College Coaches

I have noticed that a lot of college coaches seem to be pretty good friends or at least they make it appear that way. Does anyone know or have an opinion on whether or not they share information on players? I'm only talking in the sense that school "A" just signed two third basemen a year ago so they don't need one this year, a third baseman comes along and wants to play for them. Anyway they would refer that kid to school "B" since they don't need to sign anymore?

 

Yes, the college coaching fraternity is a very small world and they talk. I'll give you a couple examples from when our son was getting recruited last fall.

The coach from School A had called a couple of times, but it was a school that our son was not interested in for non-baseball reasons. He was up front with the coach, and the coach realized he was not going to be able to sway our son's thinking. Not 30 minutes after the last call, the phone rings from a coach at School B. School B was where the School A coach had been an assistant - and was a school that our son was interested in. Coincidence? Maybe, and our son didn't ask "well, did you get my name from Coach A?", but it sure seemed connected to me.

We are also fortunate enough to know a college coach who was not recruiting our son. He was able to provide some contacts and some advice on programs and coaches - it was clear to me that there is a pretty tight network out there. Almost every coach has been an assistant or head coach at several other schools and so there are lots of opportunities for contacts and friendships to be made.

Be nice to everybody, you never know.

-jda

 

The Lead Recruiter at a Division I school once put a new "spin" on the time-worn phrase, "You never know who's watching." He explained that he was good friends with many of his fellow recruiters. Since programs usually have limited needs (and resources) each year, it's not unusual for them to let one another know what they need and don't need. Then, if one of them sees a quality player at a position where they're loaded, they frequently mention it to another recruiter whose program needs a player at that position.

The way he put it to me went something like, "Just because you see my school's name on my jacket, don't think that you're not being seen by a number of schools." As a result, "You never know who's watching."