Should you advertise a willingness to walk on? How?

Have you contacted the D1 that showed the most interest since the showcase?  If a coach talked to your son multiple times at the showcase...and he hasn't heard from your son again, he's likely thinking you're not interested.  Your son should have contacted him within a couple days to thank him....and tell him that he has a very serious interest in the program.  By doing that, you'll have a better idea of where the coach stands with regard to your son.   Keep in mind colleges are starting their fall practice, so time is an issue for coaches now.  They'll likely still respond to your emails....especially if he's interested.  If the coach gave your son his number...don't hesitate to have your son call him.

Yeah.   All three of these came in response to my son's thank-you emails right after showcase.   He wrote several thank-yous.  The D2 responded by saying "I consider you a potential prospect" come play in front of all of our coaches, basically     The D1 that talked to him the most wrote the note about outstanding performance,etc  But gave no further indication of continuing interest.  The  third  wrote back about wanting to follow him "the rest of his senior year." Should have been clearer that these were all in response to son's follow up thank-you note  -- which did express his serious continuing interest in the program.  Sorry.  Also from the others to whom he wrote, nothing but silence. 

I would definitely continue to follow up with the 3 schools.  At this point I would not "offer" to be a walk on.  My son goes to a top D2 school.  They had expressed interest in him over the summer between junior and senior year.  The recruiting guy asked when he'd be pitching during the PG WWBA and he came and watched him.  Said he was interested and wanted him to come down so the other coaches could see him.  Nothing about offers or anything else.  He went down to an event at the school and during the event, the head coach had him come into his office and talked about how he liked what he saw and gave him a good offer.  We told him we were definitely interested, but had a couple of other schools to visit first.  My son wound up taking his offer.  Same basic thing happened at another school.  Went to their prospect camp.  Coach offered him money on the spot, but son turned that one down.

 

So, definitely have your son go to that prospect camp and let the other coaches see him.  Recruiting coordinator often cannot make the offer, head coach needs to see what the player has to offer and he's the one that will make the offer.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with your son letting programs know that he'd be interested in walking on in those cases where there's a mutuality of interest. As he does so, he should be prepared to speak to those specific features of the baseball program and school that attract him. 

 

At the end of the day, coaches are looking for players who (1) really want to play for their programs and (2) can make a positive contribution on the field. Your son has the opportunity to fulfill the first requirement with his expression of desire.

 

That's the good news. Now, the second part.

 

If he succeeds in being given a shot at a DI, your son needs to be prepared to find himself among approximately 40 other hopefuls on the first day of Fall Baseball. They will all have been studs in high school, most will have at least one year of college baseball under their belts, and 27 of them will be there with the assistance of a partial athletic scholarship. 

 

Your son and any others like him will have met the first criterion; but not the other two. It's their group that will be looked to first when the mandatory roster-cutting takes place; taking it down to 35 players.

 

Every team has walk-ons; and, in many cases, they're among the best success stories on the roster. They also are an inspiration to fellow players and coaches.

 

However, for every walk-on who succeeds, there are many who fall short of their goal. Although tough to take when they're cut, it often ends up being a positive experience from a "life lesson"perspective.

 

Best wishes for your son's success!

At this point I would not offer to be a Walk On.  I think that gives away any position of leverage that you may have in the future.  It does sound desperate.  I would keep going to any showcases, camps, or visits, and see where it leads.  If nothing transpires by the end of his high school season, then I would start looking into walking on somewhere.  I don't think you should be in a hurry to offer up the willingness to walk on.

I think you need to determine if there is sincere interest first. Once that has been established then the negotiations can begin. Until you get to the "we would like you to play for us" point I think it is premature. The reality is that there will only be 35 on the roster once the season starts and a coach is not going to recruit a player just because he is willing to walk on. 

Point well taken -- that a coach isn't going to recruit a player JUST because he is willing to walk on.  But one thing I am wondering about is how the conversation about walking on gets started and on what time table.  I'm assuming its late in the recruiting year  --sometimes after the scholarship spots have been spoken  for, at any rate.    Is that a reasonable assumption? 

This is how it began with my son "we saw you late, and we would like you to play for us but we are out of money (and we are not fully funded BTW), if some money gets freed up or we get additional funding, then we can get you some but we don't have any right now" They went on to "guarantee a spot" on the 35 man and explained how they allocate money to pitchers, and what they give to one of the weekend starters and down the line and what they could offer him depending on where he ended up long term. He turned the offer down BTW and the coach was fired two months later....but that is another story. 

SluggerDad, I'm aware of a Division I asst. coach who started the "walking on" conversation with a HS senior a couple of weeks ago.  In my opinion, that young man needs to cross that school off his list and consider his other scholarship offers.

SluggerDad,

 

SluggerSon needs to stay in touch with those coaches with updates, showcases/tourneys. However, he needs to keep reaching out to as many programs that he would consider playing for at all levels. Too many times I see kids strung along only to be disappointed in the end. It sounds like he has the right stuff to play at the next level. He needs to find the coach that sees it and acts on it. Don't be fooled by what they say, you will know if they are recruiting him. They will act on it and tell you. 

Keep at it, there is a place for him, he just has to find it.

As for telling them he would walk on, I wouldn't, they will tell him if that's the case. If nothing materializes in the end, then yes, walk on if he thinks he's got a shot. There are also great JC's in northern CA. I know of a handful that received DI schollys coming out of the JC just this year.

Hang in there, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for all the input folks. I think we'll just keep plugging away for now,working all avenues of this multi-headed beast.

 

When you sell something, it's generally more effective to get the buyer to accept the necessity, practicality, desirability or other benefits of whatever you're selling BEFORE you discuss price.  Price doesn't matter until the buyer knows he wants what you're selling.  

In my limited opinion based on my son's experience, he started at D2, transferred to JUCO D1 for second year, then to a D1 for year 3, just started year 4, at all these schools walk on's don't do to well.  What I mean by that is they don't get the same amount of rep's on defense, batting, or on the mound.  If they didn't make a immediate "wow" factor they are on the bench.  These schools have move invested in scholarship players therefore they get alot more opportunities.  They have nothing invested in walk on's, an nothing to lose.  Players on parents need to realize their son's true ability an go were they can play.  At every school I have seen parents show up with rose colored glasses on get mad/upset that junior isn't playing.  

Example is last year when my son transferred in was among 8 JUCO's that showed up day 1, This year 7 more transferred arrived on campus day 1.  All these JUCO's have 2 years of college ball behind them, its hard for a walk on to brake through that. 

Go were you know you are going to play, justg my two cents.

Why, it may an opportunity for him.  Not every player on a D1 roster is a scholarship player. Is the school a favorite of his and a good academic fit? There is not a one size fits all in recruiting. 

playball, the reasons for my opinion are perfectly stated by the previous poster.  In many cases, walk-ons aren't given the same number of reps, or perhaps more accurately, aren't allowed the same number of chances to "fail" and still get another chance as are players in whom the coach has invested a scholarship.

Agree, "in many case", but not in all.

to make the statement that he should drop that school and only look at schools who are offering money at this time is what I had problem with.

player needs to look into All "offers" then make decision. 

Many schools have Freshmen who are not getting money yet for many reasons, and  they are on roster, with good chance to get money Soph yr. I've seen many kids With scholarships sit bench, and many transfer too. no matter how a player gets on team/roster they have to prove themselves to get and stay in lineup. 

 

I've been following this with some interest.  My son is a 3.9 (4.0 scale) student.  Has yet to take the ACT but based on projecting tests he should be somewhere around a 29/30 or so.  Financially we are in a good position and can afford school without a scholarship.  Based on what my older son was being offered for his academics (good student but not as good as the younger one) I suspect my 2017 would be in line for some decent academic money.  

 

If he ends up playing college ball (he is starting to generate some interest) I would assume we are in a good position as far as the coach is concerned.  He is someone who will generate academic money and not take away athletic money from other players.  How do we approach this with a coach?  While I will take the athletic scholarship I'm not in a position where it would make a decision on which school he attends.  Do I make sure he gets some athletic money (even if its only $1,000/yr)?

 

Joe there is a 25% limit on athletic money, so you either get 25% minimum or none. Certainly this opens up the D3 world where there is lots of academic money that is not tied to athletics. If your son is in this category, it also opens up the Ivy's and other high academic D1's that may not offer athletic money. 

True for D1.  For D2, there is no minimum.  Just thought I'd point that out.

99% of the coaches figure this out on their own from your son's test scores etc, you don't need to directly  point it out. 

 

Generally speaking a coach won't be interested in your son's test scores unless he likes your son's potential on the field.  If you spend too much effort selling the test scores and no need for scholarship angle , your son may end up at a school that figures he's a no-cost tryout candidate, rather then a player they  "need" to have.

To the OP, is your son more set on going to this particular school, or is he more set on playing college baseball? If it's the latter, I would strongly advise him not to tell the coaches he'd walk on, and not to accept a walk on slot if it were offered. It would be better to go JuCo and try the program again in two years. Kids do not become better baseball players sitting on the bench. 

 

To the poster who asked about advising coaches that they are good with academic money -- it's not about what you can afford to pay. It's about what the coaches want to invest in your son. They may hem and haw about how much money they have left, and if you're committing late there's some truth to that. But overall, the amount of money they're offering is those coaches putting their cards on the table and saying what they really think of your kid. 

 

FWIW, my son walked on to a major D1 program his freshman year, got redshirted, went to a JuCo his sophomore year, did well, got a scholarship to another major D1 program for his junior year. 

 

Best of luck to everyone trying to figure out this part of the game. 

bballman... Is there a "range" for D2 money?  I don't recall if D2 has same # of scholarships as D1?  It's been a while since I researched it.

 

Fully funded D2 have 9 scholarships available. They can divide it up any way they want and give as little as they want. I don't believe there is a limit to the number of players they can give money to and there is no roster limit.

For D1, there are 11.7 scholarships available. A player must be given 25% minimum and they can give money to a maximum of 27 players and the roster limit is 35. For D2 none of those restrictions apply and they can give 9 scholarships.

Hope that helps.

 

No, my son is not set on attending this particular school. It might be on his list if there was no baseball involved, but it wouldn't be at the top.   But it is the one D1 school that has seen him most and followed him somewhat.  He feels like he has some rapport with the coaches and that they like him.   He first went to a prospect camp there last March, during his junior year.  He performed well enough for them to contact his HS coach. Plus they wrote him a nice follow up evaluation and said that they wanted to keep in touch with him.  They  actually came to watch him play in a big event this past summer, where, unfortunately, he had his worst two days of the summer -- indeed of the past couple of years.  Don't know what got into him that weekend. Maybe it  was the pressure.  I don't know.  But he wasn't his normal  self at all.   Kid never strikes out -- has a really low swing and miss rate.  But he struck out like five times that weekend.  Hardly ever makes fielding errors, but he blew three pretty routine plays -- that sort of thing.  

 

 We assumed they had written him off, cause we heard nothing from them afterward. Not sure what they could have said anyway -- he was just plain bad and he knew it.   But fortunately, he got a chance to play in front of them again,  He  definitely brought his A game. Afterwards and during coaches were  very complimentary.  But this is late in the game and we  assume, though,  that by now they are pretty much wrapped up with recruiting for his class.   I think what led him to think about the walk-on thing is that he got the  feeling that they might welcome him as a walk-on, now that he sort of redeemed himself with them and reminded them of what they first liked about him.  Don't know if he's right at all.  That was just his gut feeling. 

 

As for the JC route -- which seems like a good possibility to me -- even though he is just a decent and not a top student,  the kid is a bitten a bit with the prestige bug -- which is heavy in the air around here.   His peers -- especially his non-athlete peers --  tend to dismiss JC's as for "losers."   I don't think he's thinking that way exactly but its pretty clear he  doesn't seem to want to have to explain himself to his friends, most of whom are gearing up to apply to high to medium high academic  four  year colleges and universities.    I tell him it's a different situation for kids with baseball ambitions.  He seems to know that in his head, I think,  but peer pressure and all that does play a role in his thinking.