Scouting Websites

We used a site called Getmynameout.com and it gave us a great platform to reach out to programs we were interested in.

berecruited.com is another. They have a free version, or deluxe for $59 or so. Free version does allow a web page, profile and a limited amount of pictures.

In my humble opinion you should get a profile on Perfect Games website by attending one of their tourneys or showcases.
That is not to say these other places can hurt, but my son has had his profile on berecruited for some time, and has only had 8 hits.
His profile is presumably what they are looking for in a pitcher since he is "very projectible" with good grades. To the best of my knowledge not a single coach has contacted us as a result of having a profile there.

You don't build the site and hope for "hits". You build the site and communicate with coaches through their email database and provide a link to your profile as you inform them of events that you may be participating in should they wish to scout you.

It is a site that requires you to be proactive, and gives you the tools to be just that.

Florida Fan is right on the mark with his comments:

“You don't build the site and hope for "hits". You build the site and communicate with coaches through their email database and provide a link to your profile as you inform them of events that you may be participating in should they wish to scout you.”

We created a free beRecruited account about mid- December to experiment. To date, we have broadcast to close to 1300 schools in a controlled fashion (D1’s, D2’s, NAIA’s, JUCO 1’s, JUCO 2’s, D3’s…). I entered about 60 schools a day which allowed us to stay in the “Today’s Most Connected” feature for close to a month.

I just went in to look and 43 seconds ago, our 34th interested coach logged in (we will have had about 95 Coach Views by the time this guy looks at the pages). Five coaches have actually bookmarked him for future reference. We have made just over 2800 connections.

When coaches go roaming looking for 2014’s who comes up at the top of the page for Coach Views, Total Views, and Most Connections? We did this work to create a constant “Top of the Board” condition. The beRecruited people tell you to maximize connections for a reason.

I think my guy and Vector’s kid are about the same age. Mine is a HS Freshman who will come in at about a 3.5 to 4.0, and he’s also a pitcher.

The key to using this site effectively is TRAFFIC and making changes to what you have up there (we change our picture every once in a while – profile to head-on). I believe VIDEO is also a primary factor. My guy is also a big projectable guy. I don’t think pictures can adequately describe his mechanics though. If you look on HSBBW, there are articles about how to make videos. For pitchers, they talk about four different angles for the shots. So… I have four different angles of fastballs and curves.

There are arguments against a PG this summer as an alternative. First, there’s the cost. Second, what if he projects too well? For example if you’re already big and throw 80 at 15U and only progress to 85 at 17U, you may have blown your brains out!

Back to the value of the website…

The process of putting stuff on the website and looking at how other successful guy’s record information has already set up a summer agenda of videos that need to be taken. How many games will it take before I can figure out the angles and get good inside and outside 2B pick-off moves?

When I loaded all of those school invites in, I also copied back out every coach that briefly appeared on the screen to load up my database. There is a lot of really good academic and cost information there.

In the late summer, I will pay the $60 and completely overhaul the look of it. I believe it is good value. At that point though, when he actually starts the sophomore year, he will be riding on about 150 Coach Views to start. Right now, a 2014 is not going to receive sight-unseen attention. We have no need to really communicate this year.

Don’t look at this as the big opportunity to get a whole bunch of coaches contacting you right off the website. For us, a handfull have through the vehicle of camps. Look at the site as a reference piece like FloridaFan suggests. We’ve filled out probably 150 online College questionaires – every one has an embedded link to the videos on beRecruited. When we talk to a coach about a prospect camp or something, it almost always ends with a follow-up email with the embedded links to the videos on beRecruited.

I liken the coaches who are listed with berecruited with “lurkers”. Looking at a 2014 is like me looking at a 2011’s videos here on this site – kind of a passing interest. If a guy bookmarks though or looks at multiple pages, that means a little more.

A lot of form-letter camp and showcase information will result. Occasionally, we get one-off personal requests for camp.

Now, I’ve got to go load about 40 schools to hit the lunch hour traffic…

Notlong-

Your post inspired me to begin the set-up process for my son who is also a 2014. I want him to be involved in as much as possible but I am uploading pictures and will some videos when I have time.

What do you mean when you say you have "broadcast" to 1300 schools? How do you do that? Do they know you are broadcasting to them?

How long before you got coaches looking at your page? And finally, have they contacted your son via email or in any other way because of this (thinking of camp invites, etc.)?

Hi jdawg:

At one time, a while back, I copied a lot of school lists from this site, the ncaa site, etc. into an excel spreadsheet but imported it further into ACCESS. I revived this back in the fall and started to complete it further. I believe you can get listings of schools from the d1baseball, d3baseball websites, etc. What you want though is to create a spreadsheet with long lists of names.

Then you bring up the beRecruited site and start pumping those names in. I do about 40 or 50 in a shot – copying and pasting them from the spreadsheet; then hitting the bookmark button; and then hitting the Invite button (sends an email to the coach). Some look, some don’t. Some bookmark. You actually do damage by sending out more invites than necessary in a day. 50 keeps you on the popularity board so, why waste more. With consecutive days of 50, you can sustain yourself there.

I created an email address for my son which is listed there and thus, all of the resulting information goes back to him.

It is work and I think that’s why most folks don’t have success. Once you’ve hit a certain saturation though, it sort of sustains itself. Yesterday, I entered about 40 schools (D3’s in mid-Atlantic). That put him on the “most popular” board today. In the last five hours, coaches from the following areas came looking: 1 CA, 2 PA, 1 NY – today he has gone from 32 to 36 interested coaches. The CA coach could have come from the same D1 as a guy I was talking with earlier (had another CA school bookmark two days back). If I had the paid website, I would know exactly who these guys are but, I tend to know anyways because of the way I load the schools.

We are getting a sense of where my son fits in from all of this at this point. Fenway says don’t close your mind to even IVY’s just because of the baseball $ situation. We have the luxury of time, so we send to everyone and have had some pretty surprising results.

We can never know what those schools know when they look. I am pretty sure they can see that 2800 connections have been made. They may know every other school that has looked at your kid. If you look at guys though that are graduating now though, that 2800 won’t be such a surprising number.

Really consider the videos before you launch! Your newness will help for about a month – therefore don’t put out a poor video and then change it when nobody is looking. Have solid information, good videos, pictures not just of baseball. It didn’t hurt that I have some good shots of my son playing basketball at the Carrier Dome last year in Syracuse and some HS Volleyball pictures. Shots of the weight room show commitment off the field as well as on. We also read a lot of the self-descriptions other players had in the text part. I am now compiling a set of coach comments from various sports to include this summer (the leadership stuff). Really put your best foot forward when you launch.

Sorry jdawg, I didn’t look at that last part…

“How long before you got coaches looking at your page? And finally, have they contacted your son via email or in any other way because of this (thinking of camp invites, etc.)?”

Second day after initial broadcast and yes we’ve got a dozen personal emails and 50 or 60 form-style emails. I’ve also taken the initiative after this to have about twenty conversations. Knowing they aren't allowed to contact him in any other way, I contact them.

When we started, we sent out 60 a day to D1’s (conveniently to different States, so we would know who got back to us). With the free site, it says "a coach from KS just viewed your profile" or something like that. Generally, for each 60 we would load up, it would generate somewhere between 1 and 4 profile views.

As I mentioned before, you get a lot of form emails coming back describing NCAA rules and talking about camps. We have received some personal ones (not form emails) that talk about camps but, have included words such as “exceptional” in them. We have also received some personal ones that are invites to camps that are “limited numbers”. I have to watch out for CD’s bragging thing here and that I’m not “ratting” anybody out here. What I’m trying to express is that a good effort at the recruiting website process can really help you begin to form an early “Who wants You” list.

Also, by doing this as a freshman and build your numbers now and then target a big number of schools after you’ve updated things. After our summer updates, we will probably send out another 50 specific invites.

Let me know if you have any other specifics.

Not long,

Fantastic information. Can't thank you enough.

My son is a 2014 who hasn't even had tryouts (2/28 start). At 6'4" 175 and a 2 way player, he offers "projection" but it's hard for me to believe he'll get any sniffs from college coaches at this time. However, aside from his play doing the talking and gaining interest,I like your methods and would like to market my son if it has proven to help. I'd like to hear more about your success stories as your 2014 son progresses down his path.

Thanks Proud Dad.

You have a great opportunity. One of the other things I have done with my database, is identify which showcases some of our target schools and beRecruited schools attend. If you started into the recruiting site, it would provide a really good basis before next year’s January/February Cangelosi showcase near Chicago.

If my son were able to attend both weekends, there would be more than 20 schools from our beRecruited list alone that we could communicate with ahead of time. There are about 50 schools that go to that. You don’t have the travel cost that we do to go both weekends.

My guy is 6’1”/193 Lbs. and his size helps with video/photos. 6'4" 175 LBs. Wow! Use that and work hard for January 2012.

Sorry, I don't get this, I must be missing something, why not just attend a well attended PG showcase (when time is right) and it will save you half of the work (or more).

JMO.

Certainly, I know that our guy will attend at least two PG Showcases beginning in 2012.

Certainly he wll be at a couple of prime target schools this summer, as he wont be with his travel program full time until 2012.

I sense we have more time for travel at the moment and it cost-spreads thing for the next year or so.

I understand where you are coming from TPM… I had to run to dinner on that last post and I rushed it.

Rightly or wrongly, I see PG as something like the athletic equivalent of an SAT combined with a HS academic ranking at a point in time. You can take away feedback, work, and re-test.

I look at it like if junior is in the 70th to 90th percentile athletically, suddenly there is a lot more uncertainty. When we find this out after that 16U PG, we have two years to go - not three.

He is with a Blue Chip travel program. He’s big enough already. I am confident the program will get the absolute best out of him. If I have concerns, it’s finding the right academic fit; and finding the right development fit (and later on financial fit). To me, PG does not solve that criterion. Another prominent poster here indicated to me, that if you are looking for a stronger academic institution you may find that the Blue Chip Travel program may not be focussed in that direction for placing a small portion of its guys – his experience anyway.

We are looking for strong academic institutions, where developmentally the pitching coaching is credentialed and capable of getting a player to the 3rd year draft. Further, I believe that it is very important to have my son work with their coaches at Prospects camps to allow both sides to get a better sense of one another.

The beRecruited site has allowed us to determine a number of the “who might want you” list right now. We’ve looked at a couple that match the criterion very well and will make every effort to get to them this summer.

I think that you are making it out to be more difficult process than it actually can be.

That's all I can say, your post actually left me speechless, I guess when all is said and done, someday you will understand what I am not saying.

Good luck, keep in mind that coaches recruit players, not the other way around.

quote:

Originally posted by Notlongtilicantcatchim:
We are looking for strong academic institutions, where developmentally the pitching coaching is credentialed and capable of getting a player to the 3rd year draft.

FWIW, there aren't many programs out there that really are capable of doing that, consistantly. The ones who do, don't need a recruiting website to find those type of players.

I am on BeRecruited.com. I have only connected with 186 programs but already have 33 interested coaches with 83 coach views. My videos have been viewed 603 times. I suspect many of those video views are from coaches as I always add a link to them in every email contact I make with the coaches. Also keep in mind, that only coaches that are registered with BeRecruited.com will show up as "coach views". Other coaches will just show up as a regular profile view. I suspect more than 33 coaches have viewed my profile and videos.. I have gotten a ton of mail and email from coaches so far (I am a 2012). I think it is working.It's a good service, but like others have said, you have to be proactive and use it as a tool, it's not the be all end all. You still have to do the work.

TPM

I've got a lot of respect for you and what you say.

Yeah... I've done a lot of work but, it's like a sunk cost.

What if you lived where a good education cost 40% of what it does down there? What is you lived where it was even cheaper than that because you live smack-dab in the middle of three 4 year universities and a fourth about 40 minutes away?

If we get a half scholarship, it will still be paying way more than we would here.

I am trying to maximize the pool for more reasons than I can't say here either.

Must run to baseball.

I understand your situation, I have even commented on it before.

Just seems to me that the type of program and coaches that you are looking for, don't rely on websites for their decisions. As stated above, use it as another tool in the process. Seems to me that you are manipulating the site to create interest that may or may not exist, at this time JMO.

The blue chip travel program, where will they go and who will they be playing in front of. Is it a blue chip team because you think they have good players or is it a team that gets their players seen and signed? I don't understand the use of the word, or is it that you want us to know that your son is going to be playing for a team with studs?

These are hard times, for everyone, money and scholarships hard to come by and I do feel for those going through the process. Everyone needs to understand and know what they are doing. Ton of email and email is (just like ton of calls on July 1), IMO, no indication that anything is working other than someone is looking at a website, that's good, however, is whoever looking whose attention you want to get at this time?

It's good that you have targeted schools, but how do you know unless your son has been rated for a target school whether it's the right one to target???? Is it just based on your perception of your player?

I just don't understand all of this work, let the kids play, that's what sells them.

quote:

Originally posted by Notlongtilicantcatchim:

“You don't build the site and hope for "hits". You build the site and communicate with coaches through their email database and provide a link to your profile as you inform them of events that you may be participating in should they wish to scout you.”



We created a free beRecruited account about mid- December to experiment. To date, we have broadcast to close to 1300 schools in a controlled fashion (D1’s, D2’s, NAIA’s, JUCO 1’s, JUCO 2’s, D3’s…). I entered about 60 schools a day which allowed us to stay in the “Today’s Most Connected” feature for close to a month.



I think my guy and Vector’s kid are about the same age. Mine is a HS Freshman who will come in at about a 3.5 to 4.0, and he’s also a pitcher.

…

Our sons are in a different boat because mine is a senior(2011).



While I see FF's point about doing more than just having the profile sitting there, I cannot understand why you would have sent it out to "1300 schools"?
You couldn't possibly think all those schools would be a good fit for him(academically, regionally, etc.), so why do it?

We have had interest from some schools we respectfully told are not in his future. So just as we do not want to be jerked around by schools that have no interest in him (other than to try and get $$$ for camps), we do not want to waste their time if we have no intention of sending him to their school.
I imagine we could send his profile to the Univ of Timbuktu and other similar schools, but why do it if we have no intention of him going there?


I am not trying to be critical of your method, rather I do not understand what you are trying to accomplish with this shotgun approach.

Vector,
I do have to agree with you, I don't see the value of contacting 1300 schools but when one has no idea where their player falls ability wise (D1,D2, etc) it's like trying to find a needle (program) in a haystack.

JMO.

My son had a site on skillshow.com that is connected with perfect game. It is good for sending to coaches but is not a site that coaches will be searching for you on and it is rather expensive with monthly fees. We also had a berecruited site. I would recommend them it allows to develop the same type of profile with videos ect to send to coaches but cost only around $60 which is a one time cost. Also they have a built in database of schools that you can review by division D1, DII and NAIA