Missed Junior Recruiting Season

crossbill,

It's not too late, my 2013 was behind 5-6 sr. pitchers last season, and a few of those were D1 pitchers so he did not get a lot of time. He was concerned but kept working in the classroom and conditioning. He as played this fall and went to a few showcases.

What we found out was that in the fall when these colleges start going through their fall program they assess what they have coming back and coming in. Some palyers did not come back to school, some did not have the grades some were hurt.

In the last month my son has had some very good interest from a mid-level D1 a D2 a JUCO a D3 and a couple of NAIA schools. Last season he had a teammate that signed in May at a D1 school.

Keep contacting schools and see if they have a need for players at your sons position. Another thing we learned, college coaches are recruiting on need.

I would not concern myself with the schools that were interested and now are not, but rather the schools that are interested. If he loves the school and wants to walk on , great take your shot. If he wants to play quickly, go to a school that you can play quickly, often not a D1.

I also found that JUCO's take kids in June and July after your sr. season.

Lastly, grades do matter, at first the coaches calling 2013 were not talking about grades, but as they get more interested, the talk of grades always comes up. Just our exp. for what it's worth.

Is he healthy now? There are showcases all the way into January. Northeastern has one in the winter a number of colleges attend. There's a winter TPX event in NH.

Crossbill, I read your August posts and it sounds like your son attended Headfirst. Also sounds like he had a bad summer team experience, but was showcasing. Am I reading this right?

I'm not clear on what your son has been doing, but obviously if it hasn't worked then he needs to broaden his audience.

If you'd like to give more background about what he's done, then maybe some folks might have more specific advice.

crossbill,

I hope your son is 100% now. If I was in your shoes, I would make sure he is 100% healthy and able to perform. The second thing I would do would be to seek out third party baseball people to get a true, unbiased evaluation of his skills. I would then seek an appropriate national or regional showcase event that has schools that your son is interested in. I would then target those schools that have interest with a camp or an unofficial visit.

A PG (post-grad) year would probably be my last option due to cost and the relative importance of baseball to academics. As twotex suggests, it may be a good idea to give us a little more background on his baseball goals, academic goals and your financial goals. I think the board can be most helpful to you with that information. Good luck.

Ursinus and Frankin Pierce have events this weekend. I know that FP has coaches from other colleges there as well. Blue Chip is having a pitchers/catchers event on Long Island. Lots going on this time of year.

Since your son attended showcases in the past I suspect he is getting the same invitations, but wanted to put these out there anyway.

Thanks for the posts. I have not read the blog in a while. My son had been rehabbing and is now completely healthy. He is likely going to PG next year and we will work on getting him in front of the schools he wants to play for. The reason why I like the PG year is that it gives him another summer for recruiting, the PG team coach is well connected, and it can always help his GPA.

Fenwaysouth, we sought out the third party opinion. Every time I say to myself "maybe he is not good enough", someone tells me differently. The third party says my son is a prospect for a top baseball college and possibly draftable. My son would like to play at a top D-1 Business School down south. So that is where we will focus our efforts.

We will try not to make the same stupid mistakes we made last year. We also know who he WONT be playing for and will avoid those circles.

twotex

I can't find my August post, but he did attend the Headfirst Camp on Long Island.

What do you mean by PG/post grad?

Yes post graduate year

quote:

Originally posted by yotes78:
What do you mean by PG/post grad?

I don't know all the requirement details but it is basically doing senior year over again, usually at a private school.

Actually a PG year is not (typically) just a 'repeat 12' at all. That would be a waste of time and money unless it was needed for academic reasons. Repeating 12th is another situation.

PG year is 'post grad' meaning, they have graduated high school and fulfilled all the HS requirements.

In this '13th' year, the student will often take the next levels of classes such as, taking calc if they stopped at Pre-Calc in HS, taking a more rigorous level of English, adding a social sciences or history class that had not taken in HS, the higher level of bio//chem / physics, etc.

On the other hand, a student who struggled in HS might do quite a bit or remedial / repeat work to better prepare him/her for the rigors of college.

The curricular choices depend on the school and the individual needs/goals of the student.

It offers a chance to re-take SATs as well.

Some students really benefit from the added year of social/emotional/ academic and physical growth. For some students the year at the boarding school is also a great transition.

I believe at some places you can also take classes that have college credit agreements.

The extra year can be very costly, of course!!

In our case, it provides my son another "junior" summer, which he mostly missed this year. It can be expensive, but there are a lot of benefits, some of which BaseballmomandCEP listed. My son is a good student, but a couple of more AP classes can broaden his college choices. He can also focus on getting stronger and faster during the off season as many of he schools have first class gyms an trainers.

I don't think you can do tht in public schools in Texas. Maybe a prep school, but not worth it if your son is a top 5 student. Better off getting an academic scholarship and walk on with possibility of a redshirt.

Hi Yotes, it isn't done at the public school --- I left that part out in the 'explanation.' The Post Grad year is always at a private HS. Public HS wouldn't offer this.