New to recruiting

I'm a little cynical but perhaps it means they'd like to drum up some business for their camps?  

I have a 2016 soon to be grad.  After he went to his first showcase he got emails nonstop for other camps and showcases.  And after we've contact college coaches directly, they almost always suggest that he attend that school's camp.   

This is pretty typical as schools use their camps as revenue generators. I would not go unless there has been direct conversations with the recruiting coach and they want to see him prior to making an offer. 

Good luck you have come to the right place for answers. 

Echoing Others:

Buyer Beware!

First time we got one of those camp invitations after a showcase,  we were excited.  It seemed so encouraging.  But then I actually wrote to the coach who sent it.  He said that while he had seen my son at the showcase and liked a lot of what he saw, they were not actively recruiting him at that time.  He was frank enough to say why -- the kid was  too physically underdeveloped for them.  (he weighed a whopping 125 lbs at the time.)  

But he  also said that he looked forward to seeing him at their camp in the future, since he expected him to develop physically by the time he entered college.  

Eventually, because this school was actually a school in which my son had some interest and thought might be a fit academically,   he went to a camp there.  He actually performed quite well at the camp -- so much so that they contacted his then HS head coach and came to watch him play during the summer.  

Unfortunately, the kid had his worst performance of the summer when they were there.  But they did seem him again at a multi-school event at which he performed much better.  That was late in the recruiting season, but it did seem to get him back on their radar a bit.   Eventually, though, they went in another direction and so did he. 

Long and short.  Coaches send  out these kinds of follow up letters to lots of players, almost in blanket fashion.   Doesn't necessarily mean there is any particular interest in your player.  Sometime if you press them, they will come clean about that.  Sometimes they will be evasive.  Since one gets so many of these things, we generally ignored them, but if they represented a genuine possibility, we pressed the question with the coach of whether there was particular interest in my son.   Mostly the answer was no or evasive and we just moved on. 

On the other hand, if it's a school you are interested in, getting in front of them at their own camp can sometimes be a good thing.   Not always.  But sometimes. Actually I would say rarely.  I say that because it's  pretty hard to stand out even at these school specific camps.   Usually there are man,  many more good players present than they have spots for.   Plus usually completely independently of their camps, there are prospects on their board that they have been following.  And they aren't really all that interested in what gets thrown over the transom, as it were. 

That's not to deny that may hope to find a player or two through their camps.  That's partly so that they can say in their marketing materials  "Every year, we sign players from our camp."   I mean if they couldn't say that, how could they market these things as being in the player's interest at all? So it's not like they are opposed to finder players though these camps.   (Plus, in fairness to them,   some of the schools may not have tremendous recruiting budgets, so anyway that they can see more players is a plus.)

What they don't tell you is that the number of players the recruit via these camps is probably easily dwarfed by the number of players the recruit in other ways.

Agreed.  BUT my son was there with a bunch of his teammates that didn't recieve anything from that school? does that make a difference, and the coach left his cell number in the email.

Is it still BS? My son also goes to a HS with three D1 SIGNED MIF between this year and last. Plus the team that won the colleges conference this year has several players from our county on it.... 

Time for your son to follow up with the coach and find out.   

Completely agree: he should send his schedule, even setup a visit. Gauge the interest level, and if it's there, then you may want to consider the camp.

As usual, qualify the buyer.

We handled it this way:

Son emailed the coach back with a thank you for the camp invite but that it just wouldn't work with his summer schedule.  (or fall or whatever).  Then he attached his baseball bio and schedule for the summer  (these are kept in a work doc so easily copied and pasted).

Try to start an e-dialog with all that contact you.  You never know.  At least a thank you, no thank you,  to those that you have no interest in.  

Plus, college coaches know each other.  If the coach winds up that he can't use another MIF, he may know a college coach that does need one!  (I speak from experience on this).

fwiw -we never attended a camp by email invite.  Son went to one of his own choosing, sophomore year before the hs season started, to see what it was all about.

As usual, there's a lot of good, practical, "street sense" here.

I'm underscoring the part about coaches knowing one another and passing along pertinent knowledge and impressions about players to one another. There are many long-standing friendships among them, and the large majority have been around long enough to recognize not only that they don't have enough spots for all the deserving players they see on their own teams; but that a well-placed recommendation often leads to the receipt of a valuable return recommendation down the road.

Because of this, it's not always just the schools whose gear occupies the space behind home plate present at a showcase or tournament.

Welcome to the website, and congratulations to your son! Best of luck to him!

I think playing on a reputable travel team that plays on college fields in the summer and/or fall is a good way to find out if anyone is interested in you. If you play well and have talent, the word will travel.

Going to camps at colleges that you want to attend so you can meet that coach and see that campus in person, talk with current players, all of this is important. Pictures can make a not so good facility look way better than what it really is.

If you have true talent and good grades/SAT & ACT then see if your HS coach will call/email the college coach and see if there is any interest from them.

Bottom line is you have to have decent talent and decent grades to get to the next level. One has to compliment the other or probably no deal. College baseball is a business, the coaches are doing everything they can to get the best possible players/students to increase wins and keep good players on board, period.

Look at the college rosters and see how many people they will need at your position the year you will arrive there and the size and weight of those current players is a good indication (if they match your size and weight) where are they from, all over the place or just a few states/cities. These are just indicators, exceptions to every rule.

Good luck !