Promoting your son

I think we can all agree that the kid has to show some excellence at the game elsewise there isn't anything to promote or talk about.

Most parents don't promote their kids and many of the good players get lost in the shuffle because their high school coaches don't promote them. And then you have many players who could get the PR, but they don't come from the right program, or they are viewed as undesirable because one promoter, coach, or scout, says something negative about them that sticks.

I saw a young black man here where we live, never got to play much in high school, but findly got his chance as a walk-on in college, whereupon he was All-Conference and MVP of his team.

There are a lot of reasons players don't make it, not all of them have to do with talent. It's called the politics of baseball, and it's not always a pretty thing to watch.

I believe that it is up to the parents to help their children achieve their dreams using whatever means of support they can. It is no different for any other endeavvor that needs the networking benefits of recognition, recommendation, and influence.

But all of it is moot if the kid doesn't have the "goods".

I am not against "promoting your son", people are proud of their kids, pure and simple. I certainly wish more were. Some people call it bragging, some call it promoting. In the end, it doesn't really matter, and is of no consequence to get to "the next level". I would rather have a parent bending my ear talking about their son, than not showing up at the games. Also, around our hometown, everyone knows our sons parents, we are actively involved with his high school program, just like we were actively involved in our sons Little League program. We love our two boys more than anything in the world, and probably would do anything to see that the two of them achieve their dreams. We have given the both of them the best opportunities we could, and continue to do so. I don't have a problem at all with parents promoting their kids, I do have a problem when parents degrade other kids, in the hopes it makes theirs look better. Just my opinion.

With all due respect, I wonder how many kids really “get lost in the shuffle.” Everyone’s interpretation of that phrase is probably different, but based on observations over the years I honestly think that most kids end up where their talent and interest dictates regardless of their parents' efforts.

Pic

you say there are many good players who get lost in the shuffle because their high school coach does not promote them. As a former high school coach i dont really understand what you mean here? If a player is as you say good dont you think somebody would pick up on that? High school coaches and all coaches for that matter have to work with the team. You know that win loss concept. what do you mean by promote? I was asked by many coaches over the years about kids. I told them what I thought. Who in my opinion I thought could play at the next level. If not promoting a player is not telling college coaches what the player or the parent wants to hear then I guess I did not "promote" the player.

Better yet, why doesn't HSBBW create a player data base for all to use/see. That way everything would be on the up-and-up. You could list it by age and region. It may be too hard to do, but it would be really cool if you could pull it off.

There are Coaches who get it wrong.....High School players who want to play College ball must promote themselves.....And, don't wait till your Senior year......

Promote, is perhaps the wrong word.

You can only promote so much, then in the end, everything is based on the players ability. Promotion, by itself, does absolutely nothing and is (IMO) a waste of time.

Much more important than promoting, is to get your son seen by those who know and understand talent. Then, if he is really good, you can set back and never say another word. It’s always better when someone else is doing the “promoting”.

When scouting friends were asking me about my youngest son when he was in high school, the standard response I gave was “He’s alright”. They were going to make up their own mind anyway so it wasn’t going to do any good to "promote" him.

If your son gets in front of the right people and he’s as good as you think he is, the promoting days are over. If he is extra special, he would have to be awfully well hidden these days.

Why blame your high school coach for your son’s lack of attention?

If you’re going to blame the high school coach, you have to blame every coach your son played against and everyone else who has ever seen him play, also.

After all, did they all fail to see the same things that parents promote?

When a special player shows up, people notice and people talk. Sooner or later, those your son needs to get in front of, start calling you.

When a coach sees a player on the opposing team who looks like a special talent, that coach tends to remember him. If the player is extra-special, that coach usually lets everyone know about it. ie. A pitcher throwing against you who is in the 90s with a good breaking ball and command. When someone sees that, we all have a big mouth!!! Then those who make decisions start showing up.

My suggestion… If you feel your son is real good and under appreciated, simply get him to a place where others will see him. If that doesn’t work and you still think you’re right, take him somewhere else for new people to see. Then just set back, relax and let the chips fall. You’ve done everything you can do!

Parents have no reason to blame anyone except maybe themselves if their son goes unnoticed.

Anyway, that's my opinion, surely some people will disagree.

When you promote something make sure that the expectations that you have created for people are not so high that your product can not live up to them. A product that is so good that it sells itself if the best scenario. A product that is good but needs a little promotion is where most HS kids fall. Parents can help alot and they can hurt alot. The bottom line is he at some point and time is going to have to show some skills on the field. All the promoting in the world is not going to help a kid that cant play. If parents will be honest about their sons ability and go outside their little pond and see whats out in the ocean they will have a better understanding of where their kid stands. And so will the player. Going to showcase events is not only great for the parents it is great for the players.

PG- Its funny but thats exactly what I do with my youngest son. I have people come up to me all the time "I hear your son is a heck of a player". All I say is "Hes alright". Let them be the judged. If he can play he will be alright. We had an area scout with the Reds come up to the field the other day when we were working out. My son who is a Freshman was hitting off one of our pitchers. The scout walks over to me and says "Whos that at the plate". I just said hes a Freshman. The scout goes on and on about him, his swing his power his size etc. I never said a word. After the practice he goes over to my son and starts asking him questions etc. Then the scout comes over to me and says "Coach why didnt you tell me that was your son"? I told him I didnt see where that had anything to do with it. I never said a work or bragged on him or anything. I let him do it.

The best "promotion" for a player is his ability being shown to coaches in the proper venue.

You promote your son by providing opportunities. It is then up to him to sell himself.

The word "promote" in the context used is synonomous with give others an opportunity to see, view, hear about, or read something informative about your player. But it isn't an uninformed approach, which is what is being offered as a counter to the idea of promotion. There is some research and study required to know what college coaches are looking for, and an understanding of the pro scouting system evaluation requirements at a minimum.

One of the posters here said he had a scout see his son hitting in a cage and came over to ask who he was. Under the way some here think, you should not promote, the scout would have never received an answer from any one about the player. He would have had to go up to the young man and ask the question directly. The problem with that is everyone here would be relegated to hoping that some scout would first see your son, then be in a place to see him when he was doing something, and finally be available to speak to the guy. That method went out in the 30's and we have something called the internet, fax machines, cellphones with video, etc. But there are only 34 scouts and maybe a handfull more that get out to see players in certain venues. It requires planning and organization to give a player a chance to be discovered.

Advertising happens only in a capitalist system. It is how we sell our products. And that includes ball players. Only socialist think advertising is a corrupting influence on the selection process and that's why the people who run the public education system are so ademantly against it. As a result you don't see the schools with official policies that are there to help and support any of their athletes to gain any visibility to reach the next level.

If the parents don't help their son's to get the proper opportunities, and put them with organizations that will help them improve their skills and be seeing by the right people who may find the player's potential to be of interest to them, then who will do it? Not the schools, and not the HS school coaches. They simply do not have the budgets to do that.

My advice, or all parents here, if you get people coming up to you saying that your son is a good player and has the potential to play at the next level don't expect the school system to help your son. It's up to you to help and support your son achieve his full potential.

That's what I mean by promote, PG.

To all, who has posted keep it up, LOTS of very helpful information. great site

Pic,
You make some very good points.

nice post, pic.

PiC,

I agree completely.

When a scout would introduce himself to me, I would ask him for his card and ask him if he would like me to e-mail him when my son pitched, place of the game, time and I would attach a map.

At least 20 scouts came up to me during the season and thanked me for helping them do their job. Several of them even noted that they saw him once or twice more than others because the information was always at hand and sometimes he didn't get a hold of other coaches of kids that they had planned to see that day.

I don't know if that is promotion or not, but it was a helpful tool.

Promotion? Hmmm.

What I did was ask people who had experience and knowledge to tell me the truth about my son. I said I knew what to do with the "truth." JC player? OK, I get it. D1 player? Know what to do with that too.

Once I had a breadth of opinions...then it was a matter of getting him to the right places. Then it was up to my son. He could either perform or not. Nothing more for me to do.

I think a parent has a responsibility in assisting a skilled player with getting exposure to the folks whose profession it is to objectively evaluate their abilities. Clearly, the player's abilities must stand on their own merit regardless. I think it's more accurate to say that a parent can and should help with 'exposure', while the player must 'promote' himself with his abilities on the field and his personal character/makeup. I think that good coaches can certainly help with that exposure, but the reality is these good people usually have day jobs, like teachers that are HS coaches, plus the responsibility of running an entire HS baseball program ... not to mention their own family lives ... so they're already really busy. It's certainly unfair to those coaches to expect them to carry that responsibility solely on their shoulders. One side benefit of private hitting/pitching instruction: these mentors are usually highly qualified to give you some objective measure of a kid's potential, good or bad, and many are pretty well connected with local colleges and pro scouts if they think a kid has a high ceiling.

If a kid is a once-a-decade phenomenon, sure, he'll get noticed taking out the trash. But there's a lot of really good players out there ... a lot ... that aren't necessarily the next Barry Bonds, so if you only played HS ball and did absolutely nothing else the other nine months of the year, you simply won't get the same exposure as a large number of the top 15%-20% tier of players out there ... there's just too many of them that the college recruiters and pro scouts have to wade through. It's no different than trying to find a job ... having a resume, using online resume publishing services, headhunters, contract recruiters, targeted marketing, etc., to help you find a job. You'll never find a job as the next VP of Finance at a Fortune 500 company by putting a hand painted sign in the window of your car and hope you pass a few CEOs on the freeway. You have to market yourself to the decision makers to have any chance at getting noticed, but you'd better be the real deal and able to deliver the goods once you're standing in their office.

Whether it's club teams, showcases, game videos, college camps, student-athelete marketing organizations like NCSA, or website profiles ... these are all just tools, venues, and mediums that simply help with exposure to the right kind of people ... evaluators and decision makers, but it's up to the player to make the most of those opportunities.

Most everybody we knew said my kid was going to play at the next level.
My kid thought everything would simply fall into place.
My kid's high school coach did little for him.
My kid didn't do nearly enough for himself, despite what his parents told him.
There were a few ups and a lot of downs.
Then my kid graduated from high school.
My kid will be paying (in loans) for his HS mistakes.
But my kid worked, in and out of the classroom.
My kid finally started to do some things for himself.
In two weeks, my kid will play at the level everybody way back when thought he would.

Had my kid listened to his parents and done more for himself, or had his HS coach done more for him, would he have arrived at the same place? Or the same place sooner?

Don't know. And, any more, don't really care.

My point -- Exposure, promotion, call it what you will, can be a good thing. But promotion can make you bitter, too. It eventually comes down to game: Is he game and does he have one?

And that has nothing to do with promotion.

The tough part for a parent in "Promoting" and being "Pro active" is whether or not they know what they are looking at on terms of their sons talent.

I have seen nominations for a HS senior that were two pages long and charted his life history back to his first pitch--a bit too much

Then you have the others who have asked to come up and been seen in a informal workout so we could help the parents in what direction to take

The best way ,in my estimation,for "promotion" to take place is for the parents to get the boy to the venues that will get him exposure but be ready to hear things you do not want to hear. You want an honest evaluation.

Once this has happened then let the schools know when and where he will be playing so they can schedule him into their recruiting stops. With an evaluation in hand, even if it is the first one, you something tangible to talk to college coaches and scouts about--it won't Daddy or Mommy saying how good their boy is

Suppose your HS coach does not think you can play at the next level. It is not his job to promote players to colleges, your parents should be doing that. Real simple attend showcases, tournaments, tryout camps and baseball camps that colleges will be at. IF you have talent they will noticed and make you an offer.

I think all these comments are pointing in the same direction ... that there's this middle ground where a parent can assist in getting their son into venues and programs that help with visibility and exposure, but the parent must recognize that there's no 'selling' the product. The only things that 'sell' a player are his own performance on the field and in the classroom, and his character on and off the field.

If you, as a parent, believe you should do nothing ... there's a chance others will not step in to fill that role and a good player may not get the exposure he deserves and the kid misses out on some opportunities. At the other end of the spectrum, if a parent over-promotes, over-sells, and believes that if they make enough noise that their kid will get to the next level, this also is a disservice to the kid because it all becomes about the message and who's sending it ... the parent ... and a good player may get overlooked because no one wants to deal with the baggage.

What I tell my son is that the most important things he can do are: first, find what you have a deep passion for ... for him, just happens to be baseball. Next, figure out your goals and establish a personal vision for how you are going to achieve them. Now, make a commitment to work very, very hard ... get good grades in school and develop your physical abilities to their fullest. Then, enjoy doing what you love completely, give 100% to perform at your best for your team every time you step onto the field, and carry yourself with class, dignity, and respect on and off the field. Oh yeah, these showcases and other profiling stuff ... helps to get your name noted by people who will objectively evaluate your abilities, but only does any real good if you've done all the other stuff first and show results on the field ... and we'll only do them to the extent that they don't conflict with school work and your primary commitments to the HS team and club team.

As a general rule, I don't discuss with anyone what I think about my son's abilities ... because I know my opinion isn't worth a wood nickel. My job is to love him, and support him in his pursuit of his dream ... it's his job to become the ball player, and man, that he wants to be.

pbonesteele,

Your son has the advantage of having some great leadership.

Thanks PG ... and thank you for the service you folks provide to these boys. It's clear that it's more than the love of the game at work within your organization, but a love for these young men.

Pbone - good stuff! My son is 14, and so far, he still has the passion for the game. What I don't know if he has the passion for is the hard work to make himself better. We'll see over the next year or two...

If you keep backing him positively he will be fine

Dibble...I diagree with your suggestion that it is not the HS coaches job to promote his players. That may be the case in alot of areas, but it is a sad one if it is.

Why coach if you are not in it for the Players? Why waste your time, unless they are just in it for self gratification? Teaching and promoting are 2 excellent reasons to coach...it also is a great tool getting good players to come to their program based on tradition and signing players to schools.

It is alot of work answering letters and communicating with college coaches...maybe that is their problem..too much work! I think alot of the problem is the level of experience that alot of coaches have...very little in alot of cases, therefore they are resistant to recommending or rating a player for fear of being wrong.

HS baseball is for fun, but also it can be a great resource for players IF they have a coach like our team does that spends the extra hours communicating with the next level.

I was in the coaches office the other day and he had a foot high stack of letters that he was working on...now that is a COACH!!

Their are many coaches on this site that enjoy helping their players if they are at that level...to those coaches, THANK YOU from the parents!

I think it's appropriate for coaches (HS, club, etc.) to actively participate and assist in the promotion and recruiting process for the student atheletes under their tutelage, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to take responsibility for owning the process.

pbone...I agree...if only they would participate, it would benefit the relationships greatly. They don't need to own it, but what would you think as a college coach if the HS coach didn't even respond? I know of some that throw the letters in the round file...never see the players eyes. Not good!

I for one believe that as a coach it is part of my job to help kids move on to the next level. First of all by teaching them the game and pushing them to be the best they can be not only as a baseball player but as a young man. Also teaching them right away as a Freshman how important their academics are. Not only to get into a school so they can play baseball but for life. Identifying the kids that are capable of playing at the next level - then making sure that they are straight in the class room - then making sure they have the work ethic required to stick in college - then contacting coaches of programs that they are capable of playing at. They will come and they will watch. Then it is up to the player to perform. It is part of the coaches job. Does that mean that a parent should just sit back and trust that the coach will take care of everything? No it does not. In my eyes and the way we do it, it is a partnership between the coaches players and parents. Showcase events in my opinion are outstanding for kids to get out there and be seen by a variety of college levels. And a great way for kids to see where they stack up.