Unofficial visit protocol?

This behavior is fairly common for coaches who are interested in a player but are still looking to see what is out there. One email thru the cracks can happen, two is on purpose. I think if they were that interested they would probably be saying hey what time are we meeting that Jimmy kid?

Saw this from schools that liked what they saw from 2019, but were looking for taller guys that threw a little bit harder. Sent one last courtesy email saying that he took a visit to another school and was considering committing. That woke them up and schools that seemed to be getting cooler on him had him on campus within a week. 

I would send a final email saying - Coach, I received a camp invite to another school that I've been in contact with on the same weekend as our scheduled visit. Would love to see the __________ University campus and meet the staff but need to finalize travel arrangements. If you could confirm a time so my family can get everything sorted out on our end it would be highly appreciated. 

I don't know if you booked a flight or if you can get a refund/credit but I would hold off on making any other travel arrangements for now. The coach knows where your son lives, he knows how much of a haul it is to get there. No response, just don't show for the visit. If they get mad you have the excuse of I sent three emails. And if you never hear from them again well then you have your answer. 

Divide and Conquer...get lots of information about everything to do with the school.

For unofficial visits (local and far away), my son would meet the Coach and try to schedule time with Admissions either on his own or through the Coach.  I would try to meet with a Financial Aid officer.   I had many financial related questions that I wanted to get answered as I had two more kids in the queue. 

If your son needs you, he can text you.

PABaseball, not what I was hoping to hear; but thanks for the voice of experience.  Fwiw, this is a HA school, and I would expect that they are just getting serious about 2020s (need to see Jr year grades).  Could be they already have all the Ps they want lined up, but that would be surprising...  Makes as much sense as anything else I can come up with though.

Chico - reread your most recent post....

I'd have your son (phone) call the coach directly to get information and make sure he is still in that RC or HC capacity at the school.  I've seen this before with D3 coaching turnover especially as many D3's season is over.  Good luck!

fenwaysouth posted:

Chico - reread your most recent post....

I'd have your son (phone) call the coach directly to get information and make sure he is still in that RC or HC capacity at the school.  I've seen this before with D3 coaching turnover especially as many D3's season is over.  Good luck!

Chico, was just about to say the same thing. It could be a lot worse. Had a friend getting ready to drive 10 hours to attend a weekend long camp and were expecting an offer from PC at the end of it. Googled _________ University baseball to get the address of the field to find the closest hotel. First thing that came up was a headline that the PC took a new job halfway across the country. Never booked the hotel, but guess who didn't get a camp refund. 

We found once the visit interest was confirmed, it became a text message world.  My son followed up with texts and ask that the coach call him or text a reply to confirm the day and time of the meeting.  It frustrated the heck out of me because I could not analyze the information exchange  but I knew that is part of the coach's evaluation with the player.  I just took it as long as they are responding to texts they are genuinely interested.

2019 was scheduled to go to camp and receive an offer and the coach called him and said I have sent you a refund for the camp before I left.  The HC has retired (which rhymes with fired) and I'm no longer the AC/RC.  Son responded that he would be very interesting in knowing when he got a new job. He did do a great job of helping my son get recruited and actually is a big reason son is going to P5.  All coaches are not like this guy and some are just scrambling to get something else and don't have time or remember to contact those they were recruiting.  Texting is the way of the new world.

We drove about six hours to a game and unofficial visit that son had arranged with coaches. Halfway there it started raining, but we decided to go ahead with the trip.

Next day, the PC met us as arranged for tour, etc., but seemed to feel the whole thing was a pain in his behind. Later that afternoon (when we were touring with admissions) we saw him with another recruit. Seemed much more cheerful. We figured he was done with our son.

Fast forward six months, they restarted communications, invited us for an official visit (although son had not committed), we did the whole football game, dinner with coaching staff, etc. It was one of my son's top schools at the time, but a better fit came along.

When he called the coaches to tell them he was going elsewhere, they hung up on him.

Recruiting is a weird world and manners don't seem to matter much — although son ended up at a school where everyone has always been extremely courteous and I hate to be superficial, but that mattered to us.

Just to update this thread:  My son's first college visits all went well.  He met with several coaches and all were positive about his prospects.  All the schools asked him to forward an end-of-year transcript and to keep them updated about summer baseball.  Being a pitcher makes things a little easier, since they are almost always in demand.  Still a ways to go, but it appears son is fishing in the right ponds.  

As for the question I started this thread with: The visits played out in just about every possible fashion.  At one school, the coach came down from his office to meet my son before I could make my exit from the building, and that coach asked me to stay for their meeting.  At another school, my son met with the coach on his own, then son texted me to join them for a while after that.  And at a third school, son went to coach's office by himself, but coach asked him to call me in for the entire meeting.

Based on my limited sample size, for future visits I think son will stick with the plan of going to coach's office on his own and introducing himself.  He will let coach know I am nearby and let the coach decide how he wants to proceed.  That worked well so far, anyhow.  There is not going to be any scholarship money or other financial aid at stake, and every school my son met with is one where academically I'd be happy to see him enroll.  So to my mind, the baseball decision is almost exclusively my son's to make (with a little parental guidance, of course).  The boy rose to the occasion very well.  I was proud of the way he handled himself.

Thanks again to all who offered advice in this thread.  It was extremely helpful.

Great to hear! Exciting times!

Chico, great feedback and great news!

Well done Chico!   Well done.

So, there are no athletic scholarships however there is money available through grants and academic scholarships.   While the bar may be high for academic scholarships at a HA, you've got to ask to find out at the various schools he's interested in.   If he is a highly desirable student use that as leverage.  Typically, they will want you to apply ED to secure it if he qualifies.  Good luck.

Outstanding Chico!  Great planning and well executed by your son (& pops ) 

Glad they worked out, exciting time. 

Any luck getting in contact with the other coach? Might be helpful for other parents to see how that played out. 

PABaseball posted:

Glad they worked out, exciting time. 

Any luck getting in contact with the other coach? Might be helpful for other parents to see how that played out. 

My son did finally get an email from the coach who had been MIA for a couple of weeks.  As it turns out, that email arrived literally a few minutes before my son was going to try texting the coach (and then calling if texting didn't work).  The email arrived just before we were scheduled to visit the  school in question--son was going to do a campus tour regardless, but was beginning to think he wouldn't be meeting with the coach. 

If there is a lesson here, I guess it is that you shouldn't assume the worst.  Coaches are busy, get a lot of emails, some may not be great at keeping organized...  Son had emailed with this school a few times and they had seemed definitely interested.  He was able to schedule a meeting and it went well.  That particular coach asked son to text from now on for contacts.  Another coach asked son to stick with email.  The moral of the story, I think, is to be persistent and flexible.