If you have an athletically gifted child in high school that is being scouted by colleges and professional sports teams, be prepared to deal with a lot of intrusion in your life and the life of your child. Your child may have to deal with college recruiters, baseball scouts, agents, financial consultants, lawyers, the media and of course long lost “friends”.
While college baseball in no way competes financially with college football, it is still big business. This fact must not be forgotten when scouts, whether professional or college, come to look at your child.
Players being touted as a high draft picks can expect many requests from major league scouts for in-home visits and psychological tests. Scouts and coaches recommend athletes can save themselves a lot of grief by having the information they want to know readily available, such as medical records, eye tests, baseball schedules, signability forms and player information cards. They also suggest the athletes leave a game schedule with their baseball coaches and on your answering machine.
Filling out all the player information cards and psychological tests can take an incredible amount of time. The psychological tests can vary from about 80 to 275 questions depending on the team or school giving them. Players can save some time by signing a waiver on the Caliber Test and have the results released to all the teams that use that test.
In terms of increasing your child’s likelihood of getting drafted or offered a scholarship, the most important thing you need to learn is the phrase “signability”. A player’s signability is a combination of the player’s contract demands and the team or college’s ability to pay. For a college, the ability to pay means their ability to offer a scholarship, provide a good education, a safe environment and top notch training.
When discussing signability with scouts and college recruiters, athletes will be asked whether they want to turn pro and how much of a signing bonus it will take to commit to going pro. Your child should be honest, but he should not be too definitive in his future plans.
The worst thing an athlete can do is give a definitive answer to these questions unless he is really sure because the more adamant the stance the more he will lose bargaining power. For example, if he tells everyone that he has no intention of going to college, he may be drafted much lower and almost assuredly would be offered a much smaller signing bonus because any threats to hold out would be in vein. Moreover, no college will bother offering him a scholarship. Alternatively, if he tells everyone that he wants to go to college regardless of where he is drafted, what team in their right mind would waste a high draft pick on him?
So what can a player say? He can tell them which way he is leaning, but if the right offer came along he would reconsider. He can tell them money is not important as long as it is a fair amount. He can say that he would be willing to sign for a bonus similar to what others in nearby draft slots are getting. And he can also tell them that if he gets drafted below a certain round, he is likely to head to college instead.
Be careful about saying too much to the media as well. It is always better for a player to stay quiet and polite than to say things that could hurt their chances at being drafted or offered a scholarship. Stick with the clichés about hard work. A player should avoid any indication of how much of a signing bonus he is expecting as scouts say that this can kill his signability if he has unrealistic expectations.
Regardless of which way your child is leaning, it is important that you and he go through all the motions with the colleges and scouts in order to keep your child’s options open and to obtain the best for your child. This means visiting the colleges, filling out applications and financial aid forms, taking any necessary scholastic tests, keeping in good condition and keeping grades up. Failure to keep in good condition or to keep grades up may be considered a serious character flaw.
A few wayward scouts or college recruiters may promise the world, but most are quite honest and willing to assist and provide good advice. It is a small community, and for the most part a collegial one. Word gets around pretty quickly if there is a bad recruiter out there or if your child is looking to cheat the system. If your child ever gets caught requesting money upfront to play, he may never play professionally or on an amateur level again.
Whatever you child does, don’t let them hire a baseball agent unless they are 100% sure they are not going to college! They will lose their ability to play collegiate baseball forever if they do.
Next issue: Should my child choose college or go pro?
Special thanks to Jack Cust, Sr., Keith Dilgard, Joe Barth, and George (Curvy) Ramos for providing valuable time and resources in the preparation of this article.
