My son hurt his arm his senior year in HS (2008) and only pitched 3 innings. He is right handed and only threw 79-80mph, so he most likely would not have been recruited anyway. He was 6'-3" and 165lbs. He did not make any effort find a place to play and gave up the game even though he really loved it.
In the fall of 2009 he started playing again men's league and his arm was feeling great and he was smiling again. He said he wanted to play college ball and found a small D3 team thru another coaches help to tryout for. He made the team and pitched 16 innings last year - coaches said he has excellent control, curve ball and change up but topped out at 80mph. Was still 6'-3" 165#.
This summer he made a commitment to work as hard as he could to get good enough to get to next level. He went to ASMI in Birmingham and received instruction on mechanics and conditioning. He is now 6'4" and 185#. Yesterday in scrimmage he threw 84-85mph. He's smiling, motivated in his classes and is continuing to work hard to get to 87mph by the spring season.
So, that's where he is - what do we do next? He's completely unknown and has never been on any school's radar. We have a recruiting coach that we know that I feel is really good that we could contact but we don't know about timing.
Should we start contacting schools now or should we wait until we see where he is in the spring? At 85mph will he get any interest. How do we get an honest, realistic evaluation of his abilities (he goes to school in Dallas)? Should he try for a D2 or D3 or NAIA or all of the above?
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