does anyone use a recruitment service and if so which one?
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Your best recruiting service should be your high school coach, it will also be the cheapest. 
DiamondKing -
I run Play In School - College Recruiting Videos.
Please note: WE ARE NOT A RECRUITING SERVICE...we make recruiting videos. Big difference. But I'll offer my 2 cents.
You are going to find that many of us on here are not huge fans of "recruiting services". Don't get me wrong, many of them provide valuable tools such as coaches databases etc, but lots of people end up spending a lot of money to do some communication that you could have done on your own. Here is where many have trouble with a "recruiting service"... for X thousands, they will email every school in the country for you. Bells should immediately being going off in your head. No kid in the country is interested in every school. So why blow their email up.
I've worked with hundreds of kids. At the absolute most I've seen a kid communicate with 50+ schools. But that is a rare instance by a kid that "just wants to play baseball" and doesn't care if its at Harvard or the local community college.
Most kids are going to initially target a much smaller group. So why pay for a database of 1000 coaches if you really just need to look up 10?
Let me back up a second though, Zeus has some good advice and I'll get to that. Imagine the recruiting process is sort of like a job search. Most people will spruce up their resume prior to looking for work. That is the equivalent to a video (I can help with that). Then most people find work through networking. When networking doesn't get you to the right person, you get proactive by email, phone calls, and knocking on doors. That is why Zeus told you the high school coach is important. He's been around the block and hopefully has contacts.
I equate most "recruiting services" to Monster.com of high school sports. Problem is that I dont know anyone who's gotten a job off of Monster.
I probably didn't answer your question though.
Use the people in your network to communicate with the people they know. And be proactive.
Spend some time reading a bunch of old posts on here or do a search for "recruiting services" on here and you'll find more info then you'll ever need.
Good luck.
Feel free to contact me directly if you want.
Rich
www.PlayInSchool.com
I run Play In School - College Recruiting Videos.
Please note: WE ARE NOT A RECRUITING SERVICE...we make recruiting videos. Big difference. But I'll offer my 2 cents.
You are going to find that many of us on here are not huge fans of "recruiting services". Don't get me wrong, many of them provide valuable tools such as coaches databases etc, but lots of people end up spending a lot of money to do some communication that you could have done on your own. Here is where many have trouble with a "recruiting service"... for X thousands, they will email every school in the country for you. Bells should immediately being going off in your head. No kid in the country is interested in every school. So why blow their email up.
I've worked with hundreds of kids. At the absolute most I've seen a kid communicate with 50+ schools. But that is a rare instance by a kid that "just wants to play baseball" and doesn't care if its at Harvard or the local community college.
Most kids are going to initially target a much smaller group. So why pay for a database of 1000 coaches if you really just need to look up 10?
Let me back up a second though, Zeus has some good advice and I'll get to that. Imagine the recruiting process is sort of like a job search. Most people will spruce up their resume prior to looking for work. That is the equivalent to a video (I can help with that). Then most people find work through networking. When networking doesn't get you to the right person, you get proactive by email, phone calls, and knocking on doors. That is why Zeus told you the high school coach is important. He's been around the block and hopefully has contacts.
I equate most "recruiting services" to Monster.com of high school sports. Problem is that I dont know anyone who's gotten a job off of Monster.
I probably didn't answer your question though.
Use the people in your network to communicate with the people they know. And be proactive.
Spend some time reading a bunch of old posts on here or do a search for "recruiting services" on here and you'll find more info then you'll ever need.
Good luck.
Feel free to contact me directly if you want.
Rich
www.PlayInSchool.com
I know of very few people who have gotten much bang for their buck with recruiting services.
The suggestion to use a high school coach may or not be helpful. It depends on who your high school coach is, how connected he is (and whether he's got connections the the schools of interest to you), how valued his opinion is, how up to date he is, and how much he values you and therefore will devote himself to you. Unfortunately, we don't get to pick our HS coaches; you get who you get. And often, you get someone who's no help at all.
Most of what PIS is talking about is in the realm of the travel team and its coaches. This is where the greater share of recruiting is happening. Sure, there are going to be guys who find a landing spot without travel ball. Good for them. But if you're starting in the process, intentionally bypassing the most likely source of ultimate success is not smart.
On the other hand, if you've done all that and gotten nowhere, it suggests that the problem may not lie in communications or exposure. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out. I think most recruiting services are often guilty of claiming credit when someone who hired them gets a deal wholly without their really contributing to it. When you strike out in your other efforts, the likelihood that a recruiting service will ride to your rescue is, IMHO, next to nil.
The suggestion to use a high school coach may or not be helpful. It depends on who your high school coach is, how connected he is (and whether he's got connections the the schools of interest to you), how valued his opinion is, how up to date he is, and how much he values you and therefore will devote himself to you. Unfortunately, we don't get to pick our HS coaches; you get who you get. And often, you get someone who's no help at all.
Most of what PIS is talking about is in the realm of the travel team and its coaches. This is where the greater share of recruiting is happening. Sure, there are going to be guys who find a landing spot without travel ball. Good for them. But if you're starting in the process, intentionally bypassing the most likely source of ultimate success is not smart.
On the other hand, if you've done all that and gotten nowhere, it suggests that the problem may not lie in communications or exposure. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out. I think most recruiting services are often guilty of claiming credit when someone who hired them gets a deal wholly without their really contributing to it. When you strike out in your other efforts, the likelihood that a recruiting service will ride to your rescue is, IMHO, next to nil.
quote:Originally posted by right arm of zeus:
Your best recruiting service should be your high school coach, it will also be the cheapest.
Okay thanks!
quote:Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
I know of very few people who have gotten much bang for their buck with recruiting services.
The suggestion to use a high school coach may or not be helpful. It depends on who your high school coach is, how connected he is (and whether he's got connections the the schools of interest to you), how valued his opinion is, how up to date he is, and how much he values you and therefore will devote himself to you. Unfortunately, we don't get to pick our HS coaches; you get who you get. And often, you get someone who's no help at all.
Most of what PIS is talking about is in the realm of the travel team and its coaches. This is where the greater share of recruiting is happening. Sure, there are going to be guys who find a landing spot without travel ball. Good for them. But if you're starting in the process, intentionally bypassing the most likely source of ultimate success is not smart.
On the other hand, if you've done all that and gotten nowhere, it suggests that the problem may not lie in communications or exposure. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out. I think most recruiting services are often guilty of claiming credit when someone who hired them gets a deal wholly without their really contributing to it. When you strike out in your other efforts, the likelihood that a recruiting service will ride to your rescue is, IMHO, next to nil.
Well we have a MLB former player in place and will be his varsity coach if he doesnt retire. My son is in the 9th grade right now. He is in an elite organization (travel ball) as far as getting recruited to college. They have an incredible track record. I was just asking about the recruit service because I want to cover all the "good" possible paths if this was one. Thanks for your advice.
In your particular situation, I would think the combination of the HS coach and the travel program ought to get it done without the additional expenditure. Assuming the player does his part, on the field and off!
Though I would caution, there are a lot of reasons why having a former MLB player for your coach is wonderful, but having that experience doesn't mean he's up to speed on college recruiting, especially if his playing days were many years past.
He's likely to be a guy whose judgment as to your son's capabilities will be highly respected. But does he know the time table that colleges are recruiting under these days? The good old days, when things almost always waited until the player's senior year to get done, are gone. Some players do wait until then, to be sure, but at the D1 level, a whole lot of opportunities are gone by then.
Also, having expertise in the game doesn't guarantee that he's the kind of a guy who'll pick up the phone and be your son's advocate. Since he's still only a freshman, it's a bit early yet, but by the end of his sophomore spring season, you might want to have a sit down to talk things through with him.
Though I would caution, there are a lot of reasons why having a former MLB player for your coach is wonderful, but having that experience doesn't mean he's up to speed on college recruiting, especially if his playing days were many years past.
He's likely to be a guy whose judgment as to your son's capabilities will be highly respected. But does he know the time table that colleges are recruiting under these days? The good old days, when things almost always waited until the player's senior year to get done, are gone. Some players do wait until then, to be sure, but at the D1 level, a whole lot of opportunities are gone by then.
Also, having expertise in the game doesn't guarantee that he's the kind of a guy who'll pick up the phone and be your son's advocate. Since he's still only a freshman, it's a bit early yet, but by the end of his sophomore spring season, you might want to have a sit down to talk things through with him.
As I read the excellent insight here, it causes me to recall that one of the services that kept "pinging" on us kept touting the fact that they had "a database that had every DI coach's email address," and that we could expect our son's fact sheet to be broadcasted to their database.
Well, it hadn't taken a lot of time reading this website to know that what they were proposing was the LAST thing in the world we wanted; that a recruiting process required a good bit of inquiry, thought, and effort until the right set of schools had been determined by the player and his family. It also helped that the head coach at the first college camp my son ever attended told us that every piece of mail he received from a recruiting service got sent into the "circular file."
In my opinion, recruiting services appeal more to the vanity of family members than to any special needs that the player might have beyond what he, his parents, and coaches can accomplish.
Well, it hadn't taken a lot of time reading this website to know that what they were proposing was the LAST thing in the world we wanted; that a recruiting process required a good bit of inquiry, thought, and effort until the right set of schools had been determined by the player and his family. It also helped that the head coach at the first college camp my son ever attended told us that every piece of mail he received from a recruiting service got sent into the "circular file."
In my opinion, recruiting services appeal more to the vanity of family members than to any special needs that the player might have beyond what he, his parents, and coaches can accomplish.
We subscribed to a recruiting service but mostly because there were some on-line resources that we thought our son could take advantage of (he didn't). We did get a few "pings" from NAIA, D2, and D3 schools but in most cases they were not at the academic level my son was looking for.
Like everyone else has said, don't waste your money. Do make sure that your son is actively engaged in the recruiting process which is way beyond just performing on the field. My son is now going through "what if" even though he loves the D3 school he is at and will be playing ball there. But all of his "what ifs" are "what if he had started in the elite travel program before the Fall of his junior year", "what if he had access to better coaching"... My answer is that because he did not do the things that I shared with him from this site, the result would most likely have been the same. He didn't send out personalized e-mails. He didn't follow-up after camps and showcases. He didn't send out his pitching schedule for showcases as soon as he found it out. The coaches that put out the extra effort (several D3 schools) were the ones he eventually felt comfortable with and developed a relationship. They were also the ones who had seen him personally either at a camp or showcase.
Also, make sure that your H.S. coach is active in recruiting. Ours was not but we had a wonderful assistant coach who had personal contacts from his D1 playing days at a lot of the local colleges and universities (all levels) who did what he could for the boys. Find that person with credibility who can help.
Best of luck.
Like everyone else has said, don't waste your money. Do make sure that your son is actively engaged in the recruiting process which is way beyond just performing on the field. My son is now going through "what if" even though he loves the D3 school he is at and will be playing ball there. But all of his "what ifs" are "what if he had started in the elite travel program before the Fall of his junior year", "what if he had access to better coaching"... My answer is that because he did not do the things that I shared with him from this site, the result would most likely have been the same. He didn't send out personalized e-mails. He didn't follow-up after camps and showcases. He didn't send out his pitching schedule for showcases as soon as he found it out. The coaches that put out the extra effort (several D3 schools) were the ones he eventually felt comfortable with and developed a relationship. They were also the ones who had seen him personally either at a camp or showcase.
Also, make sure that your H.S. coach is active in recruiting. Ours was not but we had a wonderful assistant coach who had personal contacts from his D1 playing days at a lot of the local colleges and universities (all levels) who did what he could for the boys. Find that person with credibility who can help.
Best of luck.
quote:Originally posted by VaRHPmom:
We subscribed to a recruiting service but mostly because there were some on-line resources that we thought our son could take advantage of (he didn't). We did get a few "pings" from NAIA, D2, and D3 schools but in most cases they were not at the academic level my son was looking for.
Like everyone else has said, don't waste your money. Do make sure that your son is actively engaged in the recruiting process which is way beyond just performing on the field. My son is now going through "what if" even though he loves the D3 school he is at and will be playing ball there. But all of his "what ifs" are "what if he had started in the elite travel program before the Fall of his junior year", "what if he had access to better coaching"... My answer is that because he did not do the things that I shared with him from this site, the result would most likely have been the same. He didn't send out personalized e-mails. He didn't follow-up after camps and showcases. He didn't send out his pitching schedule for showcases as soon as he found it out. The coaches that put out the extra effort (several D3 schools) were the ones he eventually felt comfortable with and developed a relationship. They were also the ones who had seen him personally either at a camp or showcase.
Also, make sure that your H.S. coach is active in recruiting. Ours was not but we had a wonderful assistant coach who had personal contacts from his D1 playing days at a lot of the local colleges and universities (all levels) who did what he could for the boys. Find that person with credibility who can help.
Best of luck.
Thanks for your input. We seem to have a lot in place already like great coach who is all about helping to get kids into college, on an elite travel team that goes all over, has a 3.7 GPA and a personal pitching/hitting instructor. I think I will stay away from the recruitment service. Thanks again and good luck to you.