Questionaires with hand-written envelopes

Based on my 2011 son's experience, the fact that it is handwritten means very little. If you think about it, the cost for a $10/hour person to hand address an envelope is 16 cents if it takes a minute to write the address. Less than the cost of the postage.

Chalk it up to good marketing, and also bear in mind that the reason baseball programs practice marketing is to attract players to camps. It a a major source of revenue for the coaching staff.

I know that a sophomore is keenly hoping for interest, and he is looking for any sign of that. But the reality is that if they are really interested in a player, they won't resort to subtle clues. The interest will be clear-- like contacting a coach about the player, or asking someone to relay the message that they would like the player to call. Fall of sophomore year is a bit early for that unless the player is a real blue chipper.

Thanks for the quick reply. I understand the need for colleges to make money with camps, and we have received a lot of camp invites, however all of them were close to our home state and not 1000 miles a way. Also we have never recived a questionaire form any college, this is why it caught us of guard. We really wonder how they even got his information since we live so far away, and we have had no contact with anyone at this university.

31,
A different perspective. You may be right - the coach got your son's name off a list. BUT if this is a school your kid wants to go to, FOLLOW UP. Return the questionnaire, send the transcript. They asked for it right?

Also, your son is young enough to develop an email relationship with this coach. Use the time to your advantage. I'd recommend the following plan for communication with any coach.

Sophomore year: send periodic updates of meaningful events (going to this showcase, performed xyz, abc success/milestone). The coach can't email back, but it will ensure your kid's email is on his list.

Junior year: Continue communication - because beginning Sept 1, the coach can email him back. Remember, steady communication of relevant milestones will gather interest. What you're hoping for is that the coach will say "wow - this kid is really interested in my program, and it looks like he may have something to offer."

Now, of course, this requires that your kid continues to develop and does indeed have something to offer.

My D is being recruited for another sport and the coach told her (when he came to see her at a practice - 3500 miles from where his school is located) that she caught his eye because she reached out to him often and with impressive information.

Two cents....

Thanks gamefan for the response very helpful.

Hey 31'sDad, welcome to HSBBW and congratulations on diving in and not being a lurker. My 2012 is about to decide on what school to attend based on getting several acceptances to high quality schools with good to great baseball programs.

I've pretty much lived on this site for the past few years and found it to be EXTREMELY helpful, though it is filled with some great characters, which maybe you will find I have been a novice one.

Best of luck to you and your son! You're in for some great years ahead.

My pet peeve: don't waste too much money on Showcases; check out the related threads here .....

Son gets letters from a top program all the time that are handwritten - every time I see the envelope I say to myself "that is not a baseball coaches hand writing" - it sure seems like it could be from a $10 per hour person.

Any interest your son receives is very seldom a bad thing. There are some great posts on this website from other players and parents that will shed some light on the whole recruiting process and how to gauge the level of interest from a coach. I found one of the best things to do is to contact the coach and point blank ask them how they found out about your son. This might be a good starting point for getting your son involved in the process by having him send the email or call the coach to determine this information. Your son is still relatively new in the process so he has time. Subject to the NCAA rules, I found that coaches who were trully interested in my son called him on the phone. All telephone generated recruiting did not end in an offer but most fo them, especially if they asked him to do an unofficial or official visit. Since your son is still early in the process be thankful that colleges are putting him on the radar because this is one of the ways in which the process begins.

Good luck.

Welcome.
I understand your curiosity however I am not sure that any of us can really answer the question you asked, because we don't know who sent it and why.

Keep in mind there is always a first for everything.

It's a good time to sit down with your son and discuss the recruiting process and also begin your homework on that program. Would going 1000 miles away from home be a good fit? I am assuming that it is a southern school, sometimes that doesn't make a good fit for northern folks.

Lots of stuff to consider, but don't worry you will get better at figuring it all out as time goes by.

We also get those quite often and its amazing how many come at a time when schools can have camps. I like camps but not in december and january I know it suits schools then and it allows coaches to make some money. Believe it or not a lot of college coaches make less than HS coaches do if they dont teach. We were fortunate enough to have a coach at a college of interest contact our high school coach about our son coming to a basketball game and vist. he is 2014 so he could contact the coach but not vice versa. I like when all correspondence goes thru the HS coach as he may know a lot more about some schools than a prospect would.

Hey there,

I have a 2013 grad and I will tell you a quick story with a questionnaire I received. From several coaches and scouts, they believe I am more like a D3 player, but with some D1 additions as I have great speed but D3 talent besides. I received a questionnaire from Wake Forest. Wake Forest is a great program for baseball, they sent me a letter with several other papers of info. Now I feel good receiving such papers, but I see they have a camp in two weeks. I believe they only sent them out to get people to the camp. I'm already looking at the very interested schools so WF was just something to come along. The main thing to look out for is this:Did the letter state your last name as in the greeting? For example, if it said: "Dear student", then this is just mass mail sent out to thousands. Hopefully I helped

After reading the great responses, I decided to call the coach and just ask him how he got my sons name and address. He said if we sent you a questionaire, you were either recommended by someone or either one of their coaches had seen him play at someone point this year. So with this new information I would guess there would be some type of interest or maybe they are just a little curious to see him. So I guess the question is do I need to goto the camp? I am thinking probably so.

Nope you don't.

quote:

Originally posted by 31'sDad:
After reading the great responses, I decided to call the coach and just ask him how he got my sons name and address. He said if we sent you a questionaire, you were either recommended by someone or either one of their coaches had seen him play at someone point this year. So with this new information I would guess there would be some type of interest or maybe they are just a little curious to see him. So I guess the question is do I need to goto the camp? I am thinking probably so.

showcases sell the lists to the colleges..

At this I would recommend following your gut. If this school is a place your son would like to attend and both of you believe he can play there let alone succeed there as a student, why not go. You have nothing to loose. As they say nothng ventured nothing gained.

Was it UConn?? My son got the same thing

Long Horn, that is what I was thinking.... Penders does do a very good job making it look personalized ..... hand notes on the envelope, hand notes on the inside ...

But his baseball school progams are a good experience, so 31sdad might want to consider going for the experience if UConn is of interest.

Uconn is not in the SEC last time I checked. They are still in the Big East.

Arkansas could be 1,000 miles away, Florida could be 1,000 miles away, LSU could be 1,000 miles away too. Dang Miss and Miss State are about 1,000 miles away too! I think Tenn and Vandy are a little less than 1,000 miles.

I'm guessing it is one of the 5 listed above, guess I really narrowed it down!!!

quote:

Originally posted by golden rule:
Any interest your son receives is very seldom a bad thing. There are some great posts on this website from other players and parents that will shed some light on the whole recruiting process and how to gauge the level of interest from a coach. I found one of the best things to do is to contact the coach and point blank ask them how they found out about your son. This might be a good starting point for getting your son involved in the process by having him send the email or call the coach to determine this information. Your son is still relatively new in the process so he has time. Subject to the NCAA rules, I found that coaches who were trully interested in my son called him on the phone. All telephone generated recruiting did not end in an offer but most fo them, especially if they asked him to do an unofficial or official visit. Since your son is still early in the process be thankful that colleges are putting him on the radar because this is one of the ways in which the process begins.

Good luck.

Good post, I do beleive that one truly doesn't know the interest until the coach makes the first phone call (for most anyway) and even then, it can be confusing.
How really serious is a coach? IMO, he's serious when he makes the offer.

Once again I have to give advice that some here may not like. Parents need to stop trying to read into all of this as being much more than it is in teh early stages. Your son got a letter with a questionare, answer it. Most likely it isn't going to be the last.

I don't understand why you called the coach, this process is between the coach and the player. Is mom or dad going to call every time they get a letter from a coach to ask why it was sent?

First advice, have your son do the calling....it's hard but coaches do not want to hear from you sometimes even when extending an offer and certainly not about camp. Your son can learn some great lessons not the least of which is ability to communicate with unknown, important adults so don't take that away from him You obviously already know how
Second, I think camps are WAY better then showcases. If he is interested and you would be willing to send him more than once, go but unless he is a TOTAL stud, it will be too soon. My son is now considering two schools....one whose camp he went to his junior year and they followed with his updates etc and then he returned having grown and improved and the other also from a camp. Go to camps....plan on going twice if you can so they can see his growth and improvement. Neither offer ever sent him a hand written note but it doesn't matter does it?

I have a question.A top D1 coach,thru a middleman, asked to have my son call him. My son,a junior, called and spoke to the recruiting coach. He sounded very interested and excited about my son and asked him about the other colleges who have offered an unofficial visit. He then asked him to " bring family for a visit in the next couple of weeks",well now it is more like "come to our 2 day camp" instead! The head coach said he has seen my son play and the recruiting coach seems to really like my son, but like the other post stated, it is near their college camps dates. Is this just a ploy for money? He will have to miss a high school game to go to this college "camp", but this is also a college program he is very interested in. We don't know what to make of it and are so confused. Our "middleman" hasn't been able to get ahold of them.

baseballfam4,

I'd say no, it's NOT a "play" as the coach(s) are expressing interest in you son. Coaches like to get up closer with player's their interested in and camps help them get a better look along with an opportunity to make a good impression on your son, particularly if your son has other colleges interested. Just how much interest your son really has in this particular school determines if it's worth missing a game. Going to a camp is one way for the coaches to hit two birds with one stone. That is, the camp provide an opportunity for an unofficial visit where the coach doesn't have to burn an official visit . . .and the coach gets that closer look at a player of interest.

If you're son has a GOOD high school coach, he will understand (well, unless it's a championship game ) and your son should talk to the coach about the opportunity to meet the coaches of the college he'd like to go to. But choose wisely and don't worry about going to a number of camps. Many such camps have other college coaches and recruiters at a camp. So, it may be worth simply choosing a camp that is well represented by colleges your son has interest in. With that in mind, if your son has lots of interest from a number of schools, I found that the camps don't do much as the college recruiters will be watching intently and will know they are competing for your son. And if your son has interest from only a couple of schools, then keeping the coach (or recruity coach) of the school of interest up to date that they can follow your son's games and any progress in thinking about a commitment, which is what they'll be after as they show interest. Oh, and the more interest you really show in a school, the happier the coach will be who's interested in you son. If your son shows interest in a lot of schools, coaches may not show a lot of interest as they may see that as someone who's undecided and not so interested in their school.

Coaches have restrictions as to how and when they can make direct contact with your son. It's best not to use a "middleman". . .unless the "middleman" is your son's HS coach. A good HS coach will most likely already know or have some kind of relationship with many of the college coaches and recruiters and can do some calling and promoting of your son. It's always best for your son to do the calling as other's have suggested and keep in mind that your son isn't likely to get a call back from the coach do to certain rules. But the coach can talk to your son when the son calls. So your son should keep trying (or do something like leave a message as to a specific time when he'll will call the coach again so the coach will know). College coaches and their recruiters tend to be quite busy and can be hard get hold of.

Since your son is a Junior, it's time to start making some decision and prioritizing which schools he really has interest in. And if there's one in particular and it's this one that has shown interest, then the sooner your son focuses on that school the better.

Make sure your son's academics match the school. A student athlete's has a rigorous work load between school work and baseball and you don't want your son get to a school and find that he can't handle the schools particular program.

I hope this helps some and sorry for be so long winded. I went through all this with my son just a couple of years ago where he had interest from many D-1 colleges. Now he's playing at his "dream college" and he couldn't be happier.

Truman- welcome to the hsbbweb. Great 1st post with lots of good info. You've obviously been lurking here

Attending camps can be very beneficial for both the player and the college coaches if it's a school you're really interested in. It's a great way to get to know the coaches better- they of course will be on their best behavior, but you can get an idea of their coaching style and personalities. If possible also plan to attend some of their games so you can see the coaches in action.

Truman, hope you'll keep posting as your son progresses through each stage at his dream school.

And to the original question, hand-written envelopes are usually the work of assistants or employees in the athletic departments. Same thing with Christmas cards. It makes the recruit feel special but doesn't always indicate more interest. Some colleges just have well oiled recruiting practices. But it's still fun for the player to receive them!

Truman, welcome, excellent first post. Thanks.

Again, I am going to repeat myself, parents have to stop trying to figure out what some of this stuff actually means and just get on with taking care of business. Who cares if it was hand written or not, if this is a possible good fit for your son, then take advantage, and let your son handle his business, which means making contact. It's up to HIM to make the most of each contact. If son got a questionare (handwritten or computer generated) from an SEC school, fill it out, then send your sons schedule, for either the school year or summer, if they show up, then you will find out the true interest.

You don't have to feel that your son has to attend camp to get interest. Use resources close to home to get tips on how to become a better player, and make sure that when the time is right he plays in venues that will have a lot of schools that will be good fits for your player.

Let's be honest, 97% of first contact for players is most likely for their camp. The other 3% is probably because the coach saw the player and was really impressed and wants to pursue that interest. It's what you do to take advantage of that contact that will determine more contact later on when it's more important (after July 1 of his senior year for most).

JMO.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:
Let's be honest, 97% of first contact for players is most likely for their camp. The other 3% is probably because the coach saw the player and was really impressed and wants to pursue that interest. It's what you do to take advantage of that contact that will determine more contact later on when it's more important (after July 1 of his senior year for most).

JMO.

Agree, son went to school camp that was sending him info, head coach never said boo to him. Compare the current roster of the school/s sending invites, etc. Where do the players come from, your area, south, CA? Are they first team players from league, etc? I know it may be too early on the first team thing, but many programs have recruiting patterns one can look for.

in uhis age of omputerization HANDWRITTEN COMMUNICAT6ION IS A KEY SIGNAL-----TRUST ME ON THIS

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
in uhis age of omputerization HANDWRITTEN COMMUNICAT6ION IS A KEY SIGNAL-----TRUST ME ON THIS

Absolutely, the coach hasn't had time to enter the player into his current data base (trust me on that one).

This is the age of electronic communication if a coach isn't using it, it's because he's too old to try to learn how to. If the coach is too busy to be bothered with that, then he hires people who do. How does one keep track of all of the players he is recruiting (until seperation from real interest from just to correspondance) if not in an electronic data base? In a rolodex?

PUHD makes a good point on things to watch for in recruiting. If a coach is sending mail to a player 1000 miles away, and that state the coach is from, gives state money to their players and recruits locally or statewide, why are they sending out this info to out of state players?

JMO.

quote:

Originally posted by CaBB:
Truman- welcome to the hsbbweb. Great 1st post with lots of good info. You've obviously been lurking here

I've not done much lurking, but have looked around a bit recently to see what this site was like. Looks like a great resource for both parents and players and with my experiences and what I've learned so far, I decided I'd share.

quote:

Truman, hope you'll keep posting as your son progresses through each stage at his dream school.

Yeah, I'll do what I can. Son is back to school from winter break. It's amazing to see how much he's matured both physically and mentally in such a short time. . .and he's only a Sophomore

quote:

And to the original question, hand-written envelopes are usually the work of assistants or employees in the athletic departments. Same thing with Christmas cards. It makes the recruit feel special but doesn't always indicate more interest. Some colleges just have well oiled recruiting practices. But it's still fun for the player to receive them!

yep. . .it's GOOD marketing. Though we undstood what "hand-written" really is, we still liked it and made it feel special.

Thanks for the info everyone. My first question was kind of off the hand-written notes topic,but just trying to read true interest. I will make sure my son has his list of questions ready...one of which will included,Where am I on you're recruiting board currently? ( This coach transferred from another college out of state and while there, he sent my son a letter--not hand written, that said my son was his number one on list.) He's in SoCal now with a new school and I'm guessing with different needs,which is understandable.
After Christmas money is tight,and the new high school coach not supportive of any college camps,scout ball or large national tournaments outside his program,even though he "says" he is. The college coach has no idea what kind of wrath my son will receive from attending this college camp. My son will attend,his choice,but we understand it won't be pretty coming back. If it turns out it is a money maker we will all feel the pain and wrath.

baseballfam4, this college will hold many other camps in the summer and fall that your son will not have to miss his high school games to attend. A college coach will understand and respect a kid who says he can't attend a camp because it conflicts with a game. I urge you to have your son say no to this coach and plan to attend a future camp.

Colleges often have "many other camps", but they're not all a "Prospect Camp". And many colleges have more than one "Prospect Camp" and many only have 1 "Prospect Camp." Also, for those with more than one "Prospect Camp" one can be a much better one to attend depending on how it's set up. So, don't just assume. . . one still needs to do their homework and ask questions of the college coach of interest.

I'll share this experience: My son had a strong interest in a good college with a strong baseball program, and so in the summer after his HS Jr. year we made a trip out of state to a this college's 2 day Prospect Camp. Besides the usual show case type of events for the coaches evaluate the various aspects of player's skill and play some games, we meant with the coach and go a better idea of what he was like; the coach gave us a tour of ALL the various athletic facilities (football stadium, basketball courts, etc) and in our off time we were able to tour around on our own to get a feel for the campus and the surrounding community. As a result, my son decided that though he really likes the coach and the program, he didn't really feel the campus and the surrounding community was what he wanted to be part of. I though the baseball program would have been enough for him. It wasn't. So, going to the camp was a big eye opener to him and gave him a better idea as to what he really wants or doesn't want.

Thanks again for advice,we really do appreciate it.
This event is the only "prospect" camp
until summer/fall. This college has both general camps and prospect camp. Either way my son decides, I think it will be a double edged sword.
Both my boys have read Shawn Green's new book,in fact its on my coffee table,I skimmed through it yesterday and found a page where he reminds himself and players to--Live in the moment,don't look back and don't get caught up looking ahead. Good advice.
I just have to keep reminding myself.

even if an assistant or a secretary addressed the envelope IT means your name was highlighted

Good news...my son decided to attend camp. He spoke with hs coach one more time and ended up getting his blessing second time around,go figure.
He also had great feedback from college coaches at camp and they have asked the whole family back to visit this coming week.

Hey, thanks for the update. That IS good news. . . and it's a great start.

My son received two camp invitations from the same school with the handwritten note on the envelope. He also received an email invitation. He wrote the coach and thanked him, and told him that he would be attending a showcase and a tournament where the college would be attending, and hoped that they would meet at one of those events. As best I could tell, the college did not stop by to watch my son at either event. At the showcase, I would have known he was at one of my son's games. If they did see him, they weren't interested.

My thought was if the coach was interested, they would have taken a few minutes to see him when he was right in front of them at these events, so I discounted the handwritten note. If it was a college which was a good fit for my son, he would have attended the camp anyway, just in case we misinterpreted the situation.

beadvised that coaches cannot talk to plsyer or his parents until the event is over

Yes feedback was after camp and to my husband from head coach.

My son has received a third camp invitation from the same school. This time the handwritten note was signed by the coach who was at the showcase, not the head coach. So I'm softening my cynical attitude just a bit.