Recruited! (maybe)

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To those that have been through the process; what indicators do you think were most significant during your son's recruiting cycle? For me I think it was the "things" that the head coach or the recruiting coordinator did or said (not the support staff) that indicated they had a real interest.

What did they do or say?

Junior was one of those kids that people seemed to have a hard time evaluating. He could be lights out, he could be pretty ok. The consequence of that was that he was highly regarded, but not the most highly regarded recruit coaches were looking at. The result was some stringing along, and there were a number of signs.

Head Coach would call and tell Junior, "we hope you're really considering us seriously, because we'd love to see you in a ***** uniform". Then we'd hear from the recruiting coordinator a few weeks in a row, and then the Head Coach would call and repeat the same thing. You could tell he had a bigger fish nibbling, but wanted to keep bait in the water for Junior.

The frustrating part, was that you couldn't move the process along because the level of interest in your son was reversly proportional to the level of interest the higher regarded prospect showed in the program.

This happened at several different schools.

At the extreme, some schools seemed to pop up out of nowhere with instant offers. This was obviously a case where junior was on their prospect list, unbeknownced to us, and they had just had a catastrophic loss in more highly ranked prospects and needed to make a move to sign someone.

There were a few schools that we considered fall backs, that we were much more direct with. They were on Juniors second tier of interest, but Junior was on their first tier of prospects. In those situations, when they asked for an official visit, we were very direct in our honesty that we were keeping options open at this point. We also didn't want to waste anyones time, but could they give us an idea of what the scholarship offer might look like? Every coach reluctantly let us know.

It still all boiled down to offers=interest, and everything else was just big love hug.

According to the NCAA you are officially being recruited the moment you get the initial contact from college

I think Fungo is using a practical definition of "recruited", which is very important in understanding whether a school is really interested.

The official definition is a little different and is sometimes important in transfer situations. For all three divisions, the NCAA criteria which constitute recruitment are: (13.02.12.1 in the D1 Manual)

(a) Providing the prospective student-athlete with an official visit;
(b) Having an arranged, in-person, off-campus encounter with the prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete’s parent(s), relatives or legal guardian(s); or
(c) Initiating or arranging a telephone contact with the prospective student-athlete, the prospective student-athlete’s relatives or legal guardian(s) on more than one occasion for the purpose of recruitment.
(d) Issuing a National Letter of Intent or the institution’s written offer of athletically related financial aid to
the prospective student-athlete. Issuing a written offer of athletically related financial aid to a prospective student-athlete to attend a summer session prior to full-time enrollment does not cause the prospective student-athlete to become recruited.

Item (d) doesn't apply to D3, obviously. Note that by NCAA definition, receiving a letter or a single phone call from a coach doesn't consititute recruitment. Pretty clearly, those actions don't meet Fungo's practical definition either.

But negotiating a scholarship, if done on verbally in-person on-campus, doesn't officially constitute recruitment. I think that would be a significant event in gauging interest.

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It would be nice if we could add different levels to the stages of recruitment. Currently there are only two, Prospect and Recruit.

Good post Fungo. Being about 150yr old in HSBBW years I found at times that recruiting in 2002/03 is much different than today. IMHO the recruiting process has evolved and each situation has various stages, IMO some others may include.

"The audition stage"- Starts way earlier than people think. It takes time to to really grasp the fact that this is a business and with the recruiting business you want to enter it prepared to showcase yourself physically, mentally, and socially. Again, IMHO, that starts way before the recruiting process.

"In the mirror stage" There are more prospects than recruits, A player has to look at himself in the mirror and accept the fact of who he is and where he sits in the food chain. A player may have initial contact from many schools but so do many others. Try to figure where you fit, it will make the process easier.

"Prospect stage"- Time to take the blinders off, and let the game begin. You are now part of the business and hopefiully you have an idea of where you might fit and the potential opportunities within that "fit". Dreams of MLB or that elite power school should be secondary and reality should take it's place. Nothing wrong with filling out apps and profiles but realize many others do also. Are you legit or just a name on a long list of "maybes".

"Recruit Stage"- Gut check and narrowing options. Time for Mom/Dad to put their 2 cents in.

"Signed, sealed, and delivered stage" - Time to wipe off the brow, give a little pat on the back, and then back to work getting ready for that next level.

here's where we are in the process. son is class of 2010. in september 08 he rec'd around 15 letters from various colleges saying that they had seen him play over the summer, introductions, program and school info and invitations to winter camps.

selectively participated in two winter camps....

rec'd positive feedback from evaluations, college coaches expressed interest to his summer legion coach, two pro scouts took 10-15 minutes to talk one on one with him after his mound work, etc.

in early january he sent info to several schools he's interested in per the guidelines we found on hsbbw. several sent letters back requesting more info, schedules, transcripts, etc. (hopefully this is good sign)

obviously being a junior, the official contact won't come until july......he's pretty anxious at this point to get his high school and summer season started, but he's also nervous as to what may come in july when the official contact is made. definately exciting!!

i posted this, because this seems to be the norm experience for where we are in the process. occasionally on the board someone will mention their soph or junior being "recruited" and i didn't think that was allowed yet.....am i correct about that or if there is real interest from d1 and juco should we have more interest to date?

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i posted this, because this seems to be the norm experience for where we are in the process. occasionally on the board someone will mention their soph or junior being "recruited" and i didn't think that was allowed yet.....am i correct about that or if there is real interest from d1 and juco should we have more interest to date?

Your experience seems quite normal if not even accelerated at this point. There are 2010's and probably even a few 2011's who have already committed however so yes, they have been recruited already. Those are the exceptions however. Personally, I would not guage my own process in what is posted here. Stick to your gameplan and execute it.

One thing to keep in mind is that coaches cannot contact you until July 1st of junior year. There is nothing preventing you from contacting any coach in the country as often as you like. Thus, if some coach were to send you a letter, camp invite, or contact your son's high school coach and that prompted you to in turn contact them, there would be nothing preventing them from recruiting you (your son) at that time. I have always been one to ask - why wait for the phone to ring? If you think there is some interest somewhere, why wait until July 1st to find out? Some people wait until July 1st and nothing happens. Information is key. Even if you find out your son's name was just picked off a travel team roster it is better to know that now than secretly going to bed each night praying they are going to call you on July 1st.

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There are 2010's and probably even a few 2011's who have already committed however so yes, they have been recruited already.

ok.....i'm confused, which is not hard to do... are they committing without a scholarship offer? if they can't be contacted until july 1st of this year by the college coach, how can there be an accepted offer out there?

thanks for the advice about contacting coaches ourselves.....son has made contact and is maintaining regular contact with coaches at programs on his short list. definately a good idea!!!

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if they can't be contacted until july 1st of this year by the college coach, how can there be an accepted offer out there?

It is called a verbal committment and it is indeed NON-binding. Not good for either party to back out of them however unless there are extenuating circumstances. If word gets around that colleges are backing out on their verbals, they will not remain a viable program all that long. I think most decent folks train their kids that when they make a committment, that they should honor it. Thus, I would not have my son verbal somewhere unless he was 100% certain he would honor the committment.

The kid I know that did a verbal commitment did it the summer before his junior year. He was at a college camp, and that D1 college's coach basically made him a verbal offer based on his size, and bat speed. This kid was big and strong for his age, and he knew he wanted to play in CA at a D1 college so he jumped on the offer. He is there now as both coach and player went through with side of the commitment (full scholarship).

Interesting thing about this kid is that his high school did not allow sophmores to play varsity, so he had never played varsity at the time of the verbal. His junior year, he did not start, and his senior year he did just okay. He really doesn't have a defensive position, but he has size (6'4" and over 200) and power. I am hoping the kid can succeed, but many local baseball guys around here think the D1 coach made a big mistake. I'm interested to see how many years they honor that scholarship (he has zero AB's so far this year).

ClevelandDad, could you give us some history on how your son was recruited and how he came to make his decision? You seem to have a good feel for the process so your actual experience would be informative.

clevelanddad.....thanks so much for clarifying! i actually had wondered why some coaches were pushing their cell phone numbers to my son. found out from a friend that they can return calls if the kids call them first and that cell phone records are trackable to provide proof of the trail.

still didn't realize that kids could verbally commit before junior year......you learn something new everyday!!!

another question....some of the schools that we think have interest have sent son media guides. do they send them to everybody that has attended a camp or contacted them, or is that a sign that they are trying to maintain contact? son sent follow-up emails last night thanking the coaches that sent them.

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another question....some of the schools that we think have interest have sent son media guides. do they send them to everybody that has attended a camp or contacted them, or is that a sign that they are trying to maintain contact?

Great question. Let me answer the question by asking one. Who do you think is in the best position to answer that question - some message board poster who has no knowledge of the situation or the coach who actually sent the materials?

If it were ME, I would call them and ask them. I would ask them how they came about my son's name. If the said they had seen him play, I would ask for their assessment of his abilities. I would ask them if they saw him as a fit for their program and if they did, are they interested in recruiting him. I would want to hear these things with my own ears and not get it second hand from my son or any other interested party for that matter. Coaches are people just like you and me and are more than willing to talk to REASONABLE people. I would avoid telling them your son is the next greatest thing. They should have already determined that by seeing him play. If they say something like we heard about him through some tournament and want to see for ourselves at our camp, you may be more skeptical. If it is a dream school however, you may want to risk it and attend the camp. The main risk is time and money. If you have those things on your side, then there isn't much risk imho. You can also guage things by determining the level of interest or excitement in their voice.

One thing I do know is that media guides are fairly expensive to produce and thus I doubt they send them out to non-prospects.

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Originally posted by Celebrity Status:
ClevelandDad, could you give us some history on how your son was recruited and how he came to make his decision? You seem to have a good feel for the process so your actual experience would be informative.

Thank you for the compliments but I pretty much speak from my experience which was learned well before I ever heard of the hsbbweb. The best tip I ever got on recruiting was from Coach Dean Stott at Stanford. I cold-called them and he was kind enough to explain how things work. He said they never recruit a player unless they had personally seen them play. After he told me that, it all made sense to me. The whole recruiting game is talent plus exposure. Missing either piece could end your son's career. We were peripherally aware of showcases but I was skeptical of them. Looking back, I would recomend the PG events even though we never attended one. I would also target college camps of interest.

Our feeling was to find a program that wins. That could have been at any level of baseball. When we found one at the D1 level that showed a little interest, we turned it around and recruited them. Pride was not the issue. We were looking for the opportunity. My son has had the experience of a lifetime.

I dont know who told you that the coach can return calls to your son, a 2010, but they are totally wrong---they cannot call him before July 1 of this year


Also many times the early "commit" is one sided--on the players side--technically the coach cannot talk about it publicly until the NLI is signed -- I have seen many "early commits" evaporate by the time for signing the NLI arrives

Another thing: interest is interest so don't discount or ignore any of it--you have no idea how it will all evolve

L 8 Breaking,

Congratulations on yur Son's accomplishments so far!
Get ready for one of the most fun things you'll ever experience with your boy!

It also can be confusing, frustrating and downright silly!

The 3 best pieces of advice I ever got were:

1. The integrity of the Head Coach is the single
most important factor in evaluating the baseball side of things.

2. Choose a school that you would love to attend even if you weren't playing baseball.

3.Don't let the offer ($ or %) influence your opinion on #1 or #2 above!

Now, granted, not every kid gets enough choices presented to him to be picky!
We were very lucky to find a good fit (we think) for our Son for both baseball and education.

Honestly, it wasn't MY first choice, and it wasn't the best offer, but my Son just had a good feeling when he was there! Looking back, he was right!

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Originally posted by L8 Breaking:
found out from a friend that they can return calls if the kids call them first and that cell phone records are trackable to provide proof of the trail.

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posted by TRhit:
I dont know who told you that the coach can return calls to your son, a 2010, but they are totally wrong---they cannot call him before July 1 of this year.

TRhit is right. Let me expand just a bit, because this can be confusing. Players/parents can call a coach, and have a conversation if the coach answers. But a coach can't by rule call a player before July 1 after his junior year.
So the trick is to call the coach at a time when he can answer the call.

I suspect this rule is broken from time to time, but the ex-coach (basketball) at Indiana University got into trouble last year for making calls. The stakes are a lot higher in basketball.