This has been bothering me so I thought I would share.
I was sitting with some parents in the stands recently and after asking some prompting questions, this is what I heard:
#1) "No, we (2014) haven't sent any information to coaches yet. We haven't started that yet." Heard this two weeks ago.
#2) "We (2013) didn't send any information to coaches"....this was at WWBA in East Cobb this past summer. This was their first and last hurrah at East Cobb.
#3) "I (I?)(2013) sent information to 2 coaches...." Heard 2 weeks ago from a pitcher's parent.
My suggestions:
1) Make the list of schools: Work with your son to make a list of schools. I had keewartson do a list in three columns in 9th grade just for fun to tuck away. On this board it is recommended to start your list seriously and to send out your info when you have made the HS varsity team. He made a completely different list the next year. For us, we had some stretch schools, but also some realistic schools. Maybe 10 to 15 or more. This also prompted the talk of what type of college he would like to go to, what college costs are, and what we as a family could afford. We also included a high academic college that was not on his list until that college sent him a letter shortly after a tournament that said "we saw you play at *** and we liked what we saw. Keep up the good grades". I would like to point out that this coach saw him playing on a high school field 25 minutes away from the "main event" in the middle of a cotton field on a Sunday morning.
2) Make a word document of coaches: Start a Word document with the list of schools and under each, add the head coach, recruiting coach/coordinator and their email addresses and phone numbers. There are many ways to do this and some have suggested a notebook, but that was way too organized for him and with a word doc he can easily copy emails...ie. with less typing mistakes. Your son should do this. Keep a lookout for coaching changes and update the list.
3) Draft several generic letters: On this website is a sample letter to send to coaches or use your own. I copied part of the one on here and started to add a few things. At that point, keewartson said "don't add that stuff, here, let me do it" and then it became his letter. He modified it to send to colleges that he had already sent questionnaires to, and those he was "cold calling". Save these drafts as Letter1 and Letter2, or whatever, to be easily pulled up and used in emails. Include a video link. My son didn't have "First Team" or "All Region" accolades, but he did include a few "good" baseball things he had done in the last year.
4) Send out the schedules by using the coach document and draft letters: When your son gets his playing schedule for the weekend/week, have him pull up the draft letter and personalize it by adding the coach, school, and schedule. Pull it into an email, save it with a different title, and send. Do this for each college that could realistically travel to the event. Do this each and every week. If he was emailing info to a college that he had just sent info to, he would pull up the old email and just add new info to the top of it. After the first round, he didn't need a parent to review it before sending. Add schools periodically or that show genuine interest in him. Once he gets those first draft letters done, updating and sending them doesn't take much time at all.
Nothing above is new. I just broke it out into steps.
We followed the advise on this board, he followed the coaches directions, started sending out introductory info during his sophomore high school season, and always sent his travel team schedule before each event last summer. You have to tell the coaches where you are playing. Sending out an introductory email and video clip helps. It worked for keewartson.
Original Post