The Official Guide to High Academic College Baseball Recruiting

Athletic Recruits
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A little background info before I begin: I’m a 6’1", 175 lb high school senior. I am a pitcher/catcher combo (1.8 pop-time, 88-90 mph pitching) and I skipped a grade so I’m young. I love the game, but I also excel in school (4.5 GPA, 9 AP’s, 35 ACT). My goal has always been to play baseball at a top academic school.

Last summer, I went through my recruiting process. In the beginning, I was confused and overwhelmed. By the end, I had 8 D1 and D3 offers, I went on two official visits, and then I ultimately chose to accept support from the school that was the best option for me academically and athletically.

Overall, I would consider my recruiting process to be a huge success. I spent hundreds of hours researching, emailing, calling, training, and stressing over this, but most of all, I had a ton of fun. I learned to work hard but still enjoy the experience, which is something I recommend for all of you reading this. I’ll say it now, and I will say it again: things will all work out in the end. Therefore, once you’ve done all you can, there is no reason to worry about the things you can’t control. Enjoy the ride and see where it takes you; my journey went a lot differently than I expected. So without further ado, here is The Official Guide to High Academic College Baseball Recruiting:

Tip #1) Start Early!

This was the one thing that I believe hurt me most. I started emailing colleges in June of my senior summer (which is fine), but I didn’t go to showcases until August. By that time, many D1 schools were closing out their recruiting class, which made it tougher to be recruited. I was actually told by the Cornell head coach that if he had not already had a catcher commit to him a week before, he would have offered me the spot. What this timeline also means is that camps in the fall or winter of your senior year are most likely not worth it. So definitely try and start earlier in the summer so that limited spots aren’t as much of an issue.

Tip #2) Go to the Showball Head Coach Event!

This was the best choice I made throughout my entire recruiting process, as all the coaches were able to offer players at any time, unlike most assistant coaches who don’t have that power. I received offers from JHU, MIT, Vassar and more just from this event and it was the only time the coaches had seen me play. Also, it is just a well run camp overall with good people who put it together.

3.) Go to the Headfirst Honor Roll Camp, But Go Early!

One of the most annoying things I encountered was my Headfirst experience. I really enjoyed the way the camp was run, and it will be worth it if you go, but don’t go late like I did. What happened was a bunch of my target schools originally said they would have their top assistant coach at the camp, but instead they sent their volunteer assistant coach or something like that at the last minute. Because of this, I wasn’t able to have face to face contact with the real decision makers at this camp for some schools I had reached out to. All they could do was give a good word to the head coach which isn’t as valuable as if the head coach or top assistant sees you play. Still, it was an overall positive experience where I made some good friends and got a few more offers.

Tip #4) Don’t Waste Money!

More money does not equal more offers/exposure. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to be seen; just pick and choose the camps/tournaments with the best return on investment and perform. In my case, I went to the Showball Head Coach Event and the final Headfirst Camp in New York, and I ended up with 8 offers and even more “preferred walk-on” spots.

I also didn’t waste money on recruiting services or experts. All you need for this is an email, a phone, and dedication. Just type up a template and personalize it for each school you’re emailing, and then send 20-30 emails to different schools letting them know who you are and what camps/tournaments you’ll be at. Send along some video too if you have it. This worked incredibly well for me, as one head coach even said “We’d love to have you on the team right now” after just the first email! So once again, don’t waste your money, and instead, do it yourself. The recruiting services are fine, but they’re not necessary.

Tip #6) Take Chances and Try Something New!

At Showball, I wasn’t even a secondary pitcher, but I chose to throw a live bullpen in front of all the coaches anyway. I ended up hitting 86 (as a 16-year-old) and received offers to be a two-way player (pitcher and catcher) at multiple schools (including the school I eventually received admissions support from). I now am sitting 88-90 mph, which has opened a ton of doors for me. Maybe pitching isn’t your hidden talent, or maybe you don’t even have one, but my point is to take chances.

Steal whenever possible at these camps (I had four steals at Headfirst and I run a 7.3, haha; coaches commented on that). Play positions maybe you’re not as comfortable with (I played outfield and threw two kids out no-hop to home from ~250 feet away and immediately ran up to the Princeton coach and introduced myself. He thought that was funny). What I’m saying is try new things and have fun! It will pay off in the end.

Tip #7) Understand the Pros and Cons of a Post-Graduate Year!

If you’re young like me, or a school’s spots are all filled up for the current class, you will possibly be asked by coaches to do a PG year. This can mean going to prep school for a year, or it can mean not attending school at all and being an adult for a while. Understand that either choice is a tradeoff.

By taking a PG year, you raise your chances of playing college baseball, but you could be wasting a year that you didn’t need to in the first place. If you don’t take one, you might not get offers from your target schools, but you could still walk on or attend another school instead. It’s all about understanding what your goals are in life and going from there.

I decided that I was too focused on school and other aspects of my life that a PG year didn’t seem worth it to me. You might feel the same the same way or you might not; either way, give it some thought because it is certainly a viable option for some players.

Tip #8) Don’t Give Up If Things Don’t Work Out!

This process is long and tough, and it’s only the beginning of the college admissions process for selective schools. Just know that if your academics are good enough and you want it badly enough, then you can succeed no matter what. The opportunities are endless even if you don’t get offered by the schools you originally wanted to go to:

  • You could get into a school without the coach's support and then walk-on the baseball team.
  • You could end up at a D3 school you didn't think about before and have a great career.
  • You could end up not playing baseball in college and instead turn to intramural/club sports, opening up time for other things you would have never done before.

You might not end up as the All-American D1 Harvard stud who is also going to be a neurosurgeon, and that’s okay. Be realistic about your talent, your goals, and your drive, and you will succeed regardless of what pitch is thrown at you. This recruiting process is not the end-all, be-all of life.

And that’s about all I’ve got for now! This list obviously isn’t fully comprehensive, but the rest you’ll learn on your own. Overall, college baseball recruiting at top schools is a stressful, but rewarding process. It takes time, it takes commitment, and rejection is certainly a possibility, but it’s all just a stepping stone toward a brighter future. It’ll all work out if you just keep at it and have a plan, so just be smart and open and you’ll be fine. I wish you all the best of luck with baseball and in life. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have and I’ll be sure to answer them. Thanks for reading!

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This is really good advice, and quite similar to advise I would give as the mom of 2 kids playing other high academic sports(softball and swimming). Stay tuned for the definitive guide to high academic softball recruiting!

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Good job @grant1509, I am sure this will be helpful to a number of people, and best of luck as you start the college journey!

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Great advice! @grant1509 would you recommend Head First for a kid who doesn’t have your academic stats? I’ve been debating whether its worthwhile to spend the $1K for my son who is a good but not top student. A colleague of mine highly recommends Head First and claims its extremely well run with many opportunities for interaction with coaches. Her son is a scout for a MLB team & played at D3 school so she has experience with the process. But I’m still not certain if it’s right for my son.

As a little background, my son is a 2 way player and I think his best shot is as a pitcher. He’s 5’11 and lean but his brother who is 2 years older is 6’4" so it’s likely he’ll grow a few more inches and fill out eventually. He’s also young for his grade (sophomore) and doesn’t turn 16 until late May. He currently throws 84 and has several good & effective pitches.

He attends a rigorous independent private school in the northeast but is only a B student (some As) and isn’t really a candidate for elite colleges. The list of college coaches attending Head First is impressive but I’m not sure if there might not be a better fitted showcase and want to spend my money wisely. Another colleague of mine is only a few years out of school where he was a D1 pitcher and he thought there were 8-10 good fits on the list and mentioned he knew kids playing at some of the elite schools (Duke, Johns Hopkins) who were average students at best. I’m wondering if there is a similar quality showcase that might have a larger number of potential fits. We get so many invites to various showcases and specific school camps and it’s hard to know which ones are worthwhile.

He will hopefully get some exposure with his summer team. They will spend 2 weeks at PG WWBA in Georgia as well as two other showcases at BC and in North Carolina. Several teammates have already committed to D1 schools (2 to UNC, MD and a few others with offers) so I would think coaches will be watching their team but who knows. My oldest wasn’t in this position so I have no clue what I’m doing.

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Cookies - if you want to get a better feel for where your son is from a baseball perspective, try a Perfect Game showcase. You’ll get metrics and a grade that will help you better understand where your son stands in terms of ability. Head First and Showball are generally considered the two high academic showcases, PG runs a high academic one as well but isn’t often mentioned in the same context as HF and Showball.

I’ve been to the PG WWBA in Georgia a few times. The tourney is so big it can be very very difficult for a random kid to get picked out of a crowd no matter who his teammates are. Not saying it can’t or doesn’t happen, but that is generally not considered a sound approach to getting recruited. You need to have your son on a coach’s radar before you get there and the coach has to be interested enough to invest the time to figure out what field he is on, at what time, then coordinate if your son is pitching that day. You can provide him that info as the tourney approaches or is in session, but then he has to make the effort to get there. If you have specific questions, send me a PM and I’ll try to help you.

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@grant1509 gives real good advice. I would say it is beneficial to hit the showcases he mentions even earlier, summer between sophomore and junior year in addition to the summer between junior and senior year. You probably won’t be “offered” then, but you will get on coach’s radar screens. Headfirst and Showball are great in terms of efficiency of exposure and access to coaches. S went to the Stanford camp right after Headfirst in Sacramento both years. He developed a dialogue/relation year 1 and the coaches definitely followed him year 2 with immediate “offers”/invites for official visits at the conclusion of the 2 camps. A lot of the coaches/schools are at both camps, and it is a good way to cement the impression you make. Both Stanford and Headfirst fill up fast, so get on the list early with your desired position(s).

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@Cookies510,

You can go onto the Head First website to see if the college coaches in attendance are from schools of interest. Head First has quite a range of college coaches. The advantage of Head First is in its structure. It allows for close interaction with coaches. That was not something we experienced at PG. You get an evaluation at PG, but if I had to choose between, it would be Head First.

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Yes, not all the Headfirst schools are highly selective and pitchers are always in demand. Tho my DD is a softball player, I think for the price, Headfirst had the best exposure and the game format was awesome. Extremely well run and responsive organization, they went out of their way to make sure my DD would get to play for the coaches most interested in her.

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My son is an average/slightly above average baseball player with high academics. He had attended PG in Georgia on 4 different occassions from the time he was 14. He never really got noticed there and quite honestly, unless you are an exceptional pitcher I think it is tough. He attended both a Headfirst and Showball showcase the summer after his sophomore year. While I think this is vastly better than PG event it still requires your son to be very proactive both before the event and at the event. Sending video and grades along with a genuine interest to the coach ahead of time is a must. Then, while at the camp, it is imperative that your son engages with the coaches of interest. This, at least, MAY get you on the radar. But honestly, I think the best way to get noticed is to attend a showcase at the school of interest. These have much fewer players and easy direct interaction wirh the coaches. The ones we attended had 5 or 6 similar schools attending (we went to a showcase at Yale and Middlebury, Georgetown, Holy Cross , Cal tech etc were there too). My son was able to stand out more in a showcase like this and had easy access to all of these coaches. We did two more at two other schools with similar configuration and it went well. My son garnered interest from 3 schools he legitimately wants to attend and got written feedback as well as verbal feedback at all of them ( no written feedback from Headfirst or Showball and the verbal feedback was VERY general, if any.) Most of the conversations I overheard at Headfirst and Showball were kids introducing themselves and coaches saying “hey, how ya doing” with very little else in 99% of the cases. A Headfirst or Showball may not be a great choice in general unless you are a good pitcher(not a great pitcher bc they will already be known) just trying to get seen. After this summer, I am a big fan of going straight to the source as I feel you will get truly seen. Also, it gives you and your son an opportunity to see the campus and see if the school is a good fit.

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The school specific camps are good if you have your choices honed down. There are a smaller number of players, so it will be easier to make an impression. However, the number of coaches are a bit more limited and you will rarely see a coach from the same conference as the host school, although you might see multiple NESCAC coaches at an Ivy camp as an example.

On Headfirst and Showball, the player has a lot to do with the quality of interaction with the coaches. I also think you can get more realistic feedback on the impression you make. Yes, I observed a lot of less than 1 minute “how you doing” conversations, but that should tell you something. For the schools that invited S to OV’s, the coaches spent time taking S aside and having a real conversation. There was also extra interaction in the dugout and on the field. He also knew which schools were not interested because the interaction was different. I will say that was the camp during summer of junior year. The sophomore year camp the coaches seemed to be more focused on the juniors unless you were truly exceptional. I would also note that S hit his growth/strength sport between sophomore and junior year.

Given limited time and a “budget”, I would start with a HF or Showball camp summer of sophomore year just to see how you stack up against the kids that you will be competing against for high academic schools. You then can attend 1 or 2 school specific camps based on which coaches/schools represented. The purpose here is to get on radar screens and to start a dialogue.

If you have your choices narrowed down by summer of junior year, the school specific camps will probably be your best bet. However, if you are still uncertain and/or you grew quite a bit between sophomore and junior, attending a HF or Showball camp may give you a chance at getting wider interest.

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The new rules changes may have affected the helpfulness of Headfirst or Showball camps for summer after sophomore year. They now have rising seniors wear wristbands and the D1 coaches will only talk to those players. I suppose it helps to get on some coaches’ radar though. My impression of baseball is that good grades and high scores are less of a help, even at the high academics. You have to be a pretty good baseball player too. A good way to judge is to look at the rosters of schools you are targeting and read the bios of the players from when they were in high school. My S20 is not currently looking at D3 schools, so my perspective is more geared toward Ivy and other high academic D1 schools. My friend’s son is playing at a NESCAC school now. His grades were ok, 3.8 W and 30 ACT, but it was his baseball that got him in. He was not a D1 level player, but still pretty good.