Which coach should I have call?

If you were the college coach who would you want to hear from?

A guy who you have never played for?

or

A guy who you have played for and knows your make-up

It looks like an easy answer to me

Also, do either of these coaches know the college coach you wish to have called? If either has a relationship with the college coach, that might answer your question.

I know in our area HS and Legion ball are not that good, probably below average. The schools that recruited my son almost ALL called his travel coach with the exception of maybe one. Do you think a college coach wants to hear from a HS coach that really doesn't see good competitive baseball himself? If you are on a good travel team and haven't played for the coach I bet he has seen you play against good competition at some point. To me travel coaches carry a lot more credibility than HS coaches.

quote:

Originally posted by SeedThrower:
I know in our area HS and Legion ball are not that good, probably below average. The schools that recruited my son almost ALL called his travel coach with the exception of maybe one. Do you think a college coach wants to hear from a HS coach that really doesn't see good competitive baseball himself? If you are on a good travel team and haven't played for the coach I bet he has seen you play against good competition at some point. To me travel coaches carry a lot more credibility than HS coaches.

Are you sure that these college coaches didn't call the HS coach? I'd have to say that I get a significant number of calls. In fact, SIBullets, who also post on this site can verify this statement. However, he can also verify that the best scenerio is to have both coaches work together. Why couldn't this be done? My players play for at least 3 different summer programs including legion as well as travel teams both from Illinois and Missouri. I do my best to keep in contact with all of these guys and they do the same back.

Regarding level of competition and validity of a high school coach's opinion, your argument lack creditability. College coaches have to deal with players that must play/practice while they are students. Not an easy task and the one most qualified to discuss this is the HS Coach. In some circumstances, I'd agree that the level of competition might be better. MIGHT! I don't know the area that you play in. In very simple terms, the level of HS play in my area is very high. Naturally, you come across teams within a given conference that might be down. Naturally, you depend upon the HS program to schedule outstanding competition. You suggest that this isn't the case most of the time. I would beg to differ.

Hey CoachB until you show up to see what I am actually talking about, you are lacking credibility. HS baseball in our area is average at best, so is Legion. I have even been to the great state of Illinois to watch HS games. I stand by my comments and I do have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about. I know who called the HS coach because the coach told me who was calling. Others who showed interest but didn't actually recruit did call as well.
You want to know how I know what I'm talking about? When I look behind a backstop and I can see numerous scouts and college recruiters at the travel teams games. When I go to a HS game and see nobody or maybe one will show up every third game. These guys want to see players perform in front of great competition and the come out in droves to the travel teams. If your team goes to state I can say that you will draw some more scouts because obviously the competition is better, but for the most part the schools who recruited my son didn't bother with the HS coach. The most the universities wanted out of our HS was transcripts, including the university that my son signed with, in your state. As a matter of fact when I was questioned by a number of college coaches on my sons GPA and told them it was a 3.4, that was all they needed to know. Didn't even bother contacting the school or coach, they wanted to know that my son could play the best competition and do well. Naturally! To tell you the truth, yesterday was the first time our HS coach had any communication with the college my son signed with. You know what it was for? To get a comment from him about my son for the press release about the current recruiting class. CASE CLOSED!
By the way, I'll take the travel team that my son was on to beat your HS team 9 out of 10 times and I will win. That is a fact!
If you would like to debate this topic any further I suggest you PM me. I could go on with other instances, but I think I have proved my argument pretty well.

The coach that you want to make the call is the gentleman you are closest with---

quote:

I know in our area HS and Legion ball are not that good, probably below average. The schools that recruited my son almost ALL called his travel coach with the exception of maybe one. Do you think a college coach wants to hear from a HS coach that really doesn't see good competitive baseball himself? If you are on a good travel team and haven't played for the coach I bet he has seen you play against good competition at some point. To me travel coaches carry a lot more credibility than HS coaches.

Seed - I have considered your arguments and they are not persuasive - seems like we are arguing apples and oranges here. Anecdotal evidence that travel teams in your area are better than your local high school teams proves nothing about nothing. In many areas, the high school teams and the travel teams are one and the same. Also, many high school teams are high profile and do indeed get scouted. Since college games are in the spring, harder for the college recruiters to get out and watch games than in the summer so that may explain some of the lower attendance. Obviously, higher profile tournaments and showcases get more scouts than your average hs game.

Regardless of all that and your positions may be entirely correct, I am not aware of any recruiter in the nation that will make an offer without seeing a kid with their own eyes. Given that, what difference does it make who's word carries more weight? If someone's recommendation meant a lot to me, then I would ideally want all the opinions precisely as the Coach has outlined.

Hey, the kid asked the question who the college would rather hear from? I chimmed in because I asked that very question of a couple of colleges that were looking at my son. I had phone numbers of both the HS coach and his travel coach. Wanna take a guess which one they wanted?
When they wanted transcripts sent you know who they asked? They asked us (my sons parents) to talk to the HS coach to take care of it.

Cleveland, HS and travel are not even on the same map from my parts. Sad but very true! I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, but where I am from all the coaches are teachers, most haven't even played at the college level and ours can't coach travel teams. On the other hand, my sons travel coach played into AAA ball. Who's word is going to carry more weight? Do I need to go any further into this?

quote:

Originally posted by rz1:
If you were the college coach who would you want to hear from?

A guy who you have never played for?

or

A guy who you have played for and knows your make-up

It looks like an easy answer to me

I wholeheartedly agree with this. One of the first questions the college coach will ask will relate to your game performance...makeup during a game. A coach you have never played for will be perceived to have an agenda as opposed to firsthand knowledge.

seedthrower - You have had but one experience with this, yet you seem to know everything. Situations are different all over the country with different schools. I can tell you that our HS coach, who was totally new at it, received numerous calls from college coaches (including his eventual college choice)...probably a similar number with his summer coaches (who by the way, were with one of the top 2 or 3 summer programs in the country). I think most college coaches want the whole picture...a picture in an academic environment (i.e. HS) and a picture of the player in a highly competitive environment (i.e. summer travel ball). One top-25 college coach even told us it was very important to him to see our son perform in an environment where he wasn't surrounded by other top-D1 prospects...one where there might be some frustration and adversity to deal with. That college coach attended his games in both venues and drove a very long distance to see him in the 'less competitive' venue. Due diligence I would call it.

Many other college coaches showed up at our son's HS games...most just happened to be from local colleges. Some relied on local scouts to give them feedback (e.g. an area scout who had played for a D1 about 400 miles away was at his HS games a couple of times with two purposes in mind). During the college season (same as HS season), thats about the best they can do.

And finally, be careful not to bite the hand that feeds you. If your son happens to be a potential draft candidate...where do you think the scouts will make their final and deciding evaluations? Yep, at his senior year HS games. Many of the area scouts told us they "found" our son at his HS games (and on PG's list too BTW ). That caused them to "follow" him in the summer. But you just never know who's peering from behind a bush down the line.

I think we have the ultimate authority on these subjects now right here on the HSBBW, Mr. seedthrower. Just ask him, and he will close the case for you with his answers. After all, he has been through it at least one time.

The original question had the answer in its statement. Gametime24, you wrote, "I think my high school coach might have more credibility".

Mr. Seedthrower, must have stepped on some toes. I apologize. Presently, I have 2 kids signed and another possibly signed D-I for their senior year. I'd say that most of the universities in our state communicate with me. We have approximately 90% of our kids going on to play college ball. Most have never played anything but legion ball. Counting my group this year which includes 3 kids that have played travel and not legion, I've had 4 travel ball kids signed. The rest from Legion and HS. Not bad for someone who doesn't know what he's doing. Regarding how great your team is versus mine, I certainly hope you'd win being able to select kids from several high schools. However, I wouldn't count on it. One team I coached a few years ago went 40-0 in high school ball. They were the #1 HS baseball team in America according to Collegiate Magazine. That same team then went on to win the National Title in American Legion. BTW, Coach "C" I believe is the coach where your son signed. He and I talk all of the time.

Have them both call.

Coachb25....don't waste your time trying to explain it to him. I know you, like most established hs coaches, get almost daily either a letter, phone call, or e-mail asking about your kids or some other kid in your area.

I have never seen baseball around the frozen lakes of the north. Maybe you do have to pick between thousands of players to come up with a decent team (which I seriously doubt), but I know in my area there are quality hs coaches teaching the game and putting quality teams on the field.

d8, well said. You know personally, the time spent on recruiting. I just ate lunch. Ok so I grabbed a bite and then went to give one of my kids a butt chewing for not getting the NCAA Clearinghouse info in. Thank goodness, he finally did. During this process, you have to worry about:

• Making sure the players are signed up or registered with the clearing house.
• What winter camp are they going to attend of which perspective college team?
• What are the various test scores and do they need to retake? If so, do you have the appropriate computer tudor program available?
• Is there a showcase out there that will best allow them to get infront of the college coaches they need to be seen by?
• What types of grants can they receive and do they qualify for monies through their parent's work?
• Which schools have they visited and which should they visit? (Note - Before anyone suggest that I'm limiting my players, I mean to suggest that they need to have a broad spectrum including state schools planned for their visits. State schools are often cheaper for the parents when figuring out monies and the potential bang for the buck.)

Well, I could go on and on. d8, we both agree that the player should have the coach talk to both coaches. Both can be valuable resources. This should be a partnership with everyone involved to give that player the best opportunity to gain a college education while also playing the game that they love. JMHO!

I'll ask it again...

Q: How fortunate are the players and families that are associated with CoachB25?


A: Very, very fortunate...whether they know it or not!

For someone to speak as if they are experienced and knowledgeable of every HS coach and program in the country is foolish! I'm sure there are programs that are not up to par and coaches that don't do their jobs.... just as there are nurses that are burned out, janitors that show no efforts, CPAs that are unqualified, or lawyers that only care about a buck. You can make a case of a "bad" coach if you try.

My son's HS coach not only worked his tail off making sure my son had the grades, but replied to each and every phone call, questionnaire, and my requests for advice. We were not special... he does it for all his players.

Coach B - You're a coach that almost any of us would be honored to have our sons play for. Your players are very lucky, just as the ones that play for my son's former HS coach, and many others that give of their time and talents.