What is the reason why a coach would ask what other colleges a recruit is considering? How should this be answered? The recruit in our family has heard from lots of schools but has narrowed his choice down to 7 to 10 schools. Any advice on how this should be answered?

Just answer it truthfully

Coaches like to know who else they are competing with. And since coaches talk to each other they might already have an idea who else is recruiting the player.

Whatever you answer, always include the school requesting the info as one of your top choices.

I would tell him the best schools you are dealing with. You want them to think you are being recruited by the best schools and they need to make a good offer to get you.

Wow, InShocker, I'ma thinking you just might need a Disclaimer after each post.

You give pretty sound advise then BAM....let me show you what you're missing!

haha...I didn't say lie to them! You have to sell yourself. If you are being recruited by good schools, there is nothing wrong with letting the schools know that.

Inshocker- how is it that you just registered yesterday and you suddenly have 31 posts????????

Have nothing better to do or where have you been all these years and how did you find the hsbbweb?

Lucky us!

CABB: I just happened to stumble upon it yesterday. I own a baseball facility and I love to teach the game. I've found this is a great place to talk about the game. What else better could there be than to talk about baseball?

Caught Stealing,

We did not give specific names of schools. We kept our answers general.
Son wrote in DI, DII, DIII, JUCO, NAIA. ( Which ever one(s) applied at the time. )

Hope this helps.

We just told the plain truth.

quote:

I would tell him the best schools you are dealing with. You want them to think you are being recruited by the best schools and they need to make a good offer to get you.

I would be careful with this piece of advice...we later learned that this in fact scared some schools off that our son would have otherwise strongly considered.

I think an answer like, "I have narrowed it down to N schools and you are definitely one of them" is a fine answer as long as its true.

caught_stealing,

Earlier in the recruiting process my son found it was easier to let the coaches know which conferences he was talking to instead of giving specific teams names. It gave the coaches a general idea of the level he was getting interest from.

As offers were starting to be made, he then started telling them specifically which teams were in the mix. Interestingly, most of the schools already seem to be aware of who he was talking too.

One thing I would strongly suggest is that your son doesn't take any school for granted. You never know who the coach might be friends with. In our situation, my son had been seen by a local head coach from an Ivy League school. While Jerseyson is a smart kid, let’s just say he probably isn’t Ivy League material. Anyway the Ivy coach happens to be friends with the head coach of the team he signed with. We found out later in the recruiting process that the Ivy coach had called and said he should be looking at my son as a recruit. Who knew, I’m sure glad my son didn’t blow off the local coach!

jerseydad: Coaches and scouts talk, so they know who is getting recruited where and where each player wants to go. When I went through it I had no problem telling schools who was recruiting me.

And a good point about not burning bridges...it's all about connections. You never know who is going to be able to help you out.

quote:

Need hitting instruction? Have a video? E-mail me for help.

INshocker, is the help you provide free or do you charge for your service?

I normally charge $20 per video, but if you are interested send me a PM and we can work something out.

The truth is always the best policy. If the coach were to find out that you were having substanitive talks with a school(s) you didn't mention, that may portray you as less than forthcoming. No coach feels good about recruiting a player he can't trust.

If you don't want to tell him, "I'm not really comfortable talking about other schools interest", would be a good way to handle it.

This is an interesting thread when read in conjunction with the one directly below it "Over recruiting"... players are wondering if they should be honest with coaches about what other schools they are looking at during the recruitment process, and all the while coaches are stringing players along and bringing in way more players than they need. What a strange process this is...

Answering the question honestly and completly is the best course of action. And you never know, one of the schools may up their offer when they find out who you are talking to.

I didn't feel like any school backed off when they found out who they were competing with, in fact one of the schools upped their offer when they found out who they were competing with.

It was almost impossible to guess why some schools stopped calling.