Perfect Game All American Classic 2016
Nick Allen (Francis W. Parker HS, CA), Photo By David Cohen, BHEphotos
If you’ve decided to make baseball into a career, the first step is to get yourself noticed by scouts and coaches. College coaches do not have a huge budget for travelling to see games so while it’s unlikely that you will get spotted at high school, the results from your freshman season will help you to figure out which college level to target. Carry out research into the various programs that are available and decide which ones best suit your skill set. If you played varsity or are on a nationally ranked team, you should have a good idea of whether you are D1 material by the end of your freshman season, but hopefully you will have started thinking about the recruitment process a long time before this. Starting early will avoid any possibility of falling through the cracks because you didn’t get yourself noticed in time.
Pitchers are usually given scholarships before any other players, but depending on which position you prefer to play the most important factor is to work on your strongest skills and know the areas on which you can improve. This means studying re-runs of your previous games and working on any aspect of your performance that you feel could have been better. Creating a video of best highlights and achievements from the year is a great way to show coaches how you play, including a mix of your best defensive plays, base-running highlights and hits. Upload the video to YouTube and include the link on any applications. Gather detailed statistics of your performances to help illustrate your progress and put them on a well-designed baseball resume.
Research the coaches you are applying to so that you understand the way they think about the game and then tailor your application for them, also make sure to find out their contact information as this is the most important bit! Let them know where and when your games are scheduled so that they can come and watch you, though don’t be disheartened if they do not show up, coaches have a small budget for scouting and they cannot go to see every potential player. Make sure that you actively follow up and check in with them with any of your recent athletic or academic accomplishments so that they always have the most current information to decide whether to recruit you.
Find out which camps or showcases your preferred coaches intend on attending, sign up and let them know to watch out for you. Camps are a great way for coaches to gauge what level you can play at and what your strongest abilities are. Look at signing up to summer teams to continue your practice when school ends and make sure you understand the NCAA rules about contact with coaches and ACT/SAT test score requirements.
Anyone looking for a baseball scholarship needs to know the game inside out. Study the greatest and worst games you can find to learn how and why certain plays ended up affecting the result. Turn yourself into a walking encyclopedia of baseball, with a deep understanding of the rules and terminology, even go so far as to understand the rules of betting on baseball as this will help you to see the importance of starting pitchers and changes in the lines.
Some players choose to use a professional recruiting service, this is helpful where you aren’t familiar with the recruiting process, or if you simply do not have time to fit it all in. There are many pros and cons for this, but whatever you decide to do it’s important to know that there is more than one way to go through the process.
