Parents and Recruiting

motivation and organization to help your child choose a school and program that will be the best match for him.

This is a very good question and will get different answers but what baseballtoday say pretty much sums it up in my opinion. There are those that say get involved and some say back off and let the son make that decision on their own. I personally think the parent should be involved. When my son was being recruited I would organize recruiting mail and evaluate offers and analyze rosters trying to determine fit. There will be a lot of issues to discuss and weigh on the part of the student/athlete. I also think the parent(s) should accompany their son on the campus visits. Most students have concerns that differ from the parents. Students will ask about the male-female ratio and whether the team wears fitted hats while the parents will ask questions like how much is the tuition and should he sign a 9 month or a 12 month lease on his apartment. I’m not suggesting the parent select the school or the program but do help them (and yourself) in the selection process. You also need to locate the closest ATM machine because that will be your direct link to your son during his college years.
Fungo.

quote:

Originally posted by Fungo:
You also need to locate the closest ATM machine because that will be your direct link to your son during his college years.
Fungo.

LOL

Truer words never spoken.

Fungo,
we followed your advice to a T. Helped with organization, did a lot or research, spoke with him about all the possibilities, accompanied him on his visits. Stayed very positive and when he said, "this is it" hit him with a barrage of questions, all of which he answered and said, "it's over"..

quote:

You also need to locate the closest ATM machine because that will be your direct link to your son during his college years.

Truer words never spoken!

Well, after a couple of years in college my son ended up "back in the market" after electing to tranfer. I've been the one to make phone calls, coordinate information, make sure paperwork is transmitted, etc. etc. etc. In a sense I've been his agent (unfortunately without the accompanying commission). I saw my role a being a facilitator in getting his name back out there. His mother and I also tried to look beyond the criteria that my son would initially use in evaluating college choices.

At that point, though, it was his decision. We did give him some preferences due to financial realities, but told him we would do our best to help him attend the school of his choice.

I know he could have handled this stuff on his own. However, being able to help in this process was something any of us, as parents, would want to do. If he'd said to "back off "I'd have done so.

Now, I'm sure some coaches have preferences as to how much involvement they want from the parents. Ultimately we parents are not the ones "going to work" for the coach. We're not the ones that move to a new "home", go to class, etc. However, as long as we're providing financial support we should have some input into the process.

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Originally posted by Bizazz:
Now, I'm sure some coaches have preferences as to how much involvement they want from the parents. Ultimately we parents are not the ones "going to work" for the coach. We're not the ones that move to a new "home", go to class, etc. However, as long as we're providing financial support we should have some input into the process.

I know in our situation, I had 2 different coaches suggest that they'd prefer to hear from my daughter. But I agree with what Bizazz says; unless they're giving the student/athlete a full ride, I'm probably the one paying and should be involved somewhat.

I am like Bizazz. I acted like my son's agent. There were lots of things he could have done between work, playing ball and working out but there was lots he couldn't do.
Coaches were very receptive and often hard to reach. I was persistent and in a position to phone,email and send out DVDs.
My son and I chose colleges he was interested in and I did the rest. That in itself was a lot of work. He went over 100s of colleges and researched them. To me this is what great business people do. They deligate jobs to the experts and do what they do best. In our business if you make $100 and hour don't get caught up doing $8 an hour tasks.
I enjoyed every minute of the process and would do it over again with some minor changes. I found this site after the process was over and would have posted some questions that could have helped.

A couple of things a parent can do to help in the recruiting process is to align your expertise with your son's expertise and form a team. My son has a great work ethic for baseball and studies. He works out six days a week and plays baseball four days a week. It is summer now and he's at residential baseball camps for three out of the next four weeks. He can physically and mentally do all this. But he cannot use Microsoft Word to save his life!! I put his documents together, print his envelops, word process his letters that he dictates, organize his files of communcations from colleges. He allows me to open his recruiting mail and file it after he's seen it. I make his calendar for him. I enjoy organizational stuff like this. It is hard for him to sit down at a computer and look at college websites. I find college websites and look for specific things that he asks and then send him the links. When he gets his first call after July 1, he's on his own though. My husband has helped him come up with discussion points for phone calls should there be a lull in the convesation. But we can't be his puppeteers.I've done his scut work but the real task will be for him to ask his questions and show these people who he is. If doing some of the small details for my son has helped him free his head up for more important stuff then I've done my job as a mom.Others may argue that my son would have benefited from doing absolutely everything on his own. I have no doubt he could have done it...but it would have detracted from his real job which is school right now.