Recruiting

What grade?
What position?
What kind of grades?
Size?

There are a ton of variables. Are you asking specifically about your son or just generally about any kid?

Rich
www.PlayInSchool.com

quote:

Originally posted by PIS:
What grade?
What position?
What kind of grades?
Size?

There are a ton of variables. Are you asking specifically about your son or just generally about any kid?

Rich
www.PlayInSchool.com

Just in general. But also about my player.

If you are talking general, you do a lot of research on this site.

If you are talking specifics, you'll have to offer up some information. There is a big difference between why a 2013 grad that runs a 7.5 60 isn't getting talked to vs a 2015 grad that only weighs 145 lbs isn't getting talked to.

Rich
www.PlayInSchool.com

BIG-D...If Little-D is a total stud he will probably be found no matter what. That means he's one of the 100-200 best players in the nation with some clear skill set including size, power, arm and speed most of which are in the plus category.

Assuming he is not one of those then he is in with the other 10,000's of thousands of kids fighting for a few houndred spots on D1 rosters. Figure 8-10 spots in about 125 schools.

Rule of thumb - the 5'10" 165lb kid with slightly above average speed and arm with limited to no power isn't going anywhere. It will not matter how good his skills are unless he is going to hit .425 in college he won't get very serious looks. BTW noone projects to be a .425 hitter in college.

So as PIS asks what is Little D today and what can he be projected to be when he is 18.

The best travel program that will offer your son substantial playing time is still, and likely always will be, the most critical piece of the puzzle. You especially want a program that has a reputation for being your son's advocate, not just a team that likes to win trophies.

Showcasing can help to some extent. There is particular value to doing a Perfect Game event, given their tremendous web profile pages that have credibility and are therefore actually consulted by colleges (which is not to say they won't ultimately want to judge for themselves). IMHO showcasing is often much overdone, however, and it's a great way to throw away a ton of money if you go into it without a plan.

Waiting for others to find you is a recipe for disappointment. Whoever told you that has no idea what they are talking about. Maybe someone will find you, or maybe they won't. Maybe it'll be who you wish it would be, or maybe the only offers will come from schools you aren't that interested in. Maybe it'll be a strong offer, maybe it'll be the minimum, maybe it'll be as an invited walk-on when it should've been more. Recruiting is about more than going SOMEWHERE. It's about taking charge of the process and doing your darndest to get what it is that you want for yourself.

Generally speaking, college baseball is not glory and it is not recreation. It is a way to work your way through college at least partially, working harder than you ever thought possible. Sitting around waiting for something good to happen marks you as someone who is not the kind of person likely to thrive in the collegiate baseball environment. Same goes for asking your dad to do the work for you. The best advice I could give your son is that if he really wants this, he'd better get crackin'. I suggest he work at identifying his best travel team options for next summer, then spend the winter communicating with colleges of interest and getting ready to have the best HS spring season of his life.

The best thing you can do is, show him that roadmap and then let him decide if he's going to do it or not. You should not do it for him. Your involvement will hurt, not help his chances.

And oh yes, he'd better bust his buns in the classroom, too.

quote:

And oh yes, he'd better bust his buns in the classroom, too.

Milo.....Great post..the last part is so true...doing the best you can in the classroom opens up more doors...and I do not simply mean getting straight "A's"

I have told some of my friends that have asked me for advice....If your son is getting C's...work harder to get B's and if they are getting B's work hard to get A's and if you are getting A's take some honor or AP classes....every little improvement will help make you more attractive to a college coach and improve your chances.

There are three levels where grades/test scores matter.

First, there are minimum levels for eligibility for D1 and D2. If you don't meet the minimums, it doesn't matter how good you are. There are no exceptions. No one can bend these rules for you. If you don't meet the minimums, you get no D1/D2 offers, period. (But JuCo's remain an important option!)

Second, you have to get to the point where you can get through the admissions department at the school you want to attend. The good news is, the baseball coach's blessing can get you into a school that might otherwise be out of reach for you. But he can only do so much for you.

Third, the coach wants to know that if he spends a chunk of his budget on you, you are going to survive at his school. Nothing hurts more than finding out at the end of December that the player won't be in school when games start in two months. So if you're asking a coach to take a chance on you, you might want to show the proverbial "strong upward trend" in your grades from here on out. Don't tell me that you are willing to do the work to reach your goals. Show me.

Think of it this way: The better a student you are, the fewer places you will be eliminated from consideration before you even lace up the spikes.

quote:

Originally posted by luv baseball:
BIG-D...If Little-D is a total stud he will probably be found no matter what. That means he's one of the 100-200 best players in the nation with some clear skill set including size, power, arm and speed most of which are in the plus category.

Assuming he is not one of those then he is in with the other 10,000's of thousands of kids fighting for a few houndred spots on D1 rosters. Figure 8-10 spots in about 125 schools.

Rule of thumb - the 5'10" 165lb kid with slightly above average speed and arm with limited to no power isn't going anywhere. It will not matter how good his skills are unless he is going to hit .425 in college he won't get very serious looks. BTW noone projects to be a .425 hitter in college.

So as PIS asks what is Little D today and what can he be projected to be when he is 18.

luv

without getting to personnal on this site, wich I have been follwoing for a while,
here's the "numbers".
16
6"
195 lb
C, 3rd(primarily a catcher)
1.9 - 2.0 pop time(last clocked)
7.0 60 time(he is a catcher)
hit .487(last year)
2.78 GPA(working hard this year and next to get over 3.0)

I haved looked for info on how to promote your ball player to get it started. I know he needs a workout video and I could use some recommendations with that. I just dont want him,(if he has the skills) to miss out on an oppratunity because of something I did or didnt do. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

So, numbers are a good start, but obviously don't tell the whole story of course.

First, I'd guess the reason his phone isn't blowing up is because he's either a 10th or 11th grader. So no worries there.

From a communication standpoint though, he should be thinking about outbound communication more then inbound at this point. Meaning he should be emailing and calling coaches. But, simultaneously he should be working his network. His coaches or instructors that know coaches. Having those guys put calls and emails in to coaches on his behalf is huge. I'm biassed, but I think having film go along with those phone calls or emails is huge. It changes the conversation from "let me tell you about this catcher" to "let me show you this catcher". I can help you with that if needed.

Back to the numbers. Height, weight, pop, 60 all look good. I don't put stock in batting avg. The number that is going to hurt most will be GPA. That pesky little number has a way of limiting options. The lower the GPA, the better player you have to be. It is imperative that he is showing an upward trend. There are a million 6ft catchers. Why should a coach sign the kid with a 2.8 when he could sign another comparable kid with a 3.8?

I'm a former high school teacher. I've been in the trenches. I don't know your son, but I can guarantee that he can and should do better. Print this out and give it to him. Remind him that coaches need players that are disciplined on the field and in the classroom!

Hope this helps.

Rich
www.PlayInSchool.com
www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

quote:

Big-D posted.....I know he needs a workout video and I could use some recommendations with that.

I suggest you contact Rich at www.PlayInSchool.com. He posted at the top of this thread.

The big question is, what class year is he?

If he's a senior, he's really behind the 8 ball at this point. With his GPA, assuming comparable test scores, he's certainly D1 eligible. He would need to focus on schools that can handle someone with his GPA; I would not waste any effort on places like UVA or Wm. & Mary, for example. And since that narrows his options, pairing that with the fact that a lot of schools have already recruited the bulk if not all of their 2013 classes at this point will make it tough. It gets even tougher given that travel season is past and D1 scouting at HS spring games is very, very limited. On the other hand, JuCo and D3 options are still plentiful, so while I wouldn't close the door on the D1's, if you aim in the right direction you can still do well.

If he's a junior, he has plenty of time. The numbers you give are very solid, so again the key would be his ability to link up with the right summer/fall team. You don't want to let the next cycle -- his final cycle -- go by without getting the job done.

If he's a sophomore, then even given the vagaries of HS stat keeping, .487 is mighty nice for what would have been his freshman year. I would think he'd have all sorts of options and plenty of time left to develop a plan, work the plan and reap success.

A lot of good info throughout this thread. Question that somewhat pertains to the topic.
Is there a site or list of minimal GPA and SAT score requirements for colleges? This would be helpful in focusing energy towards schools in which the player may be more qualified for academically speaking.

SE_Dad -

Answering the question of "minimal GPA & SAT" might be a little bit misleading.

This site has the NCAA Clearinghouse eligibility "minimums".

https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibil.../hs/d1_standards.pdf

I would warn you that if you are 3.55 with an 800 Sat you are not likely to be a huge recruit unless you have are a top national recruit. And the reality of a 2.0 getting a 1010 on SAT's is unlikely.

So while there is a sliding scale with GPA & SAT, there is also a sliding scale with grades & talent. As stated earlier in this thread, the better the athlete, the worse grades you can get away with. And vice versa.

Footnote: the NCAA Clearinghouse minimums are ridiculous. I might step out on a limb here and say if you are a parent worried about NCAA minimums you might want to consider skipping next baseball season and spend that time with a tutor. That is, unless your son is being recruited Coach Calipari at Kentucky, aka AAA to the NBA.

Rich
www.PlayInSchool.com
www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

There is no generally published info on that subject because honestly it varies college by college, coach by coach and even then, year by year.

Some schools, such as Stanford, require you to go through admissions on the same criteria that every non-athlete faces.

Most will give some amount of "thumb on the scales" treatment to a recruited athlete, upon the coach's say so. Each coach has an idea of how far he can push and how many times he can push each year. So, he may have the ability to get in one kid who is well below the norm, maybe 2-3 more who are below the norm, 2-3 more who are marginal, and then the rest had better be OK on their own.

Coaches love the kid who has great numbers because he can save his chits to use with another recruit. Conversely, if you are asking to be the one kid in each class who he has to bend over backward to get in, realize that he's not going to do that for you unless you are really one of his top recruits in that class. If you are easily replaceable with someone else at your position, it's not going to happen for you.

A lot of kids are in that middle range -- maybe not quite at the profile of the non-athlete freshman, but not so bad that they create friction between the coach and the admissions department, either. It's not unusual to see a kid take a lower percentage scholarship offer in exchange for the help getting into a school he really wants academically, and by the same token, a coach may dangle that as a way to get a kid to take a lesser amount so that he can preserve more of his 11.7 budget for others as well.

It's more art than science, it requires a lot of seat-of-the-pants reasoning or intuition on the coach's part, and there are of course many decisions where, years later and with 20/20 hindsight, the coach may wish he had done differently.

So you don't often see the consistency that would allow you to construct a rule as to whether you have enough going for you or not. Basically if theree is mutual interest between the player and the coaches, then they start looking at such things and they see if it can be worked out. Or not.

Experienced travel coaches accumulate knowledge of what their players have gotten under various circumstances over a period of years, and that allows for some guidance as to where you'll fit in the overall scheme of things. But even with that, sometimes the college coaches will surprise you with what they can, or sometimes cannot get done.

One thing I will say is that the larger the school, the more room they have for "hiding" weaker students in the incoming freshman class. At smaller schools, they just cannot absorb as many, and most of the slots for athletes with weaker academic numbers go to football and basketball players.

quote:

Originally posted by SE_DAD:
A lot of good info throughout this thread. Question that somewhat pertains to the topic.
Is there a site or list of minimal GPA and SAT score requirements for colleges? This would be helpful in focusing energy towards schools in which the player may be more qualified for academically speaking.

Collegeboard.com will list the middle 50% (and upper and lower 25%) for SAT scores, which is helpful in targeting schools.

Anther website I happened upon is cappex.com . You may do a college search, then click on admissions in the left side-bar. A scattergram will show the GPA and SAT for admitted, waitlisted, and denied students. I am not sure about the tuition/room and board costs being up to date on that site though, but the scattergram is very informative.

But like midlo and others said, the coach may be able to help somewhat for those not necessarily on the top rung.

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
The best travel program that will offer your son substantial playing time is still, and likely always will be, the most critical piece of the puzzle. You especially want a program that has a reputation for being your son's advocate, not just a team that likes to win trophies.

Showcasing can help to some extent. There is particular value to doing a Perfect Game event, given their tremendous web profile pages that have credibility and are therefore actually consulted by colleges (which is not to say they won't ultimately want to judge for themselves). IMHO showcasing is often much overdone, however, and it's a great way to throw away a ton of money if you go into it without a plan.

Waiting for others to find you is a recipe for disappointment. Whoever told you that has no idea what they are talking about. Maybe someone will find you, or maybe they won't. Maybe it'll be who you wish it would be, or maybe the only offers will come from schools you aren't that interested in. Maybe it'll be a strong offer, maybe it'll be the minimum, maybe it'll be as an invited walk-on when it should've been more. Recruiting is about more than going SOMEWHERE. It's about taking charge of the process and doing your darndest to get what it is that you want for yourself.

Generally speaking, college baseball is not glory and it is not recreation. It is a way to work your way through college at least partially, working harder than you ever thought possible. Sitting around waiting for something good to happen marks you as someone who is not the kind of person likely to thrive in the collegiate baseball environment. Same goes for asking your dad to do the work for you. The best advice I could give your son is that if he really wants this, he'd better get crackin'. I suggest he work at identifying his best travel team options for next summer, then spend the winter communicating with colleges of interest and getting ready to have the best HS spring season of his life.

The best thing you can do is, show him that roadmap and then let him decide if he's going to do it or not. You should not do it for him. Your involvement will hurt, not help his chances.

And oh yes, he'd better bust his buns in the classroom, too.

Terrific post, Midlo!