I think that what excites me most is that he HAS a strategy... or he is at least saying he does.
I have my own ideas as to what I would do in CA if I was in his position...because as somebody mentioned below, it will be hard to go straight up against UCLA (just one example) for a really elite CA. player.
It is my opinion that there are great baseball players everywhere. In the south and Ca, there are just more of them.
The part that sometimes goes unmentioned is the development part. None of this matters if the players don’t get better when they get to South Bend, or Corvallis, or Louisville, or Nashville etc...
That is the part (my opinion) has been incredibly deficient at ND for over a decade.
I can just speak from my experience... I have pointed 8 players (every single one of them went on to have great college careers) towards ND as HS freshman and sophomores. When I mentioned ND, they all were excited...at least their ears were open...parents especially.
2 of them were All Americans. 2 were 1st round Draft picks. None of the 8 got more than a letter. Zero of them got phone calls. All 8 of them would have been academic fits.
Recruiting at ND is hard...but it is really hard when you just admit defeat because the kid is too far away.
This is a good hire for ND. I’d like to think that he was hired to do more than recruit the Midwest.
On a related note...schools like ND need that 3rd paid assistant because he needs to TRAVEL (on an airplane) mid-week to recruit. That’s hard to do now...and basically be one short back home for development purposes.
Please keep posting. We need you and the former players on this site to educate us and keep us informed.
Interested in your opinion since you've done this so much. What is your preferred training route for kids leading up to HS. What do you recommend in the off-season....when do you start to work with kids to get into higher forms of competition (club, travel, etc.). I have my own ideas (which take it slow), and I know some others that do this for a living, but your opinion in your role as a coach from a baseball state would be good as well. Thanks.
Short answer...specializing in any sport prior to HS is usually the wrong path.
Parents feel that their son will be left behind, or lack development...so I get why it happens.
Like most things, it’s a pretty deep issue.
What’s best for the kid vs. what’s best for the baseball player?
I need to be at my desk computer to answer this.. I will soon. I hate typing on a phone.
What is Real vs. What is Right
Reality is, kids that play more baseball are usually better at baseball than the kids that don’t.
If the HS is really loaded with talent, the really good athlete will lose to the really good baseball player.
Think about it this way...
Why is the DR good at baseball? Brazil - Soccer, Canada - hockey, etc...
It’s not because those kids are playing a different sport in the off season. Is that healthy for the kid as a human being? Debatable.
Everyone will point to the exceptions... Mike Trout played 3 sports in HS!!!!
That works for a kid like Mike Trout in a town in NJ.
I will write more, but if I had to give a general template... Private instruction and skill development is nothing more than a money grab for kids under 13.
By 13-14, most kids will show where their talent and interests are.
That would be a good time to “get serious”... around the 8th grade.
He has a live enough arm that he could be a pitcher with the right sort of coaching (I'm not the one to do it, he's beyond the level that I've player or coached). He's also not a bad athlete. He's a fairly good WR or Safety in football, a good rebounding Forward in BB, and not a bad soccer player.
I have and will continue to encourage him to play whatever he wants within reason. I've resisted the urge/temptation to get him into travel baseball, between costs, politics, coaching, and daddyball, I didn't think it was something that was going to be a good fit and would force him to specialize.
I think we finally found a program for him that has what I feel is good to excellent coaching with a light travel requirement. I feel the best part is the encouragement for the boys to play other sports and rec ball.
It is now getting to the point where he needs the coaching and the reps if he wants to compete against the travel kids. He could make make up some of the skills/training by being a good athlete and having good instincts. So if he wants to play in high school even he will need to work at it more.
I've seen a few kids who played a ton of travel ball starting at age 8. They're 14-15 now and completely burned out, including a kid that has needed surgery on his arm at 13! Kids need to be kids. As teenagers I feel they have a better idea of what sports they like and don't like and that is when it makes more sense.
I sort of chuckle this time of year watching the LLWS. Some of the US teams it seems fairly clear that you are watching a few teams of travel boys who have spent years playing together to get to this point. Good for them I suppose.
My thoughts are almost identical. I'm not getting my son involved with "high level" stuff until he's in 7th grade at earliest. Until then, Dad will suffice as much as anyone else could.
about assistants about now?
He’s also married to one of the softball coaches I believe
probably just dotting their I’s
This post could not be more accurate. All very good points and all very true.
When I read about BRHS alums playing at Illinois and going to Louisville....
Maybe I'm misremembering it's been so long now...
Pretty hard to build a winning Baseball program with just Midwest guys. Or are you saying he should just recruit the South? ND does have some national appeal last I checked, so getting the best players that can come to ND should be the goal and beating all of the bushes should be part of that right?
and that is build a program of almost entirely Midwest guys. I would assume that our recruiting budget is not unlimited. Battling UCLA, etc for the best players in California seems like a losing proposition. Will there be the rare stud in California and Florida and Texas and Georgia that wants to come North - no doubt. But I think signing the 217th best player in California is not as important as signing the very best players from the Midwest. Spend your time in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc.
Louisville being a public school likely has some lower tuition rates for Kentucky and neighboring states, so it makes a lot of sense to go after the best they can get in the region as it means they can work with more meaningful half scholarships.
ND on the other hand can't give the players families anything close to the lower payment that Louisville and the local states schools. Let's also face the fact that ND's admissions standards also shrink the pool a bit as well.
Given that ND has to fight an uphill battle for money, weather, and admission standards, I still believe it makes sense to make sure a wide of net as possible is cast. That isn't to say that they shouldn't make efforts on local talent, but ND can't compete on local alone.
Which is very similar to ND in many regards (except for all of the winning).
40 players are listed on the roster found at the link below. Of those 40:
- 11 are from Tennessee (28%)
- 15 are from Tennessee or states that border Tennessee (38%)
- 18 are from TN, OH, MO, MI, and IL (45%) [Midwest States]
- 24 are from Midwest States + ND strongholds NY/NJ/MA (60%)
- 32 are from Midwest States + NY/NJ/MA + Florida (80%)
Notably:
- Just 2 players from California, plus 1 more from Washington
- Just 1 player from Texas
I think Vandy is proof positive that you can build a very strong program by focusing mainly on local talent.
different. Particularly youth baseball. So 40% or so I would call outside of the Midwest. Vandy also has an advantage of significantly better weather in the Spring. That shouldn't seriously impact recruit though.
I would also say that ND likely has a few more students from California and Texas than Vandy or at least % wise.
Again it is far easier to shop locally and make sure that local talent will need to fill a strong role, but I would look very poorly on a coach that said they weren't going to at least beat the bushes in other areas/states. ND baseball isn't always going to be able to go out and get the best recruits in any state they want, but they shouldn't let location of a recruit be a limiting factor. There is no reason to not look at kids from different regions. Hell it wouldn't hurt to work with the Football office and recruiting as there has been at least some history of football players playing baseball.
But I also think ND has more of a right to win with talented players in the Midwest & Northeast (and, by extension, Florida) than it does in places like California & Texas.
You seem to think ND is capable of simultaneously going head-to-head with USC & UCLA in SoCal, Texas & A&M in Texas, and North Carolina and Vandy in the Southeast...all while fighting off programs like Michigan, Louisville, and Indiana (all currently in better shape than ND) for local talent. That's simply not possible.
Success doesn't usually come from casting the widest net possible. Rather, it tends to come from focus and execution...two things we haven't had in a very long time.
and wouldn't Florida be *more* difficult than Texas and Cali given the florida schools plus the SEC hunting? California it's the Pac 12 true enough, but outside of that there isn't a major conference close to home there.
Texas and California shouldn't be written off lightly. Should Link be reviewing films on hundreds of potential recruits from Cali and Texas *over* watching midwest kids? Of course not. There should be schools, conferences, and kids in many states worth keeping an eye on.
I'm sure some smart data science types could take a look at general ND admissions over the last 10 years and look at the number of students that also came from powerhouse baseball high schools. That would be a good place to start looking to build relationships. After that, perhaps looking at the top high school programs regardless of state and looking at some top travel tournaments to get some idea of where the best fit players might come from.
I'm not writing off the local area, but expecting more than half of the recruits to come from within 500 miles of campus *and* have ND hope to make the CWS is wishful thinking at best. It means going up against big name teams and in state programs. It means selling ND with more disadvantages than any other coach at ND has to deal with.
It's going to mean striking out with fewer homers than 2018 Chris Davis. I figure that given the uphill task no stone should be left un-turned.
But doesn't the state of Tennessee have something that offsets the costs to attend college in the state, so while Vandy doesn't have in state tuition, the local kids, along with the partial scholarship, get another break on tuition for attending a local university?
I swear I read that somewhere.
schools that are in the state.
Looked into this extensively while my son was being recruited; I’d say the average student athlete for ND would likely qualify for 75% scholarship at State universities in KY and TN