<p>Recruited = Passion + Skill + Exposure + Persistence + Luck</p>
<p>I’ll assume you are a rising junior in September. Here is some starting suggestions for both baseball and academic: </p>
<p>1) Improve your grades and do well on standardized tests. Better grades and test scores give you more options. Options are a good thing in college baeball recruiting.</p>
<p>2)Find a travel team or American Legion team that will expose you to the college levels you seek (state, regional, national). Different colleges have different recruiting geographies. Get college camp information for schools you are interested in.</p>
<p>3) Get in the weight room, and put on some weight and muscle. Seek professional help with your pitching mechanics if you think it will help. Work on a long toss program, and work with J-bands to increase flexibiliuty, protect against injury, build your throwing mechanics. Velocity is what all college coaches will look at first. Since you are a lefty pitcher that will give you some advantages, and possibly a few more looks. If you can get your velocity up into the mid to upper 80s, you will absolutely draw attention to yourself.</p>
<p>4) Go to collegeboard.com to create a search profile for the kind of school you are interstested in. Go to d3baseball.com and do the same. Go to Boyds World to look through the stronger D2 and D3 programs to get a feel for who is who. </p>
<p>5) Narrow down your search to 25-30 schools. Focus on those schools by sending an email about yourself (baseball resume) including summer baseball schedule, grades, gpa, sats, etc…Request information from the coach/program about how they recruit, where they recruit and showcase camps that they will be attending. Your goal is get on their radar, and begin a dialogue with them. Don’t be shy, and don’t procrastinate. Request help from your parents or suggestions from your travel coach if needed.</p>
<p>6) Focus on the recruiting process. As you go through this process, you will find things that work well and others don’t. Repeat those things that work well, and don’t be afraid to make a mistake. It happens, and we’ve all made them. These coaches do this everyday, so them come to expect it. The process is not easy, and if you have someone to help you that would be best. College baseball recruiting can be difficult, but as you go through it you will learn a lot. Now is the time to get started. Feel free to come back here if you have questions. There are others who have been through it as well and they may chime in. </p>
<p>Questions, please let me know. Good luck!</p>