Alex Swenson, a former Division I coach, presents a short guide for high-school baseball players on choosing colleges where they will actually have opportunities to play. He warns against over-focusing on Power 5 programs—noting heavy transfer usage and over-recruitment there—and recommends evaluating athletic standards, positional need, academics, campus fit, and the transfer portal. He also promotes the Premier Athletes platform as a tool to find schools recruiting a player’s position and matching preferences.
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All right, team, this is going to be short and sweet, but in today's episode, we're going to be talking about and things to consider when you're trying to find places where you can play. And believe it or not, not enough guys think about this as far as going through the recruiting processes of where can I play and where can I have an opportunity to play right away, a lot of guys are looking in the wrong places or just not looking at all and just kind of sitting back and again, hoping to be found. And hope is not a good strategy in this recruiting process. Hope is not a good strategy in any really process, okay? Being proactive in considering factors as you go through this process. And there's a lot to consider, right? Because now in the recruiting process for baseball, we have the transfer portal that we need to consider. All right? There's over recruiting recruitment as well. And these big time schools, the power fives and things like that. And I get it, man, they're super shiny and they're super sexy and there's nothing necessarily wrong with going after them, especially if it could be a potential good fit for you. But there's things to consider that usually these bigger schools are heavy on transfer guys and there's over recruitment that happens at these schools, which means typically each year they bring on more guys than they need. All right? And there's a lot of reasons that I'm not going to go into today of why that happens, but it's not good for the overall high school athlete. If you look at the commitments each year, the guys that you see on the premier athletes platform that are committed at the big schools or, you know, at Perfect Game or things like that, or you See on Twitter 50% of the guys that are committed that are going into that school at especially Power 5 schools, about half of them, all right, half, give or take a few are not there after freshman year or not there after fall because they get cut. So it turns into a tryout and I'm not a big fan of that at all. I don't believe that it should turn into a tryout. When you commit to a school and they commit to you, it's, hey, if they're committed to you and you're committed to them, you're going to be there over the next four, four years or three years, depending on the draft. All right? But the point of this video and podcast, and if you're new to my channel, by the way, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division 1 college coach, Scout and Recruiter. And now what I do is help high school baseball players and their families find the best college fit. So if you're interested in more help, please contact me down below or email me or on the podcast. You can hop down in the description. But with that said, I'd want you guys to consider this and I want you to find places and opportunities where it's going to be a good fit for you athlete, but where you're also going to have a great overall college experience. Okay? It shouldn't be all about baseball. Okay. It should be also about the academics, what you're going to study. Does it fit you as far as the campus setting? Do you feel like you're going to be able to flourish there? And if God forbid something happened, that you would be happy there. So you need to consider all of these factors. Okay? Also the levels, you need to consider all the levels and the athletic standards that these college coaches are looking for. You can find that on the platform, the Premier Athletes platform, which is there's a website, it's Premier Athletes app. Like an app, premierathletes app that you consider seeing the athletic standards. And then also, are these schools recruiting your position? That's really important. Okay. Not every school's in need of every position each year, especially position players. Pitchers, yeah, they're looking for typically right handed pitchers and left handed pitchers, but they're only going to bring on so many of those pitchers. All right, so they might be done or they might just bring one or two there and maybe up to five. But position players are not going to be in need of a catcher every year. They're not going to be in need of an outfielder every year. There might not be in need of a corner guy every year. Middle infielders, typically they bring on one or two each year or more from that side of things. But you need to know if they're in need of your position. Okay. Don't just go blindly at this going after schools. And if you need help finding schools that are recruiting your position, go to the Premier Athletes platform, which again is the website premierathletes app. I give school suggestions for you based off your preferences and based off the schools that you are looking for and schools that haven't committed your position yet in your class that you can consider that are looking for your position. Go on and check that out. I'll leave a link down below. Or you just go to the website that I just mentioned as we go through this. So considering all the other things, athletically, academically, geographically, all of these Things in its campus feel culturally, all that. We want to make sure that we're getting a good overall experience. And hey, going after. Even if you could play at a Division 1 level, does it mean that it's a good fit for you and that you're going to have opportunities to play? Because it's not fun sitting the bench. Okay, it's not fun now. It's. It can be necessary. And a lot of freshmen do sit the bench and then ultimately play eventually. Okay, but you want to have opportunities playing. No school will ever guarantee you a starting position right away because you have to earn that. All right? You have to earn that. If coaches are guaranteeing you. I would think about reconsidering your thoughts about that because there's really not any guarantees in the. In life, in this. But you want to at least look at the track record of that program and have freshmen started there before they're going to have a spot to go and compete in the fall and make a starting nine in the spring as we go. So things to consider as you go through this process. All right? Again, you want to think about looking at all the levels, right? Not just the D1s, especially not the Power 5, the SEC, ACC, that is guys that is so competitive. And a lot of those guys are Draft guys to Division 1Min. Majors and D2, D3 NAI and JUCO, do not overlook those levels. Guys. There's really good baseball there that you could have a great experience, a great overall college experience there and that you're going to have opportunities to play there as well and have more of a chance to play earlier as we go through this. All right? And consider the transfer portal. Consider all of that as far as your athletic standards and what these schools are looking for, depending on the level. And the good thing is there's so many levels that there's all different athletic standards, all right. And that you could potentially fit into one of those. But just wanted you to consider that as we go. If you have any questions, please comment down below or shoot me a email and reach out to me. You can visit my website down below and I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Good luck out there.
