Junior year visits

On unofficial visits my son did go up to the coaches after a game was over to say hello thereby letting them know he was interested enough to visit. We generally had already Emailed them before hand also. I feel it's fine to wear his team sweatshirt and cap. The main thing is to be neat and don't have the cap on sideways with a scraggly beard!

quote:

What should we watch for when seeing the team play? Do we talk to parents of other players, for example? Should we look at coach / player interaction and team attitudes?

Silly question, but should my son think about wearing his HS baseball sweatshirt or hat, or is that stupid?

And, I assume at the game itself we should stay away from the coach(es), am I right? (we are setting up visits with them when possible.) But if we happen to see them, they are free to talk to us because we are on their campus?

BaseballmomandCEP,

I would absolutely look at player/coach and player/player interactions. We went to one school where the coach was a "yeller". My son was turned off by that. The way to communicate with my son is logic, not yelling. He knows it and I know it. I knew that school was going to be crossed off the list. Also, we would try to figure out if the players (catcher) was calling the pitches or if it was being sent in from the dugout. As the father of a pitcher, we wanted to know if the coaching staff has confidence in their catchers to call a game or does the dugout call situation plays for example. We also wanted to see who were the offensive and defensive leaders, and what kind of game do they play. We went to a lot of games as both a recruit and an "observer of levels" (D1, D1 mid major, high-D3). I think it gave my son confidence that he could compete at the different levels, and that he was being recruited by the right levels.

Just about every recruit we knew either wore their high school or travel ball team jersey and hat. My son wore his travel team apparel as the coaches had seen him (previously) in his travel team jersey. We always tried to couple the baseball visit with a campus tour.

Yes, they can talk to your son freely when he is on campus. However, I'd suggest between games (if the coaches suggest it) or after the games. As Three Bagger suggests, email them ahead of time to let them know you'll be there. They will typically suggest talking after the game for 15-30 minutes.