Mac games. I drove him to anything that wasn't strictly local ... my job was to keep him hydrated and fed, and he'd just sleep in the car everywhere we went.

We planned a vacation in mid-August so he could just completely decompress ... and mentally so he could see a time coming after all the events where he could completely rest and forget about anything related to baseball for a couple weeks. We purposely made the vacation a low-intensity one ... no long trips or tours ... just rented a beach house in San Diego and let him invite a bunch of friends to stay with us. Beside just the exhaustion factor, keeping up the mental intensity to be performing at your best for a bunch of college coaches sitting in the stands at event after event was hard ... staying on top of the physical exhaustion issues (rest, hydration, food) helped enormously. Knowing he had a couple weeks of hanging out at the beach with his close friends to look forward to also helped.

Fungo is spot on. Williebobo has more good info.

If your son can play D1...get him to camp after his sophomore year at the school's of his/your choice. If he plays varsity and has a reputation, this will gain him some interest where he wants it most.

If he is capable but has no rep, it may be even more important to do due diligence by contacting 4-5 schools of choice and getting him to those camps. Finding a good travel team and a coach that is respected and has connections will enhance the possibilities.

Chronologically, I've had 1 commit during his senior season, 1 in the spring of his senior year and 1 after his sophomore season. Had I known with the first 2 what I found out later with # 3, the process would have been much easier.

IMO, without question, what is most important is the summer between your junior and senior year. That is when college coaches are most likely to focus on you, see you, etc.

During the course of the school year they are occupied with their own teams and while certainly people get signed in their senior years, that senior season is becoming more and more a complete afterthought as far as recruiting.

Re: late signings in the spring/summer of the senior year. You have to look at this as a numbers game. Most schools have the majority of their recruiting 'list' of needs/positions taken care of by the end of the early signing period. For one, they need to compete with other schools for the top players, so want to get that commitment locked in. For another, they are busy with their own upcoming season in the winter and spring, so have less time to dedicate to recruiting.

That all means that if you are an unsigned senior in the spring ... you are working harder at being recruited for a numerically much smaller number of available roster spots, or dealing with schools that don't have the clout to lock in top talent early that are looking to find a few 'jewels' that got overlooked. Doesn't mean it can't or doesn't happen, it just means that it's a tougher numbers game with reduced options. Plus you end up having to compete more so with JC transfers as proven commodities at the college level and two years of additional physical maturity to fill those last 1-2 remaining roster spots.

Sounds like junior year is the clear cut favorite.Son is a junior and we have followed the recruiting time line recommended.Junior has received many a letters and invites to camps which he will attend over the holidays with the hope of catching someones eye.My next question is which summer team would you play for?A high profile team that travels every where or a high profile team that the coach feels no need to travel to gain exposure. The latter team also qualified for the Connie Mack world series last year.

Junior year, and the summer before senior year without a doubt. And if you do get the decision wrapped up by Thanksgiving, there's a whooooole lot of pressure that isn't there in the spring.

And it feels weird for the parents-after being the dog chasing the car for 4-5 years, you realize you caught it, and you're done. Enjoy it because in a few months, you get to start a whole new set of parental worries-college classes, adjustments, etc. All just part of doing the parent thing.

The summer between Jr and Sr year. We were told on an un-official vist that July between the Jr and Sr year would be the most important 30 days in sons baseball career with respect to the next 5 years. A player can make or break himself during that time regardless of what he's done in HS or past performances. Looking back, it was very true as we watched players stocks rise and fall during that time.

Socially and as far as MLB draft status. I would say Sr year is key. A lot of growing and maturing takes place during this time. If your a player, the MLB scouts will be around to see you in the spring season. This is also the BMOC time for most. They are finally the lead dog and can enjoy that status for the last few months before graduation the it's back to the bottom of the list.
That is the toughest adjustment for most.

I see the summer between the JR/SR HS years and the FAll of the Senior year as key

This is when The Fall, you want to get all the ducks in a row.

Also keep in mind that not signing early is not a death knell---there are loads of programs who right now are looking to fill many spots andf there is still plenty of money around particularly if you have good grades.

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
I see the summer between the JR/SR HS years and the FAll of the Senior year as key

I think that as you state summer and fall is important but that is if you have done your work prior to that, (which I assume is what you mean)

It also depends on what level and what schools you are interested in and been communicating with. It seems that the bigger the program the early the process, which may be obvious to many of you.

quote:

Originally posted by Clemente21:
My next question is which summer team would you play for?A high profile team that travels every where or a high profile team that the coach feels no need to travel to gain exposure. The latter team also qualified for the Connie Mack world series last year.

Need to have exposure and to be seen by college coaches. If it can be done without extensive travel great but not sure how you do that.