RECRUITING | trap

Recruiting Guidance for Players & Parents

As part of running an elite travel ball program, we are constantly encountering players and parents that are confused about the recruiting process. We hope this information will help educate you.

"How to get recruited" is a complicated subject which is not the intent of this information. We hope to provide you some very basic guidance.

"When should I begin the recruiting process?"

To answer that, you need to understand how the college coaches are currently approaching recruiting. College programs are looking at players at younger and younger ages. Some of the elite D1 programs are completing their recruiting classes almost 2 years in advance. For example, by the end of the fall of a HS juniors fall season, most of the elite D1 programs are done recruiting that class. That means that in the following summer and fall, they are focused on evaluating and getting commits from rising HS juniors.

Additionally, college softball programs have a limited number of scholarships which translates into dollars that they can offer as athletic scholarships. The earlier they are in their recruiting process, the more money they have available to offer.

Idealy, we recommend beginning the recruiting process at the 14U level in order to get into the early phases of the process.

Here's a writer's view of the process in 2013.

"How do I get the necessary exposure?"

In order to get the exposure to college coaches, you need two things. Preparation and opportunity. Preparation is you being ready to showcase your talents and skills. Opportunity is having the venue with the colleges you are interested in attendance. A large part of the preparation is under your control. Conditioning, practice, lessons, etc.. But the opportunities are much less under your control. It's important that you play for an organization that:
1). Plays a schedule with tournaments that the colleges you are interested will attend.
2). Has the college coaching contacts to ensure they will attend your game. Remember, there can be 100 or more teams at a showcase tournament.
3). Has a track record of placing girls into similar programs

Most times, one at bat or one game won't cause you to loose the opportunity you seek. Everyone has a bad play or game, but the more opportunities you have to showcase you talents, the greater your chance is of getting the opportunity you want.

In summary, if you are talented and driven to play college softball, you should start playing at the 14U age group for an organization that knows how to help you develop your talents and provide you with the opportunities to showcase them in front of the schools you are interested in attending.

Best of luck,

Lady Lightning Softball