Sophomore year is all about beginning to develop a solid baseball resume. For an athlete, this means not only a strong academic performance, but compiling statistics that are relevant to the position you play, and videos of your performance-both in game and individually to demonstrate the mechanics of your positional abilities.

Baseball coaches are seeking athletes that will be a good fit for their team-athletically and academically. Contrary to popular belief, athletes are not usually found via scouts-athletes are found because they took the initiative to reach out to coaches themselves. 

In order to stand out to a prospective coach, you need to understand the athletic needs and academic profiles of the schools you are interested in, so that you can market your skill set to the coach in the best way.

BUILDING A BASEBALL RESUME

Once you enter high school, it will become important to start building a baseball resume. Similar to what a job applicant would do when seeking a job, a baseball player needs to begin a list of key positional stats, skill sets, and accomplishments achieved while playing the game of baseball.

At Illinois Premier, you have a unique advantage. We provide all of our athletes with key metrics to share with prospective college coaches, and this is the year to start thinking about how to  promote yourself both on and off the field of play!

I have started my baseball resume, now what?

When do I make initial contact with a program or coach?

  • Division 1

    Coaches can't communicate with potential recruits until August 1 of the athlete's junior year. 

  • Division 2

    Coaches can start communicating with recruits via phone, text, and email on June 15 after the athlete's sophomore year. 

  • Division 3, NAIA, and NJCAA

    Coaches can call recruits at any time, but typically wait until the athlete's junior year. 

  • Recruiting materials

    Athletes can receive recruiting materials from coaches at any time, such as questionnaires, camp brochures, and NCAA educational materials. 

How do I make initial contact with a program or coach?

Many programs have recruiting questionnaires on their athletic websites and this is an excellent way to make contact with programs that you are interested in. They are often a detailed snapshot of you as an athlete and a student so be prepared with stats, GPA, test scores, and contact info for current coaches.

If you do not find a recruiting link or questionnaire, check out the teams website for a recruiting coordinator or recruiting coach. This would be the person to email when making your first contact with a school of interest. Reminder that depending on the program, there are specific rules regarding contact with recruits, so do not be alarmed if you do not receive a personal response. Often, a schools first contact will be to send information about upcoming prospect camps.


Tips for Opening Communications with College Coaches

Personalize-Personalize-Personalize

We cannot stress enough the importance of personalizing all communications that you have with a prospective coach. Recruiting coaches and programs can receive hundreds, if not thousands of emails from interested players and an athlete needs to find a way to connect with a coach and a program to stand out!

College coaches prefer personalized emails as opposed to generic ones. When you begin communicating with college coaches, it is important to remember that their time is very limited. You will need to be short, concise, and above all, very personal in your emails, texts, DMs or phone calls with coaches. Make sure that you are communicating how YOU as a student and player would be a good fit for their institution and program. Show them that you have done your research on their school and program. This may be the only way to demonstrate your level of interest in their program!

Honestly, one of the most basic mistakes that athletes make is not taking the time to address their email to the actual coach instead of just a generic "Hello Coach". Actually referring to  coach by their name will get things started off on the right footing.

Parents: We know the temptation will be there, however, communication should be from the athlete. They need to begin to establish a relationship with those they will be working with as a student and an athlete. Give advise and guidance, but this is the time to let your athletes shine!

 

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS TO INCLUDE IN AN INTRODUCTORY EMAIL

  • Start with your strengths.

    • If academics are your strong suit, start the email off speaking about how you would be an excellent addition to the team academically and how important it is for you to be at the specific institution because of the the degree you are interested in pursuing. Coaches want to know that you are interested in more than just baseball and they are looking for athletes that will help raise the team's overall academic profile.

    • If your better athletically, then start off with your athletic profile: achievements with school and club team, awards received, height, weight, position(s) you play. This is where you want to show the coach that you have done your homework and know a little about the team's graduating class and incoming recruit's.

  • Be brief and to the point

    • Remember that these coaches receive a lot of emails and have very little time to read a full length bio. With introductory emails get right to the point - who you are, what you are good at, and what you bring to the table.

4 Steps to Contacting College Coaches

  • Fill out the recruiting questionnaire on the programs website

  • Send an introductory email- many programs with have a recruiting coordinator or position coaches. While you will be tempted to send communications directly to the program's head coach, they are difficult to get ahold of and often delegate recruiting responsibilities, so be sure to research the program you are interested in to establish the correct person to be contacting.

  • Follow-up with a phone call-be sure that you are following contact period rules.

  • Respond to any recruiting letters-recruiting nowadays relies primarily on digital methods, however, many coaches may still send different types of recruiting letters to athletes. Even if it is a generic email-RESPOND. This may be the initial step in establishing the level of interest that a recruit has in the program.

  • Keep in touch with coaches