Securing recruitment into a college baseball team as a high school student
Playing baseball in college is the dream of every high-school athlete. However, very few high-school athletes actually get the opportunity to become a baseball team member. It is important for parents and players to understand just how the difficult, frustrating and difficult recruitment process works so they can get a solid chance at successful recruitment.
Irrespective of what one organization or person claims, there is actually no assurance to receiving an athletic scholarship. Fortunately, in this article, we will be sharing vital information on how to take full control of the recruitment process and hopefully, make your ultimate athletic dreams come true.
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Attend appropriate classes
A long time ago, before recruiting tapes were assessed and college catalogs were clogging mailboxes, one had to take classes in their high-school freshman year for their NCAA eligibility.
In 2008 however, as the standards and requirements of eligibility began to evolve, the number of math and English courses were incremented by the NCAA. To get accepted into the college baseball team, every athlete is supposed to ensure their class schedule is in line with the core course requirements from the NCAA.
Register at the NCAA Eligibility Center
Previously referred to as the NCAA clearinghouse, the NCAA Eligibility must receive the registration of students to validate their amateur athlete status. This validation is to ensure the prospective student is actually an amateur.
The process is generally easy; all it requires is a Social Security number and $50. Just ensure you don’t skip it. A few students miss out on the opportunity to play in college every year just because they didn’t register at the NCAA Eligibility Center.
Make a List of Schools you would like to play for.
A good idea is to usually write a rundown of your school options. Just keep in mind that the list is supposed to help direct your search into your junior and sophomore and year not to complicate the whole process.
Record a Video
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A recruiting video is always a pretty effective method in which an athlete can attract coaches’ attention at the college level. Unfortunately, most athletes fail in this aspect and usually come up with sub-standard videos with unnecessary components.
The contents and structure of your video will usually rely on the sport you are promoting. Sports such as football, baseball and volleyball will ideally feature a collection of averagely 20 highlight plays that show the ability of an athlete with your youth baseball bat and batting gloves. On the other hand, sports like lacrosse, soccer and basketball will likely have an average of 12 highlight plays with half a game to illustrate real-time ability.
Make your research
About 10 years ago, this might have been a quite difficult task; however with the introduction of the web, acquiring relevant and important information (unofficial and official) about any college is quite easy now.
As a head start, consider viewing the school’s website to check for a school official or coach you can contact. In smaller schools, you can easily find the coaches’ email addresses since they are regarded as a tool for promoting their institution.
Getting in touch
After discovering useful information about the desired college, the next thing for you to do is place yourself firmly on the college’s discovery list. In recent times one could hold this until the junior year, but considering the fast pace of increasing youth sports, it’ll be best for you to contact coaches before your sophomore year.
Expand your exposure and game at a university camp
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Most sports camps are either helping athletes to improve their skills or they’re helping them get noticed. However, a few sports camps can do both functions at the same time since most coaches see camps as an avenue to fill up their rosters.
Although, don’t hope to get automatically recruited by attending the sports camp for a few days. Without establishing the right rapport with the institution at the right time, you will most likely get disappointed.
Making the final choice
Hopefully, when at your senior year you finally get some interesting offers, picking the best school might be a challenge for a few people.
For some athletes, it will all depend on the price attached to the school’s offer. It is always a good idea to stick to the school that provides a better financial reward. For other athletes, it’ll depend on their chances of getting into the starting lineup by their junior or sophomore year.
Author Bio:
My name is David, I am an editor/co-founder of www.theplanetofbaseball.com. Being a software engineer by day and a baseball blogger by night, I also participated in the training activities of a youth baseball team at my hometown. I have passion with baseball, it pertains to my life from childhood until now and I love to share what is related to that passion with others. I believe in the support of other baseball bloggers like me to spread the passion.
