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College Baseball Recruiting Notes

College Baseball Recruiting 


What a college coach looks for in a recruit...

“We look for athleticism and character, and obviously we are looking for the best baseball players we can find. I really like the versatility of this class.” - Oregon State baseball coach Pat Casey


College Baseball Recruiting Tips >>
#1: Be proactive in communicating with coaches
#2: Academics are very important - Get good grades!  
#3 Exhibit good character and a strong work ethic
#4: Play for the best summer team in the area
#5: Velocity will get you noticed - throw hard!

DIII Recruiting
The following blog posts are about getting recruited to play for a small liberal arts college (DIII) or a smart-school division 1 team


College Baseball Recruiting, Part 1

from the Coyote Blog

My son is looking at small liberal arts colleges that tend to play division III (Williams, Amherst, Vassar, Pomona) and a few smart-school division I teams (e.g. Princeton).   He has a different equation than the top division 1 athletes.  They are hoping their skills will get them a scholarship and acceptance at a school that can offer them exposure to the pros.  My son is hoping his skills will put him over the top at a very selective school that is brutally hard to get accepted at, even with good grades.  And of course, he just loves to play baseball.

NCAA recruiting is a morass of sometimes non-intuitive rules.  And the rules are different for different size schools (e.g. div III vs. div I).  But the most important thing I can tell you is that your kid has to take the initiative to get in front of the schools.   You cannot rely on your coach or school or anyone else.   You can begin earlier, but we started around the middle of his Junior year




College Baseball Recruiting, Part 2

  • As we will see in a minute, only about three things my son did in recruiting really mattered -- see the first episode for more detail on what we did
    • He proactively contacted coaches to tell them he was interested
    • He sent coaches a 5-10 minute video of himself pitching and hitting.  We made it from game film but I think most of the videos are just taken in a cage (you can see a bunch of these on YouTube, or email me and I will give you a link to ours)
    • He went to several camps, which fell into two categories:  School camps, at schools he was really interested in; and multi-school camps run by third parties.  Of the latter, I am convinced the Headfirst Honor Roll camps are the best if you are interested in DIII or DI "smart schools" (e.g. Ivies, Duke, UVA, Stanford).
Read more




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Recruiting Questions to Ask by Eric Cressey

If you're looking to be a more informed consumer with respect to the college recruiting process, give this a read: 25 Questions to Ask During the College Recruiting Process.

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Want to Play College Baseball? Don’t Make This Recruiting Mistake!
by Franco, Next Level Ballplayer
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Recruiting Sucks & Your Recruiting Sucks 
by Coach Mazzoni, current NCAA coach

OSU Baseball: Beavers know who they want to recruit
by Cliff Kirkpatrick, Corvallis Gazette-Times


7 Tips for Better Recruiting Videos

by Xan Barksdale


"Never let a 140 character tweet cost you a $140,000 scholarship."

 One bad tweet can be costly to a student athlete
- pause before you post
by Jeff DiVeronica, Democrat & Chronicle

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Pro Scouts Will Find You at DIII and the NAIA
One question I often hear from recruits and their families has to do with the chances of playing professional baseball. There is a common misconception that if you don’t play for a top level Division I or Division II program, then professional scouts may not find you. 

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