RECRUITING FROM THE COACH’S PERSPECTIVE

College recruitment is a two way street.  As much as you and your player are seeking to narrow her choices, the college coach is seeking to narrow his.  The fact is that the coach is not looking for a reason to keep your player on her list, but a reason to eliminate her.  This is an important thing for you to remember.  For every opening available, a coach may get dozens of qualified players inquiring about a spot on the team and may see a few more while going to showcases or tournaments.  The difference between these players is probably very small from a talent perspective. Ultimately, the coach is going to narrow that list by a number of criteria, but she will look for ANY reason to strike the player off the list.  For this reason your player should assume that she is always being watched by coaches.  Specifically, I have heard of coaches crossing players off their lists for all the following:

A.     Smoking

B.     Being too happy a workout was over

C.     How they related to other players

D.     How they related to parents

E.      How they related to coaches

F.      Reacting badly to bad things on the field

G.     Arguing with umpires

H.     Wacky or intrusive parents.

Also, after talking to dozens of college coaches I have come to realize that they look for and actually want to see players make mistakes.  Mistakes, errors, strikeouts are always going to happen during a season.  The college coach wants to see how the players react to failure-whether they hang their head and mope or whether the can refocus and make the next play, get the next good at bat, and cheer their teammates on in the face of their own failure.