Should I Have a HS Coach Letter to Send?

For maximum effect, I would get it personalized for each school. If it is on your short list of schools and you are really want to get earnest interest from the school, besides personalizing the letter, have the coach make personal contact with them.

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Originally posted by Krakatoa:
Wondering if it's proper to ask HS coach for a generic (To Whom It May Concern) letter of recommendation which we could then include with our "I am very interested in your school" introduction letter. I suppose we could re-enter the coach's name on each one. Not talking about a mass campaign, just 3-4 schools.

IMO in most cases I do not think a letter from HS coach is going to help or hurt. When and if a school gets to the point of serious interest in ur Son they may contact the HS coach (or there will be an area on the schools questionaire for the coach to fill out)...but as others have posted in the past the HS coach opinion is not going to carry much weight, a school will want to evaluate a player themselves. The exception would be if the coach has a relationship with a specfic college coach...ask him to pick up the phone.

You should absolutely get the high school coach to contact the coaches at the schools in any and every way possible. A letter is great, and should be followed up with a phone call.

I'll have to disagree with Novice Dad --- in most cases a letter from the coach will help, if only by bringing attention to your son.

While it's true that a letter won't necessarily help a kid get a scholarship, there needs to be some initial contact --- you can't sit around and wait for someone to "discover" your son.

At the same time, don't expect to get a response from the elite baseball schools --- ex. Wichita State, Arizona State, Miami, etc. --- unless the high school coach has some connection.

Joe, thats fine to disagree on it carrying weight or not with a school.

I do agree that you can not wait around and the player needs to be proactive on contacting coaches, showing interest in a program and being seen by the school.

Sending a letter from the HS coach can't hurt as being one part of a strategy (what he says or doesn't say is for another thread). It is not a strategy that we used (maybe we should have). My Son did send out letters and "resumes" to coaches and did communicate by e-mail to keep the coaches informed of his progress and continued interest in their school. He also did send names and phones of summer, travel, high school coaches and showcases that he was or did attend. This did generate a fair amount of interest.

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Originally posted by OnBaseball:
You should absolutely get the high school coach to contact the coaches at the schools in any and every way possible. A letter is great, and should be followed up with a phone call.

I'll have to disagree with Novice Dad --- in most cases a letter from the coach will help, if only by bringing attention to your son.

While it's true that a letter won't necessarily help a kid get a scholarship, there needs to be some initial contact --- you can't sit around and wait for someone to "discover" your son.

At the same time, don't expect to get a response from the elite baseball schools --- ex. Wichita State, Arizona State, Miami, etc. --- unless the high school coach has some connection.

Glad you agree ... I've been through this process on both sides --- as a high school and as a recruiting college coach.

As a HS player, there were no scouts nor college coaches attending my games --- despite being All-League, All-County, blah blah --- until I started writing letters, calling coaches, etc. in April of my senior year (pretty late!). By June I received a pro contract offer and several scholarship offers. I'm certain nothing would have come my way without the networking (a good lesson for life, not just baseball!).

As a college coach, we received lots of packages, videotapes, etc., from parents, HS coaches, and recruiting companies, and I'll admit most coaches are probably inundated with that sort of thing. But, I can tell you that there were at least a few kids who wrote us personal letters (not form letters) and were persistent --- yet polite --- enough to grab our attention to the point where we put them on our scouting list.

Again, this process probably won't work at Rice or Miami, but it's certainly worth trying for lesser-known, smaller schools (of which there are hundreds).

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I do agree that you can not wait around and the player needs to be proactive on contacting coaches, showing interest in a program and being seen by the school.

Sending a letter from the HS coach can't hurt as being one part of a strategy (what he says or doesn't say is for another thread). It is not a strategy that we used (maybe we should have). My Son did send out letters and "resumes" to coaches and did communicate by e-mail to keep the coaches informed of his progress and continued interest in their school. He also did send names and phones of summer, travel, high school coaches and showcases that he was or did attend. This did generate a fair amount of interest.

You might want to consider having your summer coach get involved as well.

I have observed that many of the summer (travel, legion) coaches are in the thick of the recruiting process as well. I believe this is primarily because the colleges do most of their visits to see players in the summer so the summer coaches by default have more interaction with the colleges.

HS coach’s recommendations certainly can't hurt but don't forget about using your summer coach as well.

Not sure that a letter would have as much impact unless they personally had a connection or other players from your school had gone there and been succesful. Our experience was that college coaches who were interested called our coach - Son made it easier for them by providing his coach's cell phone number on the letter sent to the colleges - many called the summer coach and the position coach too. If they are interested they will want to put their eyes on your son after that.

Make sure you clear it all with your coaches, and keep them up to date on what you are doing. Sometimes coaches don't know that you've grown, or your FB has more pop, or what showcase you may be attending.

Every college coach we've ever talked to or heard speak did say that information from a high school or summer team coach which turned out not to be true or accurate, or exaggerated the skills of the player meant they'd never trust that coach again.

Speaking not as a parent, but as a college coach, including a letter from the high school coach will give you a closer look quicker. The high school coach is much less likely to exaggerate than the kid or the parents (since sometimes letters are written by parents, too). High school coaches know that to maintain credibility they must be honest. A college coach knows that a HS coach isn't merely marketing.