You may already know that in 2019 I took a D1 coaching job, which meant that I had to hit “pause” on Scout Softball for some time. I went to a school that wasn’t known for recruiting and in 2021 and 2022 produced the top mid-major recruiting classes in the nation, ranking #29 and #34 nationally, ahead of MOST Power 5 (not P4 back then) schools.
There are a lot of different strategies when it comes to recruiting, but I’d like to share some information that I believe can help all recruits understand the post September 1st process.
Who did I contact on 9/1? I reached out to players that I felt could become impact players their first year on campus. I became aware of these players in three different ways:
- On campus camps
- Off campus tournaments and showcases
- Online video & social media
Once they were on my radar, I would consistently track these players across all 3 categories. Social media was the easiest. I created X lists of the players I was most interested in. These became timelines of my potential recruits so that I had a way to watch them in an organized way without sorting through thousands of other players. I would watch these players when I recruited in person as well.
You’re probably already wondering if a coach gives any signs to players that they might be interested in ahead of September 1st? Absolutely! I was not trying to hide the fact that I had interest in a player. I also wasn’t going to break any rules. How did I do this? In person it was easy. If I was interested in you, I would walk to the fence and film your at-bats, or film you pitching. If you played a corner IF or OF position, you would see me on your side of the field only watching you. If I had serious interest, I would figure out who your family was and I would sit by them in the stands, but I wouldn’t talk to them. I wanted to get to know as much about a player as I could. I also wanted players to go back home and look at our program and learn more. These players would usually end up coming to our camps as well because they recognize our interest. I don’t know that a player ever received a call from me on 9/1 that wasn’t expecting it.
So what did we talk about on 9/1 that led to a scholarship?
Well, I didn’t give offers out over the phone on 9/1. My main objective was to get a player on campus to an unofficial visit ASAP, not a camp. I wasn’t calling anyone who hadn’t convinced me that they could play the game at the level I needed them to. I was calling players who had passed the playing test, so we needed to sit in a room together as a coaching staff with a player and her family and see if this was a fit for everyone involved. I had done my homework on players and their family so I had a good idea of the personality fit already. For me, it was the unofficial visit that I was trying to get to, not September 1st. That date allowed me to set the unofficial visit so that I could start committing to players early in the Fall.
If a coach has reached out to you and watched you play multiple times and has now invited you to a camp, I would consider that minimal interest. Especially if you have already been to at least 1 camp on campus in the past 6-months. Coaches don’t always want to have an honest conversation and tell you no. Sometimes they’ll invite you to camp and just keep saying “send me your schedule.” I didn’t believe in holding players hostage, when I could help them find the perfect fit by telling them that we weren’t going to have interest in recruiting them.
Post September 1st conversations from interested schools should lead to visits, not camp invites or promises to watch you at a showcase. I would start looking to communicate with programs who haven’t seen you yet and invest my efforts into getting their attention.
Right now, many of you are in a holding pattern and you don’t even know that you are in one. You’re happy that a coach is calling or texting back, but if they aren’t working on a time to find a visit, then there are some players who are going to have to say no to that school before it’s your turn. Continue to communicate, but be careful about going back to campus as a camper if they have evaluated you multiple times recently. If it has been a year and you are a much better player, then that’s a different scenario and a camp visit would make sense.
If you’ve got questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Mark Mulvany
mark@scoutsoftball.com