Mom and Son need some advice

PM sent... GED10DaD

Major Point___The realistic and true viewpoint-- he has done nothing to date to get college coaches interested---he is similar to the majority of young baseball players---see what happens when he get to tghe varsity level

quote:

Originally posted by anotherbaseballmom:
. . what are some other ways to get noticed?

1. Post a 60 yd dash time as far below 7.0 seconds as possible. Speed seems to be a non-negotiable qualification for MIF's.

2. Try out for one of the elite travel teams whose coaches are actually capable of helping players attract college interest: Canes, Richmond Braves, Virginia Cardinals, Mid-Atlantic Red Sox, NVTBL Stars, Tidewater Drillers or the RBAWEST team that was recently announced in the Virginia forum of this site. An experienced successful travel coach makes all the difference in the world--better teammates, better competition, better conditioning, better development, and more visibility. Fortunately, Virginia has a number of good ones to choose from depending on what part of the state you're in and how much travel you're really up for.

anotherbaseballmom,

I totally agree with TRHit and Swampboy. Your son has to get on the radar for these college coaches. He can do that a couple different ways. I would suggest looking into a very competitive travel team, and continue to reach out to schools you have interest in. Be persistent. Several Virginia-based travel teams are having tryouts in the next few weeks starting this weekend. Be patient with the college coaches right now as they are winding down their recruiting efforts for 2015s. The signing date starts Nov 10 and ends Nov 17. Your son will need to perform at a high level, continue to contact coaches, and possibly go to a few of the recruiting camps for schools that your son is targeting. Recruited = talent + performance + communication + luck.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions. I have coached VA travel ball for 8 years at your son's age so I know the lay of the land.

Great suggestions. I add that getting to a PG ID showcase to get in the national database is a good idea also.

It was a few yrs ago but son traveled from NJ on weekends in the fall to play for a scout team in Va.
Played at the colleges and MANY coaches from area colleges attended. It was great exposure and a chance to view the schools.

Also attend a good showcase.

quote:

Originally posted by anotherbaseballmom:
He does strength and speed training every day and really wants to play college ball. He's an excellent student (4.0+)and a hard worker.

tell him to keep up the hard work......in school....if he wants to play college baseball, there will be a lot of opportunity for a player with good grades and hard work in the classroom as well as the ballfield....

Colleges want players they dont have to worry about failing out and can get academic money as well.....

Look into the HeadFirst Showcase in your area for next summer. playheadfirst.com It fills very quickly.

I usually disagree with TR when he says you have to be on varsity first, but in this context I agree with what he says. Let's assume he's effectively on varsity as a rising junior though, then I think that the suggestions you've gotten from the other posters are good ones.

There's no way to tell what colleges he should be targeting without knowing how good he is or how good he projects to be. The grades give him more options than most but at any given school talent and performance on the field are what get you onto the team and get you innings.

1. Go to an eye doctor and check for the dominant eye. If he is strong right eye, practice switch hitting. Use the "high" tee.
2. Use your high school track coach for 30 yard training. Middle infielders need the short quick bursts.
3. Visit your great Virginia colleges, watch practices, talk with the players [ask them would they choose this school if they had a second chance].
4. Watch the coaches coach in their practice sessions.Can I accept this coach's philosophy?
5. Research, investigate, ask questions, acquire knowledge for the final decision.
6. Be prepared.
7. Do the same with the Summer programs.Will they allow you to switch hit?
8. You did not mentioned the throwing arm. Is it strong, average?
9. Do you "back hand" ground ball hit directly to you.
10. Study the hitter "can you read the bat"?

Bob Williams

Thank you everyone for great advice. He also had taken some initiative and posted questions on another forum (even before I did). I really appreciate this site and all the advice. I'm sure we'll have some more questions. He's taking the advice given so far...casting a wide net, looking at lots of different options, and of course considering the academice (at mom's request :-) ). He will definitely do some of the recommended idividual showcases, his team did well in PG East Cobb this past summer. Thanks again!

1. Make sure his skills are legit and good
2. Continue to work on those skills
3. Take care of business in the classroom
4. Find colleges he's interested in and go to their camps
5. Those same colleges he's interested in have him contact their coaching staff to ask which showcases they plan on attending so they can see him.
6. Go to those showcases - introduce himself to those coaches - do well at the showcase
7. Go to other showcases - especially the good ones like Perfect Game so other colleges he may not know of can see him
8. Play on the absolute best summer team he can get on
9. Email coaches and ask them what they need from him in order to get noticed by them - then do it
10. Enjoy the heck out of it

Always remember - very rarely do colleges actually go out and find the talent. The talent has to come to them. When you hear on TV about so and so getting recruited by such and such that only makes up a very small percentage of college athletes. The vast majority of college athletes had to work / put themselves out there to get noticed. If you wait to be seen then you probably won't be seen.

Anotherbaseballmom- coach2709 makes great sense. You will notice that none of his ten points have anything to do with HS baseball. Many times, HS baseball is the least meaningful part of the equation, so try not to worry about what happens with his HS team.

I agree with coach2709 100%! You as a parent have to help make this happend for your son. It is a lot of work, but if this is really what your son wants to do - you might as well do it right. Our son attended clinics at the local D1 as a 9th grader. As a 10th grader he continued going to the clinics, and that's when the coaching staff approached him that they wanted him to play for their school. My advise is get him to clinics/HS prospect camps of schools that he has interest in. Once he attends these camps, follow up with emails to the coaching staff to determine if there is interest. Good luck and keep swinging it...

I can echo what the others are saying. My son is also a 2012 and really just started the process this Fall by playing for one of the elite travel teams in Virginia. This got him some exposure and access to some coaches who know the recruiting process.

He also just attended a showcase at Virginia Wesleyan that have quite a few college coaches and pro scouts in attendance. They even provided easy access to the coaches at the end of the day on Sunday to ask questions. On Tuesday, he received e-mails from three colleges that had been there stating that they liked what they saw and want to follow him.

The point is to get out there. A lot of my son's teammates seem to be waiting for the coaches to come to them and they are not getting the same results.

Good luck!

VaRHPmom -

Welcome to HSBBWeb. I see it is your first post.

Congrats to your 2012 son for getting that exposure at VWC. He is off to a good start by getting to understand the process and really how difficult it can be. As you have suggested, waiting for the college coaches to come to you is not recommended. An overall recruiting plan developed jointly by son and parent(s) is recommended. It would be a good idea to reach out to as many targeted coaches/schools as your son has interest in. This would be in addition to the exposure the travel team is providing. Good luck.

Thank you for the welcome, fenwaysouth. I've actually been lurking on the boards for quite some time and have learned a lot.

I do have a question about first contact with coaches (other than in person). Is it better to write a letter or send an e-mail? Also, my son and I have been having a disagreement on following up a face-to-face meeting (like at last weekend's camp) with an e-mail thanking the coach for talking with him. I said that he should send an e-mail as a common courtesy and because the coach wasn't writing down the names of everyone he was meeting. My son is afraid of bothering the coaches too much. What do you think?

VaRHPmom, a tell your son a thank you is ALWAYS a good thing!! And if he does admissions visits,send a thank you to anyone he met there, as well.

I know that admissions offices in many cases will actually track thatas demonstrated interest, so I encourage a handwritten thank you note, not an email. (I am not sure of coaches prefer email.)

Boy is this the truth FS! When you start looking at the numbers in detail they can be very daunting. My son is weighing a couple of options right now and one of them is at a UC school out here in Ca. I told him that there are 6 UC’s with baseball (Cal does not count…I wish it did) that are recruiting right now. Each school brings in around 7-8 kids per season so you are looking at the recruiting 2011 class in the UC system of 42-48 kids! 42 kids out of the thousands playing HS baseball in California. When you start to break down the numbers like this you see that you have to chase down EVERY opportunity that comes your way. If you happen to be number 8 out of the 7 they recruit then it might make you feel good, but you won’t be attending that school.

VaRHPmom: Follow up with emails allways!!!!!

Agree 100% with BOF on this. No question, your son should send a follow up email to the coach. This will become standard operating procedure for anyone he meets along the recruiting way. It may be uncomfortable at first, but he will get the hang of it quickly.

BaseballmomandCEP - My experience is coaches like email, because they are frequently on the road. Admissions and athletic liasons like handwritten notes as you suggested.

BOF - I saw a HSBBWEB thread last year that had the math associated with high school baseball to college baseball players. I recall, for every 100 high school baseball players, 2.5 go on to play in college.

It really bothered me that I could not find that HSBBWEB thread (mentioned above) with the estimated number of high school players going on to play in college. I did find this on the NCAA website.

NCAA Estimated Probability of Competing in Athletics Beyond High School

*Approximately three in 50, or about 6.4 percent of high school senior boys interscholastic baseball players will go on to play men's baseball at a NCAA member institution.

*About nine in 100, or about 8.9 percent of NCAA senior male baseball players will get drafted by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

*Approximately one in 200, or 0.44 percent of high school senior boys playing interscholastic baseball will eventually be drafted by an MLB team.

I think this is the information you were looking for fenwaysouth.

Inside the Numbers

These numbers might be somewhat outdated, but the ratios probably still hold.

According to the table, there are 274 NCAA Division I schools.

If those schools sign an average of 9 freshman then there would be about 2,500 opportunities for graduating high school seniors to play NCAA Division I baseball each year.

So, according to the table, about 2% of high school senior baseball players will have an opportunity to play NCAA Division I baseball.

Some of those 9 spots could be filled by transfers.

The table indicates that there are 817 NCAA Division I, II, and III schools. If each school signs 9, then there are 7,353 opportunities for 114,159 high school seniors each year.

So, this table also indicates that about 6.4% of high school senior players will play NCAA baseball as well.