What are some questions HC's or RC's have asked your son?

Opus - Initially, the only thing that I told my son was to make it clear that he wasn’t committing to any school right now. I let him handle all of the initial conversations. He would recap the conversations but I don’t remember anything out of the ordinary. 

Here are some of the things that I remember:

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Do you play any other sports?

If so, what’s your favorite sport?

What’s your GPA?

ACT/SAT scores?

What other schools are recruiting you?

What schools have you visited?

Can you send high school and/or summer schedule?

What would you like to major in?

What are you looking for in a baseball program?

Not very exciting stuff but that’s all I got.

My Kid gets asked to email back when his 60 time is faster

Pretty funny, but true!

In general the question most frequently asked to him is "what is your GPA?"

Oh, and "can you attend our camp?"

For the most part my son covered the basics in an intro email (GPA, test scores, metrics, schedule, etc), so no need to ask about that stuff.  Mostly they asked how he's playing, what part of his game is he working on (be prepared for a long discussion on specifics if he says something like "my swing" or "my throw downs", who else is he talking to, would he consider their school, when does he want to make a decision.

An important one - "Do you have any questions for me?"...kids should have a couple of questions to ask back to the coach.  When my son had his first call with a HC he had nothing to ask....5 minutes later the travel coach is yelling at me to make sure that he is prepared with some questions.

Most of the conversations my son had were not even baseball related.  What did you do this weekend? What are your hobbies? Do you have plans for vacation? Things like that.  Baseball questions were usually, who else are you talking to? When do you pitch next?

What size shoe do you wear?   The size 13 didn't match his 5'10 frame as a sophomore...

When son did his visit, and we were invited into the HC's office at the end of the tour, HC asked him some baseball situational questions (what would you throw in this count, etc). 

The rest were questions about his transcript, major, what his other hobbies were, what other sports he played. I got the sense the coach wanted to see if me or his mother would jump in (we did not ;-))

It was different for each coach.  Where he is at asked these:

How did you do last week playing?  We talked about having specifics because the first one was "good"  I put in a 7 word rule I had heard in interviewing seminar.  Every answer has to have 7 words minimum.  No yes or no or ok.

How is school?  How is ball(he played football and basketball) so they asked about them?  I knew many of the guys or had had contact with them so it was almost always brought up How is your dad?  They asked about his brothers because many of coaches had recruited his brothers. 

They would mention things they saw in his games or heard about.  We sent a weekly update on his games for the entire year so they would mention those.  That is how I know they were reading them. 

Not specific questions.  As has been stated, more about life.

He met most of the RC/HC at ballgames so he did not have the first conversation on a phone, it was face to face.  I think it depends on the level of coach and how long they have been doing it too.  The better HC/RC's know how to ask questions to get teenagers to answer and talk to them.  I have also heard some new ones who asked stupid questions and left it at only yes or no answers.   The older ones phrased the questions where you could have a conversation and it was natural.  They are also the ones that are known as great recruiters.  They have an ability to make the player and parents feel like old friends. 

I remember my son telling me early on that is weird talking to a grown man for very long.  That is just weird dad.  I don't even know him and he is asking all these questions.  Kinda stalkerish.  Love that. 

Always have questions ready that are not controversial. 

For us:  Do you have 2 way guys?  Do you call the pitches or do the catchers?  Asked them about their pasts?  I always asked about their families if I talked to them.  That has allowed me to talk to them later and not about my son or their job.  I still have coaches that were recruiting my middle son 10 plus years ago that I ask how their families are doing if I see them to this day.  They ask about my son and saw one this fall and he asked about both of my sons since he recruited both.  It keeps it from being awkward.

A lot of the questions were the same as above on official and unofficial visits.  Some related to baseball.."what is your best pitch in this situation" kind of stuff, and "what do you do with your free time".   At the time, son was teaching himself to play the guitar (god bless YouTube!) which led to some interesting dialogue about music and art.   If there is one thing about baseball players and coaches it is that many of them play the guitar and fish.  If you bring up either of those topics, you're golden!   

The one thing that really stuck out to me was the coaches reactions to him saying "yes, sir" or "no, sir" and then elaborating on his answer.   His final three schools were all northeast universities.  I grew up mostly in MA, and CT and we didn't talk like that, EVER.   My son grew up in Virginia and the kids around here are taught (especially in sports) to say "yes, sir" and "no, sir" as a sign of respect.  It is said very naturally and not forced.   I honestly think that made a lasting impression on the coaches.   His eventual HC made the comment to the team that he'd like to hear a lot more "yes, sir" and "no, sir" from his players

I will add the interesting part of my son's journey is that his HC now was his RC.  He was recruiting him at Arkansas so he began conversations there.  Then when he got the job at UT as HC, he continued the recruiting as HC.  The recruiting process was over such a long period from first contact to signing that they had a great relationship.  They just talked on the phone, almost like an uncle.  Just asked normal questions about life.

Somewhere along the line his academic interests must have come up. He's a history major and I know there's a couple of books he read and some series he started watching after a RC put him on to it. A couple who had seen him pitch would ask what went well with a particular outing or what he would have done differently in specific situations. Also, if he's looking at schools far away, he should be thinking about, and probably will be asked, how he feels about being far from home.

"Can you have your dad call me?  I'd like to get his input on how to best run my program."

I had a 30 minute phone conversation with one SEC RC before he realized I was the Varsity HC and dad.   He commented at the end that he was impressed that I presented his positives and negatives without him realizing I was dad.  He said if I had realized ahead of time that you were his dad I probably would not have called but I'm glad I did.  It was interesting the questions RC/HC asked me as his HC even knowing I was his dad in most cases.