Hello,

First time using chat room....

Situation ... son is junior catcher... sitting on bench behind senior starter. He has never been given a chance as catcher this year. He had a fabulous junior year in JV all around. Hitting and catching. Six games left in season. College recruiters at every game but they do not see my son sitting on a bench.

What to do? ... Do I speak to the coach? After reading some of these threads I do not think that is a good idea.
I have looked into showcases that are recommended but he must be invited or recommended by the coach. He will not be invited because they do not see him and his coach will not even speak to him. We are baffled. Nice kid. His coach did comment to the whole team that he was a real team player, unlike the sulkers on the bench, because he cheered on the team. Nice compliment but it will not get him into college.

Any Advice??

You can contact Perfect Game and request an invitation. Your son's opportunity is every day in practice. I do not recommend going to the coach.

Does he play on a good summer team? How about using his summer coach for recommendations to get to good showcases. We used our Legion coach for all recommendation letters, videos, contacting college coaches and intros. to showcases. We never even talked to the HS coach as we knew he never helped the kids. Worked fine.

Thank you Redhead,
I will contact Perfect Game but that raises another question. There are so many showcases but how many showcases should he attend?
I was thinking of calling the college coaches directly to find out which showcases they attend. What do you think?

Thanks also to MMAC, He does play for a legion team so I will give him a call.

I'm a bit panicky that maybe we have started this process too late.

If he is interested in certain schools call and ask if they have showcase camps this summer. Otherwise, I would go to a PG Event nearby.

Welcome BB! Good advice...go to a Perfect Game event. He will be seen.

BB -
It should be your son making these contacts/phone calls, not you

If he wants to play, his is the voice the coaches should hear on the other end of the line.

It does make a difference....

Good luck!

If you care to, drop us an email and lets see if may be able to solve your problem


TRhit@msn.com

BB Baseball,

Welcome to the HS Baseball Web! Since you are new here, you might not know who TRHit is, and why he is suggesting that you contact him. He runs a well-respected showcase and travel organization on the east coast, College Select. College Select also sponsors the Recruiting forum on our site:
http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/4686003481

Good luck to your son - there is still time for him to find the right college!

Julie

Don't get too frustrated if things aren't happening this year for your son. I remember both my boys elected to stay with their house teams in grade 11 because they enjoyed playing with those teammates. I was concerned it would hurt their chances to be noticed (no scouts watch those games) but in their grade 12 year they both did very well on a more select team and we managed to find one junior college coach in California that was willing to take a chance with them. Once they got to junior college, they were "in the system" and since they did well there, the scouts noticed.
Of course it all depends on how hard your son is willing to work at developing his game, his passion for the game, as well as his talent level, but I wouldn't be too concerned about not being noticed as a junior in high school.
(It might also be helpful for YOUR SON to talk to his coach about any suggestions he might have about what he can be doing to develop his game to the highest level)

Attend a showcase (take any advice Trhit has) and try to make a list of colleges he might be interested in..from that list, see which colleges have camps and pick one or two to attend. Coaches know what they are looking for.You can spend a bundle doing all this so be very focused. Your son should be pretty active in thinking about college and so he ought to have some kind of idea of where he might like to go. If he doesn't, help him a bit and propose a few places and go from there. Some kids have a hard time getting motivated about college especially athletes.