Recruiting

As we have past the early signing period, just want to provide a few ideas about recruiting from a travel coach perspective, some things to consider:

Begin your preparation for softball at the next level by your freshman year of high school.
Prepare a profile as you would prepare a resume for the dream job you would seek, make it stand out ( use different color paper, action photo, impressive format). Remember 1000's of other players are seeking to be recruited and many to the same schools you want to attend.
Sit down with your parents, advisors, coaches, and teachers and chose 10 or more colleges that have the major you feel you want to pursue and have a softball team! (some large schools and academically challenging schools do not have softball)
Go on line and get e-mail addresses for head coach and assistant coaches and load them on your contact list.
Read about these coaches, find out their history, school they attended, position they played, coaching experience, heck even major and birthday. Why? You want to become a person to these coaches and not just another recruit! If you send them a birthday greeting or Christmas card, you sometimes can open doors for more communication.
Send updates on your progress on the field and in classroom. Let them know if you raised your SAT score or ACT score. Talk about a big win for your team or a homerun, key hit, or great pitching performance.
In other words, stay in touch, be a player that wants to attend their school
Apply to the school as soon as you are of age and class to apply. Coaches check to see if you have applied to get an idea as to your true feelings about attending their school.
Work hard to be the best you can be on the field and in the classroom! The better skills you develop, the more fun school and softball can become.
Learn the game! Be a student of the game!
Earlier, I spoke of picking 10 or more schools, research those schools softball roster to see what grade their various players are in at the moment. This research may save you from pursuing a school that may not need the position you play in the year you graduate! You could waste valuable time pursuing a school that is not interested.
Make sure your travel team coaches support your efforts with e-mails to coaches, conversations at tournaments, phone calls, etc. Copy your coaches on all e-mails you send to college coaches so they are aware of your efforts and can assist you in acheiving your dream.
Success is a team effort and even though each player is pursuing their dream, it can become a reality much easier if you are a loyal team player as well! Work together for the success of all which will be success for you.
Good luck to all of the many players seeking the next level and to all that have reached that level! You are special! Happy Thanksgiving to ALL, LOL

** Sure I left off some items but just wanted to share my thoughts.

 

Just as a point of emphasis based my experience over the past couple of years with my daughter.....academics is first and foremost. Athletics does the knocking and academics opens the door.

JMHO

 

Academics

You are correct!

Just fyi, my travel team has an average GPA of 3.85 and almost all the young ladies are in top 5% of their class. We stress academics and have since we started in 2002. My 2009 girls all have weighed GPA's over 4.0 and will receive nice academic assistance as well as softball. These young ladies should get a great education while playing the game they enjoy. I am sure many travel teams have similar results!

Stress to coaches that you want as much academic money as can be found and then discuss athletic money. If your DD gets hurt or for some reason does not keep athletic funds, you are not struggling.

 

What does a middle schooler need to do?

Is their anything that you need to do if your daughter is in 7th grade but has high hopes of pitching in college (dreams of one specific college)? Or should you wait until high school to make any type of contact with these colleges? Don't want to start to soon or wait to late!!

 

Thanks for the advice

Thanks Cheeze105 for the great advice. The problem we have had with summer camps are they tend to fall during the time of state and world series tournaments. I have always been afraid to send by daughter to a college camp the week before any big tournament and she be too tired to perform well for her team (she is a pitcher). I have always tried realy hard to push team before self to my daughter. She has found out with middle school ball - you can't always do it on your own. Those eight girls behind you make you look really good or sometimes not too good. I didn't realize many schools had fall camps until recently and of course we had missed the one where my daughter dreams of going. At what point can a college contact a player?

Katie's mom

 

This is when it starts

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Freshman (9th grade)

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Settle into the high school environment ... get to work developing good classroom and home study habits. Learn to manage your time.
September


Play fall softball, where available

Long toss after school

Run sprints and medium distance

Plan your winter softball workouts

Locate an indoor facility that offers "top level" instruction.

If possible target and attend one (1) college Christmas camp

Plenty of articles about Off - Season Conditioning
November - January


Continue winter work-outs / get ready high school team try-outs

Keep working hard on those grades
February - May/June


High school season
May - July/August


Summer league seasons

Play the best and most competitive softball that is available to you. Best teams, best tournaments, against the best the competition possible
June - July


Attend a college softball program's "week long" camp
This is the best way to "get noticed" by your favorite school. Many colleges sign players as a result of their attendance at the camps.

Ask questions about camps

 

July 1st (that number can change a few days each year) after their junior year...but prior to that date, if you are on campus or at their camp, they can speak to you directly

 

Recipe for success

Braves - thanks for your recipe for success. I am amazed at the amount of information I am able to recieve from the members of this board. It is great to see people take time out to share their knowledge with those of us who are in the dark.

Cheeze - again thanks for the info.



The Williford's