Notre Dame 2021

Take the ACT sophomore year.  Go to a low cost showcase to get documented numbers on velocity, exit velocity, 60 yd or whatever you can get.  There are numbers that will get their attention now.  Go to ND camps.  Take some video, send it to ND coaches.  Find a travel team that has placed a kid in ND in the past.

You can search the threads on video's and just about any other thing you can think of.

Keep working!

If you go to their camp (send an email before with stats and video) you will know pretty quickly if you are the kind of athlete they are going to recruit.

You can go back through rosters and look at current commitments to get an idea of the caliber of player they are taking.  PG will give you some measurables for these guys.  While there appear to be no 2021 commitments, there are a handful of 2020 and looks like 2019 is basically done.  This should also give you some idea as to their recruiting timeline in that they may do some preliminary scouting of 2021 this summer and probably make most of their decisions by the end of 2019.

12WhiteSox12,

I'm digging your passion.  Keep up the hard work in the classroom and on the baseball field...good things will happen.   Follow through with introductions to coaches, attend camps, but most of all you've got to understand how the numbers don't work in your favor.   Getting recruited to play college baseball is a tough road.   You've specifically focused on one program that may recruit anywhere from 6-12 recruits a year after seeing many, many thousands of potential recruits at showcases and camps.   The odds aren't good that one program will respond to your wishes.   My suggestion would be to continue to follow that passion for Notre Dame but also include many schools like Notre Dame that fit your goals.   I can't tell you how many times my oldest son thought he found the perfect school with the perfect situation only to find out the school was not interested...and he had excellent SATs and was an accomplished pitcher.    It is a tough pill to swallow, but at the same time it can re-focus you on your goals.

I've been on this site a while, and I've seen how this recruiting process works with my own sons and other posters.  You can't get hung up on one school, but it is okay to keep it as a goal.   If you were my son, I would strongly encourage you to pursue ND with everything you've got but at the same time pursue others like ND just the same.   As you will learn this is about them recruiting you, not the other way around.   Good luck!

As always, JMO

As a Notre Dame grad, I love that you're passionate about the Fighting Irish!

I agree completely with Fenway. 

Cast a wide net, based upon the schools in which you are both an academic fit and a baseball fit.  Ultimately that list of schools may include Notre Dame.  If so, that would be awesome!  Now they would need to love you in return and have a spot for you.

It's also possible your list ultimately doesn't include Notre Dame or similar schools because your preferences change...or you may not be an athletic or academic fit.  That's ok too.  There are so many great colleges out there.

Go Irish!  (And let's beat Michigan tonight in the Frozen Four!!!)

Thank you for all of your great answers. I am planning on focusing most of my attention from late June on until the next baseball season on learning as much about recruiting as I can and getting bigger, stronger, and faster in the weight room. Would it be smart to do this and introduce myself with an email to Coach Aoki at Notre Dame a couple of months before I attend a prospect camp next year, or should I send him an introductory email this summer? As mentioned before, I wasn't able to try out for any big travel teams in my area, so the team I am on now is kind of a last minute thing. We are only attending one PG tournament and it is the Super 25 Super-qualifier. I was planning on attending the ND camp and other various camps/showcases the summer of my sophomore year. Is this too late? I also know how hard it will be. I am ready for that. I am willing to do whatever it takes to earn a spot at ND. However, if all doesn't work out in my favor, I am a fan of many Big Ten schools' programs and some mid-major schools like NIU or UIC. My ultimate goal is to play baseball for as long as possible and I would be forever indebted to any college willing to give me a chance to play at the next level.

Have you thought about changing your name to Rudy and living in the fieldhouse ?

Most 2021 grads are in the same boat as you. They aren’t already national class talent with national exposure. And most will never be...that’s ok. 

At this stage for most players enjoying HS should be a priority.

If you want to play at the next level, there’s a lot you can do. Get bigger, faster, stronger.  Develop your baseball skills and IQ with individual training and with team competition. Work on your standardized test scores, take a strong curriculum, get good grades. Eat and sleep right. Be responsible on social media.  

In 15 months (rising Junior Summer 2019) you should be in a much stronger position to be assessed.  What is your projected college fit, academically and athletically?  It’s not a done deal at this stage of course. But getting 3rd party assessment of where you fit helps you build an initial list of targeted colleges. 

You may be ready at that point to showcase. Maybe you won’t be and you need more academic or baseball development. If that’s the case then maybe you start in the Fall or Winter of junior year or even not until rising Senior Summer 2020. 

All along your list of targeted schools may change and be refined; always to be focused on where you fit. 

When, where, how you engage the schools on your list...there’s lots of ways. Search this site and review the recruiting timeline. Generally at D1 you’d engage the recruiting coordinator primarily. At D3, typically the Head Coach. 

There’s no rush for you with ND. Get better first in baseball and academics. 

Go Irish!

My advice is to forget about the bush leagues and go Jesuit!!  Fordham, SLU, Xavier, the possibilities are endless 

That’s an outrage!  This young man wants to go to the premier Catholic university. You can get that Jesuit junior college stuff anywhere. 

Son is up there now for series with ND and the weather is cold. Game postponed today and sketchy rest of weekend. Education and network are huge, but why try to play baseball up there until June ? 

Weather stinks for Spring sports.  No question.  This isn't South Carolina.  And that's why my boys play in the South.  I understand that some kids don't care about the weather, but mine do so they went where 50 and cloudy is a bad game day.

Separately, for those who want fans'/alums' perspectives on Notre Dame baseball, the www.ndnation.com message board "Jake's Field" is where the faithful unload.

Sounds like you have great motivation - keep it up!

I would not suggest taking the ACT exam until you are a Junior, nor would I suggest doing a PG event until you have something to "show." If you haven't learned the material then your test grade will suffer. If you don't know how fast you are, what your exit velocity is, or your 60 time, then a PG event is a waste of money. Not to mention that the ACT grade and the PG score/metrics will stay in the system until you improve them. 

Better to find a baseball facility, ask them for an eval, and get some idea of your "metrics." Once you have a baseline for where you are today, you can plan on improving the metrics over the next 1-2 years. As others have said, you have plenty of time to develop. 

Once again, thank all of you guys for the words of encouragement and wisdom. Reading your replies is definitely taking a lot of unneeded stress off of me. I researched the past and future ND recruiting classes and they attended their first showcase towards their sophomore and junior years. I don't think I am ready now but I believe I will be then. I knew someone who commited to an ACC D1 this year and it really was a reality check for me. I worried that if I didn't get on colleges' radars soon, I would have no chance of playing college baseball let alone at a Power 5 college. 

adbono posted:

Have you thought about changing your name to Rudy and living in the fieldhouse ?

Forget Rudy..be Reggie Ho!

Branson Baseball posted:

That’s an outrage!  This young man wants to go to the premier Catholic university. You can get that Jesuit junior college stuff anywhere. 

AMDG 

Latin?!?!

Love the Reggie Ho reference!

12WhiteSox12,

You have some time. Definitely take the pressure off yourself. And keep working steadily towards your goals...no pressure, just slow and steady. And have fun!

Go Irish Hockey!  Let’s win the NC tonight. 

12whitesox12 posted:

Thank you for all of your great answers. I am planning on focusing most of my attention from late June on until the next baseball season on learning as much about recruiting as I can and getting bigger, stronger, and faster in the weight room. Would it be smart to do this and introduce myself with an email to Coach Aoki at Notre Dame a couple of months before I attend a prospect camp next year, or should I send him an introductory email this summer? As mentioned before, I wasn't able to try out for any big travel teams in my area, so the team I am on now is kind of a last minute thing. We are only attending one PG tournament and it is the Super 25 Super-qualifier. I was planning on attending the ND camp and other various camps/showcases the summer of my sophomore year. Is this too late? I also know how hard it will be. I am ready for that. I am willing to do whatever it takes to earn a spot at ND. However, if all doesn't work out in my favor, I am a fan of many Big Ten schools' programs and some mid-major schools like NIU or UIC. My ultimate goal is to play baseball for as long as possible and I would be forever indebted to any college willing to give me a chance to play at the next level.

You can send an email to Coach.  But all you will get is a letter explaining when they can contact you and a camp invite, which It seems you are planning to attend.

Coaches are looking for players who can contribute and stay eligible. It is early in the process, keep working hard in the classroom, in the gym and on the field.

Maybe in a few years you can help them, they switched conferences for football and the baseball team is pretty meh, IMO.

And as Branson Baseball has said, have fun!

ND's co-recruiting coordinators usually attend the Area Code tryouts and the PBR Futures Games (which happens to be in Indiana), so try to get an invite to each with the requisite contact beforehand. You may want to reach out to them (Coaches Ristano and Woods) before (or together with) Coach Aoki.  However, my son, wife and I have found them all to be super guys.  We really like them. 

Yes thats a very big recruiting event in Indiana. However, its way too early fo the OP who needs to make a plan when he is ready to show his stuff.

I think your in Chicago, If you PM me I can give you some advice on area travel teams and the recruiting process in this area.