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Just want to get others insight.

I've seen TR mention in a few of his responses about kids contacting coaches and asking if they are a Varsity player or Varsity contributer or mention that unless you are a Varsity player no need to contact a coach. I value TR's experience but thought this was a subject that deserved further discussion. I've posted this question to TR in other posts (which is copied below) but he may not have seen them so I thought I would open it up to anyone who wants to provide feedback. (FYI>>> this is no way a bash of TR I just want to get his as well as others thoughts on this)

quote:
Originally posted by TRhit:
oriole

are you playing varsity?


TR you had mentioned this in another topic and said that unless you play Varsity you shouldn't contact colleges.

I'm going to copy what I said/asked in that post. I just want to know what your thoughts are on this.

From prior post
TR...I'm kind of on the fence with this. I don't think it hurts to start the process. Possibly show some interest, let them know of showcases you have or are planning to attend. The reason I say this is that as we've seen on a number of topics

1- High School stats and season can/do have minimal impact on recruiting
2- Due to talent levels of some schools (and coaching decisions) many Sophmores do play JV.
3- JV or Varsity you are probably going to start the process in the Summer/Fall after your Sophmore year anyway. Based on rational of waiting till your Varsity a player may wait until Spring of his JR year which I feel is later than you would want to.

Just since my son started the process, it has sped up tremendously, with that in mind I do not see the harm in starting the process of contacting school. I probaly would start with introductory letter and than e-mail as primary contact with phone call a little later. your thoughts?
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Again I ask---is the player a varsity player/contributor ?

Coaches and scouts usually will not venture to see JV or freshman players and you certainly do not want to have a scout/recruiter come to see you in action when in fact you are not seeing much action.

College Coaches do not usually get interested in players until their junior year unless a kid is an out and out stud early on. This is especially so if a kid is on the JV as a frosh/soph


Ask yourself this--if you were a college coach would you spend time going to see a JV player ?

I do not profess to have all the answers but I have been involved with the process long enough to have a good feel as to what coaches want to see.
quote:
Originally posted by TRhit:
Again I ask---is the player a varsity player/contributor ?

Coaches and scouts usually will not venture to see JV or freshman players and you certainly do not want to have a scout/recruiter come to see you in action when in fact you are not seeing much action.

Ask yourself this--if you were a college coach would you spend time going to see a JV player ?


TR thanks for the feedback! I would agree that coaches will not come see you at a JV High School game (I don't see many coming to Varsity games either)...but might they see you at a Showcase or Tournament the Summer or Fall if you are playing in 1 that you attend. But the main question was why not start the communication process? If they do not play Varsity as a Sophmore are you saying not to contact the Coach until after the Spring of your JR year?
Last edited by Novice Dad
It is a business--they have enough trouble keeping up with this years seniors and juniors much less kids on JV---add to this the fact that many programs are severely understaffed


One other aspect--what are the guarantees that a frosh/spoh on JV will even make the varsity in his junior year not to mention be a starter.
Last edited by TRhit
I would guess that since there are hundreds of college coaches, you could get a lot of different answers. My experience has been that some schools are willing to note a boy as a "follow" as early as age 14. Obviously they cannot do any formal contact, but in subtle ways the message was sent that they want him to write them with info from time to time (contacts from the player to the coaches are permitted, but not vice versa) and that they want to see him at their camps (i.e., show that you are interested in their school and team as well).
This is a question with a double edge. There are many, many high schools that will not let a player on the varsity team until they are jr's. To summize that a player cannot showcase, or contact a coach before then may or may not be correct. I have had kids play for me who are 4 year varsity players and other who are 2 only because of school rules.

It is a minimum qualification for some showcases and/or events that a player be a varsity player. It's may be a measuring stick. 3 of my players went to a College Select event after their freshaman year, they did well and all 3 were varsity players and all 3 have signed early.

I read a post earlier about a soph who played varsity and got 5 AB's playing behind the MVP. Was that worth it? Maybe yes, maybe no. Time will tell but there is no right answer. I know where we are the coaching and positive experience on the varsity is way above JV. noidea
I would guess you have to define contributer. If you have 8 pitchers and you play 32 games each pitcher would have approximately 4 starts. Let's say you get the weak opponents and you are 4 and 0 while another guy gets 4 "quality teams" and looses 3. Who is the contributer, and how can you tell?

Or what if you are in middle relief or a "set up guy" but you never get a save. Are you a contributer even if your stats/exposure in the news paper never gets mentioned?

What if you are the closer and the offense is so good you never get a save?
Last edited by cpmont
cpmont

quote:
If you have 8 pitchers and you play 32 games each pitcher would have approximately 4 starts.


8 pitchers and 32 games does not make for 4 games each in most instances.

The top two or three pitchers are going to get the M W F starts and the other 5 will play some sort of relief role. And maybe not all 5.

Major contributors are not hard to pinpoint.
Boxscores and Beyond the boxscore....

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