Are Recruiting Services Worth the Money?

[InSider]

I know that the focus for many parents and players is the pursuit of college playing time. It is widely accepted that if you make consistent contact with the college coaches you are interested in playing for, if you are good enough, there is a pretty good chance that the coach will see you play. It is also widely accepted that to have the best shot at being seen by the coaches you are interested in, you need to be on a team that gets into the tournaments those coaches frequent.

I am seeing a plethora of recruiting services popping up, claiming that using their services will help get your player recruited. For a fee, they will send emails and other information to the coaches you are interested in playing for. They will invite you to their recruiting events and camps. I would imagine that some are better than others.

In my opinion, recruitment can absolutely be done without the use of an outside source. If your player puts the time and effort into being consistent with appropriate contact, goes to camps, and makes sure to inform the coaches of their tournament specifics, they will be seen. If they are good enough, they will get an offer. I will say that having a coach advocate for the player to the college coaches goes a long way to at least getting them some attention.

That being said, are recruiting services necessary? Do they increase your chances of your child playing college softball?

 

[BulldawgsDirector]

I would say no. Save your money to go to college camps or individual showcase camps, play in showcases, make contact with interested schools, and create a recruiting profile and a quality video

 

[longball00]

The only place that I have found beneficial to spend money on, would be with On Deck Measurements. DD has been fortunate enough to be invited to 2 Jamboree Combines and the coach turnout has been awesome at both. Like BulldogsDirector stated, make a nice website with all recruiting info, video, pictures, and do the legwork of emailing schools of interest and get to camps. Why pay someone to write the emails for you? Your DD should be the one writing them herself. Make sure to give your coaches info on everything. If a school has interest, they may contact the coach. Otherwise you will most likely get a camp invite email, and have no idea if it's a mass email, or something else.

 

[JoeA1010]

Almost all college coaches will say no, they are not worth the money and don't do it. On Deck is a little bit of a different animal than a typical recruiting service like Captain U or NCSA. I am not quite as much of an adamant "No" as most college coaches, but I'm about 90% of the way there.

Brian Chidester (Amanda's dad) runs College Bound Jocks and is a good and trustworthy source. He shoots great videos, knows where to steer his clients and stays in contact with college coaches. I do recommend him, but I'm sure there are college coaches who probably wouldn't. I will take a look at our NCSA page because players will specifically research our school and possibly show interest. That's really about it, though, and otherwise I do nothing with the services. And no matter what, the service is not going to sell a college coach on a kid; it is ultimately going to be the player who sells herself.

 

[CARDS]

NOPE...I could give you a lot of examples where recruiting service hurt the player...

 

[tankerlab]

NOPE...I could give you a lot of examples where recruiting service hurt the player...

Perfect timing on this thread!
Three years ago my DD went to a Kent State Pitching Camp.
(Big Camp you have to be sitting at computer at midnight day registration opens and hit.
"Enter "! ) Anyway, I notice coaches that are noticing her... Making notes. Afterward she talks to those coaches and gives them profiles... One that I thought was a coach was an NSR recruiter... He explains he wants us to "Hire him" to promote her to college coaches... At that time my DD played for Doom and Tim Gregory was also coaching Milford Varsity with his wife Christy. Valerie & I called Tim on the way home and explained the situation. His advise was no, do not hire them. That promoting your DD is the High School and especially the Travel Ball coaches job and her going to camps and e mailing the coaches... We took his advise.
Then she played for the organization she now still plays for, Freedom Elite. Coach Tim Adams gave the exact same advise as coach Gregory.
To even go further, we had a couple girls on our team this year that hired NSR and were dupped into being made believe they were responsible for the girls offers...
(6 of coach TEA's players have verbally committed to a college including my DD to a 100% full ride D-1 athletic offer. The rest of the girls on the team have one or more standing offers... Two college coaches were at one of our games last week watching two three of our girls. One coach was watching the two that hired NSR and had made them both an offer.
The offers came after our coach talked with the coach at two different tournaments and the girls e mailed the coach and the coach watched them play a couple games... After the game I went up to the coaches and asked them if I could ask a question. I referred to the Kent State camp situation with my DD of three years ago and point blank asked these two college coaches about NSR and they said they DELETE EVERYTHING they get from them !!! The one coach that gave offers to 2 of our girls also said, "We can not trust anything they say." They are "hired" by you the parents to promote your kid ..." The only scouts we will trust are ones we may occasionally hire looking for a specific player... Because we hired them ....
I further said, so you can tell me you are here watching this game and these girls because our coach communicated with you in the past and the girls are e mailing you? And they both said Absolutely! We do not deal with NSR or any scouts and delete everything they send us...
So there you have it! Two college coaches and two very well known and successful travel ball coaches all say no to recruiting organizations...

 

[sammy]

No. Spend the money on "after game ice cream" and a savings account for travel to watch her college games.

 

[mike_dyer]

No. Spend the money on "after game ice cream" and a savings account for travel to watch her college games.

Ice cream is kind of like a "gateway drug" when it comes to softball.

All of the greatest ones ever experimented with ice cream first.

If you want your kid to be great you need to get her some ice cream.