We are in the process now, DD is Junior.....started with few college camps as 8th and 9th grader, got more frequent as sophomore.....also made point of having her on team that has same goals....to get kids recruited....ie. bulk of schedule are high profile showcases, ASA tourneys and top competition tourneys, yep we travel alot.....starting in 9th grade DD and dad compiled list of schools by size, location, academic offerings ( my DD tentatively wants larger school, not necessarily right next door but around 4-6 hours away, and wants to major in premed or PT.....) Then they sent her profile with picture, teams she is on, records and her personal stats, including travel and HS, any honors, GPA and eventually ACT score, in addition coachs she works with, HS, travel, pitching, trainer...with phone # and email, also her tournament schedule. This is updated every season and re-sent as the list of schools are refined. She has started this year going on visits (unofficial) and doing individule showcases when invited...usually if you contact a school they respond by inviting you to camp or a "showcase " camp.....We have been pretty successful with this approach as she has an offer for full 4 years scholarship plus books @ large D11 school in Michigan with good rep, and sincere interest from @ least 3 other schools....now we are going on more visits with appts with coaches so she can hopefully make the right decision for her and her college career...most importantly in our way of thinking is the academics.....if she can't have the programing she wants or doesn't feel like the school will give her the college experience she wants, or if she meets coach and really doesn't "click" with them, then that isn't the place to go...yep we have been on the road almost every weekend since mid August, but if she is happy with her final decision it will be worth it.
Thank God for email, a place to start is with the school's website, where their info is listed, camps, rosters, coaches , addresses, etc......Oh , also we go to college games of schools we are interested in....this way you can evaluate the coach and see if you like their style. We did a camp @ OSU about 4 years ago, very well ran, ended with recruitment lecture...the thing that I remember is the coach saying "' don't tell me you want to play for me if your have never come to watch my team play....." She also encouraged the girls that if it was a home game for the school they were looking @, make a point of speaking to coach after the game so they know your are interested enough to come and watch... We do have DVD of DD and send it when it is requested...also include a return self addressed envelop, many schools do return them with a note...feedback is alway good, OSU coach also said don't send me a tape unless I ask...or it may wind up in circular file.
Now before each showcase, big tourney, etc, an invitation is sent to each coach that she is interested in or has expressed interest in her to "come watch me play", many want regular emails from the prospective players with updates on how their season is going wheither travel or HS, and interestingly enough the ones that we regular communicate with always ask "how is school going....how are your grades"....Oh well, good luck it has really been fun going to the different schools and games and we will probably miss not having the time together when she actually does go away to school. Hopefully she will choose a place where we can watch her play frequently as there is nothing better to do on a sunny day!
