striking the right balance in communication to coaches

What he needs to realize is that he actually DOES need to self promote.  Unless his HS coach has the reputation of really finding placed for his kids to play, he needs to understand that the "if your good enough they'll find you" players are the true blue chippers and that he shouldn't take that chance on waiting to see if he is viewed at such.  He needs to get himself out there and contact the schools that he is interested in.  SO,l keep on him.  I am sure you will get a lot of responses, once it gets rolling, have him read them all, then re-read them again.  Best of luck.

Lefthook is correct....Unless he is the "Blue Chip", teams don't otherwise or always see talented kids that could help their program.  It does not have to be over the top, but a nice personal email stating he was at "xyz" camp or showcase, and here were my stats.  If the stats are verified from the showcase, share with them where / or how they can see that as well.  Long, edited, videos...I'd say not so helpful unless asked for, but keeping your prospective list of schools up to date on your progress, and accomplishments - absolutely!  He needs to advocate for himself, again not over the top marketing with a lot of "fluff", but updates exactly as you wrote in your OP is very helpful.

+1.  Exactly, especially if he is a position player. 

It is uncomfortable for most 16 yo kids to pick up the phone, send a coach an intro email or even a follow up email.  It takes practice, and you have to start at some point.  Why not now?.... would be my reply.

My oldest son was a lot like how you described your son.  He is quiet and doesn't like to draw attention to himself at all (even to this day).  His saving grace was a national travel coach that made initial introductions to college coaches for him.  Once he got comfortable talking to coaches and carrying a conversation, he changed into someone who would call coaches and send emails.  The transformation was incredible, and my son got past it.   If my son can do it, your son can do it.   His personality didn't change but he understands communicating with others is incredibly important if you want to achieve your goals.  It is the same process at graduation when they start looking for jobs.  He has a job at graduation.....and that is a very good thing!    

Good luck and feel free to Dialog me if you want to discuss details.

I've shared this analogy before so please for give me if you've read it….

I live 3 miles from Capital One's headquarters.

I'm young (was younger when I started telling this analogy), energetic, entrepreneurial, well educated… basically I'm their perfect candidate!  

Strange thing though.  They have never knocked on my door.  They have never called me.  They have never emailed me.

You can fill in the rest of the blanks I guess.

Just not sure why a kid would want the equivalent of the corner office w/ a view, big salary, company car, expense account, etc, to just fall out of the sky.  I promise there is a kid just as good, if not better, that is not afraid to reach out to them and show his excitement about the prospects of wearing their jersey next year or the year after.

Got to go.  Someones knocking on my door.  Fingers crossed its Capital One!

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

Your son needs to create a business plan and execute it. Start by making a list of fifty colleges he thinks might be a place to play. Then do research that they fit not just for baseball but academics, culturally and socially. Then email the coaching staff expressing interest in the college academically and the baseball program. Important stats to include would be running speed, throwing velocity, GPA and SAT/PSAT scores. Baseball stats show you're having success. They draw interest. But mechanics and skills, not stats close the deal.

Getting started: My son listed conferences he thought he could compete and listed the schools. Then he crossed out the ones he didn't like the location or the academics weren't a fit. How did he know where he might compete? We watched plenty of college games at carious levels.

I appreciate the replies and will share them!  RJM and Rich, you slightly missed the nuance of the question.  I've been on this site for awhile, and your advice is always sound, totally respect your experience and perspective. We don't expect the mountain to come to Mohammed (or Capitol One to call anytime soon), and we think son has a realistic "hit" list of schools.

Maybe some background will help...son has a pretty good plan, knows where he wants to go, realizes he may not get his top two choices, and has emailed maybe forty coaches with info, schedules, etc.  Any who have written back have received more info on a regular basis.  And some get emails on a regular basis even though they haven't written back   He's done a few showcases, camps, etc, and added a few more colleges to the list based on interest from those venues. 

Where we're having a disconnect is the content of the information shared right now.  To coaches who are familiar with him.  Son says "I will send them my schedule and ask them to come see me" (which is great) - I say "tell them you threw 87.  tell them you got all tournament team at the PG tournament".  That's the sticking point.  As you've mentioned it is a great learning experience, and hopefully we'll find that middle ground where he doesn't feel he's bragging but he still gets some good info in front of them.

Side note, since I've been wrestling with this...today, an Ivy League coach replied to the email box I share with my son (pure recruiting address) to say that he was putting together his summer showcase schedule and he would send it to son asap as he hopes to connect this summer.  I actually replied (breaking a sacred rule on HSBBW) to say thank you (as I'm finalizing our summer schedule soon), admitted that I was the parent, and said "my son may not share this with you but I wanted to let you know that he threw xxx, hit well, at the xxx event this week".  Apologized for jumping into the email thread and wished him the best of luck with his season.  He wrote back within five minutes and said, "no problem, all info at this point is great - it helps me follow your son's progress. Thanks!".  I share this for other parents who may be nervous to appear as a helicopter parent; it might be okay to participate occasionally, with some coaches.  Not very much is black and white, it seems.

Thanks again for the PM's and for the advice, very much appreciated.

Very nice...Good Luck...

 Last year my 2015 JR. went to a few school camps, at the end of the camp the coach came over ask him to send in his HS 2014 home game dates...but when the coach was saying this he was looking right at me like saying I know some kids might not follow up.

 So he looked rigth at me and said  email me the schedule...did my son follow up... No.. not a 17 yr old teenager... so I sent the 2014 home game list out... the coach did reply with a thank you and see you at a home game...

I thought is was ok as a dad to participate in this situation...

Good Luck,

Joe

BaseballLife - 

That was a good follow up.

I'm sure it won't surprise you how many players/parents I've come across that employ the strategy of "if I'm good enough I'll be found" combined with some finger crossing.  I don't recommend that.

You sound like you are doing ok.

There is a fine line between being too quiet, being the squeaky wheel, and being annoying.

There is not necessarily a recipe for the "right" answer because every coach is different.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

baseballlife,

Your son sounds like a great kid.  He isn't comfortable talking about himself.  I totally get it. I would advise him that he doesn't understand how competitive it is to play any level of college baseball....he hasn't done his homework on the topic.  Around 6% of high school kids make it to the next level.    Also, not everyone goes from college baseball freshmen to college baseball senior.   You still have to demonstrate baseball skills, soft skills and maturity to get through a college baseball program.  Part of those soft skills and maturity is showing and telling the coach what you can do for him and what you did for him.  It never stops because this is a life skill.  Be humble but be factual and put your best foot forward is my best advice

As time goes by, he is going to see his high school travel teammates commit to colleges. This is where I saw my son's competitive juices start to flow on this topic.  He realized being very good wasn't good enough if he wanted to get his best possible situation.   My guess is those kids sold themselves, and did a pretty good job at it.  My son had to come up with a way to separate himself from others.....he had to define his "hook" for college baseball recruiting.   You mentioned an Ivy coach contacted your son.   Nowhere is the "hook" more important than in Ivy admission where it is ridiculously competitive.  That is a separate discussion for anther day.   This "hook" needs to be brought to the attention of the decision makers (coaches, admission) or he could find himself not playing college baseball.   That is as plain and simple as I can put it.  He needs to "reinforce" why he is the best candidate for a roster position on any college team.....it is that competitive.   He needs to sell his abilities and show self confidence (not to the point of bragging).  

The meek may inherit the earth but they will not be recruited for a college baseball team.  

Good luck!

There is a bit of an art to assuring that positive information gets conveyed without crossing the line into bragging.

One point is not to do it all the darned time.  No one wants a game-by-game update on your HS season exploits.

But when you have a strong performance at a real event, a "just the facts" rundown is called for. 

PG showcases are really the best for this because their data is respected, reliable, and posted to a web site.  So you can just e-mail a link to your profile and page and let the coaches see for themselves.

If the event your son went to offered any kind of an evaluation, sending a link or a .pdf copy of anything he got on paper would be one way to do it.  "I did not see you there, so I am sending you a copy of the evaluation that was given to me."

If you have neither of those things, then I think you could start a conversation with an e-mail that broached the subject by asking a question instead of leading with a brag.  "Dear Coach, I did not see you at the XXX event the other night.  I was wondering if you were there somewhere?  If so, I am sorry we did not get to talk."  Bear in mind that with your son being a junior, unless a coach was involved in providing instruction at the event, any discussions (i.e., non-instructional discussions) would be against NCAA rules, so it could very well be that the coach was there but lurking at a distance.

What you hope for here is a reply that indicates he was indeed there and that he did indeed see your son's strong performance.  Or if not, perhaps he would respond by reaching out to someone he knows and trusts to ask them what they thought of you that day, what gun readings they got, etc. 

If this dialogue went back and forth a time or two, in all likelihood the coach might just ask for the RADAR gun readings, etc.  That gets your son off the hook, because he can provide the info in the context of answering a question, and not come across as someone who couldn't wait to brag on himself.

Thanks, Midlo, your reply got me thinking about the power of the "third party evaluation" and how it can get you out of the awkward position of highlighting your own accomplishments ("look, coach, this is what someone else wrote about me"). I emailed the event organizers that my son attended this week to ask if they had written results or evaluations they could share or link me to. (I was frustrated that I didn't take a picture of the board where they posted the results, and thought they might have a report). 

The organizer let me know that they sent out a written report to every single coach and scout that attended, and all the others that said they might come and didn't. Which is great.  It doesn't really help us reach coaches out of the area, but I'm glad they shared the results.  It's a small world and all...

Of course, half of the scouts were drinking coffee and chatting during the time son was pitching (long day) so this could a helpful followup!

Again, thanks to all for the thoughtful replies.