Goosegg posted:The overwhelming majority of scouts/recruiters have relationships with local HS, travel, and showcase/camp organizers. Those local sources tell the scouts who that coach believes has potential to play at the next level; stats have nothing really to do with that - the recommending coaches understand what the scout/recruiter is looking for.
HS stats have tremendous meaning - to parents, players and to the HS coach; only the outlier - the kid hitting 30 HRs (eg) - would get a notice. And, the initial look on a kid like that (who had slipped his coaches notice despite hitting 30 dingers) would most likely be from an "assistant" (e.g., associate scout). No scout/recruiter would base his recruiting plan upon MAXPREPS.
The primary reason for that is the inconsistent talent levels and inconsistent score keeping. The former means that a hitter (eg) could be stymied by an opponents #1 pitcher (heading to the next level) but go 8 for 8 against the other pitchers who won't be moving in to the next level; the latter is self-explanatory - no recruiter/scout is making plans based upon the results of a parent scorekeeper.
Recruiting is not haphazard; every look is planned out in advance. And while a recruiter/scout watches a game to see certain players - ANYONE else who shows skills to succeed at the next level will get noted and asked about.
As a parent who had a kid whose local records may never be broken (decent player in an awful, small school league), I loved those stats, loved sorting MAXPREPS, loved fielding the calls from local reporters and reading the articles. But, it meant nothing to recruiters. Recruiters at the HS level are not looking for past results; they are looking for future projections which are really not related to HS results (for the most part).
Goosegg pretty much nailed it here