I can’t stress this enough. Everything you set out to accomplish in life has to have a plan in place in order to achieve it. If not, you may fail or you won’t be as efficient as you could’ve been had you had a plan. Recruiting should be no different. But, since a lot of people out there aren’t familiar with how the recruiting process it works, its hard to come up with a successful plan. Here are some tips to get you started on a Recruiting Plan.
Pave Your Own Path
Because every player comes from a different background, your recruiting journey is not going to be the same as the player next to you or the other players on your team. If you have a plan to be on the same page as a family, focus on development early on and know which level is the best fit for you, trust that plan! Don’t deviate from the plan your family has in place just because Johnny decided to do it differently. If you try and change your plan throughout the recruiting process it will be the equivalent of putting a car engine together with no instructions. Deviating from your plan could put you behind in the recruiting process.
Be On The Same Page
The biggest piece of advice I can give to you and your student-athlete: be on the same page. A lot of times, players want something different then the parents do, and this causes confusion throughout the process. Everyone in your family is invested in the process in different ways, and it affects each family member differently. For the player, practice, time, sweat, blood and tears and for mom and dad, weekends spent away from home, money, etc. Throughout this process I encourage you to have meetings as a family to talk about where each of you are at, what each wants/thinks is best, meet with the influential coaches in your life that will give you honest feedback of your abilities and to seek advice from people that have gone through the process. When you don’t want the same things in the recruiting process it makes it that much harder!
Focus on Development Early On
A lot of parents and players think once they get to high school as freshman they need to be out in front of the big Division 1 schools trying to be recruited. What a lot of parents and players don’t understand is while you think you are gaining exposure by being in front of these coaches you may be exposing yourself in a negative way. Remember, 80% of players will play sub Division 1 baseball, and those sub Division 1 programs are not out signing kids as freshman and sophomores. If you’re a Division 1 player, you will be found early on in high school and you wont have to go out of your way to be noticed, but for the rest, be smart and know if you are exposing yourself or EXPOSING yourself. There’s a difference!
Know Which Level of Baseball is the Best Fit For Your Son
Everyone thinks their son is a Division 1 Player, I get it, but the reality is that only 20% of all College Baseball Players are Division 1 Athletes. 80% of players will play at another level(D2, D3, NAIA, NJCAA), and knowing which level you are the best fit at will increase your chances to Play College Baseball by 80%! Understand, 90% of all recruiting (outside of NCAA Division 1) occurs when a student-athlete contacts a college. Knowing this, if you are not a fit for the level of coaches you are contacting, then you will be putting yourself behind the 8 ball. There are unbelievable opportunities outside of Division 1 baseball, and, believe it or not, some baseball programs at the other levels are just as good if not better in some cases.