These kids are good..

[radness]

With all the watered down teams within organizations.
Would amend the above comment with
Best pathway starts with a legitimate coach.

Org. Not the bases in which to gauge!

 

[BT3100]

I really think this is a big part of it, again my DD a 2023 is just getting started, so a bit later than i would have wanted but she seems more committed now than before and i was unsure her path before. I am still learning alot about this. That being said, IMO if you are not getting the exposure at the tourneys with a good club, it may be possible to get recruited at a higher level but probably alot more difficult. Not sure coaches are spending alot of time trying to find the 'diamond in the rough'. They have so much to do, why spend alot of time doing that. Also there may be the notion that if you are not on a good club, you weren't good enough to get on a good club in the first place and all the social media is just fake fluff.

I think at least social media can be a helpful tool to add to the attraction of a player or at least to keep them on the coaches feed only after the deliberate emails and communication from player to coaches/schools. That is our plan to be specific and not try to blanket the whole nation and hope to see what sticks. But we shall see, right or wrong, i am still learning.

When we started this process we didn't really have a plan. I talk to a lot of people who are still in it with no plan. DD fell in love with a school at age 12 when she first walked on the campus. I didn't believe that she was good enough to make that team so I wanted her to go to other camps as well. We listened to parents in the sport and began to hit the D1-D2 camps. Seemed like every weekend we were at a different camp. We attended one in Virginia for a very good school, I won't mention the name. It was over 6 hours away by car and with no easy way to fly in. DD really liked the coach and I could see that they were into working with the pitchers so they were spending time with her. DD followed the camp up with an email to thank the coaches and share what she learned. She attended the next camp a few months later and I saw them spending even more time with her. A year later at the next camp the coaches were spending time with DD and one other girl. It was funny as they were mirror images in terms of size, body type. They were both throwing similar speeds and had similar command, I knew the other pitcher as we faced her a few times and she played for a team in Virginia. At the end of the camp during the painful photo session that always followed the assistant told DD to stick around as she wanted to speak with us. We waited and by the time everyone left it was us and the other pitcher remaining.

The assistant and pitching coach came over and introduced themselves to me and the other girls father. They complemented our girls and wanted to share some great news. They were holding an "invite only" pitching camp that was 8 sessions. The sessions would be on Friday evenings from 6 till 9:30PM. The local girl was all smiles, while I stood there trying to contemplate how I would be able to get DD out of school and me out of work by 11am on a Friday for the next 8 weeks.

When we got in the truck we called DW with the "good news" and she blew up our balloon with a reality check that I couldn't leave work early every week for the next 2 months and DD couldn't leave school. It was a hard pass DD was upset but called the coaches and let them know that she was so very interested in the school, but we couldn't make the camp work. After that pass we attended one more camp 6 months later and DD was basically ignored. While the pitcher that attended the invite camp was their main focus. I completely get it, the other pitcher invested in the program and coaches. DD became friends with other pitcher, she is a great pitcher. The 2021 FloExtra whatever you call them rankings came out recently. DD placed in the top 40 for pitchers in the class. The other pitcher was in the top 175. That's just an outsiders opinion I get it, but the school went with an apparently lesser ranked pitcher mainly due to her commitment to the program (Her and DD have almost identical academics too). The school DD chose offered her over a player who IMO was clearly better so it works both ways. After that experience we sat down with the head of our org. DD was not playing for his top team at the time. He gave us some excellent tips that we never considered. One was to look at where the players lived that the target school recruited. Back to that Virginia school 4 out of 5 pitchers were from Virginia. The other was a top level prospect out of California who was a transfer. That school liked to build relationships and work with their future talent long before they make an offer. Had we known that we probably wouldn't have attended those camps, instead going to places that were more open to kids from different areas.

I always tell people to use services like Capt U and others that alert you when your email is read by the coaches. All of this is good but none take the place of a great travel org that can speak with the coaches and advocate on your DD's behalf.

 

[BT3100]

View attachment 21162
With all the watered down teams within organizations.
Would amend the above comment with
Best pathway starts with a legitimate coach.

Org. Not the bases in which to gauge!

The best way! Not the "only" way.
Depends on the situation IMO. The best orgs are the best for two reasons. 1) They attract top talent. 2) They have coaches who develop top players. Those two could be 1 or 1A. Chicken or egg

 

[WI Dad]

Sorry for the length of this, but my daughter is rounding 3rd heading home and I hope this can help anyone. Twitter is one piece of the puzzle might work for some maybe not for others. It’s all about getting that look same with the name on the jersey it will get you that look but what happens from there is on the player.

My daughter does the Twitter thing, a few things one she will only post anything that is well above average or out of the norm. Like going to work with hitting coach XYZ that is very well known in the college ranks. She doesn’t post weekly but is active liking things.

In the current climate schools are recruiting via video and relationships with the latter being much more important.

Daughter has tagged coaches; her thought is she has a better chance of a hit on a twitter post over emails that are overflowing, for that “look”. It has hurt her though there was a coach she was being followed by that had emailed her with some very positive words, she wasn’t tagging that coach and was unfollowed.

Daughter made a post once that was liked by coach XYZ which followed by other coaches from that conference then liking or following her it was crazy to see. She once had a conversation with a coach that coach let her know she looks at her twitter on a regular basis but said coach doesn’t follow her or like any of her posts.

As far as colleges coaches following her, we seen an uptick on those follows when she switched to a more national team.

Kids will tag the Head Coaches when the fact is the assistants are the ones doing the recruiting sometimes, with the HC giving the final look. Or they tag the main softball account of that school when there is someone maybe running that account that has nothing to do with coaching/recruiting.

Some coaches don’t care for the Twitter thing, but some coaches encourage it, daughter showed me coaches posting asking to be tagged in posts/schedule.

 

[nikkilugi]

Twitter is a piece of the puzzle for my daughter as well. Her travel coaches encourage the girls to post. One of her coaches is a former D1 Assoc HC so we tend to take her advice. There is no tagging of coaches or schools. She does tag all retweet accounts though. Daughter is currently sending emails to over 40 programs and in her emails she encourages the coaches to visit her Twitter. College coaches tweet their random practice pics and footage. They tweet their success in “adding another strong player”. They are on there doing the same random practice post things. If they are on there she will use it to maybe get a small notice. It’s a piece and as a 23 daughter wants to make sure she covers all her bases.