I wish i had the data on this and maybe someone out there can help us with a previous discussion on how many players are actually leaving the state of Illinois for baseball scholarships?

A recent conversation with a prominent travel program had the coach stating that their programs travel outside the state of Illinois to seek the best competition... for the kids in their program... This program constantly goes outside the state to play their tournaments...

My question is simply this..Although i realize a certain number of the TOP PLAYERS are being recruited in these out of state venues by prominent colleges--- what percentage of these kids are actually benefitting from playing outside the state exclusively?

If a team consists of 15 players; what percentage of those kids do you think sign with those colleges outside the state?

I cannot argue the fact nor will i ever disagree that out of state exposure is good for all kids...but the question was raised on how MANY of these kids on a team basis actually reap the benefits of playing exclusively OUT OF STATE...

Any thoughts? I doubt if anyone has figures but speculation and discussion is what is needed... Might be interested in doing a survey of travel teams in Illinois and Indiana

Woodly, Prep Baseball Report shows all the reported college commitments for a given year. That should give you a strong indication where the kids are going.

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My question is simply this..Although i realize a certain number of the TOP PLAYERS are being recruited in these out of state venues by prominent colleges--- what percentage of these kids are actually benefitting from playing outside the state exclusively?

If a team consists of 15 players; what percentage of those kids do you think sign with those colleges outside the state?

woodly - these are interesting questions that are difficult to answer.

From a different angle, would a kid be harmed if he only played within the state of Illinois?

Not from a development point of view imho. From an exposure point of view - possibly, although you will find southern recruiters in the state of Illinois.

Recruiting is two components - talent plus exposure. A kid without the talent can play outside the state his whole career and never receive an offer - inside or outside the state. A kid with the talent, can play in the state his whole career and he might not receive an offer if the right coach does not see him play.

I don't believe there are any percentages for the questions you ask. IMHO however,

It is not necessary to play outside the state to properly develop a college or pro player for that matter.

It is very likely necessary for an IL player to either showcase or play at a tournament outside the state where a college coach can see them play before they will ever see an offer from outside the state. If a team of 15 players, all of them having sufficient college talent, showcases or plays at tournaments outside the state before college recruiters, I could see the majority of those kids getting offers outside the state.

A good example for what I am saying is Coach Merc's travel team that showcases/plays outside their northern state of NY. To the best of my knowledge, the majority of their players, including Coach Merc's son will be attending southern colleges on scholarship. I'll see if I can get Coach Merc to post in this thread to offer his insights.

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It is very likely necessary for an IL player to either showcase or play at a tournament outside the state where a college coach can see them play before they will ever see an offer from outside the state. If a team of 15 players, all of them having sufficient college talent, showcases or plays at tournaments outside the state before college recruiters, I could see the majority of those kids getting offers outside the state.

Not meaning to further complicate the analysis, but I think there are plenty of high-school players who are not rostered on travel teams that play primarily out of state, that leave the state on scholarship anyway. I don't think that these travel teams are always a necessary stepping stone for those players desiring to take their baseball skills and head south (or east, west etc.). I think the same can be said of showcases. There are a number held inside the state that draw out-of-state recruiters.

Looking at Prep Baseball Report, the data is:

Year # Reported Commits Outside Illinois % Outside
2009 265 100 38
2010 132 32 39

The data includes schools from all the different levels of play.

The point I guess is Illinois kids at a pretty high percentage, go to pretty good schools out of state. If your goal for your son is to go to an out of state school, that most likely would include going to out of state tournaments and showcases.

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If your goal for your son is to go to an out of state school, that most likely would include going to out of state tournaments and showcases.

Or simply attending the camps that those out-of-state schools provide.

There are different teams for different players. The player needs to evaluate himself and pick the team he needs to be on accordingly. American Legion teams usually stay in state. Being on Top Tier, we had exposure everywhere/anywhere we played. From my point of view, it is always better to get as much exposure from as many people as possible.

I think much of it has to do with the level of talent that your dealing with. I have/had been amazed at the talent level of the HS players in the state of Illinois. With that being said, the summer programs who then travel with these kids to events outside the state are doing a great service for the schools outside the state. Taking teams to East Cobb etc have brought 70-100 top Illinois players to the south where 200-300 college recruiters are licking their chops. For what it's worth, the state of Illinois has 10-12 D1 programs and if they don't jump on the kids early, once they get to the warmer climates it's all over.
Our group of 2009 players represented approx 20 boys who made the treck out of NY. From that group, a few stayed in the NE and are at Manhattan, St John's, Villanova, Northeastern. 5 went to High Point, NC, 1 to Winthrop, 1 to Jacksonville, 1 to Elon, 1 to Austin Paey, 3 to Ave Maria in Fl and 1 to Scad.
Based on % it looks like it was about 60% or so left the state of NY. Here in NY there are probably the same 10-12 D1 schools with St John's in the best conference.
It's really just the exposure.

All great responses needed for the discussion we are having... but the major focal point we had was this.... If you are playing outside the state of Illinois or Indiana....you have 15 players...HOW MANY OF THOSE 15 PLAYERS ARE ACTUALLY receiving offers from out of state schools... 3? 4? 5? If you look at the statistics that were put on this website earlier in this forum...it would be reaching to say 1/3rd of the roster?
Parents are constantly striving to get in the better travel programs.... I don't know of any travel program that i have seen that have 15 D-1 players on their squad which would merit 15 scholarships to out of state schools ....so where do the parents draw their line?
Very difficult situation but very interesting discussion... We realize that out of state exposure is NECESSARY...in any form...camps, tourneys, exposure events... but if majority of kids on a team are NOT GETTING OFFERS from out of state schools.... then shouldn't' the travel teams activities be MIXED to enable all the kids the opportunity to get offers?
Alot of the parents become "upset" with the organization due to their sons being left without great offers at the end of the summer and they end up with a "inferior" offer(according to them)from an Illinois institute at the end of the signing period...
I don't have an answer for them....In the past kids have stayed in Illinois for baseball prior to the exposure days....THE BEST TALENT available is now leaving the state due to the exposure....but the question is: WOULDN'T A MIX BE BETTER THEN STATING WE GO OUT OF STATE DUE TO THE COMPETITION?

Does the original question assume all of the IL players had been recruited or even been given a cursory response by instate schools? What if said kid tried to get interest from a state school and is now out of state, in our case TX with $$, however they did it?

For that matter what does the $$ part have to do wiht it? What that same IL kid would have said bring me in as preferred walk on and I'll earn my keeps.

Going forward, the state schools are going to be more hard pressed to keep state talent. As the kids here getter better, and they are, there will be more and more outside schools looking in.

On Top Tier's team this year, this is where the starting team ended up:

Pitcher: Clemson
C: Virginia Tech
1B: Kansas St.
2B: Northwestern
SS: Wake Forest
3B: LSU
OF: Michigan, Southern Illinois,

[

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Woodly, Prep Baseball Report shows all the reported college commitments for a given year. That should give you a strong indication where the kids are going.

BTW, our HS has 4 kids continuing their collegiate carrers, 2 in state and 2 out of state. None are on the 2009 list. i'm sure there are many others.

I hope this helps a little. When we set our schedule we try to take care of all of kids. As an example, last year we opened up with tournament locally that was attended by over 30 college coaches many from the NY and New England area. From there we went to SC for 4 days and then to GA for 12 days (our southern exposure). Home for a week and then down to VA for 4 days (mid Atlantic exposure). Home for a few days then up to Mass (NE Exposure). Our August schedule and fall consisted of 4 events of which 2 were Perfect Game Qualifiers and all are local and pretty heavily scouted.

What our schedule does is give players maximum opportunities to be seen by a large number of schools in state and out. Of the kids who stayed at home in my post above, were kids who chose to stay in NY but did receive offers to schools in the south.

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Originally posted by Coach Merc:
I hope this helps a little. When we set our schedule we try to take care of all of kids. As an example, last year we opened up with tournament locally that was attended by over 30 college coaches many from the NY and New England area. From there we went to SC for 4 days and then to GA for 12 days (our southern exposure). Home for a week and then down to VA for 4 days (mid Atlantic exposure). Home for a few days then up to Mass (NE Exposure). Our August schedule and fall consisted of 4 events of which 2 were Perfect Game Qualifiers and all are local and pretty heavily scouted.

What our schedule does is give players maximum opportunities to be seen by a large number of schools in state and out. Of the kids who stayed at home in my post above, were kids who chose to stay in NY but did receive offers to schools in the south.

your program is excellent and you recruit heavily from around the areas...true? how many programs out there like yours? I am sure there are alot that would like to be like yours... YOUR INPUT HELPS Alot--THE KEY TO YOUR COMMENTS IS THAT YOU GIVE A GOOD MIXTURE...LOCALLY AND OUT OF STATE...

This question can be most accurately answered by taking a look at the quality of the HS or travel team.

Old news but I think the percentages would be similar:

OPRF 05 class... 5 D1 scholly's
Texas
Florida State
Coastal Carolina
Villanova
ISU

05 Indiana Yankees
25 players
20 scholly's
mostly midwest with Miami and FSU in the mix.
ISU,Louisville(3),Indiana, Austin Peay,Western Kentucky etc.

Bottom line....The better the travel team the more scholly's...the southern schools will get the lions share from the better teams.

As JKennedy said...above and beyond ANY travel experience...go to the camp of the school of your choice. The top programs want to see you for more than 1 or 2 games. They want to see how versatile you are. They want to get a handle on your persona and charachter. Many programs recruit almost exclusively from their camp. It's a clue that you are interested in them if they decide they are interested in you.

Playing out of state opens up options for players that have the ability to play the game. Sometimes the best option is out of state. Sometimes its not. But playing on these teams is all about creating more options for the players. Here in NC there are numerous D1 programs. UNC , NC State , Wake Forest , Duke , ECU , UNC Charlotte , Elon , Western Carolina , UNC Asheville , Gardner Webb , Appalacian State , etc etc. Why would a kid from NC benefit from playing outside the state? Because his best option might be a program from Va , SC , Maryland , etc. Its all about creating as many options for the players as possible.

The top tier players from Illinois are going to be highly coveted by the top programs around the nation. #1 its a state with some outstanding talent. Its a state that does not have alot of high profile baseball programs. Its cold in Illinois during the college season. Programs are going to continue to cherry pick the talent from Illinois as long as they can.

Coach May has it right, traveling out of state helps create options for players. Since most college baseball players will turn pro in something other than baseball, the academic fit should be a key consideration when choosing a school. While Illinois has many fine colleges and universities, only a couple may be a good academic fit for a specific player. Unfortunately, those schools may not have an interest in that particular player for any of 100 reasons (although he may be good enough to play at or above that school's level).

Also, great players need to test themselves against the best competition and sometimes it helps to compete on a regional or national stage to measure your progress against the best players in the country. While there are many great players in Illinois, you'll need to travel to play a team with multiple players who will be drafted in the top 10 rounds.

That being said, traveling constantly seems completely unnecessary. Many out of state recruiters come to Illinois regularly and the level of play is very high when Illinois' best face off.

In more than 4 years of being involved in the OPRF baseball program, arguably the best in Illinois, I saw repeat visits by Minnesota, Kentucky and very few others.

Although many recruiters do come to Illinois, the top programs rarely do. SEC/ACC and Big 12 recruiters are as scarce as Milton Bradley smiles.

If you want to go to a particular school...go to their camp! Call them...let them know who you are and make sure it's the top level camp.

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"...as scarce as Milton Bradley smiles."

In fairness to Milton soxnole...I would have a hard time mustering a smile too.




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Jumping off an airplane and trying to catch a ball at the same time usually ends up like this.