letter to coach

Find another reason to email him. Tell him how fall season is going etc. I would send it to the recruiting coordinator if hope for any type of response.

CITIGUY - You didn't really say if this was the only school he mailed or not. If it was, I would also sit down with him and figure out who the top-10/15 schools he's interested in and why...guide him with regards to academics, cost, etc... and have him write to each of those schools telling them why he is interested in them.

In addition, if any of these schools are near you and you can afford a holiday season camp, sign up and take him...email/letter preceding that camp re-introducing himself.

In the early Spring, follow up with another letter/email with his HS schedule and in late Spring with his summer schedule.

Good luck and let us know!

Depending on the school; head coaches can get hundreds to thousands of letters. Also, depending on what your letter said or didn't say it may not require an action on his part.

More often then not the letter gets passed on to the recruiting coordinator. At that point it may or may not require action. Again; you have to understand a little about where a school recruits from, what their needs are and how you may or may not fit. All of this requires someone to figure out if replying to you is in the cards.

Try again, this time with the recruiting coordinator. Do what you can to make sure that you fit their profile of recuits (example: you are from New England and sending a letter to a California coach - chances are you won't get a response).

Go onto the website and request a questionare or maybe they have info there to fill out. Keep in mind that fall is a very busy time for coaches, in a few weeks it will let up.
JBB gives a good suggestion as far as attending a camp. Don't rely on sending one coach from one program a letter, as a junior he should be well into the recruiting process (as far as his interest based on his skill level, academics, etc).

All true ILVBB.

One other thing that is written on here often...and is absolutely correct. A school needs to see the player play before they will make a decision. That is true I would guess 99% of the time.

Try and figure out a way to get your son in front of their coaches...camps, summer ball, HS ball, showcases, etc... Figure out where they'll be and then figure out how to get there.

I have a relative who is a student at a college. One of her on campus jobs involved reviewing letters from prospective football recruits and deciding whether to trash or process. She had been given some criteria to use. If the letter appeared to be a form/generic type letter, it didn't go any further in the process.

In other words, it isn't certain that the letter was even read by the coach, so I wouldn't take silence as rejection. My guess is that it varies by school.

quote:

One other thing that is written on here often...and is absolutely correct. A school needs to see the player play before they will make a decision.

Isn't it really the HC, or someone he trusts a great deal, needs to see the player play? I've heard of lots of examples where the HC didn't see the player play himself...but a trusted assistant did, or a trusted fellow coach, or a trusted scout, etc.

quote:

Isn't it really the HC, or someone he trusts a great deal, needs to see the player play? I've heard of lots of examples where the HC didn't see the player play himself...but a trusted assistant did, or a trusted fellow coach, or a trusted scout, etc.

Pretty sure we're saying the same thing. HC, assistant...or a trusted fellow coach/scout, but in that case from what we experienced it got the HC or assistant out to see for themselves.

We are saying the same thing. I just wanted to check to see if I misunderstood and your experience said something different. Appreciate it.

A related question:
High school junmior has tommy john surgery in feb 2011 so he missed sophomore year. Is now begining to pitch - got about 15 innings in over the fall. At what point does the player begin to contact the schools he is interested in, and what does he say about the surgery?

why not send correspondence to head coach with a cc to recruiting coordinator

Thanks for the advice!

CITIGUY, if your son is a position player, have him work on his HITTING, help him tear the cover off the baseball, then the college coaches will come calling and no need to send out letters.

If he is only to be a pitcher, help him to be a stud pitcher. It seems if you can hit well or pitch, your chances are much better. Defense is last on their list. I know, as son always was a defensive player, no one notices good defense.

Then when he is ready, do Jupiter or East Cobb.

They notice defense if you have a great arm. The PG events I have gone to the SS or outfielder with the 90mph arm always get lots of attention.

quote:

Athnet

Do you recommend sending resumes in addition to the baseball questions that the schools have sent to you to complete?

quote:

Originally posted by Athnet:
Pop Up Hitter Dad,

Whether a play maker, a solid contributor, or a young player still learning, there is an important emphasis placed on being proactive. You must go out and make things happen, contact coaches about your abilities, and then continuously prove yourself on the field.

I agree but I don't think he meant to sit back and do nothing. I think through his experience he understands that you need to be at your best when you are ready to show off the skills that are most important, and that would not necessarily mean defense.

quote:

Originally posted by Athnet:
Make sure the resume comes from a professional email that is controlled by your son & that you are only monitoring, no writing and emailing yourself. Also, always copy and paste a resume into an email as many coaches will not open an extra attachment for virus purposes.

Sorry this is BS, as you would expect coming from a recruiting service. You should manage and control the process yourself, it is too important to have someone else do it for you. Everything you need is here. A good travel coach will help you if you need it.

the point about not opening attachments is well taken

quote:

Originally posted by Athnet:
BOF,

I'm sorry if you misinterpreted my post and I'm quite sure I never mentioned anything about using a recruiting service. The term "Professional Email" is used to describe the email address the athlete uses to send their email from, not a recruiting service email. The idea is to make sure athletes are doing the work and that they aren't sending resumes from a "bigballerboy@email.com." Instead the email should be something such as JoeRecruit@email.com or a "Professional" first and last name mix that says the recruit knows what he is doing.

Cheers,

Not sure exactly what your point is, but the bottom line is that the recruit doesn't need any email address other than his own. You can create one for the purpose for recruiting only, using the players first and last name is sufficient. No nicknames please.

Coaches don't base their decisions on whether the resume of a player has been professionally done but rather should include important information. The coach knows that these are kids most likely doing this for the very first time, with or without the parents help.

The whole idea is to impress the coach by doing what they know best, performing well on the field. I don't think that a beautiful resume is what catches their attention. BOF gave a good suggestion, the travel coach or the HS coach can help you with this information.

Keep it simple.

We set up a gmail account for my son with first name, last name, year of graduation as his email address. Now all of his baseball and college related email go into one account which isn't cluttered with other types of emails. Really simple to do, and free. He sends all the emails himself, but I monitor what comes in to make sure he is on top of responding to coaches.

Good idea on the cut/paste - hadn't thought of that aspect.