Please share your "first contact to college coach" story

The first contact vie phone or email was emailing target programs. He expressed interest in the baseball program and the school's academics. He asked what showcases and camps he could attend to gain exposure to them. He said he would forward his schedule as soon as it was available. 

 

He received responses from many of them. They listed the showcases they would be attending. He got on their mailing list. He received camp invites (be careful camp invites are prospect and not instructional). He was invited to visit the campus and the program.

Two stories to share......

 

Oldest son's first college contact was at a showcase with ballfields shared by both a D1 and a high academic D3.   His travel coach introduced my son (then a sophomore) to the coaches, but my son had no clue what to say (he's a man of few words) so he didn't say anything at all.  He was pretty nervous.  To the college coaches credit, they both stay in touch with him via email and phone and recruited him until he made his college decision two years later.

 

Fast forward a couple years later....son is now a college sophomore warming up in the bullpen for the first game of the League championship series (two out of three).   Winner takes home the big trophy and a trip to NCAA regionals   Son continues to warm up in the bullpen for the big game....a guy (with the opposing team's cap) is standing behind son's catcher watching every pitch....after a while my son is incredibly annoyed.  He motions to the guy with his mitt and says "f**king scram".  He says it a few times more, and the guys leaves.  Son pitches well, gets the "W" and team wins the series.  Come to find out later, the guy is an MLB GM and the father of one of the opposing players.  Nicely done!

 

Lesson to be learned.....In the course of a few years my oldest son went from a "mute" to someone who wasn't at a loss for words.

With baseball guys you never know for sure... the GM might have actually liked his style. LOL

Exactly how my son started....October of his junior year.  He attended a multi-school showcase in early December and got his first real contact the day before Christmas.  Email from D1 rec coordinator asking him to call.  He called a couple days after Christmas.  Good conversation...kept in contact and actually went to a game in the Spring.  Really no more "real" contact with anyone until after the summer season started. He played on a good team with a lot of exposure.  The school he eventually committed to made their first contact of any kind with him with a phone call on July 1st. They watched him play the next 3 weekends and he committed before July was over.  It seemed like it was overnight...but he ended up in a good program...with a real chance of seeing some early playing time....so hopefully it all works out. 

 

I will say this (and it cost my son an offer at a nice program).  You NEVER know who is watching...so play EVERY PLAY of EVERY GAME like your college career depends on it...no matter how bad of a day/weekend you're having.  Coaches care about attitude and body language almost as much as they do about how you play baseball.  If they don't like what they see...they're done with you....it happens...it happened to my son. Unfortunately at the time we thought my son had cost himself a chance at playing D1...but it ended up working out.  

I think most of the stories above are similar to my son's, but honestly, I can't remember all of the details.  I would say that my son's first real offer happened very quickly.  It seemed that a lot of the D-1 Coach's my son was contacted by "pussy footed" around, but when the coach that he committed to called, it happened right then.  Unfortunately, my son decommitted, and that has created a whole bunch of other issues, but good things are happening now.

 

It is somewhat crazy how every situation is different in that some coach's seem to take their time, others move quickly, some handle it directly, and other's rely heavily on their assistants to do all the contacts.

       
       
incredibly good advice buckeye.  I tell my son and my players that all the time.

my 2017 is starting to see some contact in a round about way, at least that's how I'm seeing it. he attended a private showcase put on by his travel team for their unsigned sr's and jr's. They invited a handful of soph's they felt were ready to be seen. There were approx 25 colleges in attendance. Shortly after we started getting questionnaires with coaches phone numbers attached. A couple of them included cell phone numbers as well. One school in particular sent him an email worded something along the lines of "ncaa rules prohibit us from sending anything other then this questionnaire or camp invites. If you have any questions regarding our camps please contact coach xxx at ####.". We've been following up the ones that appear to be more then camp invite spam with emails that include his info including Facebook and Twitter info. He has had a couple of the schools start following him on twitter. He is going to start calling the schools that have provided him with phone numbers after he finishes finals next week. 

joe....if a coach provided a cell phone number....they are interested.  Coaches don't just throw cell numbers out freely...especially to 2017's.  By all means have your son give them a call.  Even if it's no more than saying "thanks for contacting me....what did you think of my performance at the showcase?"  Chances are he'll get a response that give him a pretty good idea where he stands....or at least if they've got some serious...or semi-serious interest

Buckeye. We just "discovered " this fact last week. I was under the impression that all the camp invites we were receiving were just attempts at making money. I was recently enlightened to the fact that ones with a phone number, especially a cell number, were more targeted and that we should follow those up with a call. As he plays basketball right now he is a little limited with his time so he emailed the coaches letting them know that we will be contacting them shortly. 

My first contact story may be a little different and will not really answer your question but here it is anyway.  When my oldest son was about 9 or 10 it was obvious he would be pitching the next year in rec ball, so I signed him up for a weekend pitching clinic at Old Dominion University.  The day of the clinic we went, and my youngest son Danny who was between 3 and 4  tagged along.  My youngest son was crazy about baseball from the time he could walk, he could sit and watch a whole game on TV and actually understood what was going on.  He attended everyone of his older brothers games in full uniform in case anyone would need him.  He could catch and hit by 3.  Well the clinic started with all the campers going through the motions one step at a time, come set, etc.  Danny followed along with the campers while standing by me.  Then they broke into groups and started to pitch.  I could tell Danny was getting itchy, he always had a bat bag with 2 gloves, a bat and some balls with him so he and I found a small room with a basketball court.  I set him up on the foul line and set myself up at the base line and had him go through the motions he just learned, then had him pitch some.  I don't think it's a stretch to say he looked better than a lot of the older campers.  While he was pitching Tony Guzzo, ODU's head coach and another gentleman came into the room on their way somewhere.  Coach Guzzo stopped, elbowed the other guy and pointed to my son with a big smile.  After a couple of pitches I looked over and said coach you better sign him now, you will have to compete to get him later.  He just laughed, waved at us and headed on his way.  Fast forward about 14 years later and who do you think calls and offers Danny a scholarship to come play for him? Coach G who now was at a different school.  I reminded him he should have signed him before.  He didn't remember Danny but did get a kick out of the story.

My 2015 followed through with his plan.  He chose several schools that he was interested in whether academically, baseball or both. He sent each coach a short intro email with video. He also searched their rosters to see what senior and/or position players they had. Many coaches did respond favorably and not so favorably.  The one that responded with cell phone included he then call and spoke with. Good conversations and kept in touch!  Summer between Junior/Senior he attended the individual camps of 5 schools that he had the best communication with.  All of coaches at the respective schools then got to see him play. He invites for official and unofficial visits. Narrowed down to 3 schools and ultimately committed and signed. Attained his goal to go to the best academic school with good baseball.  Don’t get me wrong there were a lot of highs and lows during the process!

My son had sent out several emails to schools he was interested in.  Very moderate responses, he was small and not throwing hard and didn't have much to offer at the time.  His HS V coach liked him a lot.  Enough to bring him up as a frosh for defense.  The V Coach left the school the next year for the local JUCO program.  He had my son attend their winter workout camp and introduced him to the HC of the program.  He had a less than stellar outing at the showcase and heard crickets after that.

 

Two summers later, he plays on a good summer team and does very well.  Attends the PG SE Top Prospect showcase and gets immediate attention form a new PC at low level D1 in South Carolina.  Visits and everything goes great.  Lots of back and forth talk but no actual offer due to not being able to get in front of the HC.....all is good because turns out this PC left before the season started!  

 

Gets invited to the local JUCO for a workout, throws a horrible bullpen, but the coaches know he has great offspeed stuff....tells him they'll think about it and that they don't usually offer the local guys much.  Crickets again.  Then comes Jupiter.  I spot the entire JUCO Staff there, they come up to me and we chat.  They say they are there to see him throw one particular pitch, the good ole CB, in a game situation.  Son threw well and as the coaches are leaving they stop by to talk to me, after talking to my son.  Told me that they told him they would have a package offer put together by the end of the week.  Done deal after that.  

 

This was the school I was realistically targeting since he entered HS. m Of course he had higher aspirations, but settled for being able to say he was recruited by a D! school( I launched an exhaustive campaign against the D1 fever very early on...lol).  But, through his hard work he got his scholly and the opportunity to continue to play.  

So, don't write anything off after a bad performance, anything is possible.

Did the hat have a P on it? Was the dad from CO? 

 

RJM,

 

A "D" on the hat.  Father is no longer a GM but I've seen him on MLB Tonight a bunch of times lately.  His son was drafted in 2012 as a catcher, and pretty good one.

 

I think my son was a little embarrassed when he found out who the guy was, because he isn't normally like that at all.....unless he is on a pitching mound.  

2015's first contact was through his summer coach.  It was after a 16u tournament that was in the schools backyard.  After attending other showcases and tournaments, the "flood" gates opened up.  Everything went through the summer coach until the coaches could contact him directly.  He did not email any coaches expressing any interest in their specific programs.  After several unofficial visits and an official, he committed to the first school who contacted him.    It was a very exciting time.  

The D came to mind first. But I wasn't sure if the timeline was correct. I met the GM with the P on his hat at a Harvard game. My son was a high school junior at the time. We had a great talk about high academic recruiting and how some of the Ivy coaches operate. 

Generic camp invites not included, the first real contact was literally Sept 1 of his Junior Year - with the new date for communication with the 2016 class.  We had emailed telling them he'd be at an Area Code Tryout June of his sophomore year but didn't hear much back.  On Sept 1, a D1 on his list sent a very targeted email which we forwarded to our HS coach to get his thoughts.  HS coach called D1 RC/PC to get true interest. We visited in Oct and HC offered on the spot.  Gave my son awhile to look around.  We're thrilled. 

I remember it like it was yesterday and I hope that I (and my son) never forget that feeling.  Walking out of the stadium in Ft Myers, Florida the afternoon after he pitched at the PG Nationals this past summer, he received emails from 4 major DI colleges. This was his first really contact with D1 schools. He is a 2015 so this was the Summer before his Senior year. Closest school was 450 miles away from our home. Furthest was 1,100 miles and many states away but high academic school. It was during limited contact period, so son called the schools on our 1000+ mile car journey back home. Some he had to call more than once since they couldn't call him back. It was an exciting time for him and I'm glad that my wife and I were able to share the experience with him.

Summer after his sophmore year, 16U travel ball at PG event was seen by mid major coach and offered within 4 days. Up until that point, we thought Ft Myers that fall in October was gating item and catalyst to offers/primary visibility in the process. Also understood that the next summer was when "most" kids got offers for his class and made decisions. Had no real idea what we were doing, fumbled a few times, asked a lot of questions and learned the hard way from that point fielding 8-10 D1 offers and him deciding on playing ACC baseball next year. Fun ride, but boy was it stressful.

GREAT TOPIC.  Sounds like Shoveit4Ks is saying to be ready for an offer at any time?  You might be thinking, "My son is good but not that good.  If he is lucky enough to even get an offer it won't be until fall of Jr. year at best?"   Then out of nowhere comes a legit offer well before the time you were expecting one? 

Nice problem to have but a problem nonetheless if you "fumble."  Great advice. 

 

Son has some recruiting visits coming up this month.  I want to keep "the highs not too high, and the lows not too low" but at least one of us should be thinking, "What if coach offers during this visit?  How will we respond?  Will we respond?"  etc.

 

Great stuff.  Thanks all.

 

Son's first contact came from a mid major after seeing him pitch summer after sophomore year. They got us on campus a few weeks later and made a good offer. It was very early in the process we thought so we thanked them and decided to wait. By the way it was a school son was interested in, so that added stress. That fall son attended a camp at "dream" school. When he showed up to sign in, RC pulled son and 2 other kids aside and gave them a brief tour of facility. Somehow they already new of son and showed interest. When we left, they told son they were interested, but wanted to see him pitch next summer. Through the spring, we had some contact by a couple other schools on son's that all told him basically the same thing, we just want to see you throw this summer. Well 17U PG WWBA rolls around. Son is scheduled to throw 9:00pm start at LakePoint. His coach tells him earlier in the day "be ready because everybody will be watching". As a dad, I'm thinking, great, that is just what you need to tell a 17 yo.  I was worried son would "spit the bit" under the circumstances. With 50+ colleges/scouts behind home plate he pitched a gem. I have never been more proud of my kid. Afterwards he told me, dad what's the big deal?  I've done this hundreds of times. I never even noticed the scouts. I was just focused on my catcher's mitt and executing my pitches. I think he is full of crap!  Nobody could totally block that out, but it did prove to me that the kid can handle the moment.  After that his phone "blew up". It took about 2 weeks for the "dream" school to offer. There were things going on behind the scenes we were unaware of with the school that caused the time delay. In the meantime, he had multiple offers from some major SEC/ACC schools. It was very stressful to not jump at some of those offers while waiting on the dream school. But in the end, as RFF stated, I am so thankful that I was there for the ride and son and I will cherish the experience forever.

Coach...i guess i thought he was good but he isn't a big kid so he dreamed of big D1s but we were trying to "minimize the lows" as you said. I guess that 1st coach (who has effectively ignored me at various tournaments since son declined his offer) saw what everyone else saw, just a year earlier. I love my boy and constantly preach hard work pays off, life isn't fair and remind him that every day another kid is working as hard or harder than he is to take your spot. If you give it everything...you have nothing to be ashamed of, ever.

 

We are very fortunate and also grateful that he was able to experience this process and be offered a scholarship...... regardless of how much stress we went through since i missed picking up/reading the "Complete Guide to College Baseball Recruiting".

recieved a call this weekend from the travel coach for my 2017 - he said so and so called me is interested, asked to have him fillout the recuitment form on the web site. so we did, had a response with in minutes of the upload, had few emails back and forth...don't know where if anywhere it is going. the whole thing kind of suprised me. i wasn't expecting anything this early or a from a program as highly ranked.

 

Honestly kind of flattered kind of suprised. maybe i don't give the boy enough credit - maybe it doesn't go anywhere...but it was the first legit start to the process. I do know he has been on the school web site several times looking around so i know it has his attention.

My son's very first contact, if we can call it that, was a phone message left by a college coach well before the time when a coach was legally allowed to call.  But when son tried to return call and never was able to make contact again with the coach and son never heard back again.  So, we don't know what ever happened with that.

 

But . . . the story that is really cool for my son what the first contact with the school of his dreams.

 

My son was receiving a lot of mail, e-mail and phone calls from various schools throughout the country, but had heard nothing from the school he was most interested in.  Son had completed and sent web-site forms to the coach and sent letters and tried to call, but he never got a response.  After a while we figured the school just wasn't interested and had other plans, so son was trying to decide which of the schools showing interest would be the best choice for him (a lot of good schools to choose from).

 

Then along came an Area Code invite and upon the tryout he was selected to participate in the Area Code games.  Prior to the start of the Area Code games his AC team had scheduled a couple of warm up games at a nearby college (the dream college my son never heard from).  As the second warm up game was ending, the assistant coach for that college came up to me and said the head coach would like to see my son and me in the office afterwards.  After a nice long talk with the coach, the coach said he really liked what he saw in the warm up games and made a substantial scholarship offer right then and there.   Well, this was the college my son was always most interested in and the offer was such my son accepted and committed (after he and I took a little private time to discuss it).   We never really knew why we never heard from them earlier, but it was after my son started to attend that college that we found out that the coach tended to be very late in this part of the recruiting process.

 

We felt we were kind of lucky in that my son had good offers from some good schools and they were kind of pushing for a commitment.  But there was one particular other school of high interest we we waiting to get an offer from that showed a lot of interest but wanted more information.  That delay kept the door open for my son to get into the college he was most interested in where we thought it just wasn't going to happen.