Choosing a travel team for players who want to play in college

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Aug 13, 2013
344
28
Sayville
Some advice from a college/travel coach for softball players and parents when choosing a travel team:
1) If a organization says they get players to college, ask them:
A) How they do that?
B) How many players have you gotten into college to play softball and were they still a part of your organization?
C) What college coaches do you have on your cell phone
D) What camps/showcases do you attend?
E) How do you as the coach help them with the process?
2) If a organization says they have college level coaching, ask:
A) What college and is it one of the coaches or players
B) Will they be coaching a team?
Whole point is to due your due diligence.
 

WARRIORMIKE

Pro-Staff Everything
Oct 5, 2009
2,815
48
At the Jewel in San Diego
I don't put it on the coach to get my kid to college. I take responsibility for my kid. We use fastpitch scout so she can send emails out and do some footwork on her own. With the combination of college showcases its a great one-two punch
 
Feb 16, 2015
933
43
South East
We are kind of going through this with our DD right now and contemplating a change. I do not believe that it is solely on the coach to get your kid on a colleges radar but I do believe it takes some help on their part. DD currently sends many emails to coaches that she is interested in and some show up and some do not. I believe the coach should be trying to help get your kid some type of opportunity with the schools that are not showing up whether it is going to talk to them at a showcase or trying to get her invited to a camp or so on. I may be missing something here but I feel that the athlete and their parents are very limited to what they can do compared to a coach.
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
We are kind of going through this with our DD right now and contemplating a change. I do not believe that it is solely on the coach to get your kid on a colleges radar but I do believe it takes some help on their part. DD currently sends many emails to coaches that she is interested in and some show up and some do not. I believe the coach should be trying to help get your kid some type of opportunity with the schools that are not showing up whether it is going to talk to them at a showcase or trying to get her invited to a camp or so on. I may be missing something here but I feel that the athlete and their parents are very limited to what they can do compared to a coach.

Coaches are just one of many tools in recruiting. There’s too much at stake to allow someone else to handle it. Learn the process. There’s nothing a coach can do that you can’t do yourself. You don’t need an invite to a camp, just show up. Having a coach put in a good word is nice, but it means much more coming from the player.
 
Feb 16, 2015
933
43
South East
Coaches are just one of many tools in recruiting. There’s too much at stake to allow someone else to handle it. Learn the process. There’s nothing a coach can do that you can’t do yourself. You don’t need an invite to a camp, just show up. Having a coach put in a good word is nice, but it means much more coming from the player.

That is what I was trying to say.... I am not looking for a coach to do everything thing, just open the door. Going to a camp when with 200 players there and some already committed recruits. I have found that the coaches do not pay much attention to the ones they have no back ground on before they get there. I guess what I am asking is how do you get them to acknowledge you when they never open YOUR emails or you can’t speak to them at tournaments?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
That is what I was trying to say.... I am not looking for a coach to do everything thing, just open the door. Going to a camp when with 200 players there and some already committed recruits. I have found that the coaches do not pay much attention to the ones they have no back ground on before they get there. I guess what I am asking is how do you get them to acknowledge you when they never open YOUR emails or you can’t speak to them at tournaments?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Target camps around coaches you’ve already spoken too. I could have saved thousands of miles had I figured that one out sooner. Had some good road trips with DD anyway. The trouble with travel coaches is colleges hear from too many about this amazing kid they have to look at. If the travel coach doesn’t have an established relationship it means no more than if it came from a parent. DD’s travel coaches were all amazing softball teachers, but had little to no role in getting her recruited. I wish I would have figured out sooner not to rely on anyone else to do it. If only I had another DD to get it right next time :)
 
May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
many high-level travel clubs have sections of their websites that list what colleges their players have gone to.
inspection of these lists will reveal that, except for a few outliers, most of their recruits seem to end up at the same handful of schools, or at the very least, the same handful of conferences.

I think travel coaches develop relationships with certain college coaches, and establish themselves as a “recruiting pipeline” to that school.

If a team in your locality appears to have a pipeline established with a school that interests you, then it makes absolute sense to join that travel club. Aside from that, yes an aggressive coach can help you with recruiting, but its the player that must deliver the goods when/if they do get that look.
 
Aug 27, 2015
20
0
Well from our personal experience, our daughter did all the recruiting legwork on her own. She asked for help along the way, but the emailing, choosing which camps to attend and all the correspondence has been all her. She has received an offer from a D1 school, all while in the middle of a team change. After speaking with the coach of the college program, they only like to involve the travel team coach when they need to get some evminor info about the kid, or to speak with them if the kid is not in the age range to where they are allowed to speak with them openly.

I can say, that it is very frustrating during the recruiting process. You may not hear anything from coaches, then all of a sudden, her inbox was flooded with emails.
 
Aug 13, 2013
344
28
Sayville
all valid points but my point was that there are organizations that say all the stuff I put in my questions to ask. Yes they should take responsibility but I also coach travel and I help guide them through the process. That's what a HC of a travel team should be doing
 

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