RECRUITING TIPS

WANT TO START A SERIES OF RECRUITING TIPS for those already into the process or just embarking on the journey

thefirst thing you want to when you get into high school is meet with your athletic director and guidance counselor. you want and neeed them on your team as you move thru the process.I f you ..are the college prospect you believe you are your AD will befielding calls for you. while your guidance counselor will be needed to expedite transcript submttals to colleges who are recruiting you.

SPOKE TOO SOON

WE APPARENTLY SPOKE TOO SOON BACK IN OCTOBER 2010 BECAUSE UBSEQUENTLWE ENDED UP SPENDING MORE TIME WITH MY MEDICAL TEAM THAN MY BASEBALL TEAM BUT WE ARE NOW BACK AND our college select team will will be back in action come this June 2012.

a few thoughts regarding the newMLB CBA---some people seem to think that it will hurt the high school and college players. I ask that you read the agreement and return with your thoughts. I have long been aproponent on players being drafred after completing college and the cba is moving in that direction. the simple fact that the drafted players must sign in july now and not august certainly helps the colleges because they now will know what they have when the fall semester begins.

for the next few installments I am putting together a series of items on recruiting which I think will interest all of you.

IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME

sorry for the length of time between posts but it is tough to doit while in stroke rehab and 7 hours of physical therapy a day BUT WE ARE MEDICALLY VLEARED NOW AND READY TO GO ALL . OUT

Been Too Long

It has been too long, yes it has !!! Between the baseball trips and some minor health problems time has been short.

BUT WE ARE BACK AND FULLY STRONG !!!!

Now for some things that I saw over this summer and fall season that irk me:

01-- The kids/parents who cherry pick the events they attend

I saw it not only with our team but others as well. The kid is paid in full but he finds other weekend events he thinks are more important for him so he foresakes his team and fellow team mates.The player does not take into consideration that perhaps coach has spoken to colleges about him and they show up to see him only to find out he is elsewhere, unknownst to both the college coaches and his team coach.

02-- The kids who are playing for you as well as another team but don't tell you, especially the pitchers.They pitch for both teams on the same weekend and the coaches do not know about it---NOT SMART

03-- The players who refuse to tell you that they are hurting and try to play thru it and after a miserable game tell you that they are hurt. The boy needs to MAN UP and be up front about it. ---This especially true with regard to players attending showcases-- why attend a showcase where you want to impress the college and pro scouts and not be in tip top baseball shape.

04-- The parents who have no idea regarding the process of recruiting but think that they have all the answers. Not to mention that they tell you things totally disregarding the fact that you, as the team coach, may talk to the college coaches they talk about who have seen their son and are recruiting. Folks the baseball world, especially at the HS/College recruiting stage is very small.

That is enough of my ranting for now--allow me to cool down and I will be back with the good things I saw this summer

Mid summer

It is mid summer and perhaps you have been playing and being seen but still nothing in the mailbox or no phone calls. NOT TO WORRY !!!

There is plenty of time---you need to understand that everything you read and hear about with regard to the early calls etc do not reflect what happens with what I call "THE NON STUD PLAYER"---the majority of HS players who go on to play college baseball are not in that class--they are very good to excellent players and with them it takes time--the key is maximum exposure with your travel team in the right venues so you get seen by a cross section of college coaches---and keep your chin up thru all this---respond to everything and do it ASAP---you want the college coaches to know you are interested--look at your upcoming schedule and let schools in the region of your games know that you will be playing in their region. Your travel coach should be doing the same.

Also keep in mind that just because you "like" a college it does not mean you will play there--they may not need your position to be filled---you may not be the type of player they are looking for---you may not have the grades to gain admission there--they may have had a large recruiting class the year prior to yours thus the number of players they are bringing in will be minimal.

The key is be proactive and be with a solid travel team that worries more about exposure than trophies

Thoughts

I apologize to you all for the delay between the last post and now but we have been on the road getting our kids getting the exposure they need

MYTHS

There are many myths where "select/travel" teams are concerned.

One of the biggest is that the players need to be on a "winning" team to be seen and have colleges gain interest in them. There is nothing farther from the truth and this was reinforced with our team over the past two weekends. We went 1 and 5 which on the surface looks terrible. The boys are playing excellent ball but just not hitting. The pitching and defense is there but the timely hitting has not come about yet. All the losses were close games, one run losses or similar, except for the final game.

The bottom line for us is attracting college coaches interest. Even with our record we have colleges talking to us about our kids which is what our goal is. Many if not most, will be up to see us again this weekend in the NE Baseball event in Worcester, MA.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you need not need to get hung up on the winning and losing in the summer. The colleges know we have talent on our roster every season but we will use two more pitchers even if the starter is going well. This is especially so early on in the season because we want to see all the kids in action and be able to determine how to better utilize them as the season wears on. Complete games are not critical to us---in a 4 day tournament we like to see our first day starter return on the 4th day. He cannot do that if we burn him out in game one. We have one young man who has two great outings, no earned runs in 11 innings. No he does not have a win but he is creating a lot of interest from colleges.

One Division I coach I talked with this weekend told me he wished more programs thought the way we did. But that is not my problem ! We do what we do with our purposes in mind---Get the Kids Seen !---

So in closing let me stress that you should look for a travel teasm that gets you exposure and has a coaching staff that works for you rather than a team that wants trophies.