Next Gen Journal

by Danny Tyson

The road to a Division I college sports team is a long, stressful, but most of all rewarding experience. Riddled with ups and downs, victory and disappointment, hope and despair, becoming an athlete at an elite level takes perseverance and hard work. While my journey to college baseball is not yet complete (as I am about to enter my senior year of high school), I feel that I am far enough along to provide insight on how the process works and even help some prospective student athletes achieve their dreams of playing sports in college.

NGJ Contributor Danny Tyson

The first contact that I received from coaches was in the form of letters. Each of these letters came with a recruiting questionnaire, which asked me to fill out information such as grades, stats, and contact numbers.  It is essential to fill out these questionnaires, and later on, it is a good idea to go to the school’s website and find the email address of the recruiting coordinator. Send him (or her) an email and tell him (or her) that you are interested in their school; include your playing schedule for the upcoming season. Make sure to explain why you would be a good fit for their school and athletic program by telling him your grades and any honors or accomplishments that you have achieved in your sport.

Email is the most effective way to communicate with college coaches, so make sure your email isn’t some ridiculous name. It should be something simple, professional, and easily identifiable. Email coaches to tell them when and where you will be playing next, and if they can’t make it out to see you, update them on how you are doing. After playing in front of a coach, they might give you their phone number. This is the next step after emailing. Before July 1st leading up to your senior year, coaches are not allowed to call you, but you can call them as many times as you want. After July 1^st, they are allowed to call you once a week. Instead of emailing them, now you should call them and tell them when and where you will be playing. The third critical step is actual visits. Beginning right when senior year starts, you can take five all-expenses-paid visits to schools. During these visits, you stay with members of the team and meet with the coaches. Then, the final step is to sign the National Letter of Intent starting on November 1st of your senior year. This is a binding document, so make sure you are very comfortable with your choice.

At the collegiate level, everybody is good. Plain and simple. Knowing this,  you must master the non-athletic parts of the recruiting process in order to make yourself stand out from your peers (who are likely as good as or better than you). What I have found to be the three most important weapons in my recruitment arsenal are my grades, my willingness to initiate contact with coaches, and my on-field conduct. These three things have helped me appear more desirable than someone else of my same skill level.

In order for a coach to offer a scholarship, he must first get the student-athlete cleared through the admissions office. It is just common sense that if there are two kids with equal skills, the coach will choose the one with better grades so that he will not have to try and manipulate the system to get an athlete accepted into the school. Even if the student with worse grades was a little bit better athletically, the coach would probably still want the student who achieves academically. There would be less of a chance that once in the school, the student would fail out or go on academic probation, thus making him athletically ineligible. Here’s something else important: each baseball team can give out 11.7 full tuitions’ worth of scholarships to members of each incoming recruiting class. If someone has good grades, the school can offer that person less athletic money, but find a way to also offer some academic money, which basically results in a full scholarship. This contrasts with a player with bad grades who would not get any academic money, therefore using up more of the allotted baseball scholarships. So it’s obvious why a true student-athlete is more desirable to a college coach.

The amount of high school athletes hoping to play baseball in college is astounding. When you simplify the ratio of high school players to college players, it is about 50:1. Given this huge drop, it is understandable why it is necessary for a player to find the coaches, and not the other way around. Many people are too scared or nervous to email a coach out of the blue, but I promise you that it is the best way to put yourself on their radar.

Danny talks with his catcher

There comes a point during the recruiting process for every coach where most of the people on their “wish list” have very similar abilities. How is it, then, that they make their decisions about who should actually be offered scholarships? Almost every coach and scout I have talked to agree on the difference-maker. They have all said that the way an athlete carries himself or herself can make or break an offer. This year, one of my teammates was getting seriously recruited by a top Division I school and was extremely close to getting a scholarship. Scouts came to one of our games, at which he pitched very poorly. After this game, the college scout had a long conversation with my coach in which they discussed the future of the prospect. In the end, the college decided not to pursue him further, but it was not because he lacked natural pitching ability. The scout had seen the player pitch very well numerous times, and was confident in his abilities. However, the scout did not extend an offer because of the way my teammate dealt with adversity. When things started to go badly, the pitcher could’ve shown inner strength and a competitive nature and started to play harder. Instead, he looked physically defeated on the mound, complained about how our coach was calling pitches, and yelled at teammates for making errors. The college scout said that this is not the kind of player that they want to have on their team. The important lesson in this is that you can have all the physical ability in the world, but your attitude, hustle, and respect for those around you are what will set you apart from the rest.

So to sum up: in order to play a sport at the collegiate level, you have to stick to the process. While it may be stressful waiting to hear back from coaches, just know that you have to be patient and not give up. Be persistent and make sure the coaches know that you are interested in their school; keep them posted about your schedule. Remember the three most important aspects of the non-athletic recruiting process: having good grades, initiating contact, and demonstrating great on-field conduct. With this knowledge and these tools, you are well on your way to becoming a collegiate athlete. Good Luck!

Danny Tyson is a NGJ Contributor and a student at Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego. He is currently being recruited to play college baseball.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.