Not Sure What To Make of....

What you are receiving is very common recruiting stuff. It means the colleges have your son on their list of prospects, but it doesn't mean much about where he stands.

That will only become clear as the year progresses. There are things you can do to move things along (some of which you may have already done.) Did your son send out letters and bio information to these schools? Is that how he got on their radar?

If you havent done this, it is a very good first step. And he will then get that same kind of info from most every school he contacts.

Then he can start an email correspondence with the coaches of those schools. That is a good way to feel them out, figure out if they are looking to recruit at his position in 2010.

Most schools have prospect camps over Christmas break, another good way to get an up close look at the coaching staff and a program.

Bottom line, the stuff you are receiving is not particularly meaningful in and of itself as an expression of their interest or lack thereof.

If they write something personal in the letter (or include a hand-written note on the form letter, that is of course a more solid expression of interest.

You will spend the next nine months trying to figure out who has legitimate interest. If a program already knows a lot about him and definitely wants him, that will probably be made clear pretty soon. They will ask him to visit unofficially.

If he's like the vast majority - a player they need to see more to be able to make a judgment, you'll be trying to read tea leaves until July 1.

Good luck. It can be nerve wracking, but it can be a very interesting and exciting process.

I'm in a similar spot with my 2010 grad. We did one camp over the summer and he also did a summer tryout for a tournament team and has just joined a fall scout team. These three things are the start of his efforts to get noticed. I have tried to keep him playing for his love of the game and for his team, but he has been advised by several adults that are veterans to this recruiting process to do these things to get his name out there. After reading this board, it sounds like he was getting good advice.

My son was not an early bloomer, so he is just reaching a noticable size at the age of 16 and he still has some filling out to do. He attended the Stanford Camp (he has real good grades) at the younger age and was surprised how well he measured up to the others. There were big bashers, great fielders, good contact hitters, and great pitchers, but very few all around players like he is. He could be an OF, an IF, or a pitcher. So overall, I thought he looked average at the camp, but that he could develop to a standout in the next year. His camp coach rated him a 4 which said he could play at a 4-year college if his development continues.

This camp sparked a large number of invites to other camps, that we have turned down due to cost and lack of free time. In September, he recieved four or five of those questionairre mailings that I think were generated from the Stanford Camp. Stanford is sending him stuff about keeping up in school and such. The fall league has sparked two more colleges to send the questionairres. He also wrote a letter of interest to his top 5 schools and signed up on the NCAA eligibility site.

My take on what is happening is that these colleges see a kid with really good grades that is a good not great player. They are keeping him on their radar in hopes that he develops into something more. I'm guessing they send hundreds of these out, but if we hadn't taken the initiative to get noticed, I doubt we would even be getting these.

Kremer--

We did not initiate any contact with the schools we have received letters from. I believe he got on their "radar" of a few of these schools this summer. He played up with one of our summer teams this summer in Nebraska and also was at the Jr. Olympics in Arizona with his own age team, 16U. We played in WWBA in Marietta this summer also. Several of our coaches have contacts with some of the schools that we received letters from. He also attended another PG showcase in August and scored well(9) and made the Top Prospect Team. At this point not sure if we need to attend some camps of the schools he is actually interested to get on "their" radar. This could possibly only bring solicitations for more camps. He has not sent out letters but has responded to the letters and questionnaires he has received so far. I also know that schools are probably finishing up their recruiting of the '09's and just beginning the recruiting of the '10's so maybe more information will come. This recruiting thing is exciting but also very confusing.

When you attend a camp, tounament and other BB events you get on the radar of the colleges. You are on a mail out list and are tagged as a player who is preparing to go to college and also one who will spend money to attend camps. You hear constantly on this site that college BB is a business and that is as true as it gets.
Those mail outs are geared to getting you to attend camps. They send out thousands of them to players that they get from lists provided by the events you attended. Don't read too much into them. We were still getting them a year after my son attended college. The programs like "Blue Chip" and many colleges need the revenue to offset their operating costs.

My son received a ton of these one page flyers from a big D1 program all the way to July, then they stopped after they recruited a more qualified student elsewhere. One of the reasons is my son NEVER made any attempt to contact this school. We went to one of their camps, but I think they figured out son was just there because of dad sending him.

I would advise him to contact them, ask questions, etc. This would apply only if this is a school he wants to attend. Per NCAA rules, your son can contact the school as much as he wants, school then can reply. Until July 1st of 2009 they cannot contact your son, just send info.

Chipper - with a 9 from PG and with the exposure your son has had so far, I would expect that he will get a good deal of interest from D1's.

You are right, they are just now transitioning into the '10's. Your son is obviously a legit prospect, so this would be a good time to reach out to those schools he would want to play for and tell them he's interested. Start a dialogue with the coaches. They DO need to know that he wants to play for them.

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Kremer:
Chipper - with a 9 from PG and with the exposure your son has had so far, I would expect that he will get a good deal of interest from D1's.

You are right, they are just now transitioning into the '10's. Your son is obviously a legit prospect, so this would be a good time to reach out to those schools he would want to play for and tell them he's interested. Start a dialogue with the coaches. They DO need to know that he wants to play for them.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful advice. We have learned so much about the recruiting process from this message board.