WWBA Underclass Worlds - how best to leverage event?

Welcome! The WWBA events in Ft Myers are fun. Only drawback is it can be spread out, just like East Cobb and other venues. A lot of coaches will be at the Lee County Development Center, Terry Sports Complex, and Jet Blue. Hope for at least a few games at these complexes. He should have plenty of opportunities to talk to coaches assuming the ones he’s interested in are there.

What do you mean by HA? Does that mean Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, UT, UCLA? Does that mean Princeton, Lehigh, and GW? Does that mean Emory, Tufts, and Williams?

Need to specify. The levels of baseball change dramatically despite all 10 I mentioned being in the same academic league

Welcome.  If he's going to WWBA Underclass, he's presumably with a travel team with connected coaches.  Have you already talked to them about whether he's recruitable yet, and if so, by whom?  They should be willing to make connections, if they think it's the right time.  If you haven't had a frank discussion with the coaches about recruiting, now is the time.

@PABaseball yes right now he is in current conversations with mid D1/Patriot League type schools, a few of the Ivies, D3s. He plays in a well-known (by east coast/Mid Atlantic college coaches) competitive high school prep league that regularly sends guys to the Dukes, UVAs, Pitts, Clemsons, Marylands, etc (not where my son is considering, but for context) and his coach is fairly connected.

Since we have never been to this event before I was just curious about how best to take advantage of how it's set up -- should he reach out to schools he hasn't started conversations with to ask them if they'll be there, stick to the ones already on his list, is there opportunity to approach coaches he hasn't met from schools he hasn't considered yet or do coaches generally have their list of guys they are targeting to see.... I"m assuming slim chance of "Getting seen" without doing some legwork ahead of time...?   Like I said, he currently has a wide net cast as he is figuring out his own academic/athletic needs

Make as big of a list as you are willing to follow up on and craft a really good email, customized to each school, and send it.  Include current measurable and fall schedule. When the game schedule post for the tournament be sure to follow up and let them know when and where he will be playing.  

After the tournament follow up with highlights of his results and video.  Wash rinse and repeat.  Aggressively market him to any school he would be happy attending that has baseball he can play.  Now is the time to get on lots of radars as he has two falls and one summer left to find the right fit.

Coaches show up at those events with a list of kids they want to see and barring some sort of supernatural performance by someone else that’s all they will look at. Have your travel ball coach make contact with any new schools as they aren’t likely to respond to your son if they haven’t already been talking. Have your son make contact with the schools he is talking to and send them his game schedule. Then go to the event and play well !

@MomFiguringitOut posted:

@PABaseball yes right now he is in current conversations with mid D1/Patriot League type schools, a few of the Ivies, D3s. He plays in a well-known (by east coast/Mid Atlantic college coaches) competitive high school prep league that regularly sends guys to the Dukes, UVAs, Pitts, Clemsons, Marylands, etc (not where my son is considering, but for context) and his coach is fairly connected

Ok that helps. Unfortunately, the competitive HS conference your son plays in is likely irrelevant to the talent in said conference. Those guys who are going to the P5 schools you mentioned were likely sold to those schools by their travel coaches. It's more likely they just happen to play in the conference than it is likely that the conference is where these kids were seen.

Now as far as getting new looks. Yeah it can't hurt to email anybody. But what really gets college coaches to shoe up is a travel coach or a someone connected picking up a phone and calling the coaches at _______ letting them know you're going to be down there you'll send them your schedule. They get a ton of emails. They get so many that they can just rely on their travel ball contacts to get them the guys they need. If his coach is fairly connected, he needs to prove it.

From what I've seen, as recently as a year ago, there aren't as many lower level D1s from the north traveling down as they had in the past. Maybe covid changed that, maybe it's not worth it for them. I don't know but I would make sure the schools he's talking to are going to be there. I have always seen Ivys there, but less on the Patriot/GW type schools.

As far as D3s I would say unless they're within a 2-3 hour drive they would be nonexistent down there.