It's Your Turn Sophomores and Juniors

As this years group of 2009’s sign their NLI’s, a new group of 2010’s and 2011’s must approach the recruitment process in methodical and business like manner. Players need to approach the application to colleges and college baseball teams and prioritize the importance of a college education and the role of a student athlete.

We recommend that players take a business like approach because contacting coaches is like making a sales call to a prospective client. Players need to make coaches aware that there’s a great product ready to be shopped, looked at, and considered to improve the chances of their schools ability to compete on a national stage. If players don’t make the proper pitch, and do so effectively, then the “sale” won’t be made. It takes perseverance, articulation, and a plan to land that sale. It may take many sales calls, but it only takes one to get the college of a players choice.
Here’s some various stages to follow for those 2009 and 2010 graduates.

Research , Research, Research
No college left behind approach. First, find the college that best suits academic goals. We are big proponents of education first. Baseball can give a player educational opportunities that may have not been available had not his baseball been in the picture. Take advantage of that players.

Next, find the school that has the best fit geographically. Mom and dad may want to come see a few games. A player may want to stay close to home for other reasons like weather, girlfriend or just a convenient excuse to take that trip home to have mom do the wash.

Finally, research the needs of teams that have positions vacated by graduation or the draft. This is as simple as looking at the rosters of each team.

Tell The Coaches Who You Are
When targeting schools a player needs to create a player profile. A player profile consists of academic and athletic attributes and strengths. A player profile is an essential tool that will highlight skills and achievements to the schools where they stand the most chance of being noticed and appreciated. A well rounded and complete player profile will lead to a greater overall success rate in a player’s admissions efforts.

Target the Coaches and Schools That are the Right Fit.
As we mentioned at the top of this article, a player must make sure that the athlete matches the needs of the college. A player needs to make sure that the schools they have chosen are a good fit both scholastically, athletically and socially too. School should be a memorable experience too.

The Recruiting Campaign
After a player has performed the above tasks, he needs to start the big recruiting campaign. Letter after letter, e-mail after e-mail. Target schools that fit talent level too. If a player wants to target Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA, or JC schools, click the links to view the choices.