My son's college baseball recruiting journey is complete. It’s been a wild ride. But like most things in life, you live and you learn. Some of you will have an easy process – your son is top D1 talent, everyone wants him and he gets his #1 school. I wish that for everyone! But if not, hopefully a little of what our family has learned will help at least one or two of you who are in the thick of it now. I've kept notes and wanted to "Pay It Forward" for those who will follow -- here's our Top 7:
1. Those who say “Cast A Wide Net” are 100% right. This is the very best advice I got from HSBBW. We started with a list of 15 his Freshman year. He expanded it to many, many more, then narrowed it based on his academic and baseball goals, as well as school fit. Trust me that there are A LOT of schools in every geography, every division and every size school, with every type of major your son is interested in and with great coaches. Start with a big list. Then expand it. And expand it some more. Then work it. It will contract naturally based on those who don’t want your son and schools that your son won’t like once he knows more.
2. That said, your son (not you) should set goals for what he wants out of the process. We got “sidetracked” a few times with schools that were interested in him but weren’t a match academically or a “fit” from a coaching, size, geographic or “personality” perspective. Ultimately having that criteria for decision making is really important because it helps him stay focused on what he wants during a process that is very often confusing, frustrating, unclear and at times, desperate. Those criteria will help him (and you) feel good about his ultimate choice.
3. Treat this like a two-year job interview process with multiple potential employers. That means your son should consider:
a) Building his baseball and academic resume (attend one or two PG and/or PBR events so he gets a profile out there and/or create a baseball resume with the same kinds of stats to send out)
b) Defining his baseball and academic goals are and being able to articulate them – coaches will ask
c) Being proactive and disciplined in communicating effectively with coaches and following up
d) Learning who “owns” recruiting at each school (the Head Coach or the Recruiting Coordinator or both?) and ensure he’s talking to the decision maker(s), ideally both
e) Learning how to have a tough conversation – anticipate questions like: “Why are you considering SCHOOL?” “You might be what we’re looking for, but we’re not sure.” “Tell us what you’ve learned and what adjustments you’ve made this season.”
f) Having a Plan B if/when Plan A doesn’t work out
4. High School Coaches are more important in the process than travel coaches. I know some travel programs are amazing and if yours is, that’s excellent! But ours made promises they never kept, and this seems to be a recurring theme on HSBBW. His High School Coach was amazing. And every single college coach who had true interest in my son called the HS coach – not all of them called the travel coach.
5. For high academic kids, get to Head First and Show Ball the summer before junior year and the June of the summer before senior year if he isn’t committed and if you can afford it. My son got on the radar of many coaches before junior year and was communicating with them all throughout the junior season. Please don’t wait until July/August showcases before senior year – it’s often too late for D1s, including the Ivies, unless your son is amazingly impressive and knocks their socks off. It’s not too late for the high academic D3s, but even of the D3s who really loved my son, most of them saw him before junior year and kept in touch with him throughout junior season.
6. Your son’s heart (and maybe yours) may get broken, but it WILL be ok. My son learned a lot about rejection through this process, but what he learned about most was character. He became an adult through this process – he learned a lot about the type of person he is and who he wants to be, and I’ve never been more proud of him.
7. Most importantly, no one else’s journey is the same as your son's. While others have had similar journeys, no one had exactly the same journey – no one’s son played my son’s position, with my son’s stats and talent level, from my son’s school, with my son’s ACT score and grades, and was communicating with the same exact schools that my son did at the same time in the process. Always remember that the process is two-sided, meaning that the schools are seeing other kids with their own circumstances at the same time they’re evaluating and talking to your son. Every kid, school, coach and year is different. You don’t control their side of the process, only yours. And ultimately it’s his decision so he has to own the process.
Finally, I want to give a shout out to all of you – TPM, CabbageDad, TwoBoys, 9and7, BucsFan, RipkenFan, IowaMom, and especially Gov. I learned so much from all of you during the past few years, whether from a post/comment, a private message or a phone call. People here are willing to take time out of busy schedules to make connections and help each other out. I’ve appreciated all that you’ve done for our family. Thank you.
Midwest Mom, aka Melissa
