As I mentioned, I tried to base our entire college search and recruiting efforts on these five questions.
I also mentioned that I began this crusade after my son's freshman year. I think some may ask why did I start this early when I stated in a previous post that he was undersized and probably just an average player. The answer is that the kid still had the passion for the game. The love he had when he started at 8, many kids lose when they hit those teenage years. This leads me to Question 1.
Question 1: Does my son truly want to keep playing after high school? That answer was 100% yes!!! When he was in Jr. High he had a dream of playing at Stanford. I knew as a freshman that the chances of him playing at Stanford were not likely. But, I also knew that if I kept that dream alive to a certain extent, it would motivate him to take the right classes academically and try to meet the academic requirements of Stanford. In the long run that meant more financial aid.
Academics are probably the MOST important thing for a player who wants to play college baseball. My son ended up with a 3.8 GPA taking mostly AP and honors classes. He ended up with a 28 on his ACT. He was part of student council, National Honor Society, and an engineering club. Without these academic accomplishments, I am not sure he would have gotten the opportunities he had available when it came time to look at potential schools.
From a college baseball coach's perspective, the rigorous academic load along with some other extracurricular activities while being a high school athlete says a lot about a players ability to handle the schedule of a college baseball player. The coaches that ended up recruiting my son seriously, said that the one thing they were impressed the most about was his workload in high school and that they felt he would transition into college life rather easily. They often said they know they can coach a kid up and get the best out of them on the field. The big question in recruiting a player is how will they handle the academics and college work load. Things a baseball coach might not be as involved in on a daily basis.
You may be reading this and thinking my son isn't quite achieving at a high level academically or taking multiple honors and AP classes. I'd say you need to get a plan together regarding academics. Have a clear understanding of college requirements and what academic aid is available. I will go into more detail on this topic in future blogs.
This question is important to continually ask and analyze where you player and family are throughout this process. Aside from academics, is your player doing the things he needs to do on the field. Is he eating relatively healthy for a teenage boy? Is he working out? Is he doing things to improve his game?
Playing college baseball at any level takes dedication. The level of dedication I think most college freshman aren't prepared for. In talking with my son over the past few months, I hear the fatigue in his voice almost every time I speak with him. His daily schedule often includes 5:30 or 6:00 am workouts in the gym, classes start at 8:00 go to late morning or early afternoon (depending on the day), he will have hitting or bullpen sessions certain days before or after practice, then the team practice which can go 3-5 hours. On the weekends he commented that he often had conditioning from , hitting from , practice from and then a bullpen session from . If you happen to attend a college in a cold weather climate, don't be surprised if practice is indoors late at night. My son typically practices in their field house from during the week.
In summary, high school players need to understand the commitment it takes to play in college. Our approach was to try and prepare for that during high school as much as possible.
Thanks for reading! I will speak about question 2 in my next blog.
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