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A college head coach explains the recruiting process to Mid-Penn Aces players and parents during the 2002 Dynamark Classic Showcase in Maryland.

College Recruiting for Baseball Players
Some athletes are so skilled that every coach will know about them. However, most of you probably have received little or no interest from college coaches. And if that’s the case, you need to begin the recruiting process or as they say in the business world, you need to “market” yourself.

But as you soon learn the Recruiting Process can be confusing. Why? Consider the following:

There are millions of high school athletes, but only thousands of college coaches, thus creating a numbers problem.

Geography is a problem. Coaches don’t hear about athletes who are at distant high schools.

Most athletic programs have neither the budget, nor the coaching staff that would allow them to travel and see all the players. Thus if you’re not the top athlete at your school or region, you will be overlooked.

College coaches settle into habits. They look at schools they know well or that are near their college. Or, they have a network of certain high school coaches they use to help them recruit players.

Guidance counselors would like to help but they usually have too much work to take the time to work with any one person in great detail.

You may not be getting adequate playing time. You may be a very good catcher but the catcher that starts for your team is “All State”.

You Need To Be Proactive
You cannot leave the recruiting process up to the college coaches. Student athletes must realize that recruiting is like a job search. In the process of a job search you need to send out resumes, network, read help wanted ads and go through interviews. If you didn’t have a job you would need to be proactive and find one. Well, if you haven’t been accepted at a college yet, you need to be proactive and recruit the coaches and schools.

About Athletic Scholarships – Effective 8/1/08

The following is a summary of a plan passed by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors concerning athletic scholarships:

1. An athletic scholarship must be for at least 25% of the cost of tuition ands fees, room and board and books. A program cannot have more than 27 players receiving athletic aid in a given year. (For the 2008-09 school year, the number on aid can be 30). The regular size squad will be capped at 35. The 35 must be determined no later than the day before the team’s first game.

2. Division I players must now be academically certified at the start of the fall term to be eligible to compete on the spring. There will be no mid-year transfers.

3. Baseball players who wish to transfer to another Division I program must be in residence for one year at his new school before being allowed to play.

4. Baseball programs with a 4-year average Academic Progress rate (APR) under 900 will be subjected to baseball specific penalties, in addition to sanctions already stipulated in the Academic Performance Program (such as scholarship reductions). Examples of baseball specific penalties would be a reduction in a team’s number of contests to 50 and limiting the playing and practice season to 119 days.

How this affects you:

1. How good your grades, GPA and SAT / PSAT scores are become more critical to the coach when he is considering who he selects. Coaches will no longer take a chance on a ‘borderline’ player concerning his grades. They need to be sure that you can handle college level school work load so that they do not go below the APR rate.

2. The least amount of scholarship money is 33% which in many cases will be an increase an the amount that has been offered in the past. College coaches used to offer smaller percentages so that they could get the most out of their allotted scholarships.

3. It reduces the number of players being offered any scholarship money. The coach may give you the opportunity to play for him but without any money your freshman year. If this is the school you really want to go to, you may have to take a chance, play your freshman year with the hope that the following year scholarship money becomes available.

4. You better be sure that the school you chose is truly the one you want. Because if you decide to transfer to another Division I school you will have to sit out for one year.

5. It increases your chances of losing your scholarship If you don’t perform to the coaching staffs expectations there is a strong possibility that you will lose your scholarship.

6. You will need to look closer at obtaining non-athletic scholarship money. A coach may want you. It may be the school you have always wanted to go to. And the coach may ‘love’ you but the reality is he just might not have any money to give you.

Taking SATs
It's important to take and retake the SATs to achieve as high a score as possible. However, if you play on a Fall travel team, check your schedule before you schedule SATs in the fall. You want to be sure that you will be available each weekend that the team plays, especially if games are scheduled at a college that you have interest in attending. Fall 2007 test dates are:

October 6, 2007
November 3, 2007
December 1, 2007

The Mid-Penn Aces Fall Baseball Program
The Mid-Penn Aces are here to help the high school baseball player from central Pennsylvania in that college search by providing:

A competitive game and showcase schedule attended by pro and college scouts

Instructional practice environment to improve skills

Information that assists and prepares players for their college search

Guest speakers and instructors from the college and pro ranks

August through October program, the best time for college coaches to see games

The Aces organization is not for profit. The Mid-Penn Aces are not associated with AAU baseball.