Recruiting Fulfillment--Next Level Please !!

Hello An Good Hunting To All Of You 2011 athletes and years to come. First of all I would love to thank all the college coaches ,and their staff that have followed my daughter around over the years and watched her play. Especially thanks to Jeff Fain , Jason Henneman, Dennis Gamble, Rodney Threat, Bobby Shoemaker,Marci Turso, Shane Johnson for allowing my kid to play with all these great organizations. To NSA, USSSA, AAU, WFC, USFA, ASA for providing the fields, and umpires so that my kid and your kids could play an orgainized game such as softball.

To get started with this process you need to really sit down with your kid,and make sure this is what she wants to do, and not you only. If a kid is doing it for you then she will never fulfill her obligation to the institution as need be to achieve being a successful team mate,and her duties on the field. Let it be known right in the beginning that it is the most importance to strive for an education ,and softball is a plus in the four years of attending.

In the search for the pot of "GOLD" at the end of the rainbow it took a lot of leg work,and hard work to get where my kid is today. The scarifices of summer after summer to no end, and the day after day of practice. One thing I would change if I had it to do all over is to be more balanced with her time. I was more like a slave driver,and sometimes the game was more like a chore than fun. I became unbalanced on occassions that made her life a pure_____ !! Well you get the picture. I caution you as father don't make this game a drudgery to her or she will hate it later. One word of advice when you begin to fight on the field more than having fun, give your kid to somebody else to coach, it will pay off later.


The email process is always a challenge to most teenagers. How many times do you as a parent ask your kid," Have You Emailed The Coach ? " They will say," I'm Going To ", LOL.....but in the end do your homework become a friend to your institution of choice. Coaches like to see persistant kids it shows their work ethic. Also tell your kid that you support her whatever her decision happens to be, one thing during this process there needs not to be any extra stress on the decisions that she makes. Without a communication between the coach and your daughter through emails there can not be any relationship. So send those emails,and keep the coach interested in you.


Finally athlete be all you can be on and off the field. Record any activities you do in the community to help humanity. One thing on my daughter's scholarship application was what do you do to contribute to your community? So as many of you that are young,and still coming up the ranks, record all community services that you have been part of or have attended. Keep good records of your past, trust me it will be brought up again later.When all is said and done it will all pay off if you follow these basic things.


Recruiting like any other process is not accomplished over night, but the rewards are awesome if your daughter really enjoys the game and strives for the goal to play collegiate softball, and to see you kid sign her NLI is priceless. Many of your daughters will not continue on to play ball, but that's okay as long as they have a heart in doing whatever fulfills their dreams !! There is so much more to say ,and I'm thinking about writing a book..LOL.. to explain the whole recruiting process, but I just don't have enough time in the day, since now I'm coaching a 12U team a hundred miles away..... Enjoy The Game !!


Guru

 

Hall of Fame Post

Wow! My man Guru just layed down the truth bigtime!

Gotta give props when props are due.

Fishpal

 

Excellent post as someone who is very near the end of this process I can say you really nailed it down.

 

Great post, GURU! As a sophmore, my daughter has 5 schools, she is looking at, that have her major she wants, I know they cannot have any contact with her, coach wise. But just really interested in what our focus needs to be on as a sophmore. Love to hear from all the experts out there!!

 

Excellent post Guru.

If your daughter is a sophomore, she can visit the colleges she is interested. Have her call the coach and let the coach know that she is visiting and see if the coach has time to meet with her/him. The coach will be more interested in your daughter if she/he knows your daughter is interested in the school as having interest in the school gives the coach a better chance of signing your daughter.

My daughter's first college visit that included time with the softball coach was fall of her sophomore year.