Sophomore verbal commits

The athlete is allowed to contact the coach. For instance my 2017 has received a few coaches phone numbers as well as some back channel contact through his travel coach. He has called and talked to a coach as well as has left vm's for the ones he can not reach. If one of those were to make him an offer when he calls them he could commit.  

In addition the coaches can talk to the kids at the schools showcases or camps. 

A player may commit at any time. Nothing is binding until he signs an National Letter of Intent senior year. In baseball, it's typically the players who get the short end of the stick on decommits. The details and debate on the pros and cons on when to commit could fill a thread.

check your dialog box, sent you a pm

In our case, recruiting coordinators reached out to his HS and travel coaches and let them know that they'd like to hear from him.  My son was provided their numbers and contacted them and has remained in contact with them.  With the rules, the college coaches can not initiate contact with us other than the player questionnaires.  From these calls, we've made 5 unofficial visits of colleges he's interested in and he's received three offers.

Players may also be approached at a camp they they're attending.  My son has attended one camp (two day camp).  Midway through day one, the coach approached him and asked if we could stick around after day two to talk with him.  We did and they made an offer to us at the camp.

One school which had sent a questionnaire but had not asked for us to contact them otherwise is a school in which my son has a lot of interest.  When he began receiving offers, he wanted to make certain he got a chance to visit this particular school.  He called them (had the RC's number from the questionnaire letter we received) and has been coordinating a time for us to make a visit.

With my son entering his Sophomore season, we weren't anticipating offers, etc., this early.  However, with them rolling in, we've had to accelerate our learning curve that I was planning on having another 8 months to do (which is how I found this forum and appreciate all the information available).  He hasn't accepted any offers and we'd like to hold off as long as possible so he can look at as many programs that interest him.  Fortunately, all the schools are very understanding of the fact that he's a Soph and are giving us all the time we need.  Their explanation is that they really want him and want to make sure that he knows that now.  They also recognize and aren't happy with the earlier this recruiting happens, but also realize that they may have players on their board committed without ever getting a chance if they don't start early.

It's very exciting to have a player in demand at a young age, but with it comes a whole lot of other worries.  That said, it's certainly better than the alternative "crickets" some of his upper class teammates are hearing.

Carrier Pigeons.

Head coaches always find a way to communicate using 3rd parties if direct contact is not allowed. 

Hearing from a third party that a coach wants to hear from a player is always a good sign of very strong interest in that recruit (particularly if it comes with the HC's personal cell phone number). 

This topic recycles every 6-8 months.  Please do a search and you will find a wealth of information already posted on the boards.

I like using the cone of silence.