Recruiting Colleges and Universities baseball tour

sfdiamom,

Welcome to HSBBWEB! I'm absolutely intrigued by this idea. I've not heard of anything like this where I live. I guess it would be worthwhile if your son is getting in front of the coaches for the schools he is most interested in....that is my bottom line. I'll assume that the coaches will have background information about each player and possibly some previous exposure to them as well. I would also like to know the organizers success rate, his typical customers, and how long has he been doing this. Also, I'm curious why you would do this if he is playing for an elite team already?

I think you are doing the right thing by researching and seeking input. I would probably be a little leery as well.

I, too, would like to hear more about this organization. I've never heard of this before, but the concept does seem good if proven successful

My son is getting some looks, but he is a pitcher not a thrower and at the elite tournaments all the college coachs are watching the 90+ throwers. My son is the slow and steady guy, a great record but not flashy sits at 83-85 and hit 86 in Atlanta on Monday..They call this tour "Selective Recruiting" He has two tours a summer, one to Virginia, Carolinas, Ga and Al. I understand something like 33 kids went and 25 were approached by coachs interested. He sounds like an up right guy. I know one kid that went on the first one and yes he was getting looked at. He is a LHP and coachs were calling. So he is doing the Florida one as well. They will play the three games on a college field. The first stop will be FIU early Wed and the game will be Wed afternoon at FAU..they say 22 college coachs attend the games, they are not paid to attend so he never knows how many will show up. I am sitting on the fence I want to send him but if if is just a money maker? But then he does see all those colleges.. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

My husband reminded me this is an invite only. He ran our spring tournament in Miami and selected my son to his honor team, even tho our team did not win a game.(the only player from our team) Then he sent the invite. I think it sounds great... The list of colleges he will go include UF. FS. and he will see the baseball field and have a tour by the coachs..

Can the organizer provide a list of his program's alumni; along with the schools where they ended up? I'd think he'd want you to know if he's been successful.

Then, if you receive the list, you might get in touch with a couple of the parents whose sons participated and get their take on it.

Best of luck to your son!

I am not sure how you can visit and tour 18 colleges in 5 days and play games too.....we just did our own and found 2 schools a day was max spending time with the coach and seeing the facilities. Games too??? Will they be moving 24 hours a day? Honestly, how can they do that?

I easily found their website: www.thesrbaseball.com, if anyone is interested. I know nothing about it other than what I just read.

I'm a skeptic by nature, so I checked out the website. They do list alumni and their college commitment, along with all of the colleges visited in the past. Of the 111 alumni, 9 of them are attending one of the colleges visited. Of the 28 who went last summer, 2 of them are attending one of those colleges. So basically, you have a 7-8% probability of playing baseball at one of those colleges.

If exposure is what you need or want, it may give you that. I don't know the price, but they're attempting to make money. There's nothing wrong that...PG is a "moneymaker" too (I assume), but there's nothing wrong with making a profit as long as both parties are satisfied.

If visiting colleges is your goal, I suggest you and your son do it together. Visit a variety of schools large and small, and see what the right fit might be academically as well as for baseball. And definitely visit the schools that have shown interest if there's interest on your part as well.

the correct URL is: Selective Recruiting Baseball

The program includes schools that would fit your son's skills (funny how they get a pic of SC in there huh). As far as the places they have visited,
I can tell you now that most likely at the places they play you do not have all D1 programs attend to watch the players. As noted in the college where the alumni have attended as well as schools that visited while at which campuses. Playing at FIU and FAU will bring most likely smaller D1 programs and D2 and JUCO. My concern would be the lack of where their alumni went in the years they have been in business or else it has not been updated.

I don't understand the value of this tour by trying to get seen while pitching, if he only pitchs once, maybe twice. Making visits to schools that you can target later on that he likes may be worth the price, as these visitations tend to get costly done on your own.
When son was in HS, senior summer, this is what his travel program did, they played at campuses around FL, GA and Alabama meeting up with other Connie Mac teams. It was a great experience to see and visit the campuses he was being recruited to, expensive, but well worth getting a feel of playing on their fields and visiting the campus.

CAn these visits be looked upon as workouts on d-1 campuses?

TR,
The simplest way to avoid being considered a tryout is to have the coaches of the host college not attend the game. (13.11.3.2) For example, if 18 colleges are participating, and a game is played at FIU, then 17 sets of coaches can watch, but the FIU coaches would not.

Depending on the structure of the entire event, it may be possible to consider the games to be an open event (13.11.3.3) or perhaps as a camp.

Just wanted to update you on the Florida tour. Actually it was pretty good. Tiring and alot of time in a bus, but my son did go to 18 colleges, where the coach's spoke to them and gave them a walk thru of the baseball field and training rooms etc. Plus they played three times at three different College Baseball fields. Pitcher were on the mound for 6 outs. There were College scots watching. My son got the chance to see where he might want to spend the next 4-5 years and where he did not. They saw the college campus as well. And the other interesting point he has two colleges (D1) now talking to him and one(D2)showing interest. I wish I would have done the out of state tour instead of playing in at East Cobb and the other perfect games.

sfdiamom,

Congrats and thanks for the feeback. I think this was a new concept to a lot of people including myself. Best of luck in your son's recruiting efforts.

The Florida Bombers are also doing a small tour. Team Xcel has a larger one planned.