“The Recruiting Process”

There is no such thing as a typical recruiting process.  It is different for every player.  How does it begin? When does it begin? What should I be doing?  The questions are endless.  This process can cause a tremendous amount of stress on the player.  In this blog I will try to tackle some of the most common questions and Issues.

The recruiting process will generally start once the player starts to show above avg ability or performance for his age.  College coaches are like detectives.  They are constantly trying to find talented players.  They are also trying to be the first one to find the player.  Coaches will attend games and showcases to find players.  They usually have vast networks they can reach out to in order to find talent.  If a coach is genuinely interested in you, he will most likely call you or send you an email.  The email will be personalized and very specific.  You may receive an email from a coach that is inviting you to attend a camp.  We usually don’t consider this as being recruited.  Over time you will receive several similar emails asking you to sign up and pay for a camp from multiple schools, but you will find the format of the emails very similar.

What if you haven’t heard from any coaches yet?  That’s ok.  You will have to start the process by contacting coaches.  Reach out to the coach with a short introduction.  You want to include as much as you can in the email.  It is best if you have a player profile.  You can send the coach a link to your profile.  Your profile should include your bio information, academic profile, baseball metrics, and video of hitting or pitching.  I get asked a lot; How do I know if a coach looked at my email?  Coaches look at everything that they get.  If they aren’t interested, they probably won’t respond but they do look at everything they receive.  It’s best if you make a spreadsheet listing all the schools you’ve contacted.  Keep track of who responds to you.  This will give you an idea as to where you fit in this process.  D1, D2, D3 etc.

The secret to this whole process is to be a good player.  The better you are the easier this is going to be.  You need to start with a baseline evaluation of the player.  How do your metrics line up with other players your age?  What are your statistics?  There are many factors that go into evaluating a player.  Players with a high exit velocity tend to have a high batting avg.  If you are contacting a lot of coaches and not getting any response you most likely have to improve your game.  Only 6% of all high school players get to play in college.  If you want to play in college you will have to do something above avg, or at the very least do everything avg.  Keep working hard and keep improving.  That is your best chance of finding your college home.