Pay It Forward Recruiting Advice from a 2019 Mom

Thanks for sharing!

Congrats!

Great post and congratulations!

I’d add and 8th bullet:  Mom and Dad, consider the recruiting process a part time job.

Awesome post.  Thank you & Congrats!

Would love for more 2019’s to add to this! 

Congratulations Mw mom..and thank you great post!

Congrats Midwest Mom and son!   Extremely well stated.

Don't forget....the fun part is over, now the work begins! 

Great post and congratulations! 

From someone who has not been through this process before, thanks for the great post!

Midwest Mom posted:

Would love for more 2019’s to add to this! 

Would love to, but you pretty much covered it!

Huge congrats, MW Mom !!!  And great post!   

congrats!

As the parent of a 2022, I appreciate posts like this every time I read them, thank you for your insight and for pointing out those who helped along the way!

Good stuff, congrats....now the journey begins.

Having been through it twice, both LHP's.  Finding the right organization is key.  Both of my sons had great organizations, 2 different ones.  They were the catalyst in the recruiting process.  The first son's hs coach had no contacts and I was the youngest one's so that was a mute point.  The organizations did a great job of being the go between in the process.  They put them in the right situations to be seen and connected us once the coaches wanted to talk.  But WE had to do the leg work.  We wrote the emails, we sent the updates, we did the website.  If you are looking for anyone to get your kid an offer, you are putting your eggs in the wrong basket.  I say we because I disagree with the ones on here who put it all on their kids.  They are 14-15 year olds when they are recruited in today's world and they have no clue about life.  I kept mine involved but had to do much of the work because they had no idea.  If your son is not being recruited until they are juniors that might be a different situation. 

I will add don't ever burn a bridge.  My son is where he is because he built relationships with coaches who moved and were fired and it came full circle that they helped him get where he wanted to be even though they were not recruiting him anymore.

I will say the my son's experience was different in that his HS coach was seldom contacted, nor a part of his recruiting journey.

Also agree with Fenwaysouth in that the new journey is just beginning. Many (not all) of his HS and travel buddies have either quit, transferred(some up, some down), or redshirted after the 1st year. He is lucky and landed in a situation that is near perfect for him(teammates, coaches, swag), but that only will only last till a better CF candidate comes along. Continue to work on your game, AND your academics. If the baseball doesn't work out, being at the right school academically is key.

One size does not fit all when it comes to recruiting advice. You're very fortunate to have that HS coach, there aren't many of them around anymore. Still trying to figure out if our HS coach ever played baseball at any point in his life

Excellent post by Midwest Mom! I agree with the "one size does not fit all" statement above. My 2019 had a very similar experience to Midwest Mom's in that his high school coach was much more instrumental in his recruiting than his travel org. It wasn't due to his contacts, rather it was his willingness to reach out to any and all coaches. All my son had to do was ask. The HS coach told us that the HC from the college my 2019 will be attending said "sounds like a kid you want to build a program around" towards the end of their phone conversation. If that's not a testament to the dedication and belief that his HS coach had in him then I don't know what is. In contrast, I don't think my son ever met the head of his "big name" travel organization and he played with them for three summers .

Congrats and thx for sharing. Could not have said it better myself. Recruiting can be different even among siblings. Only difference for us was that travel coach was more instrumental although no programs came from it. HS coaches lasted only 1 season each. 6 coaches in 6 years. HF and Stanford  generated most interest for older so. Younger son went through 2 jucos before redshirting at a 4 year. 

Congrats again to you and your son's accomplishment

PitchingFan is right -- never burn a bridge!  The assistant coach at the school my son is going to called a former player he coached at another university to see if he knew my son because they both went to the same HS (although never at the same time).  My son had formed a relationship with that player through the years, even getting advice and a few coaching sessions.  That recommendation was as important to the assistant coach as his high school and travel coach recs were to the Head Coach because he knew him personally, trusted his judgment and he didn't have skin in the game.  It really is a small world.

Nice post, Midwest Mom. While every journey is different, you certainly highlighted many common salient themes. Son used to talk about his recruiting journey, but what surprised him most was how quickly it ends when it ends. Many highs and lows in the process, and it sounds like your son's ended well.  I hope he's attending a school close enough geographically so you can catch a few games.

57special posted:

I will say the my son's experience was different in that his HS coach was seldom contacted, nor a part of his recruiting journey.

Also agree with Fenwaysouth in that the new journey is just beginning. Many (not all) of his HS and travel buddies have either quit, transferred(some up, some down), or redshirted after the 1st year. He is lucky and landed in a situation that is near perfect for him(teammates, coaches, swag), but that only will only last till a better CF candidate comes along. Continue to work on your game, AND your academics. If the baseball doesn't work out, being at the right school academically is key.

+1 regarding my son's HS coach - not a factor in the least.  But great post Midwest Mom - I would just qualify your item 4 to say that HS coaches CAN be as or more important than travel (just depends). 

Ripken Fan posted:

Nice post, Midwest Mom. While every journey is different, you certainly highlighted many common salient themes. Son used to talk about his recruiting journey, but what surprised him most was how quickly it ends when it ends. Many highs and lows in the process, and it sounds like your son's ended well.  I hope he's attending a school close enough geographically so you can catch a few games.

Ripken, thanks again so much for your wisdom!  Yes, he'll be pretty close to home (60-90 minutes depending on that Chicago traffic!), so we'll get to see his home games!

This is a great post - thx for paying it forward.  

I also have a 2019 and will add our unique experience as hopefully helpful as well.  "Go where you're loved" and "pick a school that is a good fit if baseball was taken away" are probably the most helpful tips, especially when faced with a choice.  My 2019RHP didn't even begin this process until June of his rising senior year, was a late blooming pitcher and faced with whether to take a PWO offer at a Patriot League school that wasn't a great academic fit versus a "slot" on a competitive D3 team that offers his major of interest (and two others as potential plan B's).  He picked the D3 after a couple of weeks really pouring over his options.  This happened in October of his senior year.

I think folks have touched on this before but I would like to add how valuable the process all this was for my son and the skills he picked up along the way.  Having to craft clear and intelligent emails, talking to college coaches both in person during showcases/visits and on an actual telephone, making and editing his skills video, researching teams' rosters/schedules/records, and reading recruiting articles/blogs were all new for him and all of these experiences contributed to his growth.  This includes the mistakes he made along the way such as using texting "language/spelling" in an email (!).  He will likely want to avoid that feeling for the rest of his life which will come in handy when he's sending out emails for an actual job.  

I want to echo Midwest Mom's appreciations to the many on this forum who share their experiences and insights as I've learned so much this past year since finding HSbaseballweb.  

Congrats to you! I second what everyone else has said - you crafted a great email with lots of great information for those going through the process now. It's an emotional roller coaster to say the least with this process. But boy do WE all learn a lot! I knew nothing when I stumbled across this website. I learned a lot and if I had another one in the wings, I would know what to do better next time. Sure, we made mistakes and were late getting into the recruiting game, but we put our heads down and did what we could with the information we had been given here and let the cards play out. Since we were late in the process, I would add to others who might also be late in starting, don't give up! You can make up ground but "casting a wide net" wasn't much of an option for us once we really started looking at the timing of things. For us, we had to target those schools we really were interested in and stay on top of communication. It worked out in the end and we are anxiously looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the Fall/Spring. I send many thanks to anyone who offered advice when I asked and offered PM's as well. 

I need to thank everyone, too.  Two down, one to go.  The older two had quite different experiences. Grateful we're where we're at with them and trying to be cool about what's ahead for the third one.

I'll amplify these two points:

6. Your son’s heart (and maybe yours) may get broken, but it WILL be ok. 

Yes, it will be okay, but what's dismaying (and highly educational) is that hearts get broken in SO many different ways.  Dishonest coaches, honest but opaque coaches, coaches who change their minds, coaches who love you but admissions doesn't, poor performances in showcases or camps or tournaments when the coach from the school of your dreams is sitting behind a screen four feet from the catcher's back.

7. Most importantly, no one else’s journey is the same as your son's. 

As I wrote above both my boys had quite different experiences. While the first boy's journey was challenging, it eased off when we understood what pond to fish in.  The second boy's journey was challenging because while he was a favorite at many schools (one of which he is attending) he was not a favorite at his favorite school. Or he might have been but admissions only gave that coach 3 slots while at admissions at another, equally high quality HA D3 gives the coach 8 slots.  Which again proves that each kid's recruiting experience is unique, making this one of the most mercurial, crazy quilt, unpredictable experiences a family will ever undertake. (And just pray it doesn't end with you feeling like what you've undertaken has led you to an undertaker. Far aside: Undertaker is a great, great word and one of the reasons I love the English language.).

My thanks also to Midwest Mom, great post. We too benefitted greatly from HSBBW, both from individuals giving advice in PMs, and from the many threads on recruiting. The advice here has been so helpful to us.

Ironically, the item of yours that I agree with the most is #7, no one else’s journey is the same as your son's! My son's high school coach did not do much but the travel coaches did, he went to Headfirst only in August before senior year, he did not cast the right net early on.  We did not have a coherent plan, it was more of reacting to events as they happened.  The travel organization head was good, and contacted coaches when we asked, but he never explained how the process worked, just said things like "he needs to get his 60 time down," without explaining why or how much, and he didn't have much of a sense of HA D3; we would not have gone to Headfirst if I hadn't read about it here.  My son didn't really know what he wanted out of a school until after he had visited them (which was after he had offers).  Maybe if we had done things differently, the outcome would have been different, but there was an outcome, and along the way there were a lot of great baseball experiences. I feel that I didn't really understand the big recruiting picture until after it was done - and that was with extensive (obsessive?) reading on HSBBW and keepplayingbaseball.com.

Because both the recruiting timetable on HSBBW, and the useful one on keepplayingbaseball, are pretty vague; they say, freshman year do this, sophomore year play here, do a showcase there, contact coaches there, when your time comes it will come. But, nothing I read came out and said the very basic thing, it all starts with your measurables. If we had known that sooner, the outcome would probably have been the same, but we might have had a clearer path. 

What no-one has yet said, I think, is to enjoy it all.  My son just loves playing baseball. He loved high school, even though each season had its disappointments. He loved summer teams and the challenge of high-level opponents. He loved fall ball, which in our area was very low-key, played with high-school teammates and other kids from the surrounding area. He loved playing with a local low-level travel team, on weekends when he had no other commitments. He loves wiffle-ball on the beach with his brothers.  The recruiting part of this was a confusing and crazy ride, but the baseball part was always good!

I don't know, I'm a week out from going through this with my younger son. The last 1.5 months or so after school ball ended, until last week was so stressful, I don't know that I could have enjoyed it. I tried a few times when it looked like "we were there" but my slogan quickly became "hope for the best, plan for the worst".

I'm taking a few weeks off then will start this again with my younger son....

Great job with this post....however I will add that we had the opposite experience with the high school coach and travel coach. 

Thanks Midwest Mom for the terrific insights and the shout out.  My total reason for sticking around -- pay it forward as so many here helped us along the way too.  

Well said, and well done! Congratulations!

All of your points are spot on, but #6 resonated most with me. Properly carried out by the player with his family backing him up, it's amazing how much the player can grow and develop before your very eyes. It's one of those pursuits in which the journey can be as meaningful as fulfillment of the objective; and both are of real significance.

Another great thread, a treasure chest of recruiting info. Thank you all, it is much appreciated

Great post.  I will also just add...enjoy it.  It seems stressful and you can't wait for it to be over and just know but so many hours are spent talking about dreams, hopes, disappointments...it is all priceless.  Last summer was stressful for both my son and I and he got his heart broken but ended up with an opportunity that I truly now believe is so much better for him.  The time we spent traveling and talking and preparing for calls will always be a really special time for me.

Great post! 

Great post Midwest Mom. One thing I will add is don't make a decision based just on a coach. The coaching carousel is crazy and can be maddening at times. Last thing you want to do is get stuck at a school that you only went to because you liked a coach there. Goodluck to your son!

When I read about help from the high school coach I knew someone would disagree. The ideal situation is a travel program loaded with contacts who has placed players and can presell your son. But not all travel programs are created equal. Some players chose the wrong travel team. Some players don’t play on travel teams.  

My son’s travel team did the preselling. My son sold with his talent. His high school coach closed selling his work ethic, character and leadership. A high school coach knows far more about a kid off the game field than a travel coach. His pitching coach offered to help if he changed his mind about being a position player. 

For the sake of argument wouldn’t everyone agree the player needs an advocate whether it’s a travel coach, high school coach or private instructor? The advocate needs to have contacts and know how to talk and promote their players with college coaches. I do not consider recruiting services advocates.

Thank you for this. My kiddo is a 2025 and I have zero clue what to do! This is a huge help! Very grateful for this forum! 

NY posted:

Thank you for this. My kiddo is a 2025 and I have zero clue what to do! This is a huge help! Very grateful for this forum! 

Unless your son is the second coming of Bryce Harper you can relax for a few years. If he is the second coming of Bryce Harper you can sit back and say, “talk to me.”