Creating a plan. Where to start?

Where to start?  That is the big question.  I began with trying to honestly evaluate my son’s talent and where he projected.  I was fortunate enough to coach little league all-stars and travel ball as my son grew up. Living in Arizona where youth baseball is very competitive, I had an idea early on that my son was very good player but physically and athletically lacking. As he got into high school, I followed a lot of players and watched what opportunities they had. I tried to honestly analyze how he would project. During his sophomore year I started looking at where local seniors were ending up. I went to college games at various levels and looking at how the teams were made up. I could definitely see the size and skills difference at the various levels. Keep in mind that we never attended a showcase, so all of this work was necessary.  As I mentioned before, I am not against attending a showcase. If I had to do it again I would have my son attend one between his sophomore and junior year.  If you want to research what showcase is right for you, I suggest visiting www.hsbaseballweb.com on the message board there is a section on showcases. It is the best resource I have seen in getting advice on showcases.

Once you have a good idea of what your son’s skill level is you can start planning your recruiting strategy.  Let’s start with potential schools. First thing I recommend is creating a list of thing s that are most important to you and your son.

Our list looked a lot like this and is ranked in order:

1.     Academic fit. Does the school have programs that my son is interested in.

2.     Would my son stay at the school if he wasn’t playing baseball

3.     Size of school. My son was more interested in attending a smaller school

4.     Coaching staff. Do they seem to be the right fit for my son?

5.     Playing time.  Will he have an opportunity to play or will he more than likely sit on the bench for 4 years. We never considered the potential to go pro in our search for the right fit.

6.     Cost

7.     Distance

As you see baseball doesn’t even come in play until number 4.  I truly believe you have to find a school that is the right fit if he stopped playing. As far as baseball our priorities were about the coaching staff and playing time. We weren’t concerned about the prestige of being a D1 player. I am pretty sure if you talk to a player who went to D1 and sat on the bench for 4 years, he probably would have went to a smaller school where he had the opportunity to play.  Cost was low on our list as I knew the academics would take care of a good portion of the costs. Low on our list was distance. I made sure my son was willing to go almost anywhere to play and it help as we were able to cast a wider net. In the end the kid from the Phoenix metro area ended up in a small town in eastern Nebraska.

In summary the best place to start is to evaluate your son’s talents. Be as honest as you can and try and be conservative. If he turns out to better than you thought, it will be recognized when you start communicating with coaches.

Spent a lot of time talking with your son about what you both are looking for in a college and prioritize. You can waste a lot of time if you aren’t honest with your priorities.