It's encouraging to read your post, but can you give some advice on the best ways to get your son "seen", and recruited, if he's not a "stud"? Let's say he's a B to B+ player, on a B team, with a reputable travel program.
I've heard the best thing to do is to try to come up with 3 or 4 schools that he might want to go to, and send him to camps at those specific schools, if they have them.
I know there are showcases you can go to, but my son's only in 7th grade, so I'm not very familiar with them yet (is it Jake Reed, etc?). I think they're by invitation, or tryout, and they're probably geared toward the "studs" that you mentioned.
Other than that, I guess you have to be relentless with emailing coaches, sending them video, and hope that they'll come watch him play at one of the summer tournaments?
Any input, or serious advice, would be greatly appreciated (obviously, from you too CageSage!). Thanks.
The idea of a player being a "stud" makes it obvious to many coaches and parents that the player could be recruited by any top ten team nationally. Given that your son is currently a seventh grader, you have at least two years of preparation time to evaluate where your student-athlete might truly sit in terms of skill.
As a seventh grader (a Class of 2019 graduate), your student is still too young to qualify for individual showcases that we have posted here on BOTC from K&J/Red Storm, but the team might want to consider the Mustang Tournament in November. This would not necessarily be for recruiting your son, but rather to see how the recruitment process works in the older grades. Seeing a recruiting event in action, particularly here on Long Island, will greatly help your individual preparations.
Regarding mailing video, please note that the days of VHS tapes and DVD highlight discs are well and truly over. If you choose to do a highlight reel, distributing a 120-180 second clip as a YouTube (or similar) video is the most efficient way to e-mail coaches with your footage. Remember however that college coaches will rarely spend much time on such footage and will never make a recruiting decision based on the footage alone.
Finally, keep inviting coaches to tournaments with your schedules, travel directions, and details. While they will not respond to you due to NCAA Regulations, it is always possible that one coach will be at an event and stop by the field. Once, that happens, the entire team will get a lift and everyone will get more focused on controlling the rcruiting cycle.
We hope that these ideas help you and good luck as you start down the recruiting road.
(PS - Notice we never discussed which team you were representing, the club for which your son plays, or the cost of the program.)
Cage - Thanks very much for the advice, and informative response! Do you agree that travelling to summer camps at a few colleges he thinks he likes, might be the best way to get interest from coaches?
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