Recruiting Advice

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Mar 27, 2013
6
1
My DD is a 2020. She has been "talking" with several local colleges (small D1, D2's and several NAIA schools). These coaches have all seen her play either in exposure tournaments or camps.

This weekend my DD told DW and me that she wants to play college softball in a warm weather state. She has been hinting about it for months. We are from Michigan.

My question is how does she get on the radar of those coaches in southern states. She has a skills video.
We need some advice. What should be her next steps.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
My DD is a 2020. She has been "talking" with several local colleges (small D1, D2's and several NAIA schools). These coaches have all seen her play either in exposure tournaments or camps.
This weekend my DD told DW and me that she wants to play college softball in a warm weather state. She has been hinting about it for months. We are from Michigan.

My question is how does she get on the radar of those coaches in southern states. She has a skills video.
We need some advice. What should be her next steps.

- Do your research and narrow schools down. What does 'warm' mean? Florida? Georgia? Mississippi? California? Arizona? Still need her major, her education goals, etc, etc
- In addition to all your emails and other standard contact work, pick a school and CALL THE COACH ON THE PHONE. Do your research, know why you are calling, and have some prepared questions.Want to have a coach know you - don't wait for them to contact you - call them yourself.
- Get on a team that has warm weather showcases on it - Legacy, Champion Elite, D9, etc, etc so the schools she gets interest in can see her (not to be seen or discovered - but to be seen)
- Get to some camps locally at appropriate schools. There are some excellent multi-college camps in the area you can get to.
- Guest on some Florida or Georgia teams if your team isn't going to be where you need (people here can help you - I can help with Florida as can many others, there are plenty of Georgia people on here)

Big warm weather schools have a pick of girls and there is a LOT of talent locally playing year round. So you are going to have to stand out - D1 there just isn't the # of schools than there is in the NorthEast, In Florida there is a bunch of D2 and NAIA schools and there are a whole bunch of nationally competitive level JUCO schools that are actually great value educationally.
 
Jan 18, 2018
22
0
Great advice above. One of the biggest challenges is convincing a 14-15 year old to be aggressive in contacting coaches. Many think that if coaches watch them play, they will get multiple scholarship offers. It simply doesn't work that way. Going to camps after establishing communication with a coach is the best strategy.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
I would suggest finding a TB team that plays in showcases in warm weather states. Atlanta has several.
 
Mar 27, 2013
6
1
- Do your research and narrow schools down. What does 'warm' mean? Florida? Georgia? Mississippi? California? Arizona? Still need her major, her education goals, etc, etc
- In addition to all your emails and other standard contact work, pick a school and CALL THE COACH ON THE PHONE. Do your research, know why you are calling, and have some prepared questions.Want to have a coach know you - don't wait for them to contact you - call them yourself.
- Get on a team that has warm weather showcases on it - Legacy, Champion Elite, D9, etc, etc so the schools she gets interest in can see her (not to be seen or discovered - but to be seen)
- Get to some camps locally at appropriate schools. There are some excellent multi-college camps in the area you can get to.
- Guest on some Florida or Georgia teams if your team isn't going to be where you need (people here can help you - I can help with Florida as can many others, there are plenty of Georgia people on here)

Big warm weather schools have a pick of girls and there is a LOT of talent locally playing year round. So you are going to have to stand out - D1 there just isn't the # of schools than there is in the NorthEast, In Florida there is a bunch of D2 and NAIA schools and there are a whole bunch of nationally competitive level JUCO schools that are actually great value educationally.

"Warm weathered State" means to her anything other than Michigan. And she is undecided about her Academic field. I am not sure how to go about "guesting" on a travel team and other than "googling" is there way to find showcase camps.

We have been to some good showcase camps in the midwest and we have been to some that were obviously money grabs. So I would like the bang for our buck if she was to attend one in the south.

I appreciate the help and the advice. The DD and I are in the preliminary discussions about her college choices. There will be more discussions to come I am sure.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
"Warm weathered State" means to her anything other than Michigan. And she is undecided about her Academic field. I am not sure how to go about "guesting" on a travel team and other than "googling" is there way to find showcase camps.

So after you narrow it down a little bit more to a state and then some colleges in that state, you can then target them with your emails and calls (and their camps). You can also get advise here again once you have narrowed it down to better than 'not Michigan'. A website such as 'College Confidential' can help you find out more about colleges that match your kids preferences.

Easy enough to guest - people here will help once you have a target state or tournament you need to attend. Someone on here will know people to call or talk to and often who would love some help. Tournament directors often have a list of teams looking to add a player. Even being on a local 'big name' team can help - they will have teams in most states who she could guest for.

But the narrowing it down part ois the most important. There is 2,000-3,000 colleges out there with softball teams. You can't be looking at all of them.
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
Get Cathi Aradis book and from the college directory, pick some lesser known schools. You may have better luck getting info when you are unknown yourself if you are talking to a college coach at a school that's not as well known. You can also check out the Massey ratings online to see how competitive the different schools are. Tennessee is not as far south as Florida but I'm sure it's a helluva lot warmer than Michigan!

While it's still in the off season, contact some coaches from down there and ask them what does a player from up north need to do to get on their radar.

Being from New England we are in a similar situation. A friend of mine who played baseball at UMaine when they went to the college World Series , told me to talk my daughter into playing "someplace warm, the weather definitely makes a difference!" (She picked a school a half hour from Canada!)
 
Oct 5, 2015
91
18
After she has narrowed down her list to an initial 25-50 schools, she should complete the recruiting questionnaire and then get the introductory email to the schools, including the link to skills video. If the link is in youtube, my suggestion would be avoid sending email to schools in the same state during the same week. The reason being as a sophomore they can't contact her but she will be able to see in youtube analytics who actually viewed the video and for how long and she might get a sense for what schools even read the email. it is tough as a underclassmen to get any feel for initial interest. For example, don't send to Florida and Florida St during the same week as what will show up on analytics is a view from "Florida" but if you wait a week and see a view from "florida" during the first week, you will know that they viewed the video.

Based on targeted data, you could think about summer camp strategy and showcases (i guess). I would personally focus on camp. You should involved your college recruiter and have them send out a notes to your target schools to see if it is worth your time to go the camp. They will respond to him with a "love to get her out here" or a no.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
Apart from following the above great advice, I'm from Ohio and had a showcase team. That said, we always traveled down South for at least one showcase a year and sometimes 2. It all depended upon how many were interested in what state that year. We went to SC, NC, Georgia and FL over the past 3 years. This gave the girls an opportunity to be seen by the schools they might want to attend. Talk to your TB coach and see if they'll go the extra mile for the girls. Many of my families took the following week off as a family vacation while they were there. We never had a tourney the following weekend BTW so they could take advantage of it.
 

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