is a good start but really ultimately only gets you onto the mailing list. When you say that they won't go anywhere unless they are invited.....what exactly does that mean? Btw, if he is a sophomore, IT IS NOT TOO EARLY!!!! Just heard from a former teammate of my son's that is also a 2021. He was a very early commit to the University of Maryland and recently de-committed. Has a line of schools that are interested in his services but the majority of P5 schools are out of money for the 2021 class. Keep in mind, success in baseball is typically related to the man on the mound.....and the bigger %'s go to those players so money can often be found for a bigtime arm BUT, many P5 schools are already committing 2022's and 2023's.....again, he is in his window. So, back to the invited question. There are different avenues for exposure. Some absolutely cost more than others. We went to a couple of camps that he was interested in and he plays for a very competitive travel baseball team. Finished last year ranked in PG's Top 20 for teams in the 2021 class. That allowed him to play in front of a lot of coaches in the playoffs of major PerfectGame events. Invites will come in his email daily starting relatively soon if not already.....but they really don't mean a whole lot.
To receive something of a more personal touch requires effort on his part. I only have a sample size of one.....but will gladly share. My son started reaching out to some select schools during the summer before his 8th grade year. That sounds silly but his travel coach evaluated him as a high level D1 kid and directed us to get started. I helped him craft emails that were specific to each school and he sent them to their Skipper, recruiting coordinator, and volunteer assistant. During his 8th grade year (our kids are allowed to play JV as 8th graders), he hit a homerun and we sent the linked video to Virginia Tech, Duke, Liberty, VCU, UVa and several others. That garnered a lot of attention.....but there was a process. The emails included info about his travel team and his coach. Schools reached out to the travel team for their evaluation. His travel coach then called us and said Coach X from this University wants you to call him at this time (total NCAA workaround)....but building those relationships is a MUST! We made video after video. Was just too easy to produce our own....didn't want to pay a service to do it and sent emails to each school with new videos attached. Lots of folks will say that if you are good enough, they will find you - I really don't agree. The kid has to play an active role by showing a school that they are interested in the University. A kid must get to a camp and SHOW at that camp. Coaches will want to follow that eval up by seeing the kid perform in a game - sometimes high school but more often at these big events where they can see lots of players at once. Hope that answered your question a little bit......probably way more than you wanted.