<p>My son attended Head First a few weeks ago. He did very well in both the drills evaluations as well as the games. So far he has had 12 coaches contact him. A few spoke directly to him at Head First. A few have emailed and called after Head First. A few have just emailed.</p>
<p>What is the best way to continue with these coaches? My son has responded to every email and phone call. He has remained in touch. Is there anything else that he should be doing? He wants to stay on their radar but does not really know what he should be saying and or doing?</p>
<p>My son seems disappointed that things are not moving faster. What should the time frame be and /or what should we expect in the next few weeks? </p>
<p>It seems that most of the coaches have left things open ended with things such as "if you are interested in visiting the school let me know". Is this typical? Do D3 schools offer visits that are initiated by the coach or is this "let me know" an invitation?</p>
<p>Does anyone know what goes on in this process from the coaches side? </p>
<p>If anyone would care to share their recruting experience that would be great! I feel like we need some type of road map! Thanks!</p>
<p>By the way - son is a qualified applicant at all of the schools he likes so admissions should not be a problem for a coach - but it would be nice to have the coaches blessing with admissions.</p>
<p>Sounds like your son did very well at the headfirst camp because he is getting interest! Congrats!</p>
<p>He is doing what he should by replying to all the e-mails and calls.</p>
<p>If he has a preference for any of the schools who have contacted him, he should follw up with real expressions of interest. Right now the coaches are going through their lists and simply contacting every player who meets their grade and athletic criteria. They are “trolling.” So some of what can be done is in your control and some is out of your control.</p>
<p>In your control are visits to schools which may interest you. D3’s will not pick up any expenses and the distances may be great from your home to the schools; but, there is no better way to show interest in the school then to take the time and the $$ and take a visit.</p>
<p>Out of your control is the game of musical chairs which is just beginning for the D3’s. In this game, the coach has a list of players he would be satisfied in getting; and the coach has an order to that list. He wants the player highest on the list and will string players below that player along until the uppermost player has made a decision. In other words, the coach who needs a first baseman will call the five firstbasemen on his list. He will string #2 - 5 along until #1 become unavailable. This is not necessarily true of pitchers because a coach cannot have too many pitchers!</p>
<p>You should consider looking at the schools which have made contact and begin creating an order – recognize that the list is fluid and more coaches may call and others who did call will disappear.</p>
<p>Great! Thanks! Appreciate your response & advice. Son has two midwest schools and a west coast school who have expressed interest (the coach has emailed & called). We are trying to figure out how to visit each school - this gets tricky with the school schedule!</p>
<p>If there is a first choice school is it advisable to let the coach know that his school & program are the first choice? Does that help the player move up the list?</p>
<p>Also, is it a good sign that the coach promptly responds to all emails? We have had coaches not respond at all and then some coaches respond quickly. I do not want to assign meaning to this if this is simply a personal style etc… We have met with four coaches at their schools. So far three of the four have sent a thank you email within half an hour of us leaving their office. The fourth coach - have not heard a thing from and he has not returned any emails or a phone message. From our point of view the fourth coach is not interested and the other three want to stay on the radar as interested.</p>
<p>Thanks, again for your input. This process can be crazy!</p>
<p>I would not put too much importance in the speed of reply. Two of the schools that recruited my son barely responded to emails - but were great on the phone. Another was great on email and couldn’t ever be found on the phone (even their cell phone). </p>
<p>In fact, on the visit to one of the schools, the coach said he never did email - left it for an assistant - who did it once a week. I should point out that this coach runs one of the best programs in the country - with regular trips to the playoffs and semi regular trips to the D3 CWS. </p>
<p>One of the tough parts about d3 baseball is that the coaches don’t know who is actually coming until the first day of school. There is no NLI - and kids will switch schools over the summer, walking away from deposits if they find a better school. So the most successful coaches recruit to the end, getting as much talent as possible and sorting it out in the fall.</p>