<p>We are planning to take our son to the Headfirst Honor Roll Showcase in August. I know that it has been a positive experience for many on the CC site. Any feedback about experiences at this showcase would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Question 1: I am trying to wrap my head around the recruiting process for baseball. Do the coaches seek out the best students first then look for a match with baseball talent? If you are a great student and a decent baseball player (ie. coaches have said that playing at the college level is possible) will there be a match for you in terms of school and sport? I am concerned that we maybe getting too wrapped up with the idea of playing baseball in college. We have heard that if you have the grades and academics then finding a place to play is not so difficult. For example - At Headfirst will the coaches attend with an idea of the players that match their school's academic profile and concentrate on watching those players or are they watching the players and then figuring out if there is an academic match?</p>
<p>Question 2: A coach from a D3 school (LAC) has seen my son play at two different showcases over the winter. Son is very interested in the school and has worked to be an academic match for the school. We know that in the second of the showcases the coach requested that my son be on his team (husband &son were told this in a later meeting). My son told the coach that he was planning to visit the school. The coach told him to email him when he knew our exact plans and that he would set up a time to meet with us after the tour & info session. My husband and son met with the coaches for well over an hour sitting down talking about the school & baseball then they took a tour of the athletic building. The coaches seemed very positive with my son and very interested. They told him where they would be over the summer and that they would like to know what he was doing over the summer. They also said that they would like some video of my son and told my husband exactly the type of things they would like to see. Since this visit my son has sent several emails as well as some emails with links to videos. There has been no response back at all. Is this a bad sign? Were we wrong to think there was some interest there? I find it very odd & hope we have not misread the situation.</p>
<p>Headfirst is a great showcase for academically minded players to get in front of mostly lower level D1 and all levels of D3colleges. Headfirst excels at this by bringing together many coaches and many players. If your son is a talented baseball player he has the opportunity to stand out at this showcase.</p>
<p>Question 1 - The answer depends on the baseball program in question. Most D1 baseball coaches are looking for the best baseball talent that meets NCAA requirements. Most D3 coaches are looking for the best baseball talent that can get accepted at their school. There are exceptions, but that is kind of it in a nutshell. The Headfirst coaches have access to a database of player profiles. They can select who they really want to focus on. Headfirst is a different showcase in this regard. TYpical baseball showcases are focus on baseball talent. Their focus is baseball talent with high academic achievment.</p>
<p>Question 2 - This is a difficult situation for many of the recruits to learn. The recruits timetable is not the same as the coaches timetable. There could be a variety of factors why he has not heard back from the coach. First, the college baseball regular season just ended for most. D1 and D3 playoffs are still going on. Coaches are making recruiting logisitic plans and they are getting many hundreds of emails from other recruits and trying to sort through them. Give it some time, and he will probably get back to you. The coaches gave your son some typical follow up tasks as the coaches remain interested…this is a good thing. Also, your son needs to keep moving forward and continually get in front of new coaches. My son would get a call or email out of the blue from a coach he hadn’t heard from in a while. This is the way it works, and I know it can be difficult to understand. The best advice I can give you is to continually communicate with coaches with any updates, and to keep moving forward to get in front of as many coaches as possible…this is why I liked HeadFirst. It had many of the schools my son was interested in at the same place at the same time.</p>
<p>Best of luck and please let me know if I can help.</p>
<p>Is your son a junior or older? I’m pretty sure coaches are not allowed to email sophomores or younger. (I may be mistakedn but I think the magic date for emails is Sept 1 of junior year…fenwaysouth??) They are allowed to talk to a player at a camp they are coaching or on their own college campus.</p>
<p>I appreciate your detailed response! Very helpful information. I am going to try to keep the nerves in check about the baseball recruiting. My son has been focused on his school work so he is able to get into schools on academic merit. Headfirst looks like a good showcase for our needs so I hope it works out! I will post about our experience at the end of the summer. Thanks!</p>
<p>My son is a junior. The recruiting rules can be confusing. For baseball I believe that July 1 after junior year is the date that personal contact can start. It was our understanding that coaches , regardless of division, could talk to players at camps/showcases and that they could talk to any player if the player calls and the coach picks up the phone. We were also under the impression that coaches could respond to emails and coaches could also send emails at any time. My son received a personal email from a D1(non-scholarship type D1 program) head coach who received a letter from my son so I would tend to think that emailing is ok. Also, as we understand the rules, the D3 schools can make contact at any time and in any reasonable way.</p>
<p>I just re-read your post. I am not sure what the rules are for sophmores. We have only been working on the baseball side of things in the junior year.</p>
<p>It is always a good idea to keep focused on the grades. Please keep in mind that at HeadFirst, your son can be among many academic high achievers…players who will also be candidates for academic merit. What will really catch the coaches eye is his baseball skills. For example…a coach may have a need for 5 2012 pitchers. He is going to look for the best 5 pitchers he can find that will meet his schools academic requirements…he probably is not going to look for the best GPAs or highest SAT scores…those things are assumed at this showcase. However, given two baseball players are the same athletic level, the coach may pursue a student that has a better overall academic profile. I hope this makes sense, because it is a real important point with D3 recruiting as well as Ivy recruiting. </p>
This is true … the contact rules govern when the coach can proactively contact a player … that said, if a player initiates contact the coach is allowed to respond even during time periods when the coach can not proactively contact the player … so, for an absurd example, a coach can not proactively contact an 8 year-old third grader but can respond if the third grader contacts the coach (phone, email, contact form on team web page, etc).</p>
<p>ccmom,
Great advice here. We just went through the D3 baseball process and I agree with FenwayS on what D3 coaches are looking for and the ebb and flow of communication with coaches. The most effusive coaches are not always the most interested!
Best of luck at HeadFirst. Before that, take a look at different schools’ rosters, to determine which teams are in most need of your son’s position/talents. And make sure he emails all the coaches on his list shortly before that showcase.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great advice! I am trying to keep this process in perspective as well as realistic. On the academic side things really came together for my son this year - straight A’s and high SAT and SATII scores as well as some very nice recognition from his teachers. I want to make sure that we find the right balance and match! I appreciate everyone sharing their wisdom and experience!</p>
<p>Ccmom, do not fret about lack of communication, especially not at this point. I was talking to an Ivy coach last June and he appeared interested; strangely, we lost communication for a month and a half and when he saw me pitch again he was ready to offer. It’s a strange, inconsistent process and right now I would just worry about getting your son in optimal condition for summer/fall showcasing (the timetables get shifted back a bit for D3s). What position does your son play?</p>
<p>Great feedback here. I would echo monstor’s response that if they are interested they will see you more than once in multiple showcases. My son was recruited by an IVY last June (when he was a Junior), and will be playing for them as a member of the class of 2015.
After seeing him in the third showcase they attended last summer, that’s when they got aggressive about it, and the rest is history.</p>
<p>Just tell your son to relax, play ball and enjoy the summer.</p>