My son was told a by a D3 coach that he was a "medium priority recruit". The coach felt he could be a starter by the end of his freshman year or by his soph year. Our question is how to interpret this. Would the coach support his college application? Since it's a D3 school, athletic scholarship money is not an issue here. Any help in reading the tea leaves would be greatly appreciated.

Knowing the coach and his background helps a lot in "reading the tea leaves"

I have found that the majority of D-3 coaches are very up front

Welcome Chimera to HSBBW!

I would check out what type of history the school has for bringing in new players, since D3 does not have athletic money, the coach really does not know for sure who will be coming onto campus. Some will has open tryouts where a very large number of players may show up and those who they thought were highly recruited turns out that they may not make the team and then needs to make a decision about staying at the school if baseball was a major driving focus.

I don’t know what the right answer would be, what would make the starter at the beginning of the season lose their starting role? Will the player who was the starter be gone next year due to being moved to another position, graduation or being drafted?

Good Luck!

Thanks for your responses.

I believe the coach is a straight shooter.

If the player is marginally competitive for admission academically, is being a "medium priority recruit" sufficient to have the coach help the player with admission?

Or is the coach really saying "if you get admitted and come to tryouts you have a good chance of making the team"?

I think I would ask.

"Coach, my son says you told him that he is a medium priority recruit. Would you mind defining that? Would he be guaranteed a spot on the team or would he simply have an opportunity to try out? Also, what do you think his chances are for admissions to the school?"

TRhit talks to a lot of D3's. Perhaps he can weigh in with some perspective.

quote:

Originally posted by Infield08:
I think I would ask.

"Coach, my son says you told him that he is a medium priority recruit. Would you mind defining that? Would he be guaranteed a spot on the team or would he simply have an opportunity to try out? Also, what do you think his chances are for admissions to the school?"

Infield08 - your advice is 100% correct.

First, chimera welcome to the hsbbweb!

Second - coaches are just like you and me. They have a phone number and will be glad to answer all your questions. This message board can only offer second-hand speculation as to what that coach meant. Call them and find out. Beyond just this situation, it is always best to go straight to the source and find out what they think rather than devine it from mere speculation of the message board.

While it is true that D3's do not offer athletic scholarships, coaches still recruit players in a similar manner from my experience. Those players that are highly sought after by the coach will most assuredly not be showing up in the fall as walk-on type of players imo. All players have to remember that no matter who recruits them that there will be other players there to compete against them when they arrive on campus. Each of those players will have similar goals and aspirations and they were all great high school players in their own right. That is just the nature of the beast at the collegiate level.

When a coach gives you an opinion it is just that. 1 coaches opinion. Another coach could see him as a high priority recruit. If that is where he wants to go to college you take your chances. Once the season starts all bets are off. If he finds new recruits that he sees and feels are better for his team they get the start. BB is a game of "what have you done for me lately ?"
Ther are no guarentees in BB.

Every school is different, but generally, DIII allow the coach to "tab" a few applications. How many? Depends. If the tabbed ones do not apply, or are not accepted, coach may be able to move down the list to tab others. Maybe by that time, it's too late. Prospects have moved on. It also works the other direction sometimes. Admissions will tell the coach that it has recd an application with a prospective player-as shown by his application. If recruited candidates do not actually apply, coach may have to work with who did apply.

I think it is like dating... If a girl said you were "medium priority" to return a phone call for a date, you could (a) try harder to impress her, or (b) take the hint and make a few more phone calls