No email response from baseball coach?

[navyhopeful2020]

Just my two cents.... I would focus more on the leadership aspects of baseball for the application process. Team captain? Running a summer camp? Start a pitching clinic for at risk youth? And make sure your CFA is top notch. Hard to play the varsity athlete card and have a middle of the road CFA....

Will you apply to summer seminar? Be in contact with you local BGO and school counselor and let them know you are interested in a Candidate Visit Weekend. Or, NYC isn't too far so make your own trip to Annapolis for an admissions tour where lots of questions can be answered in person.

USNA spots are extremely competitive and those D1 athletic spots seem like they would be a golden ticket, but those opportunities are rare and even more competitive. Focus more on getting in on your own merit and if the baseball path opens then that is a bonus. Or is it? My DS roommates are both recruited athletes. He genuinely doesn't know how they keep up with the crazy rigorous academic schedule, military duties, athletic practice/games. Be careful what you wish for! Hats off and much respect to all USNA athletes for taking on this challenge.

Thanks so much for the info; I don't think I have a chance at becoming team captain for baseball until spring of senior year, which by then would already be too late for Navy. I will try to become swim captain next year, which I can probably add to my packet before final submission. Also, thanks for the leadership ideas, they're really good opportunities. I will apply to summer seminar, but I have class and regents exams during the dates so I do not know if it will be a possibility for me.

 

[bopper]

Is it that they don't physically give out varsity letters or the team is not varsity level?

You should ask your coach if you are considered a varsity athlete. The PSAL talks about varsity teams.

 

[JDB]

Hey Hopeful2020:

My DS is a plebe this year at USMA. In high school he was considered a D2/D3 prospect in his sport. His back up schools were big D1's, so he focused on his service academy/ROTC packages, rather than chasing an athletic scholarship. Late in his senior year he grew a couple of inches in height and added some muscle mass. He had a strong senior campaign, won several accolades, and was a two-time team captain. He updated his SA resume every time he achieved a reportable accomplishment. When he received his appointment, he accepted it and made plans to be physically ready for Beast Barracks. He also made plans to try out for his sport as a walk on.

About a month before he left for USMA, he called the coach and actually spoke to him. He gave the coach his Cadet information, experience, social media, and engaged in a very good conversation. The coach invited him to a couple of "recruit" get-togethers that they were having the weekend before Beast. DS was introduced to many of the recruits and current players at those functions, and he was added to the team's list of potential players. This allowed him to practice with team on a couple of occasions during Beast and let the coaches contact him immediately after Beast to begin the tryout process.

Walking on to the team is definitely an uphill battle! The recruited athletes have already developed relationships with the coaches and existing players, plus there is an inherent bias toward the recruits. DS found that (in his sport) the team way over recruits. In fact, most of the recruited athletes will not make the team this year, much less the walk on athletes. At SA's, the recruits who are cut or quit will still have their four year "scholarships" whether they play NCAA sports or not. That said, some of these recruits are extremely unhappy to find out that the coaches have over recruited. Needless to say, DS didn't make the team, but he plans to try again next year. He said that he felt like he impressed the coaches, and he will already have formed relationships with them and some team members. We will see how he feels next years, but I like his grit.

Just my two cents.... I would focus more on the leadership aspects of baseball for the application process. Team captain? Running a summer camp? Start a pitching clinic for at risk youth? And make sure your CFA is top notch. Hard to play the varsity athlete card and have a middle of the road CFA....

Will you apply to summer seminar? Be in contact with you local BGO and school counselor and let them know you are interested in a Candidate Visit Weekend. Or, NYC isn't too far so make your own trip to Annapolis for an admissions tour where lots of questions can be answered in person.

I agree with Boatsfordays; focus on leadership and your whole person score. DS spoke to his high school coach and his teammates his junior year, and told them about his plans to apply to SA's and asked for the opportunity to earn a spot as a captain. There were a couple of team members who were not receptive, but he ultimately won the respect of the coaches and most of the team. DS also was an assistant coach for a competitive team of younger players. He earned many volunteer hours doing something he loved, and he gained additional leadership experience. The head coach of that team also wrote one DS's letters of recommendation, and it was outstanding.

I do not agree about summer seminar; it adds nothing to your whole person score. If your summer is already going to be full, then I would recommend that you attend the American Legion Boys State convention. Attending your state's Boys State WILL add points to your whole person score. Talk to your school counselor about how to become a delegate for your state convention. Below is a link to the Boys state web site:
https://www.legion.org/boysnation/stateabout

Good luck on your journey.

Go Army! Beat Navy!​

 

[NavyHoops]

‘Over recruiting’ is very normal at a SA. Between prep school and direct entry recruits there are large recruiting classes. Also, because there are no scholarships, coaches can tag folks as recruits when in reality it’s a very loose term and that person might be way down on the list with very little interest from a coach. The coaches know who their ‘blue chips’ are and spent a lot of time and energy into recruiting them to a SA. Their budgets for home visits and bringing in candidates for official visits is only so big and they know who they expended that on. You won’t see 10-15 basketball players per class show up at a D1 program outside of a SA. They have those on scholarship and maybe 1-2 who are preferred walk ons. Same goes for football with classes in the 50-75 range at a SA. Part of it is because attrition amongst athletes is so large (not leaving the school, but leaving the team). The other part is no official scholarships. Also at the prep schools many will play a sport there even though they weren’t recruited to help round out rosters. Many will then try out and coaches generally provide that courtesy, but very few make it.

 

[OldRetSWO]

Just my two cents.... I would focus more on the leadership aspects of baseball for the application process. Team captain? Running a summer camp? Start a pitching clinic for at risk youth? And make sure your CFA is top notch. Hard to play the varsity athlete card and have a middle of the road CFA....

Will you apply to summer seminar? Be in contact with you local BGO and school counselor and let them know you are interested in a Candidate Visit Weekend. Or, NYC isn't too far so make your own trip to Annapolis for an admissions tour where lots of questions can be answered in person.

USNA spots are extremely competitive and those D1 athletic spots seem like they would be a golden ticket, but those opportunities are rare and even more competitive. Focus more on getting in on your own merit and if the baseball path opens then that is a bonus. Or is it? My DS roommates are both recruited athletes. He genuinely doesn't know how they keep up with the crazy rigorous academic schedule, military duties, athletic practice/games. Be careful what you wish for! Hats off and much respect to all USNA athletes for taking on this challenge.

Thanks so much for the info; I don't think I have a chance at becoming team captain for baseball until spring of senior year, which by then would already be too late for Navy. I will try to become swim captain next year, which I can probably add to my packet before final submission. Also, thanks for the leadership ideas, they're really good opportunities. I will apply to summer seminar, but I have class and regents exams during the dates so I do not know if it will be a possibility for me.

It might help if you talk to your coaches NOW about potential captaincy and how that might help your chances of admission to a service academy. Case in point, I happened to be at USNA for a training course when we discussed this issue. That evening, I called my son who was on summer break between Sophmore and Junior years of High School and suggested that he say this to his Cross Country coach. He called me back 5 minutes later to tell me that he was NOW the Captain as a Junior which he then continued as a Senior as well in addition to a couple of other captaincies. The point here was that there was only one Senior on the team and that boy was really not a leader so when the coach found that this might help my son, it was a done deal.
.
As for some general info on varsity athletics at USNA, I can give you a little info. I was a varsity athlete at USNA as was my son. I also coached there after graduation. In general, for the vast majority of varsity sports at USNA, the team is made up of stars from their respective high schools. Even the non-recruited athletes who make up the intramurals were often big deal athletes in their hometowns. One of my candidates as a BGO was All County in two sports, Basketball and Soccer but never made it onto either team at USNA. I've seen this time and again over the years. My plebe class had four Parade Magazine All American Quarterbacks. Of the four, two of them ever suited up for a game at Navy and only one played quarterback and at that it was for one season before he left USNA. So of four All American QBs, by our third class year, only one was a varsity football player at USNA.
So, whether the OP's school gives out varsity letters or calls it a varsity team or not, the interest from USNA coaches will probably come if he is a standout player within his area. For the PSAL, that would probably be recognition as "All-City" or similar accolade.

 

[Memphis9489]

Hello,
I am currently a junior in high school and I emailed the Navy Varsity baseball coach about 2 weeks simply introducing myself and giving some of my stats from last season. I'm not exactly the top baseball player in the country, but anything I can do to help my application I will take. Anyway, I have not received a reply of any sorts from him yet. Should I take this as a "he doesn't want me for his team" or should I give him a followup email? Thanks,

Attending the summer baseball camp would be the best way to showcase your baseball skills and catch the attention of Coach Kostacopoulos.

 

[navyhopeful2020]

Is it that they don't physically give out varsity letters or the team is not varsity level?

You should ask your coach if you are considered a varsity athlete. The PSAL talks about varsity teams.

It is a varsity team. No one on any sports team gets varsity letters. I am on Varsity baseball