I’ve signed up S1 for an August Headfirst camp, with the goal to have him seen by as many D3 schools as possible. He already has a profile on a site called PBR, which has some of his stats/info listed. We are in the Midwest, and he will be busy playing Legion before then, but I was wondering if I might not have shortchanged him by not arranging for him to go to more Showcases this summer.
Is there any point to him going to an earlier Headfirst, or the Stanford camp? I would imagine that it's tough for the coaches to be able to parse through all the potential recruits in one go, and seeing a kid twice might help them decide on a player more easily.
I am also wondering if we are leaving things a little late by waiting till August. We will be barking up a few trees here locally before then, and sending out some emails/videos, but I want to make sure S1 gets a chance to strut his stuff as much as possible this summer, keeping in mind that he will have a busy Legion season. He’s not a pitcher, or at least that’s not his main gig, so it’s not like he can post his velocity on a website and turn heads that way.
Thanks in advance. I have actually scanned through all 147 pages of the “Athletic Recruits” section in the past month, and have learned a ton!
My 2017 attended Headfirst last August-- it was a great experience and really got the high academic D3 recruiting process going. Prior to HF he had been talking to a handful of d2 and d3 coaches but most were not the academic level we were looking for. HF is very well organized and there are many opportunities for the players to interact with the coaches. Your son should put together a target list of schools attending and contact those coaches expressing interest weeks before HF. Then send a reminder email just before attending. Our experience was that the coaches had a list of players they were watching/looking for, and all of the coaches my son contacted prior to attending knew who he was when he got there. HF led to eight campus visits and a busy fall! He did attend a fall Top96 showcase also because two schools he was interested were there instead of HF. Good luck to your son!
This sounds like an easier question than it is, and it does involve some self-assessment. I do believe that you can “over showcase.” In addition, going to the “best” showcases where all the D1 coaches are in attendance when you are a D3 level player is not necessarily a good idea. So when picking out showcases, one consideration is the quality of the organization, while others are which coaches will be in attendance and the level of the other athletes.
I also think it is a good idea to have a couple of “dry run” camps or showcases to get used to the drills. You might want to consider a college camp or Perfect Game showcase for that reason. Our experience at Top96 was not as good as Head First, but it is modeled similarly, with a lot of game time. It could be a good warm up for Head First. Does your Legion have an “All Star Showcase”? Some do.
You might want to consider taking a look at High School Baseball on the Web. That site has a lot of detail about showcases and strategy.
My assessment: One or two more than Head First, but don’t go overboard.
S has done a few of the types of showcases where they record your times, speeds, and assess your abilities, then put them on a website( I.e. PBR) where coaches can access said stats. I looked at the PG Academic Showcase, but they are down in FLA/CA, which is a hump from the Upper Midwest, and Headfirst seems to be more forthcoming with who will be in attendance.
Our attitude is that IF our boy is " discovered" by an academically good D1 then that’s fine, but realistically, we are looking at D3’s, and one oddball case of a NAIA with excellent academics. So, S1 will be contacting coaches this spring, pumping up his ACT, grades, and quads, and this summer, hopefully, playing on a pretty competitive Legion team with a somewhat " connected" coach, so if he does well word might get out a bit from there.
In other words, Northwestern or U of Minn is a stretch, but I think he could play on a D3 team.
My main question is if we are leaving things too late ( Aug 10-11) even for D3? Will most coaches have " their guys" by then?
The more competitive academic D3 schools will be well on their way to concluding their recruiting by that time frame, but that by no means suggests they will be done by then. However, at that point, if you are going to a showcase with the hope of standing out in the crowd, that is probably a poor strategy. Prior to an event, contact coaches at target schools with a video of the boy’s skills and some basic info. They do not care about his HS batting average (irrelevant), but do care about his speed, approach at the plate and how he handles himself athletically on the field. I’m not a particular fan of PBR, though I’m told it can be effective in some areas of the country. Perfect Game is really the standard. Headfirst is reputed to be a good organization, but it’s expensive.
Legion is generally not a successful approach either, if you can find a competitive travel team program that plays in the right tournaments, you’ll get far better results.
Will be doing the emails/video/youtube well before the event. S has been on winter travel teams, and will continue to do so. The Legion team here is pretty good, and the coaching is also. I would argue that the HC’s opinion would carry a good deal of clout with many schools ( or their coaches, anyway).
Understand about the measurables.
Whatever you think is best. I was offering an opinion based on a lot of relevant experience. Your comment that the Legion coach is “somewhat connected” wouldn’t give me a lot of confidence that your approach with Legion is viable. Sincere good luck to your son. If you don’t mind, please post back once it’s all finished up and let us know how it worked out.
OK, put another way, the HC is a guy any coach at any level would listen to because of his experience both in college and at the highest levels of baseball, which includes a couple of World Series.
Will continue to post as we go through the experience. As I posted earlier, I’ve learned a lot reading posts of other people who have been generous with their experience. Hopefully someone can learn from ours.
@57special,
There is quite a bit of variety in terms of talent in Legion baseball. My sense is that it depends on the degree to which travel/club/tournament teams have infiltrated the geographic region and pushed the top players out of Legion. I wouldn’t rule out Legion for recruiting.
The one thing I would say is that I always get a knot in my belly anytime a parent thinks that a coach (HS or club/travel/tournament) will get their kid recruited. I know that you are not saying this, since you are wondering how many showcases are necessary. But, this process has to be owned by both kid and parent. Don’t rely on a coach doing it for you. I remember the shock on a parent’s face when a coach asked what they had done to get recruited and the parent said, “I thought you were doing it.” My view of the coach’s role is akin to that of a reference for a job application. I strongly suspect that many coaches are never even called on for that reference.
It also is my view that at the D3 level, the pitchers will go earlier than the field players. I also believe that many D3 coaches go to Head First with their proverbial wallets open, if only because it is a bit later in the process. One D3 coach described it to us as “one stop shopping” because of the number of high academic achieving players.
That said, one more quality showcase before Head First wouldn’t be a bad idea. I don’t think you need to do the Perfect Game academic, any Perfect Game would be okay as long as the coaches that attend are from the schools in which you have an interest.
Thanks for advice. Legion is pretty strong here in MN still, depending on where you live. And you’re right on on how we are going to use the coaches. They are nothing more than references. S1 is lucky that two of them have recognizable (to BB people) names, which give their opinions some credibility. Course, S1 has to give them something positive to talk about.
Part of the fun about this is that S1 is still growing, both as a person, academically, and as a baseball player. It’s great to see him mature, get more articulate, and surpass himself again and again both on the field and off. I think we’re going to treat this whole college search as a great, late summer/early fall adventure. If it doesn’t work out then I’m pretty sure he will be able to get into the local U, which is pretty good, and play club baseball, if he wishes.
August is not too late…the D3 recruit process is much later than D1. Most D3 baseball players receive their “offers” early fall of senior year after the coaches have seen everyone they wanted to in the summer and also know who is left after D1’s offer. D3 was my son’s goal due to academics but the majority out there will hold out as long as possible for a D1 before committing to a D3. Show interest by visiting schools where the coaches have shown interest in your son. While you could do additional showcases, for high academic D3’s, Headfirst is where you want to be!
My son attended Headfirst summer before junior and senior years followed by the Stanford camp each year. We found Headfirst to be a first rate camp that provided the best opportunity to get exposure to the Ivies and academic D3’s. As others have posted, we first put together video’s and stat’s (high school and travel ball) and sent those to the coaches that were going to attend Headfirst and Stanford of schools that my son was interested in. What is great about Headfirst is that between games (really controlled scrimmages, 1 and 1 starting pitch count, limited batters per inning, batting order that continues through all 4 games played so all position players get equal ±1 AB’s) the coaches are available to talk 1 on 1 with the players/parents. The number of campers is limited and the ball fields are next to each other (at least in the California camp). Of course they will spend more time with the kids that impress them and they will seek out the truly impressive kids, but every kid has an opportunity to talk to any coach. At the least, you can get a sense of where your kid stands based on how enthusiastic the conversation is. Most of the coaches that attend Headfirst also attend Stanford. The Stanford camp is much more instructional, is much larger and the ball fields are spread around the Palo Alto area, so consequently you get less exposure. Also the Stanford camp attracts a bunch of legit D1 (Pac 12 caliber) players, so it is much harder to stand out. If you attract attention at Headfirst, those coaches will seek you out at Stanford and will scout your games.
For my son, he got on a bunch of radar screens after the camps prior to his junior year. He stayed in communication with a number of coaches and then he did really well during the camps prior to senior year. As soon as the Stanford camp was over, he got multiple invitations to visit and then multiple offers after he turned in his transcript, test scores and senior class schedule. We live in a “flyover state”, and while my son plays for a well known travel club in this part of the world, I doubt he would have gotten the traction with the academic schools he was interested in without Headfirst.
If you are going to do Headfirst, I suggest the late June camps in California (following that on with the Stanford camp is not a bad idea). If your son is not already on a school’s radar screen, August may be late, but @GWTWFan is right that the D3 process does trail D1. Nevertheless, if you can swing the June camp, I’d advise that.