Recruiting for the Modern Softball Prospect Copyright 2018 by Mark Mulvany

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2 Recruiting for the Modern Softball Prospect Copyright 2018 by Mark Mulvany All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

3 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Chapter 1: Body, Mind & Soul 11 Chapter 2: Think Like a Coach 43 Chapter 3: Can You Play? 57 Chapter 4: Scouting THEN Recruiting 73 Chapter 5: First Communication 86 Chapter 6: The Recruiting Timeline 119 Chapter 7: The Process Unfolds 140 Chapter 8: Personal Branding 163 Chapter 9: Social Media Marketing 180 Chapter 10: Best Recruiting Practices 194 2

4 Marketing for the Modern Softball Prospect If you want a $200,000 scholarship, you need to be willing to put forth $200,000 worth of effort. It s that simple. For a lot of student-athletes, getting their physical skills to the point of being scholarship worthy isn t a problem. There is a lot of scholarship money available for a wide variety of ability levels within college athletics. So, if you can play, there is an opportunity for you to earn scholarship money and continue to play the sport you love. The issue with most players lies in their knowledge of how to market their skills. I ve seen it from all angles. I ve been on the outside looking in as a player and on the inside looking out as a Scout. Early in my career as a hitting instructor I saw a need to establish credibility, so everything I 3

5 discovered about the swing, I shared it with college coaches. Eventually college programs would adopt my instructional techniques and I would start to forge relationships that helped my understanding for how their side of recruiting works. My role in college athletics has changed quite a bit over the last 15-years. I ve gone from a private instructor, select coach, clinician, consultant to the owner of a college scouting agency. My current role allows me to gain insight from the viewpoint of the player, parent and college coach. Within each of those categories there are multiple layers that only make the process more confusing for everyone involved. That s one of the inspirations for this book. I want to help players and parents understand how to win at the marketing process when there are such a wide variety of coaches and programs to market to. Most players are already winning 4

6 at the physical side of softball. In fact, I d bet you re probably a very good ball player! Where most players fail is to even grasp that they have to properly market their skills. Even if they grasp the concept, how are they supposed to know what a college coach is looking for? I can t overstate how big of a gap there is usually between what the parent and player THINK a college coach needs from them to even begin the evaluation process and what the college coach actually NEEDS from the student-athlete. Generally, there doesn t seem to be a lack of effort by the studentathlete and their family when it comes to the recruiting process. Families are spending more money and time than they ever have at any point to chase the dream of a college scholarship. 5

7 Most student-athletes are not being guided by a parent who played a college sport. Those players that are being guided by a parent who played college athletics are being guided by parents whose own recruiting experience will be much different from their own child s journey to college athletics. With the constant changes to technology and rules, parents simply don t have the time to become an expert for their child to help guide them through the process. Where these parents can offer the most value to their daughter is by helping her understand what it takes to develop into a college level athlete. If they approach recruiting with the mentality of, Here is how I got recruited in 1992, then it s going to be a long road. Times have changed. As my 11-year old says to me, Dad, that was back in the 1900 s. The truth is that most players don t go to their #1 school. In far too many cases, it isn t 6

8 because the player wasn t good enough to play at this school or didn t have the grades, it s because they failed at the marketing process. In almost all cases, it s because they student-athlete and their parents don t view recruiting as a marketing campaign, but that is exactly what it is. At the end of your marketing campaign you re asking a coach to invest $20K, $50K, $100K, or maybe $200K in YOU, the product. That s a lot of money for the talents of a 16-year old. When is the last time you purchased a product for $200,000 because someone ed you once? Do you see where I m going with this? We have a generation of players that are sending the wrong information and asking for a $200K payout. That s not a marketing campaign, that s a slap in the face. 7

9 With my company, one quality performance in front of us is likely to reach every single college program a player would ever want to play for. Yet, when I view applications for events we host, I see studentathletes who don t put forth the effort that parallels the opportunity at hand. I m not someone who is going to blame a generation and say they re just being lazy. What I see is a generation who is genuinely confused and who feels like the things they re doing to get recruited aren t working. So, they end up costing themselves recruiting opportunities more often than they think they do. They ve become victims of the process. I m in a position where I m equally involved with players and coaches. On one side, I can relate to the coach who is constantly being given incomplete and irrelevant information. On the other side, I completely understand why parents and 8

10 players don t understand what information they should share with coaches. Again, the accomplishments you may be proud of could be irrelevant to what a college coach needs to know about you. You could have the exact information they need. It could be on the tip of your tongue, but if it stays there, you lose out on an opportunity. Good athletes that have a proper marketing campaign go through the recruiting process with more ease than you could possibly imagine. This whole process is much easier than most people think it is. That is, if you re aiming at the right programs, but I ll save that for later. I can tell you this. When I started working with athletes and started a scouting company, our first Division 1 recruit took a little while. Each subsequent D1 scholarship has happened faster and faster. For example, we 9

11 went from #301-#400 twice as fast as we went from #200-#300. This process is going to be a lot of fun and be extremely rewarding. You re going to be able to create your own marketing campaign and save yourself a lot of time, effort and money in the process. Ultimately, you deserve to go to the best school and college program your academics and athletic abilities can attain. There is a perfect fit for you somewhere. A place where you can play, earn the exact degree that you want and provide you with a free or greatly reduced college education. I hope that this book moves you closer to the best possible college experience for you. Enjoy the journey. 10

12 Chapter 1: Your Product (Body, Mind, Soul) You are now a product. You have features and benefits that will ultimately inspire a coach to make you a scholarship offer. You ve probably never thought of yourself this way and that s perfectly fine. That changes now, because the sooner you can identify what product you re really offering to a school, the sooner a coach can begin deciding if they want to purchase Product A (you) or Product B (your competition). Step 1 in this entire process is identifying who you are. What do you have to offer a college? What are the benefits of having you on their team? Marketing is about what the buyer (the coach) wants. In order for you to market your benefits you must first understand what is actually marketable to a coach. 11

13 Your skill set consists of 3 major components: Body, Mind and Soul. I list these in the exact order that matters to coaches. All 3 of these components that make up your skill set may have equal importance to a coach, however, they will make their judgements on you in this order. That means that if they don t feel like you can physically play (body) then they won t bother checking on your grades. You have to pass off on all 3 components of your skill set before they re ready to offer. Now, the challenging part is that there are thousands of coaches and each of these unique coaches have a unique sliding scale based on how much your body, mind and soul will factor into their decision. It s a tough job for coaches, because they may really like what you do physically, but they just can t see you being an academic fit. They don t 12

14 want to stress out and worry about if you re going to pass a class or not, they want to bring you on campus and KNOW that you re going to be eligible. This isn t baseball. You can t major in Eligibility and wait to be drafted. Body: There are really 2 areas of physical ability. Physical tools and physical skills. Some players have physical tools but don t have a skill set within their sport that allows them to flourish. Physical tools can be measured much easier than physical skill. Tools are essentially what defines your athletic ability while skills are things you can do regardless of athletic ability. Having bat speed is a physical tool, while having bat control is more of physical skill. Physical tools in softball are: Speed, Arm Strength, Defense, Hitting for Average and 13

15 Hitting for Power. For pitchers, their physical tools are Velocity, Control and Movement. A coach is going to look at your physical tools before they consider anything else. Think of your physical tools as the basic requirements it will take to get a coach interested enough to watch what you can do with your physical skills. While your skills may be off the charts, the speed of the game does make basic physical tools a requirement for each level of play. The higher the level of play, the faster the game is, the more necessary it is to have strong physical tools. When it comes to speed, a laser timed or digitally verified home to 1B time or 20-yd sprint time is the Speed category of your physical tools. The skills that exist within each category is vast. One skill that depends on speed is base running. Within base running a coach has to determine how well 14

16 you read the ball off the bat or if you can score from 2B on a base hit. This is really where scouting becomes difficult for a coach. They may have a 2.63 home to 1B runner on their radar, but she may get poor reads off the bat or take a wide path around 2B or perhaps can t time a pitcher to steal bases. All 2.63 runners are not created equal. What a coach has to do is try and determine if a fast player can be taught to run bases properly if she isn t doing so already. What is it about you that makes your speed relevant to a college coach? Do you have a great 20-yd dash time to share or maybe you re a very heads up base runner? It s important to start thinking about your running tool and running skills as components of your marketing program. 15

17 Raw arm strength is another tool that coaches consider. Certain positions on the field require a player to have a very strong throwing arm. SS and Catcher are the 2 positions that have the most emphasis on raw arm strength. Quite simply, how hard can you throw the ball? This is a number that is easily verified at camps and clinics. So, a player shouldn t have trouble getting a verified overhand velocity. It should be done with a reputable radar gun, not a ball with a chip in it. We only take readings from a Stalker Pro 2 gun or from the most recent Pocket Radar. These are considered industry standard and reliable enough for a college coach. Now, while there may be basic arm strength requirements at certain schools for certain positions, how you use your arm strength is also important. Do you throw 70 MPH, but your ball sinks or tails? There are a lot of players that throw hard, but do not 16

18 have accuracy. The length of time it takes you to release a ball is also a skill that colleges have to look at. It won t do a coach any good if it takes you 2 seconds to get rid of a 70 MPH throw. Why is your arm marketable? Do you have an extremely strong arm? Does your ball carry well with proper backspin? Are you accurate? Defensive tools will vary with each position and this is really the first time that we see multiple tools influence another. With defense your tools of speed and arm strength will play heavily into your total defensive ability. If you have enough speed and range you ll get to more balls to field and if you have a strong and accurate arm, you ll throw out more runners. 17

19 For a middle infielder, coaches are going to look at your defensive ability as a top priority. You ll need a surplus of speed and an ability to catch the ball. What usually determines whether you play SS or 2B is arm strength. A lot of players make the move from SS to 2B in college because of the arm strength requirement. Coaches are looking for players who can throw from multiple arm slots, because there is such a wide variety of plays you have to make within different spaces in this sport up the middle. This is your skill set. Arm angles, throwing on the run, turning double plays etc. For a 3B, they re looking for someone with similar tools to a SS, but they don t quite need as much range or as much arm strength. They have less of an area to cover laterally and a shorter throw to make on average. At 1B, they re looking for some length at the 18

20 position but mainly use this spot as a place from someone who crushes the ball. In the outfield, the centerfielder has to be able to run. She has twice as much fair territory to cover compared to corner outfielders. The speed tool in the outfield weighs very heavily on a centerfielder. Corner outfielders are a bit different. Most of the time the corner outfielders are in the game because of their bat first and glove second. All outfielders are judged on their ability to take proper angles to balls and then amount of time to takes the player to release the ball. Coaches are looking for outfielders whose ball carries well, which means a player throws with rapid backspin with no side tilt. For a catcher, most important defensive trait is receiving. Catchers that get strikes called win games. Coaches look for quality receivers and then look for arm strength next. 19

21 In college softball, it is extremely difficult at any level to throw out a base runner on a steal attempt. The faster the game gets, the less footwork and motion a catcher can have prior to release. So, coaches look for catchers with a lot of arm strength, with relatively short arm action. Accuracy plays a huge role as well. When it comes to pitchers the physical tools of command, movement and velocity are key. Command is how well you locate your pitches. You re marketing your ability to throw the ball where you want, when you want. How many batters do you walk per game? How often do you get ahead of a hitter? Movement is how the ball actually breaks. There are tools available that measure spin rate for pitchers, however, this is really only one small component of movement. Movement can be translated to coaches by spin rate measurements, however, there is a 20

22 lot of skill that is involved with movement as well. One of the areas when it comes to skill regarding movement is deception. Your curveball may spin at a D1 level, but if it comes out of your hand and it is obviously a curveball to the batter within the first 8-10 feet, you re toast. Coaches also pay attention to how early or late that a ball breaks. They re curious about how long does your riseball hold the height of a screwball? Does it move gradually, or jump late? Hitting, by far is the most subjective area when it comes to judging physical tools and physical skills. Hitting for power can usually be defined by a player s raw power, which can be a measure of distance when you hit or exit speed. Hitting for average is a bit tougher as a physical tool to define, but bat speed is a good indicator regarding your ability to hit for average. The longer you can wait to commit to a pitch, the more information 21

23 you ll gather about a pitch. Thus, the greater your bat speed, the greater your chances to hit for average. Within the hitting category though, there are so many variables when it comes to the skill part of hitting. Vision, spin recognition, mechanics, bat control and timing all play huge roles in your ability to hit. You may have 80 MPH exit speed, but if you can t recognize a riseball, you ll never hit for power in games. What type of player are you? Now that I ve shared some information about what can define a player physically, what type of player are you? In terms of marketing, you need to start thinking about 22

24 the benefits that your body provides a team. Your physical tools are like your packaging. Let s pretend that you re going shopping for your first car. Let s also pretend that you read this book, put the plan into action and now have a good scholarship, so mom and dad are buying you a much nicer car. You walk onto the car lot and you have an idea for what type of vehicle that you want. Your eye is drawn right way to the vehicles that match your wants. In softball, it s really the same with coaches and players. Your physical tools are your style, color and accessories. These tools are the simplest way for a coach to understand that you can compete at their level. The great thing about physical tools is that whether a ball is hit to you in a game or whether you get a good pitch to hit or not, you can show off physical tools. You can warm up with intensity, you can take game like 23

25 practice swings on deck, you can sprint to your position, you can move between innings with athleticism. When a coach walks onto your field, you need to be showing off your physical tools every chance you get. You have to gain an understanding of who you are physically. Whether it s presenting yourself in a game or presenting yourself in an or at a camp, you have to know who you are. This is also one of the best mental skills building lessons as well. When a coach walks away from the field, how will they remember you? It s really up to you. Do you want to be known as the player who went through the motions like a lot of players will do when it s 100 degrees and you re in game number 5 of the day? I doubt that s who you are. So, it s up to you to determine your physical strengths and start marketing these skills in games. All of the cars on the lot look nice and shiny at 10:00 a.m. after they ve 24

26 been washed, but come back around 4:00 p.m. and you can see which ones start to show dust on their finish. This doesn t mean to ignore coaching signals and steal bases when you re not supposed to. That is the complete opposite of what this strategy is about. This strategy is about focusing your efforts in creating a persona on the field. If your goal is to show EVERYONE at the field that you are fast, have an accurate arm and have great bat speed, you can do this even if you re not playing in a game. You ll be surprised what coaches will see. A lot of times when they ve been at the field for 10-hours, they re just waiting for someone at the park to show some life. Be that person. 25

27 Mind: This section has to be split into two parts. The first being the academic side where you ll need to be an academic qualifier to be able to compete in college and the second being the Softball IQ. As I mentioned earlier in the book, depending on the school the emphasis on academics (mind) will vary. Let s take Harvard compared to Arizona. Harvard s admissions rate is 5%, while Arizona s admissions rate is 76%. If you re the head coach at Harvard, then by default 95% of players that you see will not get into your school. Harvard is still going to go through the process just like everyone else, however, there is a big difference. They first, have to make their list of players by eliminating 95% 26

28 of players, who would not be able to get into Harvard, period. Once they do this, then the start just like everyone else. They start by looking at the physical tools and physical skills (body). Then, they circle back to academics (mind). It would be a colossal waste of time for Harvard to blindly evaluate all players, just to find the 5 out of every 100 who may have a chance of actually being accepted into the University. Arizona, on the other hand is trying to win a Women s College World Series every year. Yes, academics are important, however, academics only disqualify a small percentage of prospects who UA would be interested in. This information is critical for you to understand. These two programs are on complete opposite spectrums of D1 softball. One is trying to win a national championship and the other is trying to be competitive and 27

29 win with a very small pool of players to choose from. If you re going to contact Harvard, the plan is simple. They can t consider your athletic abilities until you meet some basic academic requirements. Their ultimate decision making will still funnel through the Body, Mind and Soul approach, however, before they can get you into their recruiting funnel you have to prove your academic worthiness. In my experience, it s pretty simple. If you want to go to Harvard, you ll have no problem at all doing the research to find out what it takes academically to get into Harvard. Nobody ends up at Harvard by accident or by chance. It s an intentional decision to be proactive and accomplish a mission. If you re not willing to do the research it takes on a school to even find out if you re an academic fit, then honestly, you don t really want to play there any way. 28

30 There are over 1,500 college softball teams. No two programs are identical and no two colleges are identical. This is probably the part of the process that requires the most discipline by a student-athlete. You see, you re not a tube of toothpaste. You re not a product that 100% of people need. You have one product to sell and you re going to market yourself to a group of customers that you get to know very well. You ll see later that I m not asking you to contact 100 schools, because that doesn t work. That s toothpaste marketing! You have to have an understanding of your academic qualifications. This is easy. You get a report card, GPA, class ranking, SAT and ACT scores etc. This isn t like some of the travel ball coaches who are known to add 5 MPH to every pitcher s velocity when they talk about them or subtract.10 seconds off 29

31 their home to 1B time. Academics are straight forward most of the time and provide factual information. You are going to have to identify the schools that have very strict academic requirements and communicate your qualifications early. That s the difference in contacting Harvard and Arizona. Harvard is going to need to see academic qualifications before they can get serious about evaluating you. Arizona, on the other hand, is going to need to know you can play ball. They re going to need to know why you re their next national champion. There is a big difference between the marketing strategy for those two schools, even though they will still make their decisions by going through the same stages. Don t be too intimidated though, because most players who are serious about recruiting 30

32 are choosing schools with similar academic requirements. Most players are not choosing between Arizona and Harvard. So, while it may seem like you re going to have to put in hours and hours of work per school to find your perfect marketing campaign, don t sweat it! As I said, most likely you re going to be going after similar schools who are going to have similar requirements. If you re not doing that, then perhaps it s time to reexamine your strategy for choosing schools. Usually that s a sign that your focus hasn t been narrowed enough to really accomplish your goals. The other side of this is the Softball IQ. Quite simply, do you make intelligent decisions on the field. One of my favorite things to tell players is what when they get to college, decision making wins. The physical difference between Ole Miss and Mississippi State is miniscule. When these 31

33 two teams play they feature outstanding athletes with physical tools and physical skill. When all things else are equal, decision making wins games. It s extremely important to demonstrate good decision-making ability on and off the field. Usually, the decision making on the field is easy for players. Softball IQ doesn t only refer to your ability to be heads up on the field, it refers to your ability to be heads up off the field. This means that when you decide to target Harvard, you can t communicate with them like you would Arizona. One of the first things you need to do, just like I did early in my career, is establish credibility with college coaches. You can establish your own credibility by demonstrating you have a working knowledge of their program. If you send an to Harvard and it doesn t have 32

34 academic qualifications, then you may never have an opened by their coaches again. Send an to Arizona where you only share your SAT score and 4.0 GPA with no proof you can play ball and you may never have your opened again. As I said, being heads up on the field is natural for players. The issue is that you can ruin your chances of a school even seeing if you ve got a high Softball IQ on the field, if you communicate poorly to get their attention. You ll need to keep track of your academic information and share this with coaches when it s appropriate. Arizona probably doesn t need to know your GPA until they ve watched you play or evaluated you through video etc. There is a time to communicate this information, because it is important. Make sure that your 33

35 communication fits with the colleges needs and pay special attention to any programs that may have tough academic requirements. Soul: You ve probably never had anyone mention your Soul as a recruiting tool. Your soul is EVERYTHING that your Body and Mind don t define about you. There is a really great chance that there is another player out there who is the same age, plays the same position, has very similar athletic ability with almost identical academic qualifications who wants to go to your top school. So, how do coaches decide who to offer? Soul. Your Soul is present on and off the field. It s easy to spot the players who are there to hang out versus those who are there to compete. Coaches gravitate towards players who play with passion. When you play, the 34

36 reason that you play the game has to be visible. It s a healthy mental skill to have along with a great marketing tool when you re in front of a coach. Let your Soul shine when you play this game. Something deep down makes you play this extremely hard game and compete every weekend. Show that determination and joy when you play the game. Control your composure and handle adversity because that s your Soul too. It s what your made of. A few years ago, at a Scout Softball event we were at a Division 1 college in the summer hosting an event. At this event was a baseball player whose sister was at the event. He would end up being a Top 5 MLB draft pick the next year. He had just pitched in the College World Series and the boys at a baseball camp next door were very excited to see him around. I watched him throw the football with his little brother between his 35

37 sister s games. I sat and watched him hold an umbrella in the stands for his mother and grandmother. I knew what he was made of and where his priorities were in life. A few players from the college softball team came out and sat in the stands. They were getting in some extra work in the cage during one of our games. The extra work was fitting because they won about 20% of their games the previous year. When they sat in the stands I was shocked. They presented themselves in such a negative way, where they would take up multiple rows by stretching out, speaking loudly about players on the field which is generally not the way you would want a program to be represented. I couldn t believe it. On one hand, you ve got a future top 5 MLB draft pick making sure his mother and grandmother have shade, while unsuccessful 36

38 players show a lack of respect and present a bad image for the softball program. Your actions matter more than you know. If a coach observes you in person and has interest in you, then you better believe they re going to see what you do when you exit the field. How do you interact with your parents? Do you pull out your cell phone to connect with other friends, instead of relishing in a hard-fought victory or defeat with your teammates who are present. Does your dad carry your bag? Are you the only person out of the dugout while trash is being picked up? If you re serious about playing ball for a program that you ll love then you have to start paying attention to these little details. Whether it s on the field or off the field, your Soul is the positive image that you want to project. Like most things in this book, on the 37

39 field is the easy part. Most players only need to make a few adjustments on the field to be successful. I know that sometimes 15-year olds and their parents don t get along, that s life. But, I can assure you that a coach has made a decision to offer one player over another simply based on a Yes Sir when a player s dad asked them if they were hungry after a game. Character matters. Respect matters. Sometimes when you re at the ball field for 5-games in 90-degree heat it s easy to lose sight of how we project our image. The reason I use the word Soul, is because I want every action you take to be intentional and to be from the Soul. Don t be afraid to be you when everyone else on your team is afraid to stand out and own their personality. You see, your Body and Mind are tools. Your Soul is a skill. How hard you work, how 38

40 hard you run out a ground ball and your grades are a reflection of your Soul not the physical tools you were born with. You don t have to be born with certain athletic gifts or intelligence to run out a ground ball, work hard and make good grades. You don t have to throw 70 MPH to work hard. You don t have to run a 2.6 to run out a ground ball. You don t have to have a 130 IQ to have a 4.0 GPA. For this book, your Soul is what drives you, what motivates and what makes you, YOU! Marketing your Soul is a lot of fun. Never pretend to be something or someone you re not. You d never market yourself as a power hitter if you only slapped, so when you re in situations where your personality should be on display, then be you. For example, let s go to a week-long camp at your top school. One of your goals while you re there is to see if your personality fits with the coaching staff. 39

41 Now, keep in mind camp is different than playing for the school. Most coaches are relaxed in a camp setting, but the intensity will turn up if you re there to help them win games. But, nonetheless this is good insight into how personalities may mesh. My best advice is to be yourself. If your personality is to cut up a little bit, then do it. Some coaches are OK with this, some are not. It s the only way you re going to find out if they re a fit for you and if you re a fit for them. The same advice applies when it comes to your communication with coaches. When a 14-year old s a college coach, it should sound like a 14-year old ed a college coach. It shouldn t sound like mom or dad ed the coach. By the way, they can spot those s very easily. Those go into the trash. 40

42 When your marketing your Soul, you re marketing what you re like as a teammate and a player as well. It is important that coaches also know what is important to you. Your communication will provide them with this information, whether you know it or not. The best way to go about this is by being intentional with your marketing. What I mean by this, is that if you spam 100 coaches on the same (bad idea), they ll know that softball is not your priority. On the other hand, if you want to Harvard and provide them with your GPA and ACT scores in your first , they will know that you ve done your research and are prepared. If all things else are equal with you and your scholarship competition, and they can be, your Soul is the deciding factor. They ll take the player who works hard, who 41

43 communicates well and who has a demeanor that clicks with the program. Every bit of communication and exposure puts your Soul on display. Think about the image you want to portray and make it happen. It should come easily as you re wanting a place to play where you can be yourself. Think like a coach when it comes to marketing the Body and Mind. When it comes to marketing your Soul, it s your job to allow a coach to see who you are and what drives you. Think about what you have to offer besides your physical tools, softball IQ and academics. At some point, you re going to market these qualities as well. 42

44 Chapter 2: Think Like a Coach Thinking like a coach is probably the most difficult thing for a student-athlete or parent to do in the recruiting process. The coaching profession at the collegiate level is simply hard to relate to. Imagine that you re in charge of a division in a very large, very successful company. A company where being second best is not an option. There are probably a lot of parents that can relate to this type of environment. Now, let s say that you re in the last year of your contract and slightly underperformed last year. There is good news though, you ve got 6 new employees coming to work in September and if they do well, you get to keep your job. The only problem is that you had to hire these employees when they were 15-years old and you re just hoping they 43

45 stayed on their path the past 3-years and are ready to contribute. After all, you ve got 2 kids at home that love their school and have made new friends since their last move 2- years ago. This isn t the world many of us know. It s a world where you can be the greatest hitting coach or pitching coach and lose your job based off of the performance of 18-year olds that you had to recruit when they were 14 or 15. That s the world college coaches live in. They are having to make judgements on prospects who haven t even figured out who they are yet. Coaching is a risky business where you win or you get fired. So, the first thing you have to do is respect the profession. Now, I don t mean you have to like every college coach you see or come in contact with, but you should respect the profession. Don t send an asking for a 44

46 scholarship on your first attempt, that s disrespectful. Understand that it will take time for them to feel comfortable enough with your entire skill set to say YES. When you participate in the recruiting process in a respectful manner, then the process can move forward. Often times you ll find the process can accelerate very quickly. Every coach has a mind of their own, so thinking like a coach can be challenging. How do you market yourself to an audience of thousands of coaches that all have different opinions on athletes? You don t. Your marketing campaign is always geared toward 1 coaching staff at a time. Mass communication is the easiest way to disrespect the coaching profession. First, they can tell that it is mass communication. They don t see the value in considering a player who couldn t be bothered to send a personal 45

47 message. So, before you send your next to your favorite 300 schools, understand that most of those will cross you off their list. You are usually dealing with someone who played your sport at a high level that has incredible respect for the game. Any time you disrespect the process you ll get a strong reaction and most likely have future communication routed to their junk mail folder. I suggest starting with 5-schools to begin communication with. This is marketing, so we have to have a strategy. When you advertise, you have to know your audience. You have to know what they need in order to sell them your product. You ll craft one certain message to a specific group of people. You ll see how this message is received before you invest more time and money into spreading this message to others. The same process applies to recruiting. 46

48 I m going to ask you to invest the same amount of time into 5-schools as you may have been investing with 100-schools. This process is about quality over quantity. It s a way to narrow your focus and allow you to start a real marketing campaign. When you focus on 1 school at a time and limit yourself to only 5, you ll gain a better understanding of how you should communicate with the coaching staff at each school. You ll grow that number, but you need to build your marketing skills first. How you should communicate has nothing to do with your writing style or personality. It has everything to do with that coaching staff s specific set of needs. You need to think like the coach you are marketing your skill set to. What type of athlete do they recruit? What is their graduation rate? What was their team GPA? What type of personalities are on the team? 47

49 I know this sounds like you re going to have to break into their office or go undercover within the athletic department to gather this information, but you re going to be able to answer all of these questions with the phone that you re either reading this on, or that is in your pocket. All of this information is available and you re going to be able to learn everything you need to about a program by doing this research. I fully understand that I m asking you to do a lot of work here on each school, but remember, you re only concentrated on 5- schools right now. In the end, you could end up with a free college education worth more than $200,000. That s an investment in YOU from a coach. One of my favorite things about college softball is that it starts your journey as an adult with an investment. A coach thinks enough of your skill set to invest 48

50 a large amount of money into you. You may think they are only investing in the 4-years they have you on campus, but that investment lasts a lifetime. Let s first start with the type of athletes they recruit. Sometimes it s very obvious when you look at a roster that coaches like players that are a certain height. If you re a 5 2 pitcher and you re crafting a marketing campaign for a school that has only had pitchers 5 9 or taller in the last 8-seasons, then your message needs to be obvious. Coach, I m projected to grow 7-inches over the next 2-years! Although I m kidding about the last sentence, these are things you have to consider. I m not saying you shouldn t contact that school, I m asking you to dig deeper. I m asking you to be creative. What would a 5 9 pitcher do that a 5 2 pitcher can t? 49

51 One of the ways you can get inside the mind of the coach is to research the most successful players in their program that they have coached. What do they physically have in common with you? Is there physical frame similar to yours? Is there game similar to yours? The more research you ll do, the more answers you ll come up with. When you go down this path, you re going to inherently learn more and more about the program the deeper you dig. You can look through a team s stats year by year on their website to see trends. Are they a power hitting team? Do they steal a lot of bases? Do they have pitchers that strikeout a lot of batters? Over time the picture will paint itself. All you have to do is figure out how you fit into the picture? Keep in mind that sometimes you may discover that this school is going to be a big reach based on the type of player they consistently recruit versus 50

52 your physical tools. At the end of the day, School Z may be your dream school, but if their coach likes players who are the opposite of you, then you ve got to move on to the next program. It s tough, because a lot of us make a declaration at a young age at what our favorite college is before we ever thought about playing college ball. It s tough to let go, but sometimes we need to in order to go to our real perfect school. Let s say that you re a slapper and you re looking at schools. Well, it would be difficult to market your slapping skills to a team that hit 120 HR last year. If you picked 5-schools in this same situation, then you ve really haven t picked any schools. As you go through your process of finding 5-schools to start with, it s important that you consider which options are going to be most likely. Your first list of 5-schools should all be 51

53 programs your physical skills match up well with. Academics is a much easier area to research. First, you re looking for general information regarding the college. A simple search will return the SAT/ACT scores needed for entrance into the school along with more detailed information regarding admissions. It s impossible to play softball at a school that won t admit you based on academics. The reason that this piece of the puzzle is so important is that it helps you start narrowing your focus on academics and planning for your future. The other benefit is that it allows you to have respectful communication with a coach regarding their school. You wouldn t want to a coach and mention how much you want to find a great nursing program when they don t offer 52

54 one. So, you re making sure that you re not wasting your time with a school that you can t gain admission to who doesn t offer a major you re interested in. One of the ways a coach builds their resume is through academic recognition. A lot of times a losing season can be forgiven when the coach graduated 100% of players on-time and has a high team GPA. These types of announcements will be posted as news stories on a team s website. This information is very important to know about a school. You will see a trend among coaches who really emphasize recruiting the STUDENT in the student-athlete. This will provide insight into their mindset and how you might be able to market your academics stronger at times than your physical skills. As you make your list of these 5-schools, start following the coaching staff on social 53

55 media. They use social media as a way to promote their program. You can gain an understanding of what is important to the coach a lot of times based on what they choose to post. You have to remember that you are also choosing where you want to play and who you want to play for. Now, the where you play part of that equation is more important than who you play for. Who you play for can change suddenly. Coaches take other coaching jobs and they also get fired, it s part of college softball. Make sure that if this happens, you re in a place you want to be at. Another part of social media is following players and team accounts. The team accounts do a great job of giving insight into the program. Did a team have a lip sync battle on a long bus ride? How does the team travel? I mean, have you seen the private plane Texas A&M took to California? I like for prospects 54

56 to follow players of teams they re interested in on social media. A lot of times they ll give you incredibly detailed insight into what it s like playing for a school and a behind the scenes look. You don t have to judge the experience based on your official visit only, you can spend a few years ahead of your visit learning everything you need to know about a program. Understand that social media is a marketing tool for colleges. I suggest following multiple players from the same team so that you re not just viewing a program from the lens of one person. The experience of an All-American is probably different from a pinch runner. You want to know what life will be like in all roles because no role is guaranteed at the next level. As you start to think about your marketing plan you have to think about your Body, Mind and Soul and how those product 55

57 features will be beneficial to a specific coach. Your performance will have an impact on their life. The way their team performs (Body), their team GPA (Mind) and their clubhouse chemistry (Soul) all depend on you. 56

58 Chapter 3 Can You Play? I ll jump right into it. Those people that are telling you to send lengthy s to schools listing your grades, hobbies, community service, SAT scores etc. are giving you information that simply wastes time. If you ve been doing this, you ll probably be shocked at how many times your s have been deleted prematurely. All of those accomplishments are things to be proud of and may be used at some point for a coach to make a determination on your future within their program. The issue is that NONE of those things matter until you answer the question, Can you play? This is the #1 question a coach has about you. Yes, they care about their graduation rate, their team GPA, however, if they don t 57

59 win, they lose their job. You are their job security. You will determine if they have to move their family across the country to take another job at some point. So, you better be able to play. It s a tough situation though, proving you can play. When I speak to a student-athlete and their parents I use the following scenario; Your top school has just lost a commitment in your graduating class, who plays your position, who has the exact same abilities as you and they are looking for a replacement TODAY. What can you do to prove you re worthy of that scholarship? Do you think this situation is unrealistic? It happens quite frequently. The issue is that most players are completely unprepared for this opportunity if it were to happen. It s not a matter of IF an opportunity like this comes up, it s a matter of WHEN. If you don t have 58

60 relevant information in front of coaches that they can actually use, then you re missing out on opportunities on a regular basis. Modern technology has opened up a lot of different ways to demonstrate ability. Some student-athletes are still sending out a PDF profile with their picture and a list of camps they ve attended. They believe that this is enough proof of their abilities to inspire a college coach to board the next Southwest Airlines flight to watch them play 5 meaningless pool games at a tournament with 5,000 players, of which less than 50% of those players have collegiate ability. Trust me, they re not going to change their plans, board with the C Group and take a middle seat because of a Word Document you sent to 900 other coaches on the same . Let s get down to business, shall we? 59

61 College coaches have specific things they need to see and know about you in order to make determinations regarding your skills and athletic ability. Each coach may have a different opinion regarding how important certain attributes are, but your job is to make sure they can make these judgements to the best of their ability. First, seeing is believing, so athletes need to believe in being seen. Your job as a student-athlete is to make sure that they can do their job of evaluating you to the best of their abilities. This means that you have to go into this process not only knowing, but truly understanding that there are coaches that thought Monica Abbot lacked control. Coaches that thought Emmit Smith was too slow. Coaches that thought Albert Pujols had a long swing. Michael Jordan wasn t even a #1 overall pick. You will probably be overlooked and underestimated. It happens to 60

62 almost every athlete during this process. You have to understand that in the end you only get to say YES to one school and the longer you dwell on those that said NO to you, the longer it takes for you to find your YES PROGRAM! Video (Thanks YouTube)! If you re a high school athlete you may not remember a time before cell phones had HD video. You may not even know that YouTube is relatively new to this world. A lot of people speak out on early recruiting in sports and I agree with the stance 100%. What I understand a bit differently from others though, is that college coaches are not bad people for early recruiting. What they are, is a group of people who work in a profession that has been revolutionized when it comes to recruiting. Video is really to blame (if we re going to blame anything). Because of video, 61

63 colleges can watch more prospects in 2-hours in their office than they could in 2-months on the road. Video has allowed coaches to arrive at a decision on a student-athlete much quicker and with much more information than ever before. As video quality and video sharing continues to improve, the speed at which they can work will continue to accelerate. Softball is a unique sport, because the skills that need to be demonstrated to a college coach can be seen through a workout or in a game. Each of which can be filmed and sent to college coaches very quickly. Let s first address the Skills Video. Skills Video: Context Matters A skills video is a great way to demonstrate your abilities to colleges. 62

64 Remember, your skills video should answer the question, Can You Play? So, while there are a lot of options when it comes to actually filming a video or using a video service, there are some other things to consider first. First, the context of your performance has to be taken into consideration. Are you at a college camp? Are you at the local field with dad hitting and throwing to you? Is a professional organization with a quality reputation filming you? This matters greatly. Coaches are skeptical about anything they see from a source they are not familiar with. Coaches prefer to see players within the context of a competitive event, however, that s not always available. There is a simple way to determine how to film and edit a video based on the context of the footage. The greater the reputation of the event that is 63