All that any of us can really do is speak from our own experiences and from what the college programs have given us as feedback. I have coached players who have, currently are or will play Collegiately...including my own daughter. Here are my two cents based simply on my own experiences as a coach that has been through it with my college exposure team and who is now preparing my current 13U team for what is to come. When we started our first "College Exposure" team we were a very young 2nd year organization that hadn't proven anything yet. We had quality "recruitable" players on the team but our organization had not been on a National stage yet. I had to provide resumes on all of my players and do a lot of credible convincing to get that first shot at the big invite events. We proved ourselves once we got on the stage and the rest is history. Now, getting on that stage is huge but a College coach EXPECTS a player to contact them, and repeatedly, about interest in their program before they're coming there specifically to see them play. As a head coach I can only develop a player, give them and their parents tools, provide wisdom and reach out w integrity to programs that the player is interested in once she enters her recruitable years. The parents/player needs to email coaches with ALL of their softball information, academic progress, tournament schedules etc. They need to also give follow ups as they progress, attend camps, do individual "Showcase" events and play in the "Showcase" tournaments that the are on most college coaches recruit circuit...the bigger the stage the better. I am not saying that you MUST play for the top XYZ coach/team/org but since they have a history of proving to have the "product" they will be the one who gets displayed first. You have to remember that most of these college coaches are coming to see specific players that they have already had communication with but others can be discovered just from being noticed in a game that another player is being observed in...happens a lot. That said...the majority of the players I have had recruited over the years were the result of what the PARENTS and PLAYERS did with the tools that I provided them...a lot of marketing of themselves! Simply put...Coaches/Instructors develop the player, provide tools and give wisdom. Parents supporting talented players that do well in school, follow up with college coaches, attend their camps, coaches attending individual or team "showcase" events to watch her play, she then gets recruited, goes on a visit and then hopefully gets signed.
