recruiting questions!!! help

Deep breaths mom...

Coaches will contact travel ball, scout team & HS coaches to gather information on a player. They may be really serious and they may not be, you can never tell.

Good news is that there is some interest.

lol. i am trying. yes, im happy he is getting many letters and emails but i just wonder should we be like, great he has interest from big schools or should we be like, probably every baseball player is getting these letters. and i don't want to ask other parents "is your son getting letters"? that would be ignorant.

What graduation year is he?

2012.

Many "players" start getting stuff in July of their Jr year. This will start to grow as he plays in more events.

He should sit down and make up a list of 30 schools that interest him. Start with stretch schools (both baseball and academic) and work down. Get the recruting coach email address and send a short profile and let them know he is interested. As his summer schedule gets firmed up toward the end of his HS season send out an update with his summer schedule. Go to a couple of his target schools summer camps.

He will continue to get emails and invites to camps, be selective they are looking for players, but they also help fund their programs.

Good luck.

Take a breath, be patient, but it really sounds good for you son! Good luck, and it's ok to be excited...

thanks!!!

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It is a very exciting time for your son, and family. Can be nerve racking trying to read between the lines of all the camps/showcase/questionairres etc.
My advice, would be to get on the NCAA website and verify he has all his core classes set and GPA is in order, plan for senior year. Register him for SAT's, ACT and the NCAA eligibility center.
Make a list of the schools that may fit him academically and talent wise and send an email of interest and follow up with all schools about events he will be attending and spring schedule for HS, summer schedule etc.
If he has drawn interest from a school he is very interested in, he can call coaches, they can not call him until JULY 1 of 2011. As all college coaches have said, a kid can call us 100 times, we can not return calls or call them until July 1 of after Junior Year.
Good Luck, have fun, stay humble and proud.

It's hard to keep it all in perspective, this so-called "recruiting process". The process is filled with expectations, uncertainties, successes and failures. You may end up somewhere that was not your destination. It is not unlike so many other things in one's life, a new job search, a new home or new partner. What is certain is that the simpler you keep the process the easier it will be on you.

You have less control over the eventual outcome than you think. There is a school for every player that will fit nicely and rather than trying to drive the process, a better plan is to let the process drive you. These feelings will be stirred up with the arrival of each letter of interest, each phone call, each campus visit, each time you pay a bill related to travel and expenses for the "recruiting process". You have to confine your thoughts to your own player. Comparisons to other players will only cause you to clench your fingers tighter around your own son's process. You need to have a loose grip, willing to allow a change in destination. You are more along for the ride than you are the driver.

Take the steps necessary to keep the process moving. Do whatever is needed but don't help too much. Don't let your preferences take over the whole process and never let your emotions direct the gameplan.

These are my opinions upon reflection. Certainly they are not meant to supercede others suggestions.

PADino summed it up pretty well.

One more comment and this comes from my wife. (of course women understand this stuff better than us guys)

She is of the opinion that most of the college recruiting coaches are "just a bunch of car salesmen". "they will say anything to get my son to their camp and when it comes time to follow up they don't. When they say they will call they don't, so be very careful." “Some are reputable but unfortunately most are not, at least when it comes to following up when they say they will.”

You really need to temper your excitement and ask the tough questions, or at least help your son ask them. Find a place that is really interested in your son and help foster this relationship. There will be many highs and lows, but just keep your expectations in check and it will all work out. Each program is typically bringing in 7 new players so you really need to understand where your son fits on this list of 7.

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Take the steps necessary to keep the process moving. Do whatever is needed but don't help too much. Don't let your preferences take over the whole process and never let your emotions direct the gameplan.

minivanmom,

PA Dino and Momof1B gave you excellent advice. Getting letters, emails and calls from coaches is both flattering and fantastic. Getting your NCAA eligibility is a great place to start too. However, it is really up to your son to reach out to the schools he is most interested in and keep the "process moving". Doors will constantly open and close throughout the process, you want them to be the right doors. It really is alot of work that takes alot of persistence and patience. Best of luck to you and your son.

BOF,

From your wife's comments, I think we may somehow be related by marriage. My wife has said the same thing, almost verbatim as she was knee deep in this process too. She can detect bullshirt, like a hunting dog finds pheasants in the tall weeds.

minivanmom, you now have some really good advice and information to go with. Like BOF said, "take a deep breath", his wife is 100% on, when she said they talk like used car salesman about our sons. File the letters in Jr's scrap box after the process is finished. Most likely the school your son goes to won't be one of them.

Your son is on a "good player" list the schools work off of.

Our son is a sophomore in JR college, several schools came down to see him this fall. One recruiter told him he would be one to two year starter at X school depending on whether he gets drafted. Guess what, son never heard a word again from that two bit program.

When they invite your son down whether that be unofficial or official visit, they are serious. The school our son choose was the only one that did that and they made the only offer. I'm of the belief that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. If we waited for big U to come knocking he would be out of baseball.

Most people can tell where their son is in the baseball talent pool, know your son's abilities and if big X school comes knocking, check out their roster to see if your son is of same caliber. For our son, he knew the offer he got would not be matched by any other program.

Best wishes for your son.

Pop Up

Signs of genuine, true-blue interest for a 2012 at this point (above and beyond the early letter):

* Personal emails...be careful here though, some coaches/programs are good at blasting emails that look personal. I would say a personal email is one where the coach is giving you direct information about where he heard about you or saw you play and asking for information back...like a schedule.

* School has contacted your HS/summer coach. Not just a letter...but a phone call or email asking for specifics about you.

* School has invited you to come for an unoffical visit in the near future. Mass mailing 'junior days' are good, but not as good as a more intimate and personal visit invitation.

* Personal, hand written letter...similar to the email described above.

* A request, through HS/summer coach or via email, for you to call the coach to discuss his school and your potential interest.

There are more, I'm sure...but these are the ones in the experience of our two sons that signaled genuine interest at this point in time (early Junior year in HS).

From my experience I have seen too many parents over estimate their sons baseball talent. Thus they expect TOO MUCH to happen TOO SOON in the recruiting process. Too many take a camp invite as a sign of sincererecruiting interest---too many do not return every questionnaire simply because they feel the school is not right for their son, at least in the parents mind.NEVER SHUT ANY DOOR !!!!
Let me give you just one example---my son went into May of his senior year with no decision made.He had turned down officials to the likes of Fresno State--out of the blue comes a call from New Mexico State--he gets off the phone with huge grin on his face while telling me he is headed to Las Cruces, NM the next weekend for an official--in the call they informed him that they were done recruiting JUCO players and that they money left for a frosh pitcher and outfielder and he was the frosh outfielderthey wanted to bring in ---talk about interest !!! His deal was made during his visit thanx to no doors being shut.

Bottom line to parents and players: Never get too high or too low in your expectations--if you have the talent and have been seen in the right venues it will all come together---good luck and relax

Great advice TR, but it is so hard to have a good perspective when it is you kid. It is also very hard to understand that there is lots of time when a bunch of your buddies are signing NLI’s in Nov.

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Originally posted by BOF:
Great advice TR, but it is so hard to have a good perspective when it is you kid. It is also very hard to understand that there is lots of time when a bunch of your buddies are signing NLI’s in Nov.

Amen to this BOF! All of this advice is so excellent for first timers like myself. But it does cover both ends of the spectrum...excitement that I'm pretty sure Mood Kid has the goods and will get to keep playing .....but frustration/envy that he's not one of those "early" offerees.

Thought this might be at least a little useful in this discussion. Below is the beginning of an email my son received today from a high-D1 school. I sometimes think we parents can mistake this for genuine interest.

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Our coaching staff has either seen you play, or you have been highly recommended to us. This has established you as one of the premier High School baseball players in the country....

(NOTE: My son committed to a different D1 back in February and signed this past Wednesday. The school that sent this is not far away from us and should have known. Its obviously from a mailing list...but like the Christmas card you occasionally get from the White House you should not mistake it for the "real" thing.)

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but like the Christmas card you occasionally get from the White House you should not mistake it for the "real" thing.)

oh my....that was harsh. lol. by the way, i still believe in santa.

that white house christmas card thing was funny, that was my point....are mostly all hs players getting letters? i know it is not a 'real' expression of sincere interest. but i try to keep my conversations with other baseball parents light. so, i'm not sure of the little things. that's why i have you guys!!! so glad i do

Minivanmom - I remember my son receiving what looked like a hand written letter from a well known highly competitive academic university in the Northeast, signed by the head coach. It was inviting him to their 3 day, fairly expensive camp. Upon further examination, although addressed by hand on the envelope, and calling him by first name, but not last name, in the letter, it really was a copy. It helped that one of his summer teammates had the exact same letter addressed to him by name, with the same handwriting and the same script idiosyncrasies.
The other thing that clinched it was, he actually was fairly heavily recruited by the same coach, later in the summer, and did receive a hand written "personal" letter with different handwriting.
I would just offer this up. You will know when the interest is "real."

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"From my experience I have seen too many parents over estimate their sons baseball talent."

THE KIDS TODAY GET OVERESTIMATED ENOUGH !!!!!

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