Episode Transcript
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[00:01:10] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. Mandy Kittis joined with my wonderful co host Keith Glasser. How we doing?
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Great. How are you?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Good. Today we're going to talk about commitment etiquette. It is that time of year where kids are starting to commit both at the Division 1 and the Division 3 levels too as well.
And how to do this properly, I think is something that we may have touched on in the past, but we're going to make it a point of emphasis for this evening because I do think that there is a way to go about it that will leave a good taste in the mouth of the coaches that you ultimately are going to say no to. So what are your thoughts on this, Coach?
[00:02:02] Speaker C: I think the, the proper thing to do after you decide of what school you're going to first and foremost is obviously to call said staff and tell them that you are committing to their school.
Then before you do anything for a social media standpoint, and it doesn't have to be, you know, immediate, right. But within the next 24 hours and before you put anything out on Twitter or Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, any of the other interweb social media platforms that you can find, you should call all of the coaches that have at least expressed more than just the, the, an email back to you, you know, maybe some schools that have offered you and other schools that maybe you've, you've had a handful of conversations with and just let them know that you've committed to the school in which it is that you have committed to, it's the right thing to do. It shows good faith. It also, you know, instead of them finding out via Twitter, it doesn't burn that bridge.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: You know, I.
It's a tough thing to do, but there is the easiest thing to do is just to make the phone call, tell them 99.999, repeating, of course, percent of the time, the coaches will say, hey, you know, thanks for the phone call. I wish you the best of luck. Let us know if anything changes. And that's not really an empty statement, you know, really like if something was to change, whether in a month or a year or three years or four years and you want a postgrad there, it's not an empty statement. You should reach out, you know, if you want to and you really enjoyed that place and think that might be a fit for you later on down the road, that's fine, but that's the right thing to do. And then once you've, you know, at least let them know, you know, you might not get everyone on the phone, you know, leave a voicemail, but once you've done that, then you're free and clear to go ahead and post whatever you want and tell the world where it is that you plan on playing baseball for the next four or five years.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's.
This isn't going to be a long conversation because I think it really is that straightforward, right? These coaches, they spend enough time recruiting you, talking to you on the phone, maybe you've taken a visit and you owe them the common courtesy of letting them know firsthand that you're going to make a decision to go somewhere else.
The last thing you want is for those coaches to find out on social media that you planned on going somewhere else.
It's just a good way to handle yourself.
It is the uncomfortable part of this process. With that being said, if you're in a situation where you have to call several coaches to tell them, hey, I'm going somewhere else, your recruiting process probably was fairly successful.
But give them the common courtesy, show them the respect that they, they deserve in terms of letting them know firsthand from you and don't rush to make that commitment. Post. You know, if it takes you 48 hours to track guys down and get on the phone with coaches and be able to tell them, take your time with that. There's no rush. I know it's exciting to be able to put that post up, but at the end of the day, I think it's more important to, to handle this like an adult, handle it professionally and make sure that you, you know, you leave a good taste in the mouth of those coaches that spend enough time to recruit you.
As far as the post goes, what I would say is make sure you give a shout out to some people that help you throughout the process. Right.
I think that that's important. Your high school coaches, your high school program, your travel program.
You know, maybe it's somebody who helped you out throughout the recruiting process. Like very few kids go, go at this alone. Right. I think it's just good practice to acknowledge the people that help you, you know, so be able to, you know, don't hesitate to tag some of those coaches and some of the people that have helped you. They deserve a little bit of recognition. None of this comes together by itself.
So, you know, make sure you make it a thoughtful post.
Include the people that matter, you know, thank mom and dad, of course, and yeah, but just be thoughtful about how you handle it and don't rush to get to that post without doing exactly what Coach Glass said, which is you need to follow up with these coaches and let them know you made a decision. They deserve that and it's just the right way to handle it.
Sure.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: I think that it is as straightforward as we're saying it is.
You know, I think there can be some anxiety around the fact of calling coaches and tell them that you're going somewhere else, which is completely normal. On the same hand, it's the right thing to do. And again, every time anyone ever called me to tell me that they were not coming to West Alabama Siena rpi, it was always met with a, hey, appreciate the phone call letting us know. I wish you the best of luck. Let us know if there's anything that changes in the future, you know, so it's just the right thing to do. You're not really, you know, again, coaches hear no more than they say yes. So it's not something that is.
Is really going to be a detriment to the conversation or to you. You know, obviously the coaches are going to be a little like, gosh, I wish we got that kid. That one stings a little bit, because you do develop the relationship, you know, but on the same hand, you know, you usually have a pretty good feeling as to whether or not you're going to get them in. 99.9 times when you get a text that says, like, hey, do you have a couple minutes to talk? You know what it is, you know, that you're, for lack of a better term, getting broken up with and.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: They'Re.
[00:08:09] Speaker C: Not going to be playing baseball at your program. Uh, you know, so again, I think there can be some anxiety around the phone call, but it's the right thing to do and it kind of preps you for other times trying to. Starting to have some tough conversations. And again, it's not really a tough conversation. It's just, hey, I really appreciate you seeing interest in me and recruiting me and taking the time to talk on the phone and show me around campus, whatever it might be. Really do appreciate that, but I'm going to Marist College and, you know, again, I appreciate it and I wish you the best of luck. And they're going to say something to the effect of, thanks for letting me know, appreciate it and wish you the best.
Let us know if anything else changes in the future.
So, you know, super easy to do, but, you know, I think it's necessary.
I think it is very necessary because I think that if you don't do that or at least attempt to do that, and, you know, there's many times that I found out that kids were going to another school on X or Twitter, formerly Twitter, X, whatever we call it, and that, you know, it's not necessarily the best way to find out that someone you spent, you know, some time on, you know, the phone with, showing around campus, meeting with their family, that they're not coming to your school, you know, so the right thing to do is to at least acknowledge the fact that they, they took the time, energy and effort to do that and, and thank them for it.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the only thing, the only other thing I'll add is that if you do end up in a situation where you make a phone call to the coach and the coach is less than pleased that you're not going there, it probably just reinforces the fact that that wasn't the right place for you.
This, like you said, as a coach, you get told no way more than people think. And yeah, as a.
As somebody who's supposed to be the adult in the room, I think it's important to acknowledge and respect a decision that a kid makes. And, you know, you don't always come out on top in the recruiting process. So if you do run into that situation, like I said, it kind of hammers home that that probably isn't the right fit and, you know, handle it, handle it calmly and move on and enjoy the place that you're going to go play at, because you probably made the right decision that way. So.
But don't rush to make the post. I think that's the.
That and making sure you follow up with coaches is really the message here. It's the right thing to do. So anything else you want to add? Coach?
Nope.
All right.
Shore and Sweet today.
Hope that gave you a little bit of guidance on how to handle this. I hope for you listeners you get to make these phone calls because that may that means some things weren't right.
But tune in next week and we will talk to you then. Thanks everybody.
Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.
