Episode Transcript
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[00:01:10] Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. I'm Andy Kira Kitties, joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How are we doing, sir?
[00:01:19] Speaker C: Great. How are you?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Good. We are going to take a second to kind of peel back the veil on kind of the college recruiting calendar from a coach's perspective and kind of give a lay of the land of how coaches at a high level kind of go about handling recruiting in the spring and as well as some of the stuff that goes on during the summer and the different timelines and different plans that coaches can kind of put together. I think, I think it's important for people to understand some of the, maybe some of the limitations, but also just understand how coaches kind of go about things. And yeah, it'll take a few minutes to unpack that subject. So where do you want to start? With this one coach.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I thought that if you've listened to this long enough, you've heard us talk about this in pieces over the course of a lot of different podcasts, but I don't think we've ever done a. I know that we haven't because I have a list of them all.
We've never done a kind of dedicated short to what a generalized recruiting calendar might look like from a coach's perspective in the spring and summer.
So I thought we could take a couple minutes and just kind of hash it out and give the listeners a little bit of an idea of what it looks like. So, you know, I think first and foremost, you obviously start in the spring, right with the high school game and when the Division 1 recruiting calendar goes live on March 1.
So when coaches can then, you know, leave campus and go out and watch players play.
Obviously in certain parts of the country, high school baseball is not being played at that point in time. That is here in Rochester recording this on St. Patrick's Day. And it was 68 degrees yesterday on Monday and we got three inches of snow last night. So riddle me that, Batman.
But the, you know, I think from a high school standpoint you have a. You have to understand that the college coaches, first and foremost or in season, during your season, doesn't mean that there's not going to be coaches at games. It just means that, you know, their most programs in this country are not going to sacrifice coaches on the road during practice and game time.
Are you going to see them? Yeah. It's going to depend on what class schedules and how their practice schedule sets up during the course of the year. Right. You know, when I was at Siena, we, we'd be able to practice at one o'. Clock. We were off the field by three and we were able to get to a lot of high school games and see everybody all week long. As long as we weren't playing games.
You know, I was coaching RPI. I couldn't practice with class schedules till about 4.
Wasn't a lot of high school games I could get to. I get to them on Mondays or off day. But you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it was a little bit more of a struggle for me to get there, obviously because of our practice time.
So, you know, generally speaking, coaches are going to be going out and seeing all of the local high school kids that they either know about or a need to know about so that they have a really good feel on everybody, it is in their area who is potentially recruitable to their program.
The other thing you might be doing during the spring is if there's an arm or a bat, maybe a high level arm or a high level bat that you've known about, you knew about in the fall, followed all winter. He's made a jump and you want to go see him in the spring. You might take a little bit more of a longer drive on maybe, maybe he's thrown on Monday and it's your off day. You can jump in the car and go watch someone play or even a commit, right. Like it might be an arm that is committed that is throwing on Monday and you want to go see how his, you know, where he's at and what he's doing. You know, you can go jump in a car and go watch him Play and make sure that you know, you're, you're down your T's and crossing your eyes from that standpoint. So it's kind of a general generalization of what the high school season kind of looks like.
And again, a lot of that is centered around the fact and you have to keep this in mind that the college coaches are playing during your season.
I think the other thing too, especially at high school games, you know, generally speaking, a lot of those guys, unless they're going to stand behind a home plate with a radar gun, you're probably not going to know a lot of them are there. They're going to go incognito and try to not be no noticed. And it's true of a lot of, a lot of college coaches. They want to make, you know, they want, they want to see what you're doing when you think no one's watching. Right? Like they want to see who are you when you think no one's there. If I tell you I'm coming and you're on your best behavior, I'm not really getting a, a true depiction of, of who I, who you might be.
So a lot of times guys will show up and kind of hide and see what, see what they can discern.
But you know, from, we'll get into the summer here in a second, I'll let you add on here to the spring. But I just thought that from a high school standpoint that's kind of the, a very generalization, generalized approach that the vast majority of college baseball will take. Are there going to be, you know, are the SEC and the ACC flying around the country in some regards? Yeah, they are.
You know, they have more staff, they have more resources, they have the capability to do that. They're, they're, they need to know the best players in the country where the vast majority of college baseball really just need to know the best players in their area, best players in their region that they might be recruiting.
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[00:07:40] Speaker B: yeah, I would say probably I'll kind of go back to my days at William and Mary were, I think the best way to put it is that you're, you're pretty targeted during the spring.
Most of it is more on the local side. Like we were, we were very much focused on making sure that we had a good beat on the state of Virginia, you know, being a Virginia state school. So tried to go see arms whenever possible.
One of the luxuries I think you do have at most schools is that you can usually kind of get your practices done before like 3, 3:30, and give yourself an opportunity to go and see guys, you know, on, on different days. Obviously never say, generally, you never sacrifice a game. There are some schools that have enough staff where they can get somebody out on a game day, which, you know, I have my thoughts on, but either way, it's usually pretty targeted. Guys that you've either seen or you've gotten a really good recommendation on, you're generally not just going out to randomly see a high school game.
You know, maybe you, you know, when we were in Williamsburg, there's three high schools right there. Like you got nothing to do on a Tuesday night after practice and the two high schools are squaring off. Like maybe you shoot over there just to kind of see what's up. But usually it's pretty targeted and you reserve longer drives and longer trips for like kind of finishing decisions or guys that are super high priority, like for an out of state guy. Like, we would occasionally drive up to Jersey to watch a pitch, but most of it, you're talking a couple hours, you know, usually within your, your general region there. And I think that that kind of sums up recruiting in the spring at the Division 3 level. You know, when I was at Vassar, a lot less active in the spring.
A lot of video, a lot of phone calls trying to lay the groundwork for the summer, but not a ton unless the kid was local. Now we recruited nationally, so it was a little bit different. And when you're working at a high academic school, the, the talent pool you can recruit from regionally, so usually a little bit less. So.
Yeah, I mean, I think that that really sums it up. It's like targeted, very targeted. You know, you're not randomly going to high school games. You're. You're going to see guys that you got a pretty good understanding that they're worth your time when you're trying to make a, trying to get a really good evaluation.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: So
[00:09:54] Speaker B: summer, what I'll say about the summer is that it's hectic. Like, from a coach's perspective, it can get really hectic. Most programs are going to have to usually three guys out on the road at any given time.
I think it's targeted in slightly different ways. Like you're going to have your list of priority guys that you need to go and see in whatever class that you're currently recruiting right now, you know, you're looking at 27s and 28, so maybe you're trying to put the final touches on your 27 class if Division 1 school. So you've got your short list of dudes that you got to go and see, and then you got a short list of 28 that you got to see.
I think more broadly, you're trying to be really good in your specific area that you typically recruit in. So when I was at William and Mary, we wanted to make sure that we had a really good beat on all the teams in Virginia, you know, whether it was the Stars or the Canes or the Richmond Braves, you know, the Virginia Cardinals, like, we wanted to make sure that we had calls out to all those coaches that we had an idea where those guys were going to be, which guys we should be targeting.
And then we would kind of go out of state and look for, you know, guys that we relied on, you know, with good reputations that we could, you know, make some phone calls about, you know, certain, certain needs that we might need.
But I think a lot of schools in general are trying to be really good in their area. You know, if you're higher level, you know, you're talking ACC, SEC. Yeah, you're probably following around, you know, the 10 best travel teams in the country.
You're going to some of the bigger events. But I think that every school has their niche and they have their success points in terms of where they're going to recruit. Like, if you're a mid major Division 1 school in the Northeast, like, you're probably spending a ton of time out in Boston. You're probably spending a ton of time down at Diamond Nation because that's where the vast majority of recruiting is going to get done.
You know, some of those schools don't even go down to Georgia anymore because by the time Georgia rolls around, if you don't know the guys on the, the teams from your area.
You probably haven't done your legwork and your homework at that point, and you should be seeing those guys plenty in your regional stuff. So.
But summer gets hectic and you stack on top of that, you're going to have your own camps, which is a big part of the evaluation process. And then most schools are going to work some showcases and some specific events.
I mean, you were on the D3 high academic recruiting trail for so long at RPI. Like, I, I think that's kind of an old beast in itself in terms of, kind of how that happens. You want to kind of talk to what that can look like, because I think that's, it's kind of unique.
[00:12:30] Speaker C: Sorry. Sorry, everyone. I was fighting for the mute button there.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Gonna get yelled at in our comments.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: I know I'm gonna yell that in the comments.
Yeah, I think the academic side is, is obviously a little bit of a beast unto itself.
You're going to, your, your summer is structured a little bit differently than, you know, what it was when I, when I coach at Siena. Right. You know, Sienna, we were, you know, you could kind of just show up anywhere to tournaments, to games, to showcases, and not to say Sienna is not a good school.
But the, the likelihood of you being able to get in the vast majority of kids that are on that field that you're watching are probably pretty high. Whereas the academic world, whether it's the, you know, obviously the Ivy League or the Patriot League, the Liberty League, the nescac, the Centennial Conference, if you're out west in the, in California, there's some conferences out there that are really tough academically.
You can't necessarily do that. Right. Like, you can't just necessarily show up to a field and assume that the vast majority of kids in that, on that field are going to be competitive from an admissions standpoint. The other side of it, in the academic world, and probably a little bit more specifically with, you know, STEM type schools, where I was at at rpi, is that, you know, we, we didn't have liberal arts from a traditional sense. Like, we didn't have history. We didn't have English, we didn't have the, the traditional liberal arts as a college. So, you know, you had to know, or I shouldn't say you. I, I had to know or have a really good idea of the kids that were on the field that were interested in engineering and also were going to have the grades competitive enough for me to bring to admissions to get into school. You know, so that would narrow it down even more. So you have to be, you know, you talk about being targeted from a high school standpoint. You do the same thing in the summer from a game standpoint and from a tournament standpoint. Obviously you hit the big ones, right? Like Super 17, you can hit Boston Open, things like that, you know, regional based, where it gets a little bit more, a little bit different in the academic world is when you start hitting the academic showcases, which are designed for kids who are high end academic kids to be in front of a bunch of college coaches all on one or two fields or four fields for them to be able to kind of showcase what they do not only from a normal showcase setting, but a gameplay standpoint.
This can be used in a multitude of different ways. One obviously from just straight up identifying players. It can also be used for, you know, you're following up on kids that you saw maybe the year before or you got video on. It also could be, you know, hey, I've seen this kid twice in games. I'm going to see him here at Headfirst or Diamond Showcase. Diamond College Showcase. And I'm going to make a decision on whether or not I think he's good enough to be, to continue down the road recruiting and then also coming out of those camps, you know, you have your own camps as well and other college camps that you might be going to.
You know, in the academic world, a lot of guys will hit a lot of the same, you know, kind of high end academic camps because a lot of the kids that are going to go to that school are interested in engineering or science. I could hit, you know, Columbia Camp. I've talked about this a million times. Coach Peretti is, was a staple for mine because it has an engineering school and it's really good. And kids were interested in engineering and science at that camp. They weren't good enough there. RPI could be a really good option for them at the Division 3 level from a baseball standpoint. So it gets a little, it's a little less. I mean, it's still very hectic because you're hitting a lot of the showcase camp series.
But the other side of it is, is you're trying to, you're not supplementing anything with the, with the showcases. You're trying to get a really good feel for the players that you have either already seen or you're going to want to go out and see again. So the timing of it, it really kind of dictates what your schedule then becomes. Right. Like, you know, you have your staples of. You know, I always had the staples of tournaments that I was going to go see, the games I was going to go see, and then I would make sure that I checked off kids that we were interested in from that standpoint at those, and then supplement it with guys that maybe we've. We just saw at the Diamond Showcase College or Diamond College Showcase Camp and go see them playing a game the following weekend, or I'm going to see them in two weeks at a tournament, things like that. So it's, it's a little bit more fluid.
I think the one thing to keep in mind, especially when we're talking what recruiting calendars and things like that look like, is most college staffs are going to have two to three guys on the road at any given time.
So, you know, it's not necessarily something where there's only one guy who's out doing all the recruiting. Does that happen? Yes, it does.
But the majority of, of of programs are going to be able to at least have two guys out on the road at one time.
The especially division threes, they're going to have at least three guys out at one time. So they're able to cover a lot more players and really make evaluations, you know, based off of what they've seen. And it's, it's kind of a good checks and balances thing, right? Like you're, you know, obviously, I think in recent years, a lot of people, you know, want to get in front of the head coach. And, you know, sometimes it's only at a camp or a camp on their campus that you can get in front of the head coach. But, you know, the reality is you might be getting recruited by, you know, depending on how programs run it, right? Like, if the pitching coach does all the pitching, like he's the guy that you're going to want to be talking to and throw in front of, right? Like, not to say you don't want to throw in front of the hitting guy or the head coach, but like, the pitching guy is the one you kind of want to show up and show out for all the time because that's the guy who you're going to be spending a decent amount of time with once you get to college. But it's a good kind of checks and balances where if the pitching coach really likes you and then the head coach watches you and he really likes you, there's two guys that are like, hey, that's a kid who we've, we've seen, you know, three, four times combined. He's thrown well every single time. I think this is the guy that we should, you know, continue to move forward with and see if we can get him into our program.
But I think that's something that kind of gets missed in a lot of the recruiting stuff, is that like, you know, only one person is going to see you and recruit you. And that's just not true. You're going to get, you're going to be seen by multiple people on that staff. And in a lot of programs it's designed that way so that, you know, if I see something that, you know, hey, I've seen this kid and you have these conversations in the, in the, in the office, right? Like how many times viewing case had it out on guys that you liked and how, you know, I know I did with, with Carl and with Jimmy at Sienna and Coach Rossi, you know, Ferrish, who worked for me. Like, you know, and it's to be clear you're not having it really out with people, but like, you're having conversations of like, well, hey, listen, when I saw him, this is what I saw.
And you know, good, bad, indifferent. Like you have those conversations because ultimately you're all driving at the same thing, trying to get the right kid into the program that's going to be able to help you win, you know, and, and what you see might be different than what someone else sees.
And maybe I missed something and maybe, you know, when the head coach went and saw him, he was, you know, had horrible body language and it wasn't really good. Like, that holds a little bit more weight in the recruiting process there. So, you know, I, I'm off on a little bit of a tangent here, but I think it's important to note that when you, you know, when you're going through the recruiting process, it's, you know, you're going to be seen by multiple people on staff if you're being recruited by a school,
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[00:21:08] Speaker B: Yeah, we always like To. To make sure that multiple people had eyes on guys. Yeah, I think it's important to get different opinions. It's important to see them at a different place. Like, Murph always liked to always like to see a guy before that, you know, we ultimately made a decision because at the end of the day, it's his program. You know, if I went and saw a picture and I really liked him, I'd come back with my report, I'd come back with my. My video. I'd sit down with Case and be like, hey, man, I think you need to go see this kid. You know, sometimes you come back and you're like, hey, man, I don't. You don't know. You don't need to go see this kid. This is what I got.
You know, unless you feel strongly they're like, maybe this is an off day or, you know, whatever. You know, there's different reasons that you circle back on a kid, but, you know, that type of communication is pretty typical.
I think the only other thing I want to kind of add, just to kind of put it in perspective from a, like an organization perspective, how we're. How it kind of works if you have the teams that you're looking to make sure that you track. So you kind of pray, you kind of plan, all right, where are they going to be? They're going to be at this tournament, they're going to be at this dynamic, they're going to be up at Diamond Nation, wherever it might be.
And then you have your list of guys that are specific. So some of them are going to be on those teams, right? There's going to be other guys that you need to go see that aren't on those teams. And you start to build your summer schedule out, but things change and things are fluid. Like, guys get crossed off the list. Guys commit. And Case was unbelievable with this. And I learned a ton about organization and kind of how to work through it. He was super organized with where we went, who we saw, tracking everything that we were doing. But, you know, pretty much every Monday morning we would sit down and go, all right, well, who's going where this week? Who do we got? So and so's throwing this day, Andy, you've seen him twice. Case, you need to go see this guy. Or Murphy seen a hitter three times and he's like, hey, man, I really like him. I think it's good if you go and see him and I would go see a guy and then you have your list of guys that you need to go see or Just in general. Like, hey, what? You know, we haven't seen these teams enough. Like, Andy, I need you out at Virginia Tech this weekend. There's a dynamic tournament out there.
These are the three teams that we need to really bear down on. Here are the four guys on those three teams that we need to make sure we come back with good reports on. Let us know if anybody else pops up. Like, you know, and that's kind of how it works often. Right. And, you know, there's flexibility, and you got to be flexible because things change real quick. But coaches don't just whimsically go about the recruiting process. They're not just randomly showing up at places.
They're there for a purpose.
They're there with. With a plan of who they need to see and when they need to see them and the decisions they need to make. So.
Yeah. Anything else you want to add to this?
[00:23:47] Speaker D: No, sir.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: All right. Well, hopefully that was insightful. I'm sure we'll cover it in podcasts here moving forward, but, yeah, thanks for listening, everybody. Talk to you next week.
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.
[00:24:16] Speaker E: If you want to find out what
[00:24:17] Speaker B: 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.
