Recruiting process

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Exposure IS the key. And, by the way, you never know WHO'S watching, especially at any of the camps. One school can recruit for another and if you build the reputation, they will come! There's all types of online exposure, Get Recruited is one but there's many, many more. Get that camcorder fired up. Record at games, camps, etc. Only put the best stuff on it.
Good luck!

My dd is a freshman and at one of her high school games there was a scout there looking at the pitcher on the other team, he made a comment to our principal that my dd was the better pitcher. The "you never know who's watching" is so true!!

 

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Keep all of this info coming! I keep checking on here to see what you wise people are saying! I just haven't had time to comment anything back. Imagine...sports banquets, concerts, arts banquets, baseball practice!! No time for the computer...what's that about?? I've instructed DD to start a list of where she might want to go to school based on her current major interest. We're going to try and make at least one camp this summer, but with travel season and tight money, we'll have to see what happens. Does anyone know anything about the Un. of Kentucky camp?

 

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era5678, where is your travel team during this? The travel coach should have been pumping this info to your DD since last fall.

Your travel coach needs to know what colleges your DD is contacting and he\she should have a Team Profile of all the girls available at each tournment that they play.

To me it is strange that the travel coach hasn't helped with this.

 

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era5678, where is your travel team during this? The travel coach should have been pumping this info to your DD since last fall.

Your travel coach needs to know what colleges your DD is contacting and he\she should have a Team Profile of all the girls available at each tournment that they play.

To me it is strange that the travel coach hasn't helped with this.

Well...due to an injury last year, DD was unable to truly try-out for what I would call an "elite" travel team. The team she is on is a good team, with good coaching, but they aren't coaches that are guiding her to college. Her pitching coach is going to start helping us at her next lesson. He is well known and respected and knows what he's doing, but I am wanting to learn things on my own also so I know and I'm comfortable with what's going on during this whole process.

We are trying to keep her healthy. As a matter of fact she just got upset with me before I got on here because I told her she wasn't going out for vball this fall. This is where all of her issues begin. She feels good at the end of summer ball, goes out for vball, hurts her knees, makes the team and sits the bench. Travel team tryouts are AFTER vball so she goes in injured every year it seems. I guess it's one of those parenting moments that they'll learn to appreciate later in life.

 

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OK, era5678 - don't take this the wrong way! But you have to ask yourself: "Is it ME that wants my daughter to play in college, or is it MY DAUGHTER that wants to play in college?"

If your DD does not have a burning desire, you are headed down a road for disappointment. Playing in college is HARD, and without the love for the game - it probably won't last.

Provided it is what SHE wants, if she's not playing at a very competitive level this summer, college coaches want to know why! The college coaches are looking for "battle tested" players. The only way she is going to get "battle tested" is to be playing against the likes of the best travel teams in Ohio and surrounding states - AT MINIMUM. These coaches want to see top skills demonstrated against other kids with top skills - just like college. Who wins the games in a recruiting showcase is immaterial - the winners are the kids who get seen and contacted by the college coaches.

Playing for a "nice coach" and "nice team" won't necessarily get it done.

 

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This might have been mentioned before so sorry if I'm repeating but, your DD should attend as many camps of the schools she interested in. She should send out an email to the coach before attending the camp, state her interest in the schools softball program and let the coach know she'll be attending the camp. Camps trump videos. Ironically we did videos, letters and attended camps. She got a lot of feedback but my DD's final 2 schools were schools she never contacted. One seen her play at the Orland Sparks showcase (BTW far and away was the showcase with the most college coaches and the showcase where she got the most feedback from) took her profile sheet called her an invited her to their tryout. The other school and the one she signed with, her travel team scrimmaged them in the fall, my DDs travel coach worked for my kid before the scrimmage and the staff then came to watch her at the QDSN.

I got to say this, the team your playing on can make a very big difference, when she was playing for the Lasers there were a lot of doors open, this year she's playing for Dave Day and the SGS Magic White, there 6 or 7 signed d1 players, 4 D2 players , the head coach worked hard to get his players signed, he's connected and very good with college coaches.

 

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OK, era5678 - don't take this the wrong way! But you have to ask yourself: "Is it ME that wants my daughter to play in college, or is it MY DAUGHTER that wants to play in college?"

If your DD does not have a burning desire, you are headed down a road for disappointment. Playing in college is HARD, and without the love for the game - it probably won't last.

Provided it is what SHE wants, if she's not playing at a very competitive level this summer, college coaches want to know why! The college coaches are looking for "battle tested" players. The only way she is going to get "battle tested" is to be playing against the likes of the best travel teams in Ohio and surrounding states - AT MINIMUM. These coaches want to see top skills demonstrated against other kids with top skills - just like college. Who wins the games in a recruiting showcase is immaterial - the winners are the kids who get seen and contacted by the college coaches.

Playing for a "nice coach" and "nice team" won't necessarily get it done.

OK...maybe you skipped the part in my post about her injuries. I don't think she would fake an injury to the point of sitting the bench an entire season of vball 2 years in a row. Several MRI's and countless physical therapy appts. just so she doesn't have to play against high quality teams.

She went to try-outs in the fall. She showed up and tried out, injured, at several try-outs...one 2 different times. She tried out for a team that she faced 3 times in the summer in one tourny. This team is what you would all consider high quality. She one hit them one game, and in the 3rd game between them in the same tourny almost beat them to win the tournament. The coach told her she didn't have to try out for them, that as far as he was concerned that tourny was enough of a tryout and he knew firsthand what she could do. He still didn't take her for the team.

She's healed now. She's the one telling me that she wants to play college ball...I'm not pushing her. Would I love it...yes. Would I want her to be miserable to please me? Heck no.

She's good! Her summer team does play against higher level teams, and quite honestly beat a few of them last year. I know what coaches look for, I just needed some guidance.

So, if I took this the wrong way, I apologize. I see no where in any of my posts on this thread that would even suggest that I'm the one to want her to play. I'm merely asking for advice.

To everyone else thanks for the advice, but maybe I should think twice before I post on here again. I don't post on here to get bashed. I post on here to get advice and have fun.

 

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OK...maybe you skipped the part in my post about her injuries. I don't think she would fake an injury to the point of sitting the bench an entire season of vball 2 years in a row. Several MRI's and countless physical therapy appts. just so she doesn't have to play against high quality teams.

She went to try-outs in the fall. She showed up and tried out, injured, at several try-outs...one 2 different times. She tried out for a team that she faced 3 times in the summer in one tourny. This team is what you would all consider high quality. She one hit them one game, and in the 3rd game between them in the same tourny almost beat them to win the tournament. The coach told her she didn't have to try out for them, that as far as he was concerned that tourny was enough of a tryout and he knew firsthand what she could do. He still didn't take her for the team.

She's healed now. She's the one telling me that she wants to play college ball...I'm not pushing her. Would I love it...yes. Would I want her to be miserable to please me? Heck no.

She's good! Her summer team does play against higher level teams, and quite honestly beat a few of them last year. I know what coaches look for, I just needed some guidance.

So, if I took this the wrong way, I apologize. I see no where in any of my posts on this thread that would even suggest that I'm the one to want her to play. I'm merely asking for advice.

To everyone else thanks for the advice, but maybe I should think twice before I post on here again. I don't post on here to get bashed. I post on here to get advice and have fun.

First - I am TRULY sorry if I offended you. I admit that my approach is seldom the best, but there is absolutely no reason in the world why I would not want your daughter to succeed! Please - do not let someone's words (mine) drive you away from a great source of information (OFC).

I in no way even insinuated your daughter was "faking an injury" - quite the opposite. I would assume that if she's on ANY team, and especially on the bench injured, she WANTS to be there to support her team.

If anything, please re-read my post and take it at face value without reading anything into it. I do not know you, your daughter or the coaches - so I definitely have no agenda!

Lastly, I DO hope your daughter stays healthy and achieves her goals.

 

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First - I am TRULY sorry if I offended you. I admit that my approach is seldom the best, but there is absolutely no reason in the world why I would not want your daughter to succeed! Please - do not let someone's words (mine) drive you away from a great source of information (OFC).

I in no way even insinuated your daughter was "faking an injury" - quite the opposite. I would assume that if she's on ANY team, and especially on the bench injured, she WANTS to be there to support her team.

If anything, please re-read my post and take it at face value without reading anything into it. I do not know you, your daughter or the coaches - so I definitely have no agenda!

Lastly, I DO hope your daughter stays healthy and achieves her goals.

OK Sammy...apology accepted so please accept mine. I did come off pretty ticked off and I'm sorry. I really am just backing her up for things she tells me she wants to do. I appreciate all of the good advice from everyone. I also appreciate your wishes for her health. It's been a long ride and I think she's finally there. She's working her tail off to get there. She's excited to have school ball done and on to competitive softball. City League softball is not exciting. She's a great kid and hopefully one day she will be on a college team if it's in the cards!

 

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No problem, and apology accepted!

 

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Have any of us mentioned to also remember to go to NCAA clearinghouse? If someone did, I missed it. You must complete it before the recruiting process should commence. There are standards that each collegiate bound player has to agree to in the 'contract' with the clearinghouse. This is also a great way to get registered and the coaches have access to the information as well.

 

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Have any of us mentioned to also remember to go to NCAA clearinghouse? If someone did, I missed it. You must complete it before the recruiting process should commence. There are standards that each collegiate bound player has to agree to in the 'contract' with the clearinghouse. This is also a great way to get registered and the coaches have access to the information as well.

Smiles...Someone did mention the clearing house on here. I had never heard of the clearing house(except for the publisher's kind!)so that's some great info for me and anyone else who's reading this and not knowing the process.

I really appreciate all of the support!

 

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JR year and most high schools will walk you thru it.

 

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Smiles...Someone did mention the clearing house on here. I had never heard of the clearing house(except for the publisher's kind!)so that's some great info for me and anyone else who's reading this and not knowing the process.

I really appreciate all of the support!

Clearing house registration and numbers have been brought up many times, I will dig and see if I cant run across one

 

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Clearing house registration and numbers have been brought up many times, I will dig and see if I cant run across one

The clearing house is very simple and can be completed online just go to ncaa.org and follow the links to the eligibility center. Input the info, answer all the questions and pay your $60. As your dd gets stats and school info you can always go back an update the profile took me and dd bout an hour total

 

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I second the earlier recommendation about the Cathi Aradi book. It has EVERYTHING about the entire recruiting process all in one place. The copy I have is at least 6 years old, but she thoroughly updates it every year.

Regarding the skills video; 5 - 6 minutes is PLENTY long enough, or you'll lose your audience. There is a temptation to put a lot of fluff in it, but that is NOT what the coach wants to see. Skip music!! They turn it off anyway, because it's distracting - and sometimes annoying. I love music, but it doesn't belong on a skills video.

MOST IMPORTANT!! HUSTLE, HUSTLE, HUSTLE!! Every throw, every run to bases, etc. has to show speed and desire. Every skill shown in the video has to reflect a COLLEGE LEVEL ability. When fielding grounders, they should be HARD grounders, not dribblers. Did I mention hustle?

 

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I agree with what Sammy said just above. The majority of videos I see lack hustle. Heck, many are on YouTube now, so everyone can take a look for themselves. The typical video will have a girl playing second base, fielding easy ground balls and making a 20 foot throw to first base. What in the heck can anyone tell from that? Or in the outfield, catching easy fly balls and lobbing the ball in to second or third base and rarely hustling.

Let's see your arm, your hustle, your speed, your range, you hitting pitches that are inside, down the middle and outside. Oh, and personally, I don't need to see 10 sac bunts. One is more than enough.

 

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JoeA1010 was a great help for us in creating a video for our daughters. We also created several videos for other players when asked. What JoeA1010 says is true.

I haven't seen anyone mention www.berecruited.com. We spent $20 for the deluxe version, and it was THE MOST IMPORTANT money we spent on our daughter in gaining college exposure. She had tons of visits and coaches bookmarking her site, and we were able to monitor it all. Plus there were links to the school sites.

We put her skills videos on the site (and also her own personal profile website). The videos were broken up so that the coach could look at what the coach was interested and skip the rest. There was a separate video for intro, one for each position we taped, and one for batting.

My daughter was highly recruited her senior year. Good thing too because she was having a hard time finding "the right one." Her number one and number two school choices both originated from a coaches email that saw her on www.berecruited.com.

On my daughter's personal profile website (was free), we created a link to a video player on UTUBE that allowed a person to click on the section of the skills video the coach was interested in. They could skip around or watch the whole thing. There were I think three different skills videos done across two years.

There was another section with some game footage (which most coaches are not interested in) that just had 20-30 second clips of her batting or fielding a ball during a game.

Also on the profile website we kept the first page up to date with recent news that included other things besides softball. Things such as donating her hair to Locks of Love and being selected as the editor of the school newspaper. The first page also had recent stats and results of the most recent games/tournaments and a couple pictures of her.

On another tab we put letters of recommendation from current and previous coaches. Another tab had her schedule for high school and travel ball.

Good luck. It was quite a challenge finding the right school, but we also spent a lot of time together on weekends traveling to sometimes three schools in two days.

 

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I agree with what Sammy said just above. The majority of videos I see lack hustle. Heck, many are on YouTube now, so everyone can take a look for themselves. The typical video will have a girl playing second base, fielding easy ground balls and making a 20 foot throw to first base. What in the heck can anyone tell from that? Or in the outfield, catching easy fly balls and lobbing the ball in to second or third base and rarely hustling.

Let's see your arm, your hustle, your speed, your range, you hitting pitches that are inside, down the middle and outside. Oh, and personally, I don't need to see 10 sac bunts. One is more than enough.

Ok, I have resisted in jumping in on this, but when Joe started talking about seeing videos of the slow rollers to a infielder, or the easy pop flys to the outfielders, I have to chime in.

We have visitied or had contact with numerous universities, and the one thing they say is lacking is REAL time, REAL game situations. All the videos i have created for my dd is from game clips. And I am no techno nerd.

I have $350 tied up in a High Def/hard drive camera. I spent $99 on video editing software (which is relatively easy to use, I might add). The rest is simple, I have recorded every at bat for each season. While you are at the park, you can delete the walks, hit by pitches, and most importantly, the strike outs and errors so you dont end up with a crazy amount of videos that become unmanagable. The when you get home, put it on the computer and only take the best parts of each clip. You will find after a few tourneys, you have a great 3 or 4 minute (the amount of time a college coach is REALLY WILLING to watch) recruiting video that you can upload onto youtube.

Then it is just a matter of target marketing. You send the college coach an email, and of course send the link in your email. The best part about youtube is they have a service called "INSIGHT". With youtube insight you can track which state has been viewing your video, and then target market the college in that state you sent the link to.

Since my dd is a sophmore, we have limited contact with coaches, unless we institute (call) the coach. This method has been a great success for my dd, who happens to be getting quite a few offers even at her young age.

But even if you start late in the process, you have to still strive to make a video that says to the coaches "this girl is the real deal, and we need to get her locked up". I search videos all the time that have the girl run up to the camera, introduce herself, then have 20 minutes of creampuff pitching machine balls, then on to easy ground balls. After speaking with many D1 recruiting coaches, they want to see a live hit, and live running around the bases. This way they can get a feel for true speed, and true ability. Most the the recruiters have told me that they already expect a girl to be able to field a grounder, chase down a fly ball, and make the appropriate throw.

Sorry to be so wordy, but if you want to check out some of her videos I have created, check out the links below.

Let me know if I can help any of you in you video endevours. The most important thing is to get her in front of the school she wants to be at, and is comfortable with...

Umpie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRh_hBV7RzQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7we2yqhyldg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p57a0WYGoc

 

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$20 is an absolute STEAL, and well worth it. I did DD's just 6 short years ago, but things have changed a lot since then. Mailing DVDs was the way then, but using a web site like luvthegame mentioned gives coaches access to the video anywhere they have internet access - which is just about everywhere. Not having to mail the DVDs is a great $$ savings.

Bottom line is convenience for the coaches. Make it EASY for them. Like Joe said, there are a lot of vids out there on YouTube, and most are simply terrible! They look like the kids are just going through the motions. Whatever happened to showing diving for a hot infield grounder, or a spectacular outfield catch? Grandma can catch an easy pop up right to her! Show that outfield foot speed, and great approach angle. And don't forget the quick hand to glove transfer and throw AFTER the spectacular catch!!