Baseball Recruiting - Next Step & Help!

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>Hi-</p>

<p>My son (class of 2012) has had some interest from coaches after attending Headfirst. He had a very good showing at the showcase and has had about 10 coaches contact him. What is the next step? They all have asked for transcripts & video ( my son has sent this to each of them). They have also mentioned that they would be contacting him once they have their dates for visits available. Should my son stay in weekly contact with them? At what point does this get serious? Also, how do we know / judge the level of interest from the coach ( ie. is my son a top recruit or one of many).</p>

<p>Also, my son's first choice of schools for academics & baseball was at the showcase. My son had been in contact with the coach of the school over the summer. After seeing my son play the coach has become much more interested. My son will be meeting with the coach within the next few weeks. Any pointers on what to say and what not to say in the meeting? Is it alright to lay it on the line and let the coach know that this is the top choice school?</p>

<p>As always, I really appreciate all of the help & input from everyone on this forum! Your past advice has been incredibly helpful! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>ccmom33409,</p>

<p>Congrats on the good showing, and the susequent interest. I’ll presume these are mostly D3 schools given the time of year and the HeadFirst venue. Your son has done all he can do at this point with regards to the 10 schools. I would call the 10 HeadFirst coaches directly if you do not hear back within 10 days for your top choices. Keeping the lines of communication open (and interest high) is very, very important now. In addition, I would have your son reach out to more schools that he is interested in if they attended the HeadFirst camp as well. Always keep moving forward, and keep looking for new opportunities. The reason I say this is because you probably will not hear back from all 10 HeadFirst schools that initially contacted your son…some will drop off the face of the earth. This is a numbers game, and certain schools are looking for certain positions to fill. I would also expect that you will be contacted by additional HeadFirst schools. My son received handwritten notes and emails one month after the HeadFirst event. These coaches are very, very busy right now. We learned in our recruiting effort that the coaches timetable does not equal the recruits timetable.</p>

<p>This is a tough time of year for coaches, so you have to be patient, persistent and polite. They are recruiting for next year, and most schools are starting in the next couple of weeks. For D3 that means open tryouts, and they are checking to see how has enrolled at the college from their previous recruiting efforts. So, essentially they doing 3 important things all at the same time. Again, be patient, persistent and polite. </p>

<p>Yes, if you hear back from that #1 choice school and you sense they are extremely interested, your son should go visit the campus, tour the facilities, meet the team, attend some classes and meet with the coach. At some point the coach may ask where their school ranks on your son’s college list. If he still feels strongly about the school at that point, I would tell the coach it is his top choice…but I would also ask for information in return. Your son needs to ask if he is a top recruit for his position. The coach will either tell your son outright that he is a top recruit or he will “hedge”. This is how you find out where things stand, and don’t be afraid of asking direct questions if he “hedges”. These coaches do this for a living, so I think aksing a direct question will yield you more information. Sometimes it is not important what coaches say, but what they don’t say.</p>

<p>It can get get serious if they invite your son for a visit. They’ve seen him play at HeadFirst, and they have his transcript. Next, they want to know if he is a social fit for their team, and that he really wants to go to their school. They will most likely try to set up a time in Sept, Oct for your son to visit (overnight), go to a football game (or something like that) and then setup some one on one face time with the coach. He may offer you at that time or give you some time to think about it. Depending on the situation, he may request that you apply Early Decision (Nov 1 for some schools) or Early Action as a committment to the school and he will reciprocate by helping your application through Admissions and granting your son a roster spot. </p>

<p>There are several threads on this site about questions to ask on unofficial or official visits. That would be a good place to start as well. In addition, your son needs to be prepared to handle an offer from his top choice as well as an offer from a secondary choice. Role playing or reviewing with a parent is not a bad strategy in handling these situations.</p>

<p>Best of luck, and let us know if you have other questions. On thing you didn’t mention is if your son needs help from the coach for admissions. That is an important aspect to this.</p>

3

<p>Fenway South - thanks for your helpful information! You always provide such great information</p>

<p>These are D3 ( and a few D1 - Ivy & Patriot League) schools. My son does meet the criteria for the schools that have contacted him. Academics have always been the priority. We have hoped for baseball to be a “thumb on the scale” in the admissions office of these highly competitve schools so in that sense it would be great to have the support of the baseball coach. I am not sure how much influence coaches have with admissions at many of these D3 , Patriot League & Ivy League schools. I gather it varies from school to school.</p>

<p>After hearing us chant over & over during the years “You have to bring more than your good looks to the dinner table” - my son has worked very hard at academics, EC’s, baseball, leadership etc… in the hopes that he makes himself an easy sell for a baseball coach & admissions. Fingers are crossed that this strategy works!</p>

<p>One college coach at Headfirst talked to my son for about 30 minutes. He really did a hard sell on his school but he also told my son that his future was bright and that he could play & contribute to any school at the Headfirst showcase. He also told him to consider all of his options and make the decision that was right for him. We thought that was very nice of this coach to offer up helpful info.</p>

<p>Thanks, again, for your help! I hope, in a few months, to be able to offer similar advice to the next group coming up the recruiting line!</p>

4

<p>ccmom33409,</p>

<p>You have a PM.</p>

5

<p>In D3’s some (MIT) the coaches have little influence on admissions (I think the coach gives a list of his prospective players and that desire is somehow placed in the crazy admissions mix and accorded whatever weight the school places on it [not a very transparent process]); others have much more.</p>

<p>In the Ivies (and probably the Patriot league), you are a recruited athlete or not – it is not a “scale tipping” EC. In the Ivies, once the coach is convinced that he wants the player and also sees the transcript and scores (remember the coach has done this for many years and has a very good feel for the grades/scores needed for admission) he will offer your player a spot on the team - contingent on getting through admissions (expressed as a pre-admission date “likely letter”). </p>

<p>You will be “required” to commit at some point (yes, while the likely letter offer cannot be offically conditioned on not looking at other schools, in reality it is one LL per player); and that is often a very hectic time. The coach’s time line and yours will not coincide unless it is your first choice school. In the Ivies, the official visit, if successful, will result in an immediate offer. But, the coaches will not want to wait while your player finishes all the OV’s and weighs the offers; the coach may very well give a time specific offer which expires before your OV’s are done.</p>

<p>To delay the fuse, I would suggest not submitting your financial aid material at or in advance of the OV. But I would have all the FA information available for submission in the event you are set on the school. Evaluating the FA usually takes a couple of weeks and that could buy you the time you need to weigh competing schools. </p>

<p>On a side note, during S’s recruiting, the family really did not appreciate the incredible differences between schools in the Ivy league. It is really true that the only commonality between the schools is their linkage in an athletic league. My wife and I were blinded by the recruiting process; it ended really well but only now while going through Ivy schools for my D (who is not an athlete) do I begin to appreciate the differences in schools.</p>