September 1st emails

In retrospect through 2 sons, the 9/1 first contact date was one of the most irrelevant 'events' on the calendar. I don't think I could tie any September contacts to anything that ultimately happened in their recruitment. 

Thanks Just!

I did see your response previously when I did the search.

Your's was the one that really caused a doubt in my mind.

 

My 2016 received 6 of these emails yesterday.  All but 1 were from schools who had watched him play over the course of last summer and this summer.  The 1 that wasn't a school who had previously seen him, seemed "generic".  It read much like the first example above but invited him to a prospect camp in November.  The others were more personal mentioning that they had seen him play here and there and requesting information like transcripts and fall schedules so we gave that more weight in terms of trying to determine interest on their part. I also received 1 phone call on his behalf and since my son was with me, he had a chat with that Coach.  He also asked for a copy of transcripts (which my son sent right away) and said he would be back in touch after speaking with admissions since it is a pretty high academic school.

 

Interested to hear what others experienced this year and any advice is always appreciated as this is our first go round.

 

Good luck recruits and parents!

Those first personal emails are such a rush for your son and the family, but they are a double edged sword. First they indicate that your son is on some kind of list and they are interested. Congrats, this is good.

 

Now the reality, and the hard part. You son is likely one of many who is on their list and you really never know where until you get further along in the process and get to the point of an offer, or where he can ask "where am I on your recruiting board for my position? number 1, 10 , 50 ?" Keep filtering through the emails, filling  out the questionnaires. It is an extremely exciting and stressful time.

 

Good Luck! 

Agree with all the sentiments above.  My son got a bunch of emails and a few calls.  A couple were total surprises; others were expected.  Not reading much into any (although the calls are a nice sign/gesture and were from schools he has pursued and who have seen him throw).  The question I have and would love some feedback on if anyone really knows: How may players are getting those (a) emails (50, 100...800?/thinking Stanford) and (b) calls?  I am all about trying to figure out the numbers game/odds.

To add onto BOF I think some of this contact can be a trap.  I have seen it with my son's 2016 peers.  Lots of initial interest last fall for a couple of boys from big time schools.  Everyone expecting that interest to continue through spring and summer this year.

 

It didn't and I had one dad admit that now he is really concerned because based on this interest they stopped doing some of the legwork and now felt like they are behind.  To top it off his son is now injured and going to miss the fall.

 

Regardless of what you get and who you have talked to I think the best advice consistently given to here is to keep working everything up and until your son finds where he needs to be.  Good luck to everyone.

The highly selective schools like Stanford start out with a very large email base, in the thousands, and then whittle it down to the 6-12 they make offers to. I would think that the call list is pretty small as the recruiting coach only has so many hours in a day. This is a total guess but probably less than 50 on the call list. 

 

 

I would add that you have to be really careful about the whole recruiting process and separate yourself mentally from it (this is VERY hard as it IS personal). It is a numbers game and even if you are number 2 on a list, and the number 1 accepts (and they are only recruiting for the one position) you are done. 

Couple of hints that may help:

1) Look carefully at the sender. Indeed it will read the Coach's name, but it may not be coming from the Coach's email client. Rather, it may be coming from a 3rd party email service provider (ESP). The Coach loads up a list into the ESP (first name, last name, HS name, email address, etc.), creates an email template, and sends the email so that it looks to be personalized.

2) If the Coach is using an ESP, he can track who has opened the email and who has clicked on any of the emails. Be aware.

 

So if you see that the email came directly from the Coach's email client, then you know it was completely personalized. However, if the email came under the Coach's name but via a 3rd party provider, most likely it was a part of a broader mailing.

Really good points so far.

 

BackstopDad32 - I completely agree that staying on top of it is key and by that, I mean communication is a 2 way street so if a recruit is really interested in a school, he must be proactive in keeping that channel open showing the school his interest and not just sitting back waiting for them to call again.  This is something I suspect many (my son included) need to learn.  If the schools you are interested in make the first move to open the conversation, you won't seal the deal by passively waiting for them to come talk to you again.  You have to show interest and to me that means timley responses to requests for information, being honest in your answers / questions and making an effort to initiate contact.

Nobody knows, but I would guess a lot.  When my son got his calls on July 1 (we were in East Cobb) a few years ago, he was getting calls into the late evening.....10pm in one case.  Thankfully, he wasn't pitching the next day.   We discussed that if a Coach is calling at 10pm on the first day of calls then probably you're not at the top of their list.  Others have told me they got calls at 8am.   So, how many calls can one coach make presumably between 8am and 10pm?  Answer...lots in one day.  Probably a couple truckloads in a week.  You'll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out those numbers!  What matters most is his numbers

 

For the type of schools BucsFanson is looking at it will be more about quality than quantity. 

I couldn't agree more Wolf.  My son committed last week but prior to visited a couple of other schools.  In each case it seemed very important to all the coaching staffs that my son verbally expressed to them that he was interested in their school and program.  They want to spend efforts on recruiting kids that are interested in them.  In our experience this is especially important when you get away from the SEC, Big 12 type schools.  

Congrats on your son committing BackstopDad32!

Curious if most of the schools people heard from yesterday and today were smaller to mid-level D1's.  My son had some very nice, personalized emails and also phone calls but none were from the larger SEC/ACC schools that he has been talking to.  He is very pleased with the contact he has received so far but he has already texted me twice today asking if he has gotten any more emails.  

 

Joe - Thanks for the tip. Turns out both were from an ESP. "jumpforward".

 

I suppose we can just fill out the questioner for now. 

That being said, do we bother responding?

Thanks Wolf.  IMO he didn't do anything that isn't covered here.  He plays on a really good travel team and we guided him through the steps that are consistently outlined on this site.  Keep working the plan and it works.  Happy to share our experience if someone thinks it might help them.  Good luck to all.

You could go to the football game this week and start bragging that your kid is being "recruited" by _______. 

 

I would respond.  IMO at this point it is all about keeping options open.  Good luck. 

Definitely respond. Your response will go directly to the Coach's inbox. And through the open and the click, your responding behavior to the email is in their DB as well.

I second JustBaseball's recollection that the much anticipated Sept. 1 communications proved irrelevant to my son's recruiting.

Here is my glass half empty view of the matter.

We were all very excited when my son received a letter postmarked Sept. 1 from a team that had just played in Omaha a couple months earlier. He filled out the questionnaire and rushed it back with a cover letter. Nothing ever came of it.

In retrospect, I realize these letters are primarily a sign that the parents and player still have a lot of work to do to find a college baseball situation. 

Yes, they do indicate that the coaches know who your son is and haven't ruled him out.  However, because these letters arrive after the school has already gained verbal commitments from some of their top recruiting targets, these letters also mean the coaches know who your son is but have not ruled him in--at a time when they have ruled some other players in. You're still on the outside looking in.

Ultimately, these letters confirm that your son has not yet separated himself from the huge list of "maybe" players in the school's evaluation system.

If you know this school has seen your son, these letters mean he needs to take a giant leap forward if he wants to be more than a replacement-level player or a contingency option in this school's eyes.

If he hasn't been seen by this school, these letters mean you need to plan your son's exposure so the schools he most cares about do see him.

Either way, it's time to get busy.

Our later experience showed us that coaches move quickly and unambiguously as soon as they decide they want a particular player.  Vaguely encouraging communications are just reminders that you haven't convinced anyone yet.

Individual results may vary. That's my take. Take the letter as motivation to work harder. 

Best wishes,