Our Experience - Answering Camp Emails

I do agree that you can turn it into a conversation as you have done.  I think thats good advice.

 

But I want to offer an opinion and that is that I don't think its necessarily the best thing to communicate in this manner with EVERY program who sends a camp notification.  Others will disagree.

 

But IMO, your sample letter might signal that 'if you have it, son will attend.'

 

What happens if you can't?  Or its not a school of interest?  Or you get 15 personal letters that invite you to their $200-$400 camps each?  And you don't go?  Then what?

 

In other words, I do think that its good to filter - don't waste your time, nor a coaches time dialoguing about camps if your son has no interest in that school.  Maybe I'm the oddball here, but our sons would not have gone to any college just in order to get to play college baseball somewhere.  I understand (and respect) that others may feel differently.

 

Lastly, you're going to feel nit-picked (so I'm sorry about that if you do), but something kinda didn't feel quite right about your son (or you) predicting his future velocity in the letter.  You don't know, nor does he.  Let the coach make his own predictions.  Its just not necessary IMO.

 

 

...From previous comments on this site, our 2017 has responded to every invite he gets (except those through captain u, though we do not pay for that, we can still see when a coach messages him about a camp invite).  For every school!  Even the ones he has ZERO interest in, because we read here that not only is it good manners but also it is a small, small, small baseball world and not only do coaches move around, but you never know who they are friends with or know.  So our 2017 answers them all...

So I think you may(?) be misinterpreting this comment by us grumpy old men (and women) on this site.  At least my interpretation of it is that we advise, 'don't be rude, you just never know.'  I don't really think it means, 'answer any and everything no matter what.'

 

But I guess I don't know what everyone means with this comment?

 

BTW, I love your screen name cause we have 'twoboys' who played D1 ball themselves (but full disclosure - we really have 4 boys ).

 

Having gone through the recruiting process once already, our 2011 son from CA got his first personal sounding letter from a smaller D1 private school in the SE soon after he attended a 16U JO event in Phoenix as a HS sophomore.  It was a school he never would have attended.  Not a good fit geographically, culturally, academically nor financially.

 

But I had a viewpoint very similar to yours (above) and so I told his HS coach, 'Hey, the boy got a recruiting letter from <SE private school> U. and so we're gonna fill out the questionnaire and send it back.'  His HS coach, who has sent many, many players to D1, D2, D3 and pro baseball said (essentially), 'Why?  Do you believe the Christmas card you get from the White House is real too?  Is this a school your son would ever attend?'

 

Of course, the answer was no.  In fact, it was, as you say "ZERO interest in."  So we didn't respond.

 

About a week later, a parent from Florida on this site announced with a new thread that they started with a 'Wahoo!!  Our son got an amazing letter from <same school> U. and now I know he's getting recruited!!!!'

 

Now since that person doesn't post here anymore, I can tell you from knowing a bit about her through this site that not only did her son have "ZERO interest in" <same school> U., but it was then more clear than ever that it was just a mass mailing to everyone who had attended certain events.

 

And so coming full circle, I do not think you will offend anyone by not responding to a camp invite...even a recruiting letter...from a school you have "ZERO interest in" with a coach that may move to a school that you have 'FULL interest in.'  Coaches aren't stupid human beings, they get it just like you and me.  They will not pass on your son because he didn't respond to a mass mailing camp invite to their old school if your son is talented enough to help them at their new school.  I have actually talked to college coaches (now friends) about exactly this issue.  It just doesn't work that way.

 

Post Note: I see the post I was addressing in this post was taken down later in the day. Not sure why?

Do you know if you are corresponding with an actual coach or some assistant volunteer who was delegated the authority to correspond, in an attempt to pack the camps?

After awhile, we adopted the strategy of responding to camp invites in the following way.   If it was a school that the son had no possible interest in we just trashed it.    If it was a school that the son had an interest in, we would write back, asking, more or less directly,  if there was honest interest in the kid or not.  We would explain that money and time were limited and that camp invites were many and  we were only interested in attending camps where there was a genuine interest.  A fair number of coaches did not respond at all.  A smaller number  responded by admitted they had never seen the kid play and knew nothing about the kid. The smallest number of all did actually have some degree of interest from having seen the kid somewhere.    A few of these even  led to camp attendance.   

This thread has been helpful.

Thanks

Thanks justbaseball for the reply.  I took my post down because I was too lazy to edit it, and I did not want everyone to think our 2017 was responding to absolutely everything.  We are on just about every list that must be handed out as he gets a LOT of baseball related emails.  It is easy, especially since it is past Sept 1 now, to tell the difference between a mass mailing and a more targeted email.  Even the seemingly more personal, targeted ones may be sent to thousands (he gets several weekly newsletters from different schools for example), The standard rule in our house -- and your mileage may vary!! -- is when an adult emails you, have the common courtesy to answer them back.

 

It does not take but a minute to say, "Coach X, thank you for the email.  I will not be able to attend."  This is not so much about the lack of interest in the school or the hope that the coach may move to a school he likes or be BFFs with a coach of a school he does like.  We know that this kind of stuff won't get him an offer.  And we know it won't "ruin" his chances anywhere for not responding to a camp invite or mass email about their program.  But it is the way the adult world works, you should respond to people when they email you.  Maybe we are old fashioned but that's how we think. 

\Of course, given our proximity to DC, when we (in the past, not the current guy) received a Christmas card from the VP (ok not the white house, but still), it was REAL! It was of course just like a mass prospect camp invite, but it was still nice to get.

 

So things he is "allowed" to not respond to (apologies for the double negative poor writing there):  Captain U messages (not signed up, never been to a tournament with them and yet he gets messages from coaches through that system); invites that end up in his spam or promotions folders from schools we have never heard of or are not remotely of any interest; emails where they get his name wrong (one California school sends him emails addressed to someone else, and he isn't interested in that school anyway); and anytime he gets additional pleas from the same school/coaches.  For example, he will receive 4-5 invites for the same camp, no reason to say more than once he isn't going.  There are probably other emails that he doesn't respond to because it is HIS email account, and we don't have access.  The whole "response" thing was predicated on courtesy and learning to answer emails promptly.  It is a good life skill after all, despite the fact it won't help/hurt/affect his baseball career (or lack thereof).

 

There is a lot of wisdom on this board that we are immensely grateful for, including reminders like not to burn bridges, keep options open, you never know, etc etc etc. These reminders help focus our energy on the schools that matter to him, the ones where he wants to go/wants to play there if he can, and not "waste" too much time on those not even on the long list.   

  

Funny thing.... my older two received tons of camp invites 3-4 a day it seemed...... 2018 gets nothing.... I think he has received one.

This is a great post, joe. 

 

I'm guessing the camp coordinator gets your son's email and forwards it to the RC. 

We respond back to the coach sending the email.  If it is not the RC then we then copy him on the email as well.