Letters To The College Coach

The following is only suggestion...
1. Include a schedule with your letter so the coaches know when you play and can watch.
2. Request a camp schedule from the college, but only if you are interested in attending a camp so the college can assess your skills.
3. Paste a photo of you in your letter so you stand out from other letters.
4. Include your high school and select coaches contact information.
5. Stress your positives. If you are a 7.0 or less in the 60, tell them. If you hit for power, average, etc. tell them. If you have a strong arm, let them know what you have been clocked out of your position. Give any awards you have. Don't over do it, they all have watches and guns. Be able to show what you put on your letter is accurate.

Best of luck and let the board know how it goes. Others will have better advice than this, I hope.

Here is some information we share with our players going into the fall of their junior year which is when the recruiting process really gets rolling.

Recommendation is do not write a novel. Keep your contact letter brief. Write a letter, not your life story. The initial contact letter is simply the means to start the ball rolling. Do not address your letter simply "Dear Coach." Take the time to learn the coach's name. If you will not take the time to find out what the coach's name is you obviously have no idea what type of program this school has or what type of expectation of skill level is necessary to play there.

Additionally, do not stretch the truth about your academic standing, athletic abilities, or accomplishments. Realize there is a difference between highlighting your skills as opposed to misleading a coach. There is no quicker way to lose credibility with a college coach or pro scout than to misstate the facts (miles per hour readings for a pitcher, and running and throwing times).

Good luck.

HSBBW has lots of good recruiting info on the site. Don't forget to use it. I always encourage parents and players to surf the site. We have hundreds of pages of information.

Here is a link to sample letters, recruiting timeline, and other helpful recruiting tips.

http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/players_parents.htm

Good luck.

Here's a link to a college where I found a prospect form.

http://www.clarendoncollege.edu/programs/PhysEd/BBCoach...0Prospect%20form.htm

If ML scouts have seen you play, try to get a letter of recommendation from them. That always peaks a coaches interest.

Be very carefull when soliciting comments from scouts.
We had a bad experience with a ML scout who killed son;s chance to go to his 1st choice school.
Son was at a Royals camp and pitched 2 innings. Struck 3 out,grounded 3 out. Most of the batters were 2-3 year US college players. 1 was released after 3 years in single A minor league ball (Braves). In the early spring the scout was present when son pitched 3 innings striking out 8 batters. You would think he would get a descent evaluation.
Apparently the scout said he was agreat pitcher but when asked if he would make an immediate immpact the scout opinioned prabably not. The school decided to go with a JC transfer. Get an idea of what they think before getting an opinion from anyone.

Have the scout write an eval and you decide whether to send it or not. Don't have the scout send it to the college coach. That is irresponsible. Common sense.

In our case the coach called the scout and talked to him.
The problem was that the school went to the regionals and felt they were close to making a run for OMAHA. That year they recruited mostly transfer students with experience at college level. The next year they recruited for depth and a lot of HS guys. This is a factor that influenced their recruiting that year. The evaluator of my son at the school also transfered to another D1 school which didn't help.

Thank you, to all that replied and i like the ideas that were given. One question i did have was that i am a bigger player 6'3' 240lbs and i dont mean to brag by any means but i ran a 7.48 and i was told that for my size that is a better speed. But to the question, should i include that time in the letter?
And again thanks and much appreciation to the people who replied.