Wisconsin Parent advice

quote:

In the summer he plays on the local legion team. Are there better teams he should consider?

Welcome to the hsbbweb!

The main issue with summer teams that travel outside your area is the exposure he might get outside your local area to colleges. By going to the PG event however, you are going to guarantee a certain amount of exposure. Now if he does not show all that well at the one event, you might have to consider other events including targeted college camps, for example.

The main issue with recruiting is talent plus exposure. I don't believe the summer team has a huge impact on his abilty but some will disagree with me on that. If he goes to the PG event and throws mid to upper 80's or higher, he will get noticed. If not, he still might get noticed because some coach might see a player who can help his program win. He might also see a body and pitching ability that he can develop down the road.

For some perspective, my son played local legion ball here in the Cleveland area and there are no scouts flocking here to watch kids play. He was discovered at a tournament called the CABA WS held in this area. It still took attending two college camps after the intial exposure to seal the deal and even with that it only netted a modest scholarship. Even though it started out modestly, it led to a wonderful college experience and now pros. Encourage your son to be ready to turn heads at the PG event and his dreams can come true as well.

Waterboys, I echo ClevelandDad's welcome!

If you can answer a few questions, we can help tailor our responses to your needs.

* Do you have any idea as to your son's velocity?

* Where would your son like to play baseball in college? Upper Midwest? Down South? Somewhere else?

* Does your son aspire to play on a certain level? (D1, D2, D3, JUCO)

Waterboys: I am far less savvy than most of the posters on this site but will relay my son's recent experience.

We live in MT which is quite possibly (almost certainly?) more baseball-remote than northern Wisconsin. The nearest decent showcase for us was Minneapolis or Seattle. In addition my son plays baseball-football-basketball so there were few open windows in his schedule. We did not attend a single showcase.

We investigated schools via the web and decided to focus on the small D3's in Minnesota/Oregon/Washington. We visited a few campuses and made our own video which son sent to several coaches. Son followed up with e-mails.

We expected to hear from coaches last summer (son is 2010 grad) or early fall but heard nothing. I kept encouraging son to call/e-mail coaches and he did to some degree.

About early November he got a few calls from coaches but nothing overwhelming. Then his assistant high school football coach (on his own) contacted his alma mater's baseball coach and talked son up. That coach (apparently) called a few other coaches who had seen son play and started to recruit son aggressively.

Son and I visited the school - Jamestown College (NAIA, Jamestown ND) - a couple weeks ago. The coach spent most of the day with him and also involved his assistants, an admission officer, a history professor, and a freshman baseball player.

Everything was very impressive. The school is beautiful, academics are great, and Jamestown is an NAIA power (NAIA World Series appearances in '04 and '08). Coach offered a nice combination of baseball and academic scholarships and after a day or two to think it over we signed. Son could not be happier.

What's the moral? Think of recruiting as fishing. If you make three casts and walk away you are unlikely to catch anything. If you prepare, study the stream conditions and (most importantly) put in the time - your chances go up tremendously. Are you guaranteed to catch the big fish if you do these things? No. But you are almost certain to catch no fish if you don't.

The other moral is that everyone's circumstances are different. What works for one will perhaps not work for another.

My recommendations are:

1. Do your research and develop a list of schools your son would like to attend whether he played baseball or not. Visit those schools.

2. If your budget and schedule permits attending showcases, do so.

3. Make your own video (if I can, anyone can).

4. Contact coaches and send videos. Follow-up with calls or e-mails whether you get a response or not.

5. Have your son's coaches contact the coach at schools he is targeting. This is what really paid off for us.

6. Do not panic - keep casting.

Good luck.

As far as velocity goes he pitched around 80 last summer, so with his offseason work I am hoping he has improved to low-mid 80's, he has gotten faster just not sure how much.

I think he would like to stay in the upper mid west. As far as level goes he does not have a real preference but only one D1 school that's in the state. Wisconsin has lots of DIII schools and there are many DII in Minnesota. I have heard that NAIA can also be an attractive option for scholarship dollars?

His coach just emailed me some camp information for a local camp that will be attended by coaches from Creighton, Iowa, Purdue and Indiana State.

quote:

Originally posted by MTBaseballDad:
Waterboys: I am far less savvy than most of the posters on this site but will relay my son's recent experience.

You could have fooled me about your savvyness MTBaseballDad - yours is one of the best posts I have ever seen here on the hsbbweb.

Waiting for the phone to ring is perhaps the worst of all strategies. It does not take overwhelming talent to play college baseball. IMHO, it takes decent talent with overwhelming desire.

Wisconsin has some of the top D3 programs in the country. Wisconsin-Whitewater for example produces players for the next level as well and competes almost annually for the national championship.

MTBaseballDad- I second what CD said. Excellent post, well thought out plan. Congrats on doing your homework to help your son get recruited. I hope you keep posting as he progresses.

Waterboys - The D3's in Minnesota are all gorgeous schools many of which have great baseball. Son and I visted Macalester, St. John's, St. Olaf, Carleton, Bethany, Hamline and St. Thomas (the Tommies won the 2009 D3 championship). Others include Gustavus Adolphus, Augsburg and St. Scholastica. Son attended a camp at Macalester and was very impressed with Coach Matt Parrington.

All of these schools would be a wonderful place to spend four years, baseball or not. That's the kind of place I was hoping my son would find and I think he did at Jamestown (time will tell).

MTBaseballDad- What are your thoughts on NAIA vs Div II or III. We do have some good division III programs in Wisconsin. Did you visit any of the DII schools in Minnesota (Winona, Mankato)? I understand that NAIA schools can offer more $ then many of the DII programs and DIII gives no athletic dollars?

We visited St. Cloud which is D2. However, my son seemed to favor small schools which is why we wound up focusing on D3 and NAIA.

I have also saved well for college so dollars was not a primary issue. As you know D3's do not offer sports scholarships. The majorit of D3's are private schools and the annual costs run from $25 - $40k. However, most students seem to get a significant amount of scholarships & aid, depending on their test scores and GPA.

"I have heard that NAIA can also be an attractive option for scholarship dollars?"

Waterboys: My son received a $3K baseball scholarship and a $7.5K academic scholarship at Jamestown. Son scored 26 on the ACT and has a 3.8 GPA. Jamestown's annual costs run around $22K (tuition/room/board).

I have no idea how that stacks up but we were very happy with it.

Hey my fellow Badger yo have a pm

Waterboys,

I am a senior in high school this year at a small school(535 enrollment) near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I would strongly suggest your son attends the Wisconsin High School Baseball Showcase. You have to tryout to make the showcase but he is talented he won't have trouble making it. The showcase is held in Kenosha; here is the website http://www.showtimesportscamps...atic/wis_combine.htm

As for the summer, there are some travel teams in Wisconsin such as the Midwest Blazers, Racine Hitters, and Wisconsin All-Stars. You can easily find information on these teams if you research them. I didn't have the money to be on one of these teams so I just played on a legion team. It worked out great for me because our team went to State. There were several college coaches and scouts at the regional and state tournament.

The best advice I can give is have your son show initiative. Have him send a coach and email/letter, attend college camps at some of the d3's we have here in the state, call a coach, research possible showcases you can attend, reseach college baseball programs and possible majors. The junior year is huge for baseball. Hit the books hard this year and dominate the ACT.

A lot of this has been mentioned in previous posts but I thought it would be nice to here what I had to say since I was in the same position a year ago. I hope everything turns out well for you and your son.