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Message: [QUOTE="Guy Fawkes, post: 1460598, member: 170"] Background: I played D3 baseball but had the 'preferred walkon' designiation offers with financial assistance from a few D1 teams. I was also recruited for soccer at a few D2 schools but I was up front with the coaches that I was not playing in college. I then was a D3 assistant coach for a year and was offered a high school head coaching job in Pennsylvania which I turned down to start my professional career. I eat, breathe and dream about baseball 24/7 still. Recruiting process is stressful for the kids and their family. It's comical how political high school, AAU, and summer ball are in baseball (and in all sports). Not to get into too much detail but here are a few items that always stood out for me when I was being recruited. - Use your players on your team to sKout their hometown area teams and players. Ask them to take notes as if they were sKouting another NIAA team. Most of the guys have played against each other for years and can help find athletes that fit your system. - Showing up for games. I loved when coaches scouted our games. Even better was when coaches would give us their evaluations (pro's, con's, improvements) of the players, some of whom weren't even the caliber of prospects for their school. It allowed players to receive an unbiased opinion including information that would allow them to get better. - Calling on a monthly basis to check on the highschool or summer teams. - Chatting up the parents to get them to feel comfortable enough to allow their son to be taken under your tutelage. More important than people think during recruiting because kids still listen to their parents opinions. - Invitations to baseball camps. Both as a player and a coach. One interesting trick (which I am not even sure is legal) was a coach hired me and other Junior and Senior Prospects to be the 'counselors' at clinics for little league aged kids. The coaches were able to observe the personalities of the prospects, and understanding of baseball through the clinics. Good luck. Toughest is getting players to buy into not playing as freshmen. Every year we would lose one two of the best freshmen because they weren't able to sit patiently behind upperclassmen. [/QUOTE]

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