Gauging College Coaches' Interst

[Rumble25]

I will say it again - The bible tells us that Samson killed 10,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an rear. Unfortunately many college recruiting opportunities suffer the same fate. You need to decide if your TB coach has the ability to effectively communicate with college coaches. Many over sell and do not know when to shut up. If they cannot perform this function you may need to do it yourself. In the alternative many programs have a "recruiting coordinator" who handles this critical function.

Sometimes I feel my jawbone could kill twice as many

 

[MNDad]

We had a coach say that our former travel coach "had diarrhea of the mouth" and was hurting our girls. Funny that he was a former D-1 coach. It seems like at least for us, the coaches like to talk directly to the player when possible.

DD was in the same boat. Former D1 coach that had gotten burned so many times by travel coaches over pumping up their players she made sure to give honest feedback and emphasize both the good and the bad. I think hearing too much about things the girls needed to work on before playing in college turned some off. Another coach was just a phenomenal teacher of the game, but he didn’t like communicating with colleges. I’d see several schools at our games and figured if they were interested we’d hear about it. I learned after the fact that several did express interest in our players, but the coach never passed on the info. It’s too bad because miscommunication with colleges and families eventually tore apart the best team to ever come out of our state.

 

[iMlearning]

DD was in the same boat. Former D1 coach that had gotten burned so many times by travel coaches over pumping up their players she made sure to give honest feedback and emphasize both the good and the bad. I think hearing too much about things the girls needed to work on before playing in college turned some off. Another coach was just a phenomenal teacher of the game, but he didn’t like communicating with colleges. I’d see several schools at our games and figured if they were interested we’d hear about it. I learned after the fact that several did express interest in our players, but the coach never passed on the info. It’s too bad because miscommunication with colleges and families eventually tore apart the best team to ever come out of our state.

We actually heard from an AC on that team about a month later that the HC had been talking to a coach that approached him about DD...the HC never said anything to us and the AC had just assumed we knew. That team is also in shambles now.

 

[Coach JV]

Interesting turn this thread has taken. AS a player advocate for my DD team, honesty is the best policy.
As coaches we drill this into players heads, be both honest and sincere. I do not 'pump up' marginal players
as it hurts our travel program reputation in the long run. If TB coaches are honest with college coaches, it is
win-win. As a result, we have plenty of coaches who come to watch us play at showcase events regardless of
whether the players have contacted them. FYI-some schools like to make offers at their small Winter camps, you can get this
info simply by asking the right questions. The softball community is very cooperative at the higher levels.
Last fall, we had a coach watching one of our girls who she had already recruited, during the game, she liked one of our players
but deferred to a colleague in her city who was looking for this particular skill set. Girl in question signed with college
as a result. HC never actually saw her play in a game situation and it was pouring down rain during her official visit.
Moral of the story-honesty prevails. If you tell a college coach your pitcher is throwing 60 mph when you know for a fact she is
56-57mph, that school will discredit you in the coaching community.

Also, regarding camps, some are very good as recruiting tools, some are a MONEY GRAB for the college so be careful.

 

[JAD]

DD was in the same boat. Former D1 coach that had gotten burned so many times by travel coaches over pumping up their players she made sure to give honest feedback and emphasize both the good and the bad.

Last year during showcase season we actually had a college coaches ask us about 3 of our players. After our HC provided some feedback the coach told us he was really only interested in 2 of the 3, but he wanted to see if he was getting honest feedback or if we were "sunshine pumpers".

 

[dbias]

DD is now a freshman pitcher at a DII university with a great nursing school. If your DD is majoring in one of the rougher fields of study that needs to be put out front. DD had interest from about six schools but many cooled upon hearing she was a nursing major. A couple coaches actually referred us to a school that they knew of that worked around a nursing student's clinicals. Called the coach and he said he had seen DD at tournaments and had heard of her bat. Evidently he had only seen her play third in the games he saw her and didn't really see her pitch. He said he had room and money for her and with her bat she would be given a shot as DH as a freshman as the third base was a four year starter senior. She got some playing time at third in fall ball and hit real well but a situation came up and even though they had six other pitcher she was put out in the circle. Has never seen third or batted since. During the year she has risen to the top over the other pitchers and is doing well. Main thing to keep in mind that the roster is in constant change. The year she was recruited they had seven pitchers and the heir apparent was a rising sophomore who transferred over the summer after changing majors. I figured something was up as the coaches calls over the summer included questions about her pitching.
So you can plan all you want and that's great but sometimes crazy things happen.