Recruiting Service Question

There are a ton of recruiting services out there, from really cheap to very expensive. About the only thing they can do for you that you can't do for yourself is put juniors name in a central database that can be searched by coaches.

It has been asserted by many on here that the recruiting packets that are sent to coaches from recruiting services usually wind up in the round file. Any person/service that presents itself as to being in a greater position to have a coaches ear or have some special influence with coaches, should be dealt with a great deal of skepticism.
We did not use a recruiting service so I am ignorant as to their value.

We use berecruited and it has helped some. Certainly worht the $69 we paid. It's easy to upload pics and videos. You can send coaches an invitation to view your profile. We have received many camp invites, but also personal calls based strictly on the website.

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Originally posted by 2013 Dad:
We use berecruited and it has helped some. Certainly worht the $69 we paid. It's easy to upload pics and videos. You can send coaches an invitation to view your profile. We have received many camp invites, but also personal calls based strictly on the website.

I think this is the way to go as well..we used be recruited for posting photos and vids.I used the blog to invite coaches to his games..a recuiting service has no magic potion.You can easily make contact with the same coacehes he does via email and letters.The bottom line is you can do the same "leg " work that the service does and save yourself the cash..get him to a pbr showcase so he can get some video up and get on the radar screen.

CPLZ has it right. My pessism on these recruiting services is they don't really know the player, making any recommendation questionable even if the services claims they know the coach. The player is a piece of meat worth a payment. You can put video online yourself and send the link to coaches via email.

As far as college coach contacts, I would like to think you selected a known showcase team where the coaching staff has college contacts. My son got injured at the beginning of the showcase. An assistant coach on his travel team (a former D1 coach) called a major conference coach and was willing to put his repuation on the line vouching for my son. It's an example of the kind of contacts a showcase team should have.

There are no right answers in this stuff, but lots of wrong answers. Best of luck in choosing a path that leads to a great opportunity for your son. Sometime, you just need to find someone who can help out. That help could come from a friend, a coach, a scout, a teacher, a showcase or even a recruiting service. I would never discount anything, but I would be careful where I spend my money.

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There are no right answers in this stuff, but lots of wrong answers.

Very well said!

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Originally posted by jemaz:
There are no right answers in this stuff, but lots of wrong answers. Best of luck in choosing a path that leads to a great opportunity for your son. Sometime, you just need to find someone who can help out. That help could come from a friend, a coach, a scout, a teacher, a showcase or even a recruiting service. I would never discount anything, but I would be careful where I spend my money.

I have had several dads ask me did my son use a service and exactly what did we do...my answer is similar to this answer....what worked for us may not work for them...I have seen many different approaches work...so keeping an open mind would be best advice..

Having a travel coach with good connections and reputation was a big plus for us.

I am in favor of a college baseball placement service where they look to match the student-athlete's academic capabilities with his athletic capabilties, with the main goal being to help the student-athlete attend the best college from an academic standpoint and play baseball there as well. But it depends on exactly what the goal is of both the student-athlete and his parents. These types of services generally take a pro-active approach to assist the student athlete to play college baseball.

I dont believe there any wrong answers here as well. The only thing I can say about a recruiting service is to actually research them before deciding on one. Anyone can spend the money to pay a company to advertise their child, but are they actually providing the player with realistic expectations and goals. I see far to many players out there saying they want to go D1 want to go D1 want to go D1. Well how many actually go D1?

Services should provide the player with an understanding of where they are presently, and the goals they should have so they can place themselves in the best academic/athletic atmosphere where they will be successfull.

Yes companies can say they got a player this place, and that place. That is the easy part. But companies should be showing how many athletes they have placed that have gone on to the most important thing, and that is having gone on to recieve there COLLEGE DEGREE.... That is what is most important.

PERIOD!

I believe there are approximately 10,000+ DI baseball players. The majority of those are fresh., sophs., jrs., So you could estimate that about 3,000 or more will go DI each year.

In addition, some of the very best get drafted and signed.

I'm not sure whether most think that is a lot or not. But I think it's a fairly decent number. Yet it is a small enough number that most DI schools can't rely on any recruiting service.

Even though I coached at the small college level for years, I've never really understood why anyone would need a recruiting service to play at a non scholarship school. Pick your DIII schools if that is what you're looking for and show some interest. You will be surprised by the response, especially if they find out you have talent.