Bored today - 2 recruiting questions/thoughts

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Looking for some input?..
Observation from the fall showcase season. Coaches from D1 schools are not going toshowcases looking for field players. Imust have talked to 50 coaches this fall and only a select few said they werelooking for anything other than pitchers and catchers - maybe speed kids. My opinion is that they find those field players atcamps or combines. Seeing them in actionis a **** shoot. They can see pitchersand catchers in action on every play in game. If they happen to see a monster hitter they will ask ? but only a couplecame looking.
I was told this two years ago and I heard it again thisweekend. Why are teams playing 3-4qualifiers (14u and up) in the summer when they could be playing their kids infront of coaches at showcases. Thethought is play 1 or maybe 2 Q?s and then hit the big events. ASA Nationals are not the recruiting venuesthey used to be.
What have others noticed this fall season?

 

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Mark ... that makes a lot of sense about where the coaches would likely expect to see the different players, and therefore the impact on the schedule of teams whose primary focus is on getting their players D1 looks.

Of course, that is not nor should it be the goal of all teams, and I think that fact sometimes get lost. Worse yet, some teams don't really even know what their goal is or should be. Goals can vary from just doing it for fun, doing it to become better high school players and/or tp develop better skills for them to eventually show for D2 or D3 schools, etc. I think there are a lot of teams who consider themselves showcase teams, but have no realization that they a) don't have D1 talent on the team or b) if they do have the talent, don't have any clue how to get that exposure. Hopefully, that is less of an issue than it used to be ... I know I was pretty naive to it back 6-7 years ago and, when I did understand it better, I had difficulty with parents of players who didn't get it.

 

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Yea knowing what your players want is key also. We have 2 players that identified a school that they wanted to attend - a faith based NAIA. And we made sure to address that need. Each coach has to be able to adjust to the needs of all the players goals.

 

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Mark - In terms of comparison, I don't know what ASA Nationals *used to be*, but I can tell you this past summer at ASA/USA 14U in Illinois, there were college coaches everywhere. We had schools like Oklahoma, Oregon, Florida, Ohio St, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Northwestern, etc all watching our games. Many watched whole games or several innings, not just drive-by looks. I don't expect that my girls will all be getting offers from all those schools, but in terms of exposure, the coaches were there. And to be honest, it was actually just fun for our girls to play in front of all those big coaches.

 

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CoachTom - that seems to be where the focus is these days at Nationals. The info I got from our JO was the 14's had 84 coaches and the 16's were down in the 50's. BITD it was more like 150 at the 16's and 20 at 14's. The Ill location helped last year. Hopefully ASA works hard to make the locations and venues more desirable. PGF 14's was the most attended of any of their Nationals I was told. The point the coach made to me was that 2 years ago we played 4 qualifiers to win a berth and go play in front of less than 100 coaches at nationals. As opposed to playing in 4 events and being seen by 100 coaches at each event. To them it is simply a matter of volume. The more the kids play in front of coaches the better. Now that many showcases are tournaments as well it is getting better.

 

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I don't think that every player wants to play DI ball. Some would be happy playing at a small DIII program. Plus, some just want to play until they are 18 and not play in college. You are right about the coaches. College coaches usually don't just show up and walk around looking for players. Usually they have seen them at a camp, or have received an email from them. Why waste your time looking at a girl that has no interest in your school? Plus, some colleges may not have the major they are looking for. I coached DIII college ball and many girls from the league said they wanted more playing time and a not so hectic athletic life in college so they chose not to go DII or DI.