It's that time of year! As most college teams are taking their finals and packing their bags to head home, those who have clawed their way to the top are starting post season play! 

If you're a high school athlete looking to play in college, it's a great time to start watching softball with a purpose! While only DI games are broadcasted on tv (for the most part), DII, DIII, Junior College (All divisions, did you know there are three divisions in the NJCAA just like the NCAA?), and NAIA games are all streamed online. Check out the brackets to see what colleges are playing that you're interested in attending and start doing your research! 

Eight of the high school athletes we work we received this same exact email from a DI university in the Northeast. 

There's a lot going on here. At first glance we don't always see things when we are overwhelmed with excitement that -------- University reached out to us so let's break it down. 

1) "Thank you for your interest in ------- University."
This email came to each athlete through a free company recruiting account they had set up prior to joining our mentoring program. Only two of the eight athletes had ever actually reached out to the university. This is a red flag right away that this isn't actually recruiting interest from this coach. 

2) Over the years, we have seen numerous participants from our camps and clinics later become -------- student-athletes due to your direct participation and interaction with the ------ softball staff."
Yes, this is true. All top recruits go to a camp/clinic at a school prior to committing, but the clinic email they receive is much more personalized and attentive than a mass email that goes to everyone. Going deeper into ------ University, less than 20% of their roster is athletes from the Northeast, so is that really the area they are looking to recruit in or just the area they are looking to draw money to their clinic in?

3) Why did our athletes receive this clinic invite if they've never shown interest in
----- University?
Have you ever thought about what the "college coach side" of the company recruiting accounts look like? College coaches create a profile just like you do, and they obviously have the ability to communicate with you through that profile. When they create a mass email to send out, the recruiting company then gives them different options on who to send the email to. Examples include "send email to athletes who have favorited us" or "send email to all athletes in PA, NY, NJ, VA, MD with accounts." With a few clicks a college coach can send out the exact same email to thousands of athletes.

At the end of the day, camps and clinics are a small piece of the recruiting process. For ALL colleges from Power 5 to Junior College camps and clinics are fundraisers. You can camp and clinic your family into thousands of dollars of debt each year if you don't look more deeply into the invites you are receiving. True recruiting correspondence from an interested coach looks completely different than the email above! 

So what does a true recruiting email look like when they invite you to a camp or clinic?
1) Does the coach directly respond to an email you send them, instead of sending you a mass email randomly?
2) Has that coach communicated with your coaches or recruiting contacts about you? Due to the recent-ish change in NCAA rules (this happened in 2018, more info on that here.) college coaches cannot ask/give specific information about recruits but they can indicate if they are interested in an athlete or not! 
3) Have you seen that coach at your travel ball tournament games?
4) Do they invite you to participate in a campus tour as part of the clinic?

 
A lot of my 8th grade players and parents have been chatting with me lately about whether it’s time to focus on just softball. My answer? Heck no! There are SO MANY reasons it’s important for youth athletes AND high school athletes to play multiple sports. It’s so unfortunate that there are so many coaches who are pushing early specialization.
 
 
1) Sport specialization hurts you more than it helps you! When we only play one sport, we are only working certain muscle groups. Being in “softball shape” is completely different than “basketball, soccer, etc. shape.” As far as development as athletes go, playing multiple sports helps you develop more muscle groups and reduces your risk of injury!
 
2) Other sports actually help your softball skills rather than hurt them! Every single one of my pitchers who played basketball this year added 3-4mph after their basketball season. They were taking a weekly lesson and practicing at home here or there but were really taking time away from pitching and mechanics to focus on basketball!
 
3) If your first love is softball (which is totally okay!) it helps you appreciate the game more. When we play year-round, we don’t miss it. When we step away for a bit and focus on another sport, we appreciate softball more and work that much harder once we get back at it!  
 
4) Young athletes who are extremely gifted at their main sport, need to learn how to not be the best on their team at something. We learn just as many lessons from being uncomfortable learning new skills, learning to be a good teammate on the bench sometimes, and learning how to play a role! These are all skills that are often not learned when you are in the top third of talent on a team!
 
5) When all things are equal skill wise between two softball players, almost any college coach you ask will say they’d choose the multi-sport athlete over the softball only athlete. Why? That college coach knows the previously stated benefits of being a multi-sport athlete. Possibly even more important - that college coach knows that the multi-sport athlete took a break from softball and will be more likely to make it through their college career without injury!