When to Attend a College Camp

Kelly Kulina: Your Link to the Colleges

When is it a good time to go to a college camp or showcase? More importantly, which ones do you attend? These are the types of questions the Exclusive Program staff answers everyday, and I wanted to give you the Reader’s Digest version of what we cover with our players.

High school baseball players will often mistake camp invites and questionnaires to mean that they are a recruited athlete at that institution. If you check page 77 and 78 of the NCAA’s Division I manual, you’ll read that the following make you a “recruited athlete”:

• Providing the prospective student-athlete with an official visit
• Having an arranged, in-person, off-campus encounter with the prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete’s parent(s), relatives or legal guardian(s)
• Initiating or arranging a telephone contact with the prospective student-athlete, the prospective student athlete’s relatives or legal guardian(s) on more than one occasion for the purpose of recruitment
• Issuing a National Letter of Intent or the institution’s written offer of athletically related financial aid to the prospective student-athlete. Issuing a written offer of athletically related financial aid to a prospective student-athlete to attend a summer session prior to full-time enrollment does not cause the prospective student-athlete to become recruited

Notice how there’s no mention of attending a camp or talking to someone after a showcase. Don't get me wrong, camps and showcases are a vital part of the recruiting process for both players and coaches. They give college coaches the important opportunity to watch prospective student-athletes on the field, and players the opportunity to showcase their skills beyond video. However, to get the most out of this part of the process, there needs to be a method to the madness.

When considering a camp or showcase, there are several things that you need to ask yourself:

• Is this a school I’m interested in?
• Is the host school or some of the schools in attendance a good fit for me athletically and academically? If you can’t answer this question, you should consider getting a third party evaluation of your skills, which doesn’t include your parents and high school or travel coaches.
• Have I had contact with someone on the baseball staff? Would they know who I am when I arrive? Have they seen me play before or on video?
• What are their recruiting needs for the upcoming year?
  

The questions in the third bullet point have to do with going to a camp/showcase as a “camper” or as a “prospect.” A camper is someone that simply got the invite, signed up and showed up. A prospect is someone that has already been in touch with a college coach, has been seen in person or on video, and just needs to get in front of the rest of the staff. Naturally, the prospects in attendance will draw much more attention from the coaches than the campers.

So, when you received the camp invite, you should have already responded. If you haven’t previously written to the staff, now would be a good time to introduce yourself and explain why you’re interested in the program (and that you’re considering the camp). Further, if the staff hasn’t seen you play before, this is the time to forward any video you have. Only when you have individual contact (not mass-mailed e-mails) with a college coach should you consider the camp or showcase.

As a wrap-up, here are a few assumptions you CANNOT make when considering a camp or showcase:

• I am automatically a prospect.
• If I don’t attend, they won’t be interested in me.
• I am attending this camp to earn a scholarship or roster spot.
• This is the only opportunity for this school to see me play.
• The more I attend, the better off I’ll be.
• Camps and showcases are one in the same.
• Every coach is going to be able to see me and I’ll get a fair share of exposure.
  

For most prospective college baseball players, camps and showcases are a must; however, taking the shotgun approach will cost a great deal of time and money for your parents, with a smaller chance of return on the investment. Do yourself a favor and take the time to lay the groundwork before jumping in the car or on a plane.


Kelly Kulina is the Senior Vice President of College Recruiting at Baseball Factory. Kulina is a former Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator with the University of Maryland. As a former recruiting coordinator for ten years in the ACC, Kulina has vast contacts and is widely respected throughout the nation. From 1989 to 2000, Kulina coached 46 players who were selected in the MLB draft.

The Dangers of the Internet in College Recruiting

Kelly Kulina: Your Link to the Colleges

Familiarity breeds comfort. As humans, we’re more likely to prefer something that we’ve been exposed to the most. In the marketing world, we call this “brand power.” Brand power gives the prospective computer, car or cell phone buyer a short list of products to choose from. Regrettably, many prospective baseball players will treat the college search process in a similar fashion.

In their defense, however, recruits are overloaded with information. Don’t get me wrong, the Internet revolution has been a huge boon for college recruiting, but when players are receiving 50+ daily e-mails about baseball-related events, something has to give. When bombarded with information, we revert to our natural instincts, which is to choose the “State-U” school or camp that we’re most familiar with. If you’ve been following this blog, then you’ll understand that most players won’t be able to play at the bigger Division I state schools.

So, how do you avoid following this path of least resistance? You need to be the proactive one. Don’t wait for schools to come to you (another common theme in this blog); get online and start researching schools. What’s getting lost in the dust cloud of camp e-mails are websites like collegeboard.com, d3baseball.com and meritaid.com, which offer remarkable amounts of information on very obscure areas of the college search process. Fight the temptation to only look into schools you’ve heard of or have seen on TV (or even worse, have sent camp e-mails). These websites can give you access to schools you’ve never even heard of, so that’s the place you need to start!

More important than the research you’ll do in front of the computer, it is essential that you visit schools on your college list. In the Exclusive Program, we stress to our underclassmen the need to visit at least three schools prior to the summer before their senior year: a large state school (10,000 or more undergrads), a medium-size school (5,000 undergrads) and a small school (2,000 undergrads or fewer). Your gut reaction to stepping on campus may be worth more than your countless hours of Internet research!

As I’ve written in previous entries, there are several things you should try to cover when you visit a campus. In addition to going on the campus tour, meeting with coaches and even seeing a practice, here are a few more things to do while on campus:

• Talk to students on campus. Ask them for their impression of the school and the surrounding area. You’d be surprised how honest they’ll be.
• Look around during a class change. Are people running to class?
• Sit in on a class. Are you in a large lecture hall or smaller discussion? Are you comfortable with this setting?
• Eat the cafeteria food and visit the dorms. Be honest with yourself- this will be your home for the next four years!
  

To have the most success with this process, you will have to do things differently than 95% of people trying to find a place to play in college. The Internet is a fantastic tool for those taking part in the recruiting process, but it’s so easy to fall into those old habits. Do yourself a favor and break that habit.

Kelly Kulina is the Senior Vice President of College Recruiting at Baseball Factory. Kulina is a former Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator with the University of Maryland. As a former recruiting coordinator for ten years in the ACC, Kulina has vast contacts and is widely respected throughout the nation. From 1989 to 2000, Kulina coached 46 players who were selected in the MLB draft.

What is the Quiet Period?

Kelly Kulina: Your Link to the Colleges

During one of the busiest times of the year for most families, the Exclusive Program and Baseball Factory Staff regularly receive questions about why recruiting seems to hit a snag during this time span. For coaches, the holidays and semester break present a chance to catch their breath and spend time with families. In addition, having just completed the fall season and the early signing period, it’s time for coaches to re-group and size up their remaining needs. Since we’re about a month removed from the November signing period, I think now would be a great time to go over what the Dead and Quiet periods mean, and what you can do to help yourself in the recruiting process.

The Dead Period is when coaches are prohibited from making “face-to-face” contact with players or evaluate them on or off campus. It is commonly thought that the Dead Period was proposed out of respect for the players and parents. During the signing period, the dead period allows players and parents to sort through offers and opportunities without too much pressure. Besides falling on the two signing periods in November and April, you’ll notice that there are Dead Periods around different school openings in the fall and after winter break. After all, with school getting back in session, it is important to get re-focused on school without too many distractions. The remaining academic year will include two more Dead Periods, taking place January 2nd to January 6th and again April 6th through the 9th.

By definition, the Quiet Period is when a coach is prohibited from making contact in-person with players away from campus. So, a college coach cannot meet with you and your family at your home. In addition, he can’t visit you at school and watch you play or practice. However, coaches CAN work a college camp or showcase off-campus during the Quiet Period. They’re also allowed to call you or write you during this time. For in-person contacts, you and your parents can visit coaches on campus. This year, the Quiet Period runs from November 14th to February 28th

For most of my coaching career, there was no Quiet Period! Up until recently, there was very little downtime and college coaches, with the exception of the Dead Period, recruited off-campus year-round. So, as a coach, there was always significant pressure to be on the road recruiting! I believe this rule was put in place to get college coaches off the road for a little bit without completely shutting down the recruiting process.

So, what does this mean for the unsigned baseball player? If you haven’t read “Time to Re-Evaluate, Revise and Regroup!” yet, please take a few minutes to read this, print it out and stick it on your refrigerator. The Quiet Period underscores the fact that these winter months are your opportunity to make serious gains in the recruiting process! You can’t expect to succeed in this process without spending a significant amount of time on “behind-the-scenes” work. E-mailing college coaches with your Baseball Factory Player Page, following up on your letters to coaches and making unofficial visits to campus will provide you with serious momentum going into your spring season.

Not only are these methods proven to give you an edge, they very well could be considered the minimum. After all, most college coaches will not come to see you play during your junior or senior season without preexisting interest. The Quiet Period is a chance for you to make a good impression on a coach in person and over the phone, and to give him a preview of what to expect in the spring. Without taking these steps to recruit college coaches, you can’t expect to be recruited in return.

As always, our staff welcomes your questions and looks forward to assisting you in your endeavors!

Kelly Kulina is the Senior Vice President of College Recruiting at Baseball Factory. Kulina is a former Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator with the University of Maryland. As a former recruiting coordinator for ten years in the ACC, Kulina has vast contacts and is widely respected throughout the nation. From 1989 to 2000, Kulina coached 46 players who were selected in the MLB draft.

The Right Place at the Right Time - Part 2

Kelly Kulina: Your Link to the Colleges

Before getting into this week’s topic, please take a minute to review last week’s entry regarding college camps and their role in the recruiting process. This week, I will be going over the role of college showcases and how you can maximize the benefit of attending one.

The showcase route, while obviously dealing in greater numbers of players and scouts, should no less receive the same type of “quality over quantity” consideration as college camps. For coaches, they are cost-effective and allow them to save money in their recruiting budget by seeing more players at one place. At the same time, they offer good opportunities for players to be seen by a larger number of coaches, compared to camps. However, players have a very limited number of swings, ground balls and playing time in general. With limited playing time comes more pressure to perform.

Too many times, players attend events where they are over matched and melt into the crowd. Another common mistake is that players attend so many events that by the time they make it to a worthwhile event, their feet are heavier, their bat is slower and their arm is fatigued! Some colleges will only have one chance to see you play, so you need to be ready and prepared every time you get in front of them. That being said, I would recommend getting some local showcase experience along the way to prepare for a pressure-filled environment.

We work with our Exclusive Players to plan out their showcase schedule in conjunction with all their planned activities. For instance, it makes no sense to attend a showcase immediately after a family vacation. If it’s been more than a week since you’ve picked up a bat, how can you expect to impress a college scout? You will do yourself a favor by passing on an opportunity rather than trying to labor through a workout. Not only could you reverse any momentum you’ve made in the process, but you also risk the chance of getting hurt.

Just like with individual camps, it’s also important to do some reconnaissance and figure out which schools are going to be represented at the showcase. Are these schools you are interested in attending, and can you play there? More importantly, are you going to be able to distinguish yourself among the other 199 players present? Every event features prospects that are fine players in their own right, but are unfortunately missed because they are not one of the better players at this event.

Some assumptions you CANNOT make when considering showcases:

-Every coach is going to be able to see me and I am going to get my fair share of exposure.
-Showcases are one in the same.
-The more showcases I attend, the better off I’ll be.
-I’m bound to get a phone call and a scholarship offer after this showcase.
-I’ll know exactly where I stand with the colleges who attend this event.
-All the colleges who attended in the past will be there.

The biggest mistake you can make is to write a check every time the mail comes in. With proper research and planning, you can maximize the amount and type of exposure you get with each of these events and create some serious momentum for yourself in the recruiting process. Showcases and college camps are important steps in the recruiting process, but there needs to be a game plan and strategy in place, so you don’t spin your wheels as you empty your pocket book. Doing everything is NOT the answer here. There is such a thing as the right place at the right time!


Kulina is a former Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator with the University of Maryland. As a former recruiting coordinator for ten years in the ACC, Kulina has vast contacts and is widely respected throughout the nation. From 1989 to 2000, Kulina coached 46 players who were selected in the MLB draft.

The Right Place at the Right Time - Part 1

Kelly Kulina: Your Link to the Colleges

With warmer weather, the months of June, July and August promise to bring an abundance of summer baseball camps and showcases. As I discussed in my last entry, camps and showcases play an important role in the recruiting process. There is simply no substitute for being seen in person by a college coach, and prospective college baseball players cannot expect to rely on their high school or legion season for exposure. What I’d like to discuss in this blog is how players can maximize the benefits of going to both camps and showcases.

Individual college camps can be a great way to get significant time in front of a program’s coaching staff. Not only will players have the chance to get to know the coaching staffs and get a better feel for their coaching style, but coaches will have a very good opportunity to see the player as the complete package: both physical ability and the intangibles. Many college camps also offer plenty of opportunities to spend time on campus. However, players need to define the reason they’re going to the college camp. Is it instruction, or is it for recruiting? Are you going as a camper or as a prospect?

A camper is a player that receives information in the mail. He will be given a lot of great, hands-on instruction and will take a lot away from the camp. A prospect is a player that comes to camp after having regular correspondence with a coach and enough mutual interest to warrant being seen in person, possibly even a personal invite. During the freshman and sophomore year, it’s OK to be a camper. You will definitely want to take every advantage of the outstanding coaching/instruction that’s available. By the junior year, however, there needs to be more of a focus on finding camps that have prospect opportunities.

At this time, you should have an idea of what levels of college baseball you should be looking at. Being evaluated by professional baseball people who give you an unbiased assessment of your ability would be strongly recommended. If you’ve never had this done, check out our Signature College Recruiting Program. This will save you a lot of time, energy and money in the long run, not only to determine what college camps you should attend, but more importantly to assist you in the college search process. We’ve talked a lot about being realistic in the process, and that needs to be in play here. Can you see yourself playing at this school? Is there a need? Can you get into the school? Do your homework and take a look at the program’s depth chart and roster. If the team features a lot of young players at your position, it does you no good to attend regardless of how well you perform.

Some dangerous assumptions when considering camps:

• I am a prospect.


• If I don’t attend their camp, they won’t recruit me.


• Most players on their roster attended their camp.

Check in next week when I discuss the benefits of attending a college showcase, and its role in the recruiting process.

Kulina is a former Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator with the University of Maryland. As a former recruiting coordinator for ten years in the ACC, Kulina has vast contacts and is widely respected throughout the nation. From 1989 to 2000, Kulina coached 46 players who were selected in the MLB draft.

Balanced Attack – Part 3

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

For the past two weeks I have written about the importance of a “Balanced Attack” to the college recruiting process for high school players. Parents need to avoid the “showcase and college camp itch” when it comes to every invite received in the mail. Try not to allocate your family’s entire budget to these two categories. As I mentioned last week, showcases and college camps are important, but they need to be a part of an overall strategy that makes sense for your family’s goals and objectives.

The theme at Baseball Factory from our staff is constantly stressing to families that they need to look at four different areas of focus EACH year when determining their plan of attack to prepare for college baseball. Leaving out any of these four areas can create an unbalanced approach and leave you behind the curve.

I spoke last week about Academic Performance and Skill Development as the first two areas of focus. For those parents that are scratching their head and are looking for some guidance, here are the final two areas to focus on when creating a game plan for the college recruiting process:

3. National Tournament Competition – How does a player stack up against nationwide competition? If your son lives in New England and wants to play baseball in the South, how does he compare to players that live in Florida? As I have said to many parents that attend Baseball Factory events, how many high school baseball players that live in Florida want to come North to play in college? Not many, so if your son wants a spot on a college baseball roster in a warm weather climate he needs to know how he compares to players in that geographic area. It may be time to say no to another local tournament (playing with and against the same kids he has competed with for the last 10 years) and challenge your son in a new environment. This experience will bode well for him when he steps onto a college baseball field for the first time and sees players from a few different states. This would have helped me a lot when I transitioned from high school baseball to the University of Pennsylvania. It was a little overwhelming to see bigger, stronger players from Arizona, California, and Colorado for the first time as a college freshman.

4. Promoting yourself to colleges – College baseball is not football or basketball. It does not have the recruiting budgets or scholarships that those big revenue sports have. Therefore, it is much harder for college coaches to know about all the talented high school players in the country. College baseball coaches lack the budget, resources, and "where with all" to recruit high school players as compared to their football and basketball counterparts. As a result, players need to be their biggest advocate when it comes to promoting themselves. Showcases and college camps are only part of the picture here. You need a realistic game plan and some tools to follow up with coaches on a consistent basis. What about schools that haven’t seen your son play at all? How are they going to know about him? You need a professional webpage to help market your son to coaches. That web page should have an edited video of him performing and an unbiased evaluation of his skills. These tools are helpful to initiate a dialogue with a college coach and open the door for communication.

You also need to know what schools are realistic for your son’s baseball ability, academic performance, and social considerations. Think twice about hopping around to only Division I college camps if your son is best suited for a smaller program. Seek guidance on schools that are a good fit for your son and don’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing.

Good luck in the process. Stay focused on your game plan and your balanced attack with pay off in the long run!

Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.

Balanced Attack - Part 2

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

Last week I wrote about the importance of a “Balanced Attack” to the college recruiting process for high school players. Parents need to avoid the “showcase and college camp itch” when it comes to every invite received in the mail. Try not to allocate your family’s entire budget to these two categories. As I mentioned last week, showcases and college camps are important, but they need to be a part of an overall strategy that makes sense for your family’s goals and objectives.

At Baseball Factory, our staff constantly stresses to families that they need to look at four different areas of focus EACH year when determining their plan of attack to prepare for college baseball. Leaving out any of these four areas can create an unbalanced approach and leave you behind the curve.

For those parents that are scratching their head and are looking for some guidance, here are the first two areas to focus on when creating a game plan for the college recruiting process:

Academic Performance – This is #1 on the list by a long shot. An honest assessment of the student’s academic achievement needs to be performed. Make sure to get a copy of your son’s official transcript from the guidance office and calculate his core course GPA. Remember only the core courses (ie: Math, Science, English, History, etc) will count towards your son’s eligibility for NCAA programs. Check out NCAA.org for more information on this topic. Those lovely elective classes like baseball and weight lifting will not contribute one bit to his academic eligibility. Have him take sample PSAT, SAT, or ACT tests depending upon his year in school to see how he measures up. If the academics need improvement beyond what the student is capable of doing on his own through hard work, seek academic tutoring or standardized test prep courses. The reality is that the admissions process is wickedly competitive and the better STUDENT-athletes (notice STUDENT and not athlete is capitalized) have an admissions advantage every time.

Skill Development – As Steve Bernhardt wrote in his Building the Better Ballplayer Blog, parents need to seek professional instruction assistance for the areas of their son’s game that need improvement. It is easy to practice the areas of the game where the players are excelling. It is much tougher to work on your weaknesses and try to elevate them to a player’s strengths. Just think: instead of running off to another showcase and “exposing” a weakness for everyone in attendance to see, what if you used those same budget dollars to get professional instruction and improve your game? Doesn’t that make more sense? Well rounded players at the high school level usually make better players in college. Whether it is running speed, overall body strength, throwing mechanics, hitting mechanics, defensive ability, etc. get yourself some professional help and attack your weaknesses.

Next week, I will touch on the final two areas of focus for your balanced attack. If anyone can guess what the last two categories are, feel free to post them as a comment to get some discussion going!

Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.

Balanced Attack - Part 1

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

A hot topic for high school baseball families that comes up every year is how to approach the summer, fall, and winter schedule to maximize your baseball opportunities. Springtime always has the HS season as the focus, so that one is usually not debated much. However, how families choose to spend their time (and their money) in the other three seasons is one that is filled with a lot of different opinions and viewpoints.

One of the biggest mistakes I have seen parents make over the years as it relates to the college recruiting process is to fill their time (and budget) during these seasons by relying exclusively on college camps and showcases. Many parents get enamored with telling their friends and people in the community that we are off to “xyz school” this weekend for a big showcase, or “Johnny” got invited to “abc college” camp this weekend so we are flying out tomorrow, etc. In the end, this type of shotgun approach can turn out to be a frustrating experience for a number of reasons.

Parents need to understand that a balanced attack to the college recruiting process is required. It doesn’t pay to run off to every showcase or college camp invite, especially if the schools in attendance are not good fits for your son’s profile. These trips can be fun, and in certain specific instances are extremely valuable, but they can not be the only factor to consider when trying to determine how to best maximize your “baseball budget.”

At Baseball Factory, our staff constantly stresses to families that they need to look at four different areas of focus EACH year when determining their plan of attack to prepare for college baseball. Leaving out any of these four areas can create an unbalanced approach and leave you behind the curve.

As a parent, if this topic leaves you scratching your head and confused, check back next week when I go through the first two areas of focus.

Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.