Recruiting process

[Dabears17]

Two orgs in the California Bay Area concentrate on giving high school students thinking about playing in college a chance to play medium high competition and advice how to get the attention of college coaches at D3 and NAIA coaches by advising them to create highlights videos from game video, regularly email coaches. They typically only play 1 tournament that requires a hotel stay a summer, most of the rest some AST at AST's more competitive tournaments, and a PGF tournament or two. I believe this year they each have 1 senior going a mid-major and 1 or 2 players going to highly ranked academic D3 programs. There are also a couple very good softball players playing for them that want to stay sharp for HS but have no intention of playing in college.

It is possible to get exposure playing fairly local at a fairly reasonable price.... but the players need to market themselves.

It's like the process of chosing which colleges to apply for. Research 1-2 dream schools, 3-5 reach schools, 3-5 likely admit schools, and a safety school or two.

 

[Vertigo]

Our experience has been that a travel coach who has been around a while and knows several college coaches is invaluable. They will call coaches and talk to them on your DD’s behalf after she has sent emails (but before they can talk to her). Our coach would always call the coaches up before camps if any of our players were attending. The difference between having a “known” coach do this vs showing up cold was noticeable. Also, if the team has a recruiting coordinator, they can be a great resource as well. They’ll hand out team flyers, alert the team coach which colleges show up to watch, and who they are there to see, etc.

My advice - find a team who has a good track record at placing kids at schools your dd might be interested in. But yes, most of the responsibility will fall on her to get out the emails and start up the initial contact/maintain that contact.

 

[Hillhouse]

So I have a daughter who has been playing travel ball since she was 9yrs old. She’s currently a raising Sophomore. She’s had a great year so far. She was a floater between JV and Varsity. She batted .347 in Varsity. 28 at bats with only 2 SO. She’s a really good third baseman but can also catch some and play OF.

I have a big dilemma, she has been playing for the same team since she was 12yrs old. She has made really good friends and we all love the coaches, they’re really good people however they are a new organization that don’t know what the process is for kids to get recruited. We’re all kind of trying to figure out the process as we go…

My daughter definitely wants to play in College, she’s pretty set in that. She works hard, goes to the gym and has private lessons as well.

I guess my question is, is it possible for my daughter to stay with the same team and still have the chance to get recruited or should we look into other teams that have more experience with the process?

They will be playing in about 5 showcase tournaments this year which is really all the exposure she’ll have but is that enough?

All feedback and guidance is appreciated!


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If you want to send me a PM, I can tell you how I'd go about your process from both a former D1 coach did the recruiting, and from a pitching coach perspective who's helped more than a few players with their recruitment.

This much I'll tell you here, everyone will have their own ideas on how to go about it and I'm not really sure anyone is "wrong". There are a lot of ways to the top of this mountain. But there's a lot of questions that need answers and I don't want to hijack the thread.