Reading between the lines

Here's one for you...My son took an unofficial visit to a school that he had gotten 2 or 3 letters from. When we met with the coach, he told us they don't recruit out of state...never got another letter or e-mail from them. My son wrote them completely off his list.... July 1, guess who is the first coach to call? From then on, they called weekly and were going to make an offer...
There were others who wrote, sent Thankdsgiving Cards, Christmas Cards, Birthday Cards etc and never called at all come July 1.

Enjoy the attention as there is no telling where you'll stand in the needs of a particular school. The year your son is being recruited, they may not need a SS or a catcher. May have signed one the year before or next year. We learned that in some situations (schools) your a year to old or a year to young.

Coach Merc has given you great examples of the recruiting ride.
Someone else had asked this question so I went back to look over a recruiting book that I put together for son. One school he got constant mail from never called, his second choice school sent only one letter, called weekly after July 1. July 1 he got calls from coaches who sent nothing.

Just one important thing to remember, don't ever let onto your player that there might be many others receiving the letters as well. It is a time when he should feel special, you will see those letters can motivate him to be the best he can be, as I saw lots of lazy habits go away, positive attitude when son was being recruited.

The school he now attends sent weekly letters, but that is how they recruit. Never a camp invite. No tickets. But lots of emails back and forth. And son called him often as well. That was pretty much the indicator that he would get an offer come July 1. A strong friendship had developed, but again, that is how the coach recruits. One also has to take it as it comes, as Coach Merc says, things change and so do the needs and wants of the program. I know of a position player that went to every camp for years, developed strong bonds with the coaches, but in the end he would have sat for a year, where they felt he needed to go where he would play asap. They just didn't need him as his position was pretty much filled for three years. The best thing was that the coach was being very honest.

As stated above, your son should enjoy the attention, call or email a coach if asked in the correspondence. Set up a nice notebook for all of the letters so that in a few years from now after your son is playing somewhere you too can look back to see if any of the correspondance had more meaning that others.

JerseyDad, IMO letters are fun things to get and it's better to receive them than to not. I don't think that mail indicates any kind of serious interest though in a player from MOST schools. I do think that the mail provides players an opportunity to pick up the phone and make contact for perhaps the first time.

If a school has called and then is sending mail in addition, that is much more indicative of true interest. However, the only way to gage interest is if an offer comes along.

When my son was in HS, he received letters (frequent letters) from many large and smaller schools. I'll use Boston Colelge as one that he received mail from typically a couple times a week for months! I always felt like the coach there probably didn't even know his name! He was strictly on a mailing list IMO. Different programs use mail for a variety of purposes and it's not always because they're seriously interested in that player as a recruit. I am continuing to this day to find letters and media guides stuffed in various places (two years later).... from schools he never had a call from.

Again, I would suggest to a player that he always return questionnaires. However, if you receive mail from a school you're highly interested in, pick up the phone and call. Then see if the coach continues to make personal contact with you. JMO

Jersey Dad - We knew the coach was serious when he called our son and asked him his plans for college. He also wanted our son to come to the university and have lunch with him and watch practice. That is when the coach made the offer. The letters are standard and don't mean much. It's the phonecalls that count.

TPM

quote:

Just one important thing to remember, don't ever let onto your player that there might be many others receiving the letters as well.

Interesting TPM... I was almost thinking of going the opposite direction on this. While it certainly makes sense from a motivational POV, I am concerned that he may be setting himself up for disappointment if his top schools don’t actually call come July.

Jerseydad,
ANYTHING your son receives is a positive but don’t put a lot of stock in any of it unless something just knocks your socks off. Here’s why. Coaches are very different in their approach to recruiting. You mention the SEC and since we live in SEC country my son probably received 100 pieces of mail from the University of Alabama and about 50 from Ole Miss and NO mail from Auburn until AFTER he signed his NLI with Auburn. So who was the most interested? AUBURN! Alabama sent so many newspaper clippings it would have been cheaper for them to give us a subscription to their local newspaper. The larger schools have a support staff that handles all the “paperwork” and I’m not sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. Mississippi State was still sending my son invites to their baseball camps TWO YEARS AFTER he had been playing at Auburn. I normally don’t disagree with TPM but I don’t see how you could hide the obvious about the recruiting methods. I explained the recruiting ride as it was playing out as best I could. He knew he was not the only player being recruited by a particular college and every college knew they were not the only college he was looking at. I cautioned him about getting caught up in the hype.. Recruiting is appropriately named a roller coaster ride because it has highs, lows, sharp turns and twists and some have very dark tunnels but they all come to an end ---- and the riders are almost always pleased with the outcome.
Fungo

Jerseydad,
Fungo is better at explaining some things better than I. I think I needed to explain further sorry.
First of all, your son will talk to friends and probably find out that many have received the same interest! They are smarter than we think. What I meant was, when your son opens a letter and is excited, not the time to go into the "you are one of many".

What I meant was to let your son enjoy the moment, whether he gets a letter from his favorite school, or one he never expected to hear from. It's not tht time to get into the harsh realities of recruiting. JMO. Without getting caught up in the hype, let him realize that he is very lucky to receive interest at this time and use it to his best advantage. Whether that means doing better in school, on the field, it a good time to feel good that there may be a possibility of playing ball beyond HS.

Actually I think most of them don't make a big deal about it anyway, just their parents!

Hope that explains my comment.

TPM - no need to explain yourself to me. I have learned a great deal from your posts and hope to continue to benefit from your insight.