The Ultimate Baseball Recruiting Guide For High School Seniors

BRX RECRUITING | | SENIOR YEAR GUIDE

Important note: this checklist is assuming you have reviewed and completed our BRX Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior Year Checklists and Guides. If you are a senior, are just beginning the recruiting process, and haven’t gone through these documents, please read through them first to make sure you haven’t missed any critical steps. If you have missed some, simply add them to the list below.

GET ANOTHER EVALUATION AND RESEARCH THE COMMITMENTS OF ATHLETES YOUR AGE

Step 1: Get another evaluation of your skills and abilities

Step 2: Research how your skills compare to athletes your age who are committing to schools

Get a senior year evaluation from any of the following sources:

• Attending the camp of a college you’re interested in
• A skills instructor that you trust
• Your high school and/or club coach
• A showcase/combine organization

Now that you’re a senior, it will never be easier to figure out where you should be spending your time with respect to reaching out to college coaches.

While a small percentage of college-bound athletes commit during their freshman and sophomore years of high school, the vast majority decide during their senior years – so don’t panic if you’re a senior and haven’t found the right fit yet!

Now that you’re a senior, take a look around at your peers who are committing to college programs? How do your current measurables, stats, and ability level compare?
Your answer will give you the direction you need for further refining your college coach outreach.

UPDATE YOUR BRX RECRUITING CHART SCHOOLS AND STAY IN CONTACT WITH THEM

Step 1: Review your evaluation feedback

Step 2: Update your target, stretch, and fall-back schools

Step 3: Take a closer look at your fall-back schools if you aren’t getting much interest

Step 4: Stay in contact with schools every 2-4 weeks

Make sure you take your evaluation feedback seriously and update the schools on your list accordingly:

• Target schools: schools that are a good match for your ability level
• Stretch schools: schools that are slightly (not extremely) above your ability level
• Fall-back schools: schools slightly below your ability level or you have low interest in

If you aren’t getting the interest you initially anticipated when you started the process, now is the time to start the full court press, take a closer look at your fall-back schools, or consider the idea of attending a junior college.

Each time a season and/or school year ends, send one-page updates to coaches you have been in contact with to keep them posted on your progress and athletic development.

Make sure you log all communication – both outgoing and incoming – in your BRX Recruiting Chart so you know who you have contacted, who you need to follow up with, etc.

It bears repeating: the vast majority of coaches you send emails to are extremely busy and will not respond. Remember this: all it takes is one. Stay persistent!

REVIEW YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES AND DELETE ANY INAPPROPRIATE MATERIAL

Step 1: Review your social media archives

Step 2: Delete any inappropriate material – even if it’s borderline inappropriate

Not much to say about this besides the obvious: review all of your social media content since you created your accounts and delete anything that could pass as even borderline harmful or inappropriate

UPDATE YOUR HIGHLIGHT/SKILLS VIDEO; NOTIFY ALL COACHES ON YOUR SCHOOLS LIST

Step 1: If uncommitted, make sure your highlight and/or skills video is up-to-date 

Step 2: Notify all coaches on your list of the update to your skills video and videos folder

If you’re still uncommitted, make sure that your main skills and/or highlight video is up-to-date and has your most impressive highlights first. You only have seconds to catch the coach’s eye.

If you had a skills video created your junior year and have made considerable progress since, make sure you have a new video created that reflects your current abilities.

Coaches love seeing progress over time in their recruits; this shows that the athlete they are recruiting is on an upward trajectory. Assuming you’ve completed both an initial assessment and reassessment at BRX, giving the coaches you’re communicating with access to your BRX Dropbox Videos folder is a great way to show this upward trajectory.

Lastly, make sure your folder is organized and viewer-friendly. If there are certain videos that should be deleted, makes sure you reach out to the BRX staff to have it completed.

CONTINUE ATTENDING COLLEGE CAMPS AND REACH OUT TO THE COACHES BEFOREHAND

Step 1: Prioritize college camps that will get you in front of the coaches on your list

Step 2: Reach out to college coaches prior to attending to introduce yourself

Step 3: Follow up soon afterwards to thank them

If you read our recruiting resource College Coach Q&A, it’s pretty clear that attending the camp of a school you’re interested in is one of the best – if not best – way to get a coach’s attention. Here is Yale Lacrosse coach Andy Shay on the importance of camps (which they call “prospect day”):

“The best way to be seen by our coaching staff is to come to our prospect day [camp]. Really, it’s the only way that you can guarantee that we’ll see you. Unfortunately, there will be 100 kids at our prospect day and a large portion of those players aren’t going to end up here. That’s just the reality of recruiting. But, if you do show up to our prospect day, it’s a guarantee that we will see you and be able to evaluate your chances of playing at Yale.”

Now that you’re a senior and it’s go-time, prioritize camps that will get you in front of the coaches on your list.

A friendly reminder: reach out to the coaches who will be in attendance before the camp begins to send a short, personalized message that shows your interest in their program. Send a short thank-you email soon after the camp concludes to express your interest in playing for their program.

TAKE UNOFFICIAL AND/OR OFFICIAL VISITS

Step 1: Schedule unofficial and/or official visits to schools you’re interested in

Step 2: Reach out to coaches beforehand and follow up soon after with a thank you

What’s the difference between “unofficial visits” and “official visits?”

• Unofficial = you pay for your visit and travel expenses; can happen any year in HS
• Official = school pays for your visit and travel expenses; only happen senior year of HS

With that said, official visits are sometimes few and far between. Due to the expensive nature of an all-costs-paid-for weekend and regular athletic department budget cuts, it’s usually only the Division 1 schools with the largest budgets that can offer these sorts of visits. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t offered an official visit – it does not usually mean a coach isn’t interested in you if you are not offered an official visit.

If an official visit is in the cards for you, the coach recruiting you will extend the invitation and tell you everything you need to know about setting it up.

Unofficial visits can be facilitated by one of the coaches or by yourself. If it’s being facilitated by the coach, they’ll likely bring up scheduling an unofficial visit at some point during your recruitment if they’ve been actively pursuing you for a considerable amount of time.

If you are not being actively recruited yet, don’t panic! It’s totally fine to schedule an unofficial visit yourself to tour the campus and facilities. Reach out to the campus admissions department to get all of your questions answered about scheduling an unofficial visit

Important note: even if you orchestrated the unofficial visit yourself, still send the coach a short email a week or two before your visit to notify them that you’ll be visiting the campus; you might be surprised by how many coaches will reply once you have shown the initiative to schedule the visit yourself.

RE-TAKE THE ACT OR PSAT (IF NECESSARY)

Step 1: Re-take the exam if you want to get a better score Step 2: Send your scores to the NCAA eligibility center with code 9999 or NAIA with code 9876

If you are unsatisfied with your first score or simply want to take it again to see if you can improve, you can always re-take the ACT or PSAT.

Once you finish taking the exam, be sure to send your scores to the NCAA eligibility center with code 9999 and/or the NAIA eligibility center with code 9876.

FINALIZE YOUR FINANCIAL AID; MAKE SURE ALL FORMS ARE IN

Step 1: Look through scholarship resource sites to uncover potential financial opportunities

Step 2: Make sure all of your necessary financial aid forms have been submitted

Like you did your junior year, take another look at sites like studentscholarshipsearch.com and bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search to look for potential financial aid opportunities.

Taking the time to look into the opportunities mentioned above will make your senior-year meeting with your school guidance counselor much more efficient.

HAVE FINAL MEETING WITH YOUR COUNSELOR; CONFIRM TRANSCRIPITS HAVE BEEN SENT

Step 1: Confirm you’ve satisfied all academic requirements and eligibility center requirements

Step 2: Make sure your transcripts have/will be sent in

Step 3: Ask any last-minute questions on financial aid

For your final meeting with your school guidance counselor, make sure of the following

• You’ve satisfied all academic requirements for your school of choice
• Your test scores have been sent to the NCAA/NAIAI eligibility centers
• Your transcripts have/will be sent to the NCAA or NAIA
• You have asked any last-minute financial aid questions

LET COACHES OF EVERY SCHOOL KNOW OF YOUR COMMITMENT BEFORE YOU ANNOUNCE IT

Step 1: Personally call every coach who is actively recruiting you to thank them for their time

Step 2: Make your school selection

Step 3: Celebrate!

For some of you, this step will have happened prior to your senior year. Regardless, take this part seriously. You never want to close a door and high integrity is a must. Many coaches spend countless hours recruiting prospective athletes that comes at the expense of time with their families. Make sure you sincerely thank them for their time and effort in recruiting you BEFORE you make your public announcement.

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