One Recruiting Story

There are many aspects of this story and space too short to tell all. I wanted to write to thank all who contribute here, your words of advice, sometimes directed at me, often directed toward others, have permitted me to navigate this portion of my son’s baseball life with a little dignity.

Last week my son received notice that he has been accepted at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Amherst is a top liberal arts institution and competes in a competitive DIII baseball conference (NESCAC). While conversations with the Coach had made it clear that son was going to be admitted, I am very superstitious and waited until we received the letter from admissions to let out a heartfelt WHOOP!

I write because I want to memorialize our journey.

Little Double Eagle (LDE) has been in love with sports his entire life. He was lucky to be blessed with height (6'3") and an accurate left throwing arm. He is not very muscular (165 lbs) and is not fast. He played s****r, basketball and baseball. Then basketball and baseball. Since Sophomore year in high school it has just been baseball.

I stumbled upon this site when he was a sophomore in high school. He had earned a varsity letter as a Freshman, and had been pitching against the top teams in his conference (which last year was also ranked as the top team in the country) since his Freshman year. He does not have great velocity ( he has touched 82 but he sits at 79/80) but his ball moves and he is quite consistently accurate.

The information I have found on this site has been priceless. The “recruiting timeline” and sample letters are required reading for any sports parent. The advice that it would be his grades and test scores which would most likely create more buzz about him than his fastball, helped us keep our priorities straight. It also became clear from the reading here that we should save in earnest for his college education. Unless you are one of the very blessed, very few, the family contribution to a college education is a substantial undertaking. While I asked my son to work hard in school and at developing his skills, it was important that I work hard at making a financial plan to support whatever decision was made regarding the next level of education/baseball. The advice which I cherish the most is the phrase, if son was not playing baseball, would he want to be attending this school.

Luckily LDE took the advice to heart and has excelled in the classroom. We attended a local showcase September of Junior year. As we walked from the parking lot I caught a glimpse of the look in his eye. I wondered what actors must feel like when they go on a “cattle call”. By the end of the two days we had received great advice and I believe LDE’s confidence was boosted.

Some parts of this process seemed much different for us than others who post here. No players from this high school program had ever attended showcases. LDE was criticized by some teammates for pursuing this direction. While we knew intellectually that their barbs were merely mis-placed jealousy, it was hard for a 16 Y.O. to completely block out the comments of those who he counted as friends. LDE had no interest in playing on more than one team in the summer, and enjoyed playing with his classmates on his Legion Team. The fall of Junior year he did play with one teammate on a “select” team and again I believe the experience was beneficial.

We followed the “timeline” script and sent out letters winter of Junior year. Most college trips had to be scheduled for Fall of Junior year, as Spring and Summer were far too busy with baseball. Amherst was high on the list after the New England trip, so we sent our standard letter out to Coach Thurston. We received the information sheet from most schools and promptly returned them. (One side note. Most school web sites now have that first information sheet available on line. Students may want to skip the first letter and just fill out the form on-line. That is only a surmise and if others with better information will share it I would trust their instincts better.)

I heard about the “HeadFirst” camp on this site and decided in Winter of Junior year that we would definitely go to Richmond. Another difference between my experience and what I often read about his how much prodding I needed to do to get son to engage in this process. Many posters say player did all work themselves. I tried to have him present at all times when letters and applications were sent, but it would be a lie to say I didn’t write some of these myself. I have felt guilty about this fact, but the reality is that girls, and socializing became important sometime after Sophomore year. The grades were still good and he was still committed to baseball, but setting up time to discuss this important phase of “next level” always got pushed to the bottom of the list. Sometimes I found myself “ghost writing”. At the conclusion of one of our talks he made it clear that “HeadFirst” was the only Showcase he wanted to attend. He also attended one camp of an Ivy that he was very interested in.

In the spring of Junior year he started to receive some interest via letters from programs which he had no interest in. I kept telling him what I learned here. Reply to all and be gracious, because you never know. On July 1, a Patriot League coach called. I think it meant more to me. I don’t think he realized how lucky he was to get the call, but I did see a little straightening of the shoulders when he listened to the message.

HeadFirst was a great experience. He pitched terribly the first day. I mean terrible. He did not tear up, but he was close as we walked away from the crowd.

The set up was fantastic. The access to coaches, the information sessions by coaches and inspirational speaches were tremendous. At some point he brought out his cell phone and he was typing away. I asked what he was doing. He did not want to forget the phrase the speaker had said , “Don’t let anyone shame you out of your work ethic”. Day 2 was the opposite. He settled in. His ball was moving and the one runner who reached base was picked off. The coaches took him aside to talk to him about his mechanics. His spirits were filled with helium. He approached many schools and made contact with the coaches.

Within a week he started to receive letters from top level academic instituitions. Most were DIII, so we were getting a pretty good picture as to where he would “fit” . Just before we left for Richmond we made a video and sent it to the schools he wanted to talk to at “Headfirst”. I found figuring out the terminology of DIII recruiting to be a little different than what I was seeing what was written about DI recruits. The conversation about interest existed, but since athletic money was not on the table I was trying to gauge interest without referring to NLI’s and $ amounts.

I found that all the coaches and systems my son dealt with were first class. They were interested in his academic record first, requested transcripts and test scores, during the first conversation. I could write for another year, but will end with this. I know my son is not finished with baseball yet, as this winter he would spontaneously break into a wind up as he walked past a window or mirror. His grades helped gain the attention of an excellent baseball coach and his baseball prowess helped convince an admission officer that he would be an excellent addition to the Amherst Campus. We are extremely grateful to those of you who have offered counsel.