Baseball Recruiting - So Many Questions

stemit
Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:26:21 +0000

Congrats on taking the first steps in what will become a full time obsession – athletic recruiting!

S is entering his first spring baseball season. Behind him is his first fall of college practice – officials as well as unofficial (captain’s practice) and constant workouts. No matter how good these former HS students thought of their physical condition when they arrived on campus, it’s nothing compared to the 21 year old men who now make up the bulk of their team. And your S (and mine) needs to keep up with those men!

If your S is not devoted to baseball (and it sounds like he has the devotion), he will not enjoy what is in store. Waking up before the sun rises, walking across campus in sub-freezing weather, working out, choosing between eating and napping afterwards (napping usually won out) all before he even gets to do what all “regular” students do – class, lab, study, party. A grueling schedule and learning to balance everything on their own – and all the while their “internal clocks” say “stay up late, ther’s things to do!”

BUT, for S it was even more satisfying then he dreamed!

(The above was a preamble to the thread.)

Baseball recruiting can be a crap shoot and can be a very, very expensive crap shoot. All the recruiting appendages out there want one thing from you – money. That is true for all the promoters of showcases (PG, UndrArmour, baseball factory, Demirini), college camps (almost every college has camps, including high profile ones such as Stanford), private camps (Headfirst, GPA), recruiting websites (BeRecruited), and individuals (who seek to capitalize on parents paranoia).

BUT, just because everyone wants your money doesn’t make them poor choices in the path towards a college athletic program.

So, develop a plan. Do not try a “throw it at the wall and it will stick approach.” Start from both sides of the following equation: (1) how good is my son as a student and (2) how good is my S as a baseball player?

Brutal honesty is required.

IMO, the academic side is easier to evaluate than the baseball side. On this site, there have been raging debates about top tier academic schools and standards for athletes – but IMHO, the more your S matches the mean of the incoming class, the less you need to worry about it (for a number of reasons, not the least of which is his ability to academically succeed under a heavy course load combined with a grueling athletic schedule). So, if your S has, let’s say 2000 SAT, a rigorous course load offered by his HS, the top tier academic schools are within reach.

(As an aside on the academic side, IMO, the more a school emphasizes its athletic programs, the less choice and opportunity a student-athlete will have to major in science or engineering (labs get in the way of the season). At the top tier academic schools it’s hard enough to major in those areas; but add the athletic load on top and no matter how broad the shoulders of the student, those shoulders will probably sag under the load.)

The second part of the equation is the most difficult.

Someone needs to evaluate with brutal honesty the talent level of your son. If you know a current MLB scout that would be a place to start. You need to find out how your son stacks up and which level of collegiate baseball matches his talent. (I assume his goal is to have an opportunity to start as a freshman.) D1 baseball runs the gamut from great baseball (UCLA, Vandy, USD, and on and on) to the IVYIES (not great baseball but great academic opportunities for the athletes); D3 has baseball powers and Haverford type academic schools, etc.

We sat down after my S’s sophomore year and did the equation. He was LHP, 5’ 6”, 125lbs, throwing 79mph, who could not hit. He was an off the chart student.

That meant realistically that the high end showcases (at $400 a pop) – PG, Underarmour, TPX - didn’t make sense. What made sense to us was to target D3’s and high end academic schools. Research lead us to the Headfirst Honor Roll camps and to the Stanford Summer Camp. He went to both after his soph year. I like to call Headfirst the “KING of D3 camps.” The Stanford Camp offered a higher quality of baseball school and better players.

We also visited schools whenever we traveled – to get a feel for facilities, weather, school type (big, little, city, country). We did not go to individual college camps (he did when he was a freshman to gain experience) because they are true money makers for the schools and did not give enough exposure to lots of colleges.

For us, the combination of Headfirst and Stanford was the correct choices. (Headfirst is now getting some competition from GPA which seems to have cleaved some IVY coaches away.) He also went to those same camps after his junior year. As a direct result, he is now attending his dream school.

One size does not fit all during this process. The early blooming baseball players have mostly been discovered by the time they finish their sophomore seasons. But there is plenty of room on the diamond for players with talent and grades.

Feel free to PM me. I will be seeing Fenway this year during when our Ss’ meet on the diamond!

Of course, none of this thread speaks to the financial end of college – which can be huge to most and no big deal to others.