The Baseball Observer June 2015 vol 4 | Page 38

Want To Be Recruited? Here’s What The Coaches Say By Staff We sent out a questionnaire to college baseball coaches - sampling coaches from the NCAA, NJCAA, NAIA, CCCAA and NWAC. We received 58 responses back. Below are the questions we asked and the overall theme of each answer. What is the number one way you identify/find a prospective studentathlete?  Network of trusted colleagues was the majority of the responses. College coaches usually have limited staff, budgets and time to do extensive searches/ recruiting so they rely on referrals from people in the sport they trust. Do you utilize the resources offered from recruiting services? if so how much?  Most respondents used them limitedly. They might have an account with one or two but are guarded because these services are in the “sales” business. With the increasing number of high school talent showcases in recent years how important is it for a player to attend this type of event? Do you and/or the coaching staff attend any showcases?  Not terribly important, but have gotten players from these in the past. All had attended at least one. As The Baseball Observer informed readers in the May issue, these events are fundraisers primarily for the schools. This was confirmed by several of the respondents. It helps pay the assistant coaches. But, it might be valuable for a few players to attend because they are seen by a team that might not know about them and every coach said they have identified players from one – but very few.