ATHLETES LAB COLLEGE RECRUITMENT

COLLEGE RECRUITMENT 101

Showcase Baseball is the next step into preparing your athlete for college recruiting. In December of 2020 Grant Rembert and Aaron Rembert held a College Recruiting 101 Class for Athletes Lab HS Players. They shared their extensive knowledge from their experience as college recruiters and college coaches. The left image contains a few of the important tips that all athletes can benefit from regardless of age. Once you have decided that college ball is your next step make sure you:

STAY STRONG IN YOUR ACADEMICS. Athletes with the best grades get looked at first.
DO YOUR RESEARCH: Does the school you are interested in need your current position? Do they need a 3rd baseman? Do they need a catcher? Will you be flexible in the position you play. Just because you have played short stop your whole life doesn't mean that is where you will stay. (Buster Posey, SS going into FSU; changed to Catcher at the direction of Mike Martin Jr; Catcher for the Giants in the MLB).
COMMIT: WHEN YOU ARE READY. Don't rush the process.
BE UNCOMMON: Stand out with the little things you do. Don't blend with the crowd. Be where you need to be when you need to be there.
Know you are an INVESTMENT. Are you worth the investment the college is making in you? Will you give them back a big return?
Know you are a PROSPECT as long as you are playing. You need to continue to grow. Continue to develop.

COMMON RECRUITMENT TERMS

JUCO: JUNIOR COLLEGE/COMMUNITY COLLEGE
QUIET PERIOD: The college coach may not have an in-person contact with a student or the student’s parents off the college campus. The coach may not watch the student play or visit the student’s high school during this time. The student and his or her parents may visit a college campus during this time. A coach may write or telephone a student or his or her parents during this time.
DEAD PERIOD: A period of time when a college coach may not have any in-person contact with a student or his or her family. The coach may write or call the student or the student’s parents during this time.
COMMITMENT: An oral or verbal commit is a non-binding agreement between a student-athlete and prospective school. While it is tentatively understood that the student-athlete will accept the offer and attend the school, he/she is free to explore offers with other institutions until a letter of commitment has been signed.
CONTACT: A contact occurs any time a coach has any face-to-face contact with a student or the student’s parents away from the college campus, including the student’s high school or competition locations.
CONTACT PERIOD: During this time, a college coach may have in-person contact with a student and/or the student’s parents away from the college campus, including the student’s high school or competition locations.

NCAA D1 & D2 COLLEGE RECRUITING CALENDAR

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RECRUITING: BY GRADE LEVEL

14U/8TH GRADE

BASEBALL

Start seriously thinking if you want to start on the path towards playing college baseball.
Get familiar with the weight room. Take weight training classes; hire a personal trainer (someone certified, has experience working with baseball athletes and understand nutrition at the teenage level).
Play on a travel team that will choose the tough tournaments so you can see other competition that you will be competing against during your HS years.
Play Middle School Baseball. 14u Summer Travel Ball shouldn't start until after Middle School Baseball. Use Middle School Baseball to build Baseball IQ, Team Socialization & as an opportunity to get live action reps for the training you did in the off season (Dec/Jan/Feb)
Play 14u FALL & 14u SUMMER; Fall ball is always a smaller schedule BUT your 14u Travel Ball team should have tournaments that are going to prepare you for the bigger showcase tournaments that begin at the 15u SUMMER LEVEL.
Set up a Twitter Account. While most parents may cringe at this; Twitter is a huge recruitment tool for colleges. Get familiar taking short videos of gym work; outside hobbies, volunteer work, and of course at bats, great plays in the field.
- Parents will need to help capture footage while the athlete is playing.
- Tag your organization. Tag your Training Coaches. Tag Teammates if you win or had a great play with their assist to help bolster them as well.
- It's not necessary to tag colleges at this point. This is just an opportunity for you to get familiar with making these types of post.
- Consider this your business account; DO NOT POST anything that does not put you in a positive light and APPROVE ALL TAGS before posted to your account.
During your Spring Academic Semester create a list of Dream Schools (10-15) you would want to attend to play ball.
- Pick a variety of schools: Local, In-State, Out of State, JUCO, D1, D2, D3
  - Do some basic research about the schools and see if they have academic programming that appeals to you want what is needed to get in. This will help guide you as you start to pick classes for your Freshman Year of HS.
REMEMBER IF YOU ARE PLAYING COLLEGE BALL YOU ARE A STUDENT AS WELL. GRADES MATTER.

SOFTBALL

15U: 9TH GRADE

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

16U: 10TH GRADE

BASEBALL

17U: 11TH GRADE

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

18U FALL: 12TH GRADE

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

POST HIGH-SCHOOL

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

POST COLLEGE

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL