Tommy John, what now

First welcome to the site and you will find a ton of people on here who had sons in the same situation. Very knowledgable people will be along later with tons of advice and stories to let you know it's not the end of the world.

My first bit of advice is to read this

http://joshherzenberg.blogspot.com/

This is a blog chronicling the recovery process of our very own JH who is a college pitcher. You're going to be very impressed with all aspects of this young man's blog - from the high level writing, to his knowledge of baseball and all kinds of things.

My second bit of advice is to really not change that much from the original plan of recruiting. Keep contacting schools that your son is interested in. They understand these things happen and it's no longer like it was 20 years ago when this was an end to any career. He may not get a scholarship out of high school but he may get a spot and work his way into one once he proves he's healthy.

I know you and your son feel like he's in this tunnel but understand the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train heading at you guys. There isn't a guarantee it will work out but the chances of it working out are pretty good once he gets to the rehab. The rehab is the most important part because if he can't get healthy then there's no chance of any scholarship or spot on a team.

Were there schools that saw and were recruiting your son before he got hurt? If so, have him give the coaches a call and explain the situation. Some schools will lose interest after learning that he is hurt and had surgery, but there will also be coaches where it won't be a big deal. It seems most college coaches these days have dealt with players who have had TJ surgery and know that they can successfully come back from it.

My son was also hurt the summer after his Junior year and that was how he handled it.

You might find a situation where a school that plays below your son's perceived ability would jump at the chance to get a player of his caliber into their program knowing that higher level schools have been scared off by his injury. For example, if he was projected to be a lower level DI player then look into DII and DIII programs. If you have video of him and some scout recommendations this could work.

Juco might be a viable option for your son too.

the first thing is to rehab properly and get the armback to one hundred percent

Well proper rehab is first and foremost. Coach thanks for sharing this blog with us.

Boomer123- I am sorry to hear about your son's surgery. It is a very long process, as you said, but hard work and focus will allow the process to be successful in due time. And that success will hopefully be the ultimate gratification for your son.

I am glad that coach2709 shared the blog with you, and am pleased to know that other people feel as though it is a helpful and insightful piece of information. The blog does not go into anything close to the issue that you addressed in your original post, however. Being that I am a senior in college and had the operation in late July, I will unfortunately not be able to pitch this coming spring for my school team. I have spent many hours over the last several months emailing and calling various coaches at schools around the country to discuss the situation with them and to go over my plans for the future. I am hoping to have the opportunity to graduate from my current school and be admitted into a graduate program at another school while having the good fortune of pitching for that school's team for my last remaining year of eligibility.

While your son's predicament obviously differs from my current one, the one underlying similarity is uncertainty. My advice would be to be proactive. Coaches are well aware of the surgery's success rate and seem to be very receptive to players that have had the misfortune of undergoing the operation. Reaching out to these coaches and providing them with honesty and sincerity could not hurt. State your son's current standing in his health, his prior experience and the attributes that he feels he could contribute to the team.

If you'd like any other information feel free to shoot me a PM here or an email at joshherzenberg@gmail.com. I don't want to put too much specificity about my experience with the second round of recruiting on the Internet at this point because I feel as though that could be detrimental to anything I'm trying to accomplish and could sway opinions of various people in different ways. But if there is anything I can help with I'd be glad to provide at least a little guidance. Part of the reason why I started the blog was to ensure that the players that have the surgery are able to find a scapegoat and a place where they can observe similarities or differences from their experience to mine. Thus if there is any particular information that isn't touched upon in the blog and is desired from anyone, I encourage reaching out directly so I can attempt to help in any way.

Good luck to your son and tell him to keep his head up. It's a long road but it only gets better.

Josh, thanks for allowing others to share in your journey. Right now we will start reaching out to local coaches. Not sure how much of hurry we should be in. Rehab won't even start for two weeks.

Boomer- If your son has an idea of what he is interested in and where he is interested in, then I feel as though it is never too early. As I said, the success rate from the operation is absolutely phenomenal, and coaches are usually well aware of this. Being proactive can only help!