My son recently attended a baseball camp for high schoolers at a perenial top 10 D1 baseball program. He's a rising Soph in high school and has potential. A variety of coaches asked for his cell # and the head coach spent 1 on 1 time with him each day at the camp.

The week after the camp he received a fairly detailed questionaire from the university. Other than getting the kid in their database, what do the universities do with these completed questionaires? Is this just to keep track of the kid so they can market their camps in the future, or is this one of the first steps to keeping track of kids they're interested in recruiting? Honesty please...we're just trying to determine how much time and effort to put into the questionaire as it asks for various letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc...

You return all questionnaires

Since he is just a soph they cannot talk with him---the questionnaire will keep him on the radar screen

quote:

Is this just to keep track of the kid so they can market their camps in the future, or is this one of the first steps to keeping track of kids they're interested in recruiting? Honesty please...we're just trying to determine how much time and effort to put into the questionaire as it asks for various letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc...

The answers are yes...and yes.....

Yes, this one of the first steps to keeping track of kids they're interested in recruiting....

and also yes, this is also a way to keep track of the kids so they can market their camps in the future...

Camps are business and revenue providers to augment a coaches salary and or the program......

If you are attempting to determine how much time and effort to put into the questionaire from a perenial top 10 D1 baseball program, then I would only ask if your son has any interest in attending this university..........

If not, then dont put any effort into it at all..........

on the other hand if so then do it 100%.....

Just my .02

Congratulations! It seems to me they already have some of your money by you attending their camp (they may want more), have your information and has seen him play.

I think there is at least some interest in keeping track of your son and seeing if they can get him into the school, I think you should take the time and complete the questionnaire and provide the transcripts, etc. as you will never know what could come out of it.

That being said, you should continue to look at other options based on your son's actual skill level and desires of attending a school with and without baseball, as you will never know what will happen.

We had boxes of questionnaires that we completed, none of which was for the school my son is actually at!

Good Luck, enjoy the ride!

I trust you have scanned:
UGA - Over recruited

quote:

A variety of coaches asked for his cell # and the head coach spent 1 on 1 time with him each day at the camp

The fact that he has been asked for his cell phone number and spent one-on-one time with the head coach bodes well. Do all you can to demonstrate your interest.

quote:

I would only ask if your son has any interest in attending this university..........
If not, then don't put any effort into it at all..........on the other hand if so then do it 100%.....

I would say put 100% into it whether you are interested in that program or not. Your thorough response will show the program that you are committed to playing at the next level and even if they are not ultimately interested in your son -- or he is not interested in them -- they may pass on his info to other quality programs who are looking for good players.

I'm not sure if they actually read those surveys, or if they just want to do what little the rules permit at this stage to contact your son as a way of showing interest.

I would suggest that, for the first few of these at least, you go through them with your son when he answers. He needs to put down his own answers, not yours, but you'll be amazed at what kids will write down if you aren't there at least to offer fatherly advice.

Many kids are completely tone deaf when it comes to writing things that will be considered offputting by an adult. Many kids want to write in text-message abbreviations, which is not appropriate when you're trying to appear like a mature young man to an adult reader. Others scrawl so badly, you'd think a 3d grader wrote it in crayon. Still others spell, punctuate etc. so badly that who knows what they meant to say; the coaches are left wondering if this kid could cut it at their college.

My suggestion: Make a copy of the survey. Have your son write his drafts of answers on the copy of the survey. Then go over them with him and suggest changes as needed. Then you still have the clean copy to use in doing the final version you'll send in.

After a few times, your son should be ready to fly solo. But especially as a 15/16 year old, to me it's just plain stupid to turn it over to him with no guidance whatsoever. Especially if he is really interested in the program long term, there should be some check on what he sends in to assure he doesn't accidentally get himself scratched off the "follow" list.

One thing I've learned about "baseball people" is that, for some reason, a lot of them have short fuses or pet peeves, take offense easily, hold grudges a for very long time, or are prone to snap judgments. (Plenty of evidence of this on HSBBW!) You may not get a second chance to make a first impression, so don't risk flubbing it on the survey.

Thanks for all of your input.