Our Kids dreams of playing college baseball can come true !
We’ve just finished navigating the “treacherous waters” of the college recruiting process when my son Jeff signed his National Letter of Intent to play college baseball at Arizona State University . What helped the most (I believe), was that I was very fortunate to be part of an NCAA Baseball program earlier in my career but, believe me, things have changed in a significant way since the days I was recruited as a college athlete and even more so since my time at Auburn University, serving as a volunteer assistant baseball coach in the early 80’s.
The recruiting process in Baseball is not the same as it used to be for most of the NCAA and NAIA universities and colleges for several critical reasons two of which are:
1. Schools don’t have the same baseball budgets that they used to have
2. Coaches rely much more on the “self –recruiting” process and the interest / drive of potential student/athletes to be part of their baseball program.
In a sense, that places a lot more pressure on us as parents to help our kids (from start to finish), just to put them in a position to receive scholarship funding. Please understand this: College and University Baseball coaches are NOT enamored with the “Blue Chip” baseball players that show little character. As a result, some average and above average baseball players are being “scholarshipped” into quality programs and being developed into fantastic players because of their work ethic rather than their presenting skill. Don’t misunderstand me – the tools are important but, the coming trend in college baseball is proven character over skill with poor conduct!
Make no mistake about it: Recruiting is about RELATIONSHIPS and RECCOMENDATIONS!
We can make this happen! I know firsthand - It’s not always the most talented player that gets the scholarship funding! It’s about knowing the coaches on the college level – that’s where we can help. I realize that not everyone reading this letter will be interested - and that’s OK. But those of you that might be needing a little help with the “recruiting process” just give us a call to discuss all that I will do to help your son fulfill a dream of playing baseball at the next level. The Spring months are the best time to be working on player profiles and contacting coaches