Recruiting Experience

[Brett]

I'd like to hear from any and all of our posters who have had experiences with college coaches recruiting them or their kids.

I know that this time for me was a whirlwind and extremely exciting, and I would love to hear other stories from you guys, including:

What school contacted you or your kid first?

What went into your decision?

Any regrets? Would you do anything different?

[cosmo34]

Strange, I almost made this thread last night. Great minds think alike

Per my experiences-

For the love of god make sure you or your child's grades are in shape. The higher the GPA the better. Grades sometimes get left behind athletics, but I speak from experience; bad things happen when schools stop talking to you because of grades. But that's what I get for being an idiot and not going to class.

I had one school and one school only in mind through my whole process, a local juco power that knew nothing but making it to the World Series. Everything was fine and dandy until my grades came in and the coach didn't want to waste money on a guy he thought would be ineligible (again, I'm an idiot). He later told the coach at my first school that he wished he had continued recruiting me after seeing me eligible that spring. But I can't blame him for not wanting to get involved money wise. Of course a walk on role would have worked, but whatever.

Slowly but surely all my back up plans ended up like the first school, and ended up going to the only school that offered a scholly. (Yup, still an idiot)

Also, if you plan on redshirting make sure you know all the rules. After my surgery I redshirted following a 9 game cameo to see if there was any chance on coming back. Doesn't work when you can't catch up to anything hard. Our interpretation of the rule was 20 games or less and you could redshirt. Didn't know about the midseason cut off date on April 15. My last game was April 16. (Idiocracy)

Make sure you have your coaches helping you out. Only coach who helped me was my sophmore coach who played at the first juco i was interested in. School I ended up at had to ask specifically about me after the coach said he didn't have anybody for him. He didn't really help anyone get placed in college until the year after.

I actually went through the process 3 times. High school, sophmore year, and quasi sophmore-junior year after my redshirt was stripped and I was ineligible at the Juco I had just transfered to. By the time I found out about my redshirt being stripped, it was too late to get anywhere else so I basically went there for an extended spring training.

Return every letter, every call, make calls/emails to where you want to go. Don't badger but keep your name in their memory. Pursue every opportunity until you can fully rule them out. I was talking to schools on the east coast that I had never even heard of, but I had to keep my options open. I think the total over the 3 processes was between 30-40 schools. I can't even remember all of them. But you never know, you might find some place you never even heard of that ends up being a perfect fit.

A friend was a dec SS in high school, didn't play his freshman year at a Juco and had a bit of a breakout soph year and ended up at Arkansas Little-Rock (the coach had ties to Iowa and always had a few Iowa boys on his roster). That coach ended up leaving and he was left without a school. Then Asuza Pacific, an NAIA power in Cali, came calling and now he's the starting SS this year for a perennial top 15 team. Strange things happen.

Research the school where you are going. Ask any and all questions about what they teach. School I ended up at had a former Team USA coach as the hitting coach. Didn't think I needed to ask questions. Boy was I wrong. I'll just say chopping trees was a common theme. Another juco is basically a PCR school. All they teach is hips and shoulders. They only succeed because they get good athletes. Gotta find out what you are getting into.

I would say the biggest thrill was my visit to the 1st juco. Standard everybody come check it out day and during lunch the coach came and sat with me and shunned everybody else. Definately got some dirty looks after that. 2nd biggest was having brief talks with Michigan St. Exchanged some emails and letters and there was definately a bit of interest, even if it was small. Too bad before talks got any further I went under the knife. Didn't hear anything after that.

Of course, my biggest regrets was the grades in high school. I completely screwed myself and have no one to blame but myself. Learned my lesson and made Dean's list once, President's list once, and Academic All-Conference once. But that was too late. By then my shoulder was cooked and I was at schools that, well....in a perfect world would have been the 8th or 9th options.

So really, can't stress enough about grades. I'm living proof on how to screw yourself over. Do everything to get your name out there and start early on having an idea of where you want to go and what you want in a school. Things always change, but once you start getting into high school, start formulating at least a base plan. My plan all growing up was to just get to Iowa St anyway I could. (Big 12 baseball 30 minutes from home? Sign me the F up) But that got removed when Iowa St cut their program. After that I figured juco was the way and didn't need good grades. So I screwed off. And I paid for it big time. Everything probably would have ended up far differently if I wasn't an idiot, but can't change it. Hopefully at least someone can learn from my mistakes.

And I'm not alone. Our Elite-All State monster offensive lineman had big D1 interest, but zero grades. Went juco and blew his knee out. Never recovered from it. Certainly things would have been different at U of Iowa or Miss St, but didn't have his grades right. Got all kinds of stories like that from kids I grew up with. The worst was the best football player I ever played with (had D1's looking at him in 8th grade) not being able to finish his senior year because of seizures and head related issues. He's a male model and done some work on Broadway now so he turned out just fine. But me and several friends screwed out athletic dreams over by being idiots. Don't be like me and my idiot friends. Be smart like our stud DBack. Isn't the smartest kid when it comes to school work, but he knew that 4.3 speed will get him somewhere. He busted his butt to get good grades, and ended up with offers from Cal, Ohio St, Pitt, USC, etc..

[HYP]

I can attest to the grades. I was a good player with horrible grades. Just didn't care about school. I only wanted to play football and baseball. Got intrest from schools in baseball and football(mostly football) but when they saw my transcript, funny but never heard from them again. I didn't want to put in the work at a JUCO and joined the Marine Corps. Got out and played JUCO baseball for a year and just didn't have the drive to do the school work and wasn't quite good enough to make it in the Minors. I've had a good life but have had to work my a** off to make a living.

So with my son, now a junior in high school. I have always stressed grades and hard work. He is a 3.9 student with AP classes up the butt. He is small and should be able to get into just about anywhere he wants to go. Question will be is if he wants to continue with baseball or not. If he does he will probably go to a D3 or NAIA school. Right now he wants to keep playing. So we will find a good school that he will be able to play baseball at and, who knows how much he will grow over the 4 years of college.

We have signed him up with National Scouting Report to help find a school he can play at. I do recomend a good program that will help with the recruiting process. As most of you know, unless your kid is just a beast he will most likely not get seen. You can do the recruitng yourself but having someone you trust that knows the ends and outs of the process is a benefit.

[stealth]

Mini Stealth gets to listen to a bunch of college recruiters being part of a top program. It's all about grades. Holliday from ASU told the kids "if it comes down to two kids and one has better grades - which one do you think we will pick" - pretty obvious. If you have great grades EVERY school is an option.

[mightylakers]

Question for you guys. Usually how many hours per day is your son spending on baseball related activities in high school?

[cosmo34]

Depends on the season. In the Fall only baseball I would get was games on Sunday since football took the other 6 days of the week.

Over the winter was about an hour hitting wiffles after school, or whenever the cheerleaders kicked us out.

Spring was about 2-3 hours a day.

Summer, on game day I'd get to the field at 1030 and the games wouldn't start till 330. So I'd be at the park for 10 hours or so. Non game days I was there an hour and a half early plus around half an hour late. So around 5.

[HYP]

Aug 21, 2009 14:36:54 GMT -8 mightylakers said:

Question for you guys. Usually how many hours per day is your son spending on baseball related activities in high school?

Hard to be specific. Off season not as much time.

My son has athletic weights at school "Strength and Speed Training". 3x a week one week and 2x a week the next. Fall season about 6 to 9 hrs a week. During season about 3 to 4 hrs a day 5 days a week. That is done with the school.

On his own he trains about 5x a week for 1 to 2 hrs but homework always takes precedence over workouts.

[mightylakers]

Usually how many hours spent on homeworks and study?

[Brett]

Aug 21, 2009 10:29:05 GMT -8 stealth said:

Mini Holliday from ASU told the kids "if it comes down to two kids and one has better grades - which one do you think we will pick" - pretty obvious. If you have great grades EVERY school is an option.

Funny how the coach from ASU is stressing grades...all you have to do is breathe to get in there ;D

Sorry couldn't help it...

The point is true though; if you have good grades you can go wherever your talent will allow you to. If you don't, you may cost yourself the opportunity to play where you want.

[mightylakers]

Brett,

Usually how many hours do you have to spend on baseball in college?

[Brett]

Aug 21, 2009 16:07:15 GMT -8 mightylakers said:

Brett,

Usually how many hours do you have to spend on baseball in college?

ML,

Let me break down a typical day during fall ball, which is usually the heaviest load in terms of time.

6:00am Lift Weights

8:00 - 1:00 Class

2:00 - 6:00 Practice

Now the 2 - 6 is just team practice, and there are always days where you have early and/or late work.

Game days are usually a larger commitment of time, but without as much physical exertion.

All said, you spend a lot of time on the diamond.

[wrstdude]

I think the hardest thing Sam and I are going through is, "how good is he?" I don't know where to start looking until we get a better gauge of his talent/potential. We're going to sit down with the director of his summer team and get an evaluation from him which will hopefully put us on the right track.

[Brett]

Aug 22, 2009 4:43:36 GMT -8 wrstdude said:

I think the hardest thing Sam and I are going through is, "how good is he?" I don't know where to start looking until we get a better gauge of his talent/potential. We're going to sit down with the director of his summer team and get an evaluation from him which will hopefully put us on the right track.

That is important to get a feel of IMO. How old is Sam again?

My father told my brother and I, 'Go where they want you the most.' For some that may be to a JC first. For others it may be to a D III or NAIA school. The point being, if you want to play, go to the school that will give you the best opportunity to do that.

Now some players, when given the opportunity, would rather be a backup or just on a roster at Fullerton or Texas rather than a starter at a D II, and there is nothing wrong with that. You just have to make the decision and be realistic about what it is you really want.

[gstock]

I think the hardest and most important question to answer is what is it all about. Is it all about baseball or all about school.

If it's all about school then a great choice is to use baseball to get admitted to a school that you would not otherwise qualify for. One of the kids in our area went to Dartmouth as a baseball player. He was a decent player and good student but would not have got in on academics alone.

As Brett said the time demands of D1 baseball are huge. You do the best you can in your classes but there is no way you can put in the time that your classmates have. If you are committed to baseball you are going to get out of school what you put in and the differences between schools is less important than for someone who is only there to study.

[wrstdude]

Aug 22, 2009 8:52:35 GMT -8 Brett said:

Aug 22, 2009 4:43:36 GMT -8 wrstdude said:

I think the hardest thing Sam and I are going through is, "how good is he?" I don't know where to start looking until we get a better gauge of his talent/potential. We're going to sit down with the director of his summer team and get an evaluation from him which will hopefully put us on the right track.

That is important to get a feel of IMO. How old is Sam again?

My father told my brother and I, 'Go where they want you the most.' For some that may be to a JC first. For others it may be to a D III or NAIA school. The point being, if you want to play, go to the school that will give you the best opportunity to do that.

Now some players, when given the opportunity, would rather be a backup or just on a roster at Fullerton or Texas rather than a starter at a D II, and there is nothing wrong with that. You just have to make the decision and be realistic about what it is you really want.

This is the big year for Sam; his junior season. He wants to go out of state (we're in Missouri) and he definitely wants to play. I asked if he would rather play or be on the Texas roster, his favorite/dream school, and he said play.