September 1

You will know which are serious and which are mass mailings.  Some will look like the Christmas card from the governor...or White House while the real deal will refer to some specifics about your son.

 

One thing I say every year when this question comes up...I have two sons who have or do play in the Pac12.  By the time they committed, both had multiple choices for college.  Neither got any mail or email on September 1.  In fact the older one, who ended up with many, many offers...probably didn't get anything "genuine" until November or so...and that was one lonely letter.

 

September 1 is probably not as magical as we want to imagine.  Don't place too much importance on that one day with your son.

 

Good luck and enjoy!  

Thanks very much for that reply.  Very glad to know that.  I think we both felt that come Sept. 1, my son would quickly check e-mail, mailbox, etc.  Thanks for telling it like it is.

kevkev29,

 

You are right.  Colleges cast a wide net, and it's not always easy to know if they're fishing for camp customers or players.

 

I would have your son return every questionnaire, regardless of where it came from, unless it came from a soccer coach.  There's no cost, no harm, and it's good practice to have him start taking ownership of the paperwork.

 

Regarding camp invitations.  Some are obviously camp solicitations only:  the smudged, crooked photocopy of a glossy camp brochure . . . the emails from the volunteer assistant that speak in generalities about benefits of the camp . . . the camp invite from the power school we knew was out of reach.   Sometimes when these came in, I'd joke with my son, "Bad news:  you've just been downgraded from a prospect to a camp customer."

 

Some obviously have some recruiting potential:  the email that includes the cell phone of the recruiting coordinator and invites you to call.

 

Sometimes, however, it's not clear:  if it's an email from a coach with recruiting responsibilities and it makes a personal reference such as, "I saw you play at thus-and-such tournament," it might mean they really saw your son play, or it might just mean they customized a solicitation to everyone whose name appeared on a roster at that tournament.  Similarly, the invitation to the "prospect camp" might mean they sent it only to players they might be interested in, or it might mean they have a camp you can't attend unless you're older than 14.  The way you can find out is to have your son call the coach.  If the coach knows who he is and seems to want to talk, there may be legitimate interest. 

 

Personally, I believe camps thrive only because of the gross mismatch between what camps say they are selling (i.e., baseball instruction) and what players/parents think they are buying (i.e., exposure to play at the next level).  As a practical matter, it's hard to imagine any coach whose livelihood depends on recruiting elite players to depend much on the remote possibility that unscreened college talent will just show up at one of his camps.  They might invite some potential replacement-level players from time to time, but it's not how they identify the players they expect to make significant contributions to their program.  Occasionally, you hear about an --the unknown who show up and wows the coaches--but I believe they are extremely rare exceptions.

 

Best wishes,

 

P.S., I didn't see justbaseball's reply until I posted.  Everything he says sounds right, but I never saw any of those White House Christmas cards. 

Swampboy- More great insight.  Thanks very much.  This is a great forum for useful and practical information.

Swampboy is right on.

 

For a quick and dirty solution, just look for that "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of emails. It's a dead giveaway.

Great advice.

I remember Sept.1st 2012.My 2014 son looked at his email after he woke up and found a bunch of emails from colleges. We were all so excited about this.Fast forward to today and none of those schools that sent emails on Sept.1st are actively recruiting my son any longer.In fact, the majority of them never really had any real interest IMHO.

 

One thing I noticed about those initial emails is that almost all of them were from private schools.My son attends a private high school and went to The Stanford Futures Camp earlier that summer. Coincidence ? I think not ! LOL

 

Swampboy and  justbaseball offered up some very good advice !

 

Green Light : that's a good one ! My son picked up on that early on

 

Here is a quote from a baseball dad here on HSBBW that is really spot on :

 

'If you're a high draftable player, you have a lot of firm executable offers.  Everyone else is trying to figure it out'

 

Good luck to your son !

Funny, my son received an email last week and whoever was responsible for sending them out must not have been paying attention.   It was addressed to:  

[insert name here], then went on to solicit him for a camp......got a good laugh out of it!

bobbyaguho- Thanks very much for that response.  Knowing what you know now, with my son now a rising junior likely to receive those same flurry of e-mails on or around Sept. 1, what advice would you give.  What would you have done differently?  Thanks again.

My  2014 was much like bobby's 2014 was / is. Mine recieved emails on sept 1. Most were camp stuff. There were 2 that came at midnight or just after that were personal. As of today, both are not recruiting my 2014. As for what you do, if it is personal (has a phone number). Have your son respond to the email, thank them for thier interest and  ask when is the best time to call and then do so. Remember that coach cannot not call a 2015 until July1 of 2014 but he can talk if 2015 calls him.

as a caviot, it was just last year I was asking the same questions on this board. I am still asking questions for those that have been there done that on where my 2014 journey is. This oard has been a godsend and a roadmap on what to do and I am grateful. I am glad I can be a part that is helping now versus the one always asking questions

Son is 2015 and I thank those who can answer questions.  It's SO helpful.  So, what's the difference in emails and letters he's already received, compared to ones he may receive this coming September 1, and after?

kevkev29,

 

I don't think my son would have done anything different at first.He enjoyed the emails and he responded to all of them with his own updates.He filled out all of their questionnaires and thanked the coaches for their interest.

 

Some of the bulk emails over the course of 9 months from a high academic Pac 12 school and well known Ivy were actually quite good. They were full of very good information and were helpful regardless of whether they ever had any real interest in my son.

 

My son never really had any "personal" emails in that first batch of emails that he received that first week of September. So I can't give you any feedback about that.However,all the emails he did receive were very good at "selling  the dream" LOL!

 

lefthookdad,

 

Dude that is too funny ! The other day my son received a prospect camp "invite" from a school that already finished their 2014 recruiting  The coach had emailed my son a couple of weeks earlier telling him that they had made their choices, and he was not one of them (at least this coach had the courtesy to tell him this,most of them do not). That didn't stop that prospect camp invite though ! WTF ! Hahaha

 

Welcome to the machine.......

 

 

 

May want to check NCAA site for details, but coaches are only allowed to invite prospect to camps until Sept 1 of their junior year (they can answer the phone but not return calls).  They are technically not allowed to approach (via phone/text, email, or in person) a recruit for anything except camps and questionnaires.  On Sept 1, they can email.  Still no phone calls or texts. Copied this from website a year ago or so:

 

"Junior year from September 1

College coaches are allowed to send you information about their athletic program and   about their school. this can include: media guides, schedule cards, personalized letters, photocopies of newspaper clippings and official university admissions and academic publications.

The college coach is now allowed to answer your emails and send emails to you as well."

 

So, the difference would be a personal email to your son about their program and their school, vs a more generic camp invitation.  Would like to know how it goes on Sept 1 if you get anything interesting! I have a related question...do coaches still send letters?  I remember seeing a picture of a football recruit who received dozens of letters from the school (coaches, and others I believe), in their school colors and with the embossed logo.  I don't hear much about snail mail in baseball.  Does this happen? 

2015 got a few 9/1 e-mails today (all with "unsubscribe" links).  Thankfully, no new camp invites today.

 

One e-mail was from a top school on his list, letting him know that he is a "priority recruit".  I know this school saw him play on a number of occasions this summer and didn't make a connection, so I can't help but be a little skeptical.

 

Anyway, it's all very exciting to a 16 year-old boy, so he will call and reply to the coaches and try to make the most of it.

Mid Atlantic - Congrats.  Even with the unsubscribe link, it is assuredly a smaller list than those camp invites

 

My 2015 received two so far.  Both D1 Pac12, two of his top choices.  One had each coaches cell phone #s and a request to call (but also included an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom) , and one was full of great information, congratulated him on being an "official recruit", and is a top school (not sure he can get in, actually) - no unsubscribe. 

 

A good start, hopefully.  Any comments or suggestions appreciated.  He'll follow up with both.  He is going to a prospect camp at one next weekend (local). 

Baseballlife, I think that on Sept 1, 2013 you have the right approach for a 2015. This is still the time to expand options. Plenty of time left to start to narrow them.

 

U Washington has a camp coming up. Don't know if that is the one you are going to. If a kid is local and a true prospect, they probably know about him already. Wash St has a camp coming up in October. Maybe that is the other one. The term "official recruit" can make a rising junior feel important. Let him enjoy it for now. But try not to let it go to his head.

 

Those are my observations

My son also started getting emails today. 3 out of the 4 had the unsubscribe button. I don't want to unsubscribe and look uninterested, but we don't want to keep filling out all of the questionnaires if they aren't going to lead to something.

Thanks, back atcha baseballlife.

 

Interesting thing about the unsubscribe... when I hover over the link, the url is from a company named Front Rush.  Appears to be a service/company that schools use to track recruits and avoid violations.  Great idea.

 

Press pause on taking action based on the presence of an unsubscribe button...

 

All 3rd party email service providers (ESPs) must provide a CAN-SPAM compliant mailing format, which includes a clear Unsubscribe link. However, that does not necessarily mean that the uploaded list is untargeted! ESPs allow for list segmentation, so School X may very well be mailing to a list that they have narrowed down.

 

One more thing: using an ESP allows the mailer to see who has opened the email, who has clicked on a link, who has bounced and who has unsubscribed.

So far my son has received 17 emails all mostly big D-1 schools. About half have the unsubscribe link. Several are very personal mentioning specific events they seem him pitch/play. 2 in particular listed their Home football schedule and asked us to see if one of the dates where would work for us to visit, tour and sit down and talk. A couple other who where aware of an arm issue my son had mentioned they are glad to see him on the mend and getting ready to go this fall. Most asked for him to reply to the email ASAP and to return the Prospective Player Forms. Its all good fun!

Yesterday was very exciting for my son too. He didn't receive 17, but he did receive 5. They are all D1 Schools.  Two are from schools that have sent him several camp invites and Questionaire requests.  One was from one of the, if not the most prestigious baseball/academic schools.  There are several schools that we expected to contact him, but they didn't. It's early though. Thankfully, we have received good advice/information from this board, and it is definitely helping with what to expect and how to proceed.  

Good call Joe.  As a matter of fact, 2015 received a follow-up e-mail reply directly from the coach and it had the same Front Rush url.  It certainly makes sense to track all correspondence for every recruit.

With Sept 1st being a Sunday...and a Holiday weekend, I would expect that the top recruits got emails....but may not so much on the next level guys. I would think that maybe things will pick up tomorrow when coaches get back from the long holiday weekend.

My son a 2016 has gotten 3.  One was specific to say they saw him play certain month at a certain place, etc.

If he's a 2016, I don't believe it's legal for that kind of communication.  Sept 1 of this year is the date that 2015's can be contacted with emails other than camp info. Wondering if the coaches know he's a 2016?  I believe those coaches are committing an NCAA violation.  May want to let them know before anyone catches it.  Probably would be bonus points for your son for next year

 

2016 has received many camp invites as well as applications, and that's as far as the coaches can go. They can send camp invites, they can send apps to complete, and they can even respond to phone calls. But from what I understand and read, they cannot call back in response to voice mails, they cannot respond to emails, and they cannot communicate directly with you unless it is during camp. Almost every communication that we've received includes the "NCAA does not permit, blah, blah, blah" disclaimer.

They cannot even respond to a text message! Seems silly to me but it's yet another NCAA rule.

For all who didn't get a bunch of e-mails, no worries. My son played on a team with 2014's this summer. He was the only 2015. There were some that got a bunch if e-mails in early September last year who still have no offers and no interest from those early e-mails. There are quite a few on that same team that received nothing in September, let alone at any time during the Fall. All of them have already committed to D1 schools. Have fun with it and definitely follow up, but there's a lot more baseball that has to be played for coaches to see before it starts getting serious, for most anyway. We all know the exceptions of 2015's and even 2016's giving verbals. They are far and few between. No reason to get too high or low at this point.  Good luck to all of the 2015's. I'm sure it will be fun, but maybe a rollercoaster.

As might be expected, the limitation on communications prior to 9/1 of a player's Junior year is frustrating for recruiters, as well.

 

For gosh sake, if you're in the Prior-to-9/1 category and you tell a coach you're going to do something, (i.e. call his office, stop by, whatever), please make certain that you do it as punctually as possible. I'm sure this need not be mentioned to the vast majority of you; but, an episode related to me within the past couple of weeks suggests that a reminder might be needed, nonetheless.

 

This time of year, these guys are trying to juggle the combination of (1) daily workouts with their players (spread out throughout the day because of NCAA regs limiting the number of players who can be coached at a time until Fall Baseball begins), (2) recruiting trips, and (3) on-campus recruiting responsibilities. In that environment, punctuality and reliability are highly valued.

 

P.S. It's not unusual for players to get entered into a program's data base under the wrong graduation year; prompting an inappropriate initial communication to a player. It happened to us and several others we know. If it's corrected promptly after the school learns of the error, it's not considered an actionable violation.

 

Best of luck to all of you!