Ep: 86 | Recruiting: 101

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Host Ross Hawley and Baseball Forward recruiting advisor Aaron Cunningham work through the recruiting questions families sent in to the show. Cunningham handles recruiting at Hunter Pence Baseball Academy in Houston, which was recently named a scout team for the San Francisco Giants.

This is the second Recruiting 101 segment, and the format is simple. Ross reads a listener question, Cunningham gives a short answer, and the two of them fill in the gaps. About ten questions cover when recruiting actually starts, how to get noticed, how to make contact, how to read the college levels, how grades change the math, and what a player should expect from the coaches around him.

The highlights:

• Why the recruiting timeline starts later than most families assume
• What makes a player stand out when he is not the biggest guy on the field
• Camps, email, X, and connections: the realistic paths to a college coach
• Recruiting as a job search, including honest expectations about where to apply
• How to evaluate anyone who says they can help, and who to ask about them
• A level-by-level look from the top 25 programs down through junior college and NAIA
• Why academic money often matters more than athletic money
• What a travel organization owes you, and how to hold it accountable

The Timeline Starts Later Than You Think

Cunningham splits the question in two. Preparation starts in eighth and ninth grade, getting the body and the skills ready. Real attention comes later: scouts may take notes on a freshman, but the serious evaluation happens after the sophomore year, in the 16U summer, with decisions following the August 1 contact date.

Rule changes pushed everything back, and Cunningham says coaches prefer it because they can run a deeper evaluation. Both hosts point out that talented seniors are still uncommitted in November, including all-district and even all-state players in Texas taking offers late in the fall. Ross adds the part families forget, which is that comparison does the damage. Put blinders on, and know that most players commit between August and October of their senior year.

"As long as you're playing competitively, you have a chance. Just get to the next stage."

That line came from one of Ross's own coaches, and it frames the rest of the episode.

How a Coach Notices You

Physicality is the obvious answer, since big, strong, fast players stand out in any sport. Cunningham spends more time on the other version of the question, because most recruits are not the biggest guy on the field. Do you run hard to first on a ground ball? Do you run on and off the field? Is your body language good? Can you win the small battles? He wants winning baseball, high baseball IQ, and a compete gene, and notes that a roster of nine identical big bodies is not what wins games anyway.

His most practical tip is to go look. Pull up the roster at the school you are targeting, at any level, and see what those players actually look like. That tells you more than any list of measurables. Ross adds his own version: every coach in America recognizes a player who plays with love, passion, and respect for the game.

Making Contact, and Knowing Your Lane

There is no single channel. Camps get you in front of a staff, as long as you pick a date when the coaches are actually on campus. College coaches are on X and most keep their direct messages open. Email still works, and so do introductions from a high school coach, travel coach, or trainer who already knows the staff. Effort matters more than method: if you wait to be found, it may never happen, and not every message will get a reply.

Ross frames the whole thing as a job search. Build a resume, know your qualifications, decide where you want to work, then do whatever it takes to earn the interview. Cunningham takes the analogy one step further, which is where the honesty comes in.

"I've got a little simple business degree from Sam Houston. I don't think I should be applying for a job to be a rocket scientist at NASA. I've got to know who I am."

The bigger the program, the more mail the staff is sorting through, so expectations should match the profile. Both hosts land on the same fix: go watch games and practices at several levels, watch how the pitchers move the baseball, and figure out which lane fits you right now.

Choosing a Program, and Vetting Who Helps

Cunningham calls program fit the most complex question in recruiting, and the division label is a small piece of it. What kind of academic school is this? What does the financial side look like? Do the coaches' values line up with your family's? This is the group of men who will shape an 18-year-old into a young man, so the decision is really about where a player lives for four or five years, how he gets developed and held accountable, and whether that staff will handle the growing pains of 18- and 19-year-olds.

Ross's concern is that recruiting has collapsed into a single event, with families rushing so they can get to the table and sign.

"Committing just so that you can sign and put up a post on your social media saying that you've committed is probably the most short-sighted thing you can do."

If it falls apart and a player is on a bus home by Thanksgiving of his freshman year, the extra weeks of homework would have been worth it. Ross sums up the standard as going where you are wanted and where you want to go. On the recruiting services and academies selling help with that decision, neither host will answer for anyone else: call college coaches and ask what they actually use, and ask for references. Cunningham's own test is to ignore the players sent to the biggest conferences, since those are the easiest to help, and look instead at who gets players to the lower levels, because separating a player from the pack takes real work.

A Look at Every Level

The listener question was about junior college, but the hosts take on the whole map. At the top, the country's best 25 to 40 programs want the player your grandmother could pick out of a lineup. Mid-majors now recruit the player the top conferences wanted ten years ago. Lower-level Division I programs recruit with and against junior colleges, and in Texas the same coaches calling Cunningham are often working the same names as mid-majors, because junior college has gotten that competitive.

Below that, mid- to lower-level junior colleges wait on purpose, checking who is still available and who is having a big senior season. Division II and Division III lean more academic with fewer athletic scholarships, though the strongest Division II programs recruit at a very high level. NAIA has its own rules and older rosters. Cunningham's advice is to find people who can tell a 17-year-old where he realistically fits right now, while remembering that players move between levels all the time.

Grades Are a Separator

Division III has no athletic money at all, so it is entirely academic, and a strong student can assemble a very large package. Division I works with 11.7 scholarships and Division II with nine. Those numbers do not stretch far, which means most players compete for partial money and the rest gets covered academically or not at all. Ross's point is that the source does not matter, because green is green.

Cunningham adds the part that surprises families.

"I've had college coaches tell me that they associate high school grades with work ethic."

A weak GPA can read as a red flag even when the talent is real. Ross paints the tiebreaker: two players who are physically identical, one with a 3.1 and one with a 3.6. The grades decide it.

The Coaches Around You

The job-search framing returns here. High school coaches, travel coaches, and strength coaches are references, and the way to involve them is often just to ask. Cunningham suggests a better opening than a favor: ask what it takes to reach the level you want. If the answer is that you already have it, follow up and ask him to make a call. If the answer is that you have holes to fill, you just got a development plan. The caution is that a coach's reputation rides on every recommendation, so coaches who have done this a while will not put their name behind a player who has not earned it.

Should a player also expect his travel organization to help? Cunningham says yes once a player is in high school, and that families should hold the organization accountable, because travel baseball is an expensive investment. Go deeper than asking whether they help: ask how, then check for a track record. His structural concern is roster size, since his academy keeps roughly 40 to 50 players per graduating class, so when a college coach calls looking for a left-handed pitcher, he can run the list and give a profile on each one.

"You want to make sure that the people that are taking the phone calls from the college coaches know who your kid is."

In an organization with hundreds of teams, the directors fielding those calls will talk about the same handful of players until those players are gone. Both hosts agree it is a hard thing to hear, and that it is what parents need to hear.

Be Where Your Feet Are

If the help is not coming, the answer is to make corrections and start game-planning independently. Ross puts it to players directly: is that going to be the excuse that ends your career, that a coach did not help? Cunningham tells every player at his academy not to wait on someone else, and says a player with a real burning desire can almost always find a place to play, though a player who will not consider anything below one specific program probably will not keep playing. Looking back at his own career, cut at 27 and bitter about it for a while, Cunningham says he understands now why the decision was made, and his closing advice is to be where your feet are and enjoy the game while you have it.

Episode Timestamps

Tap any timestamp to jump the player straight to that moment.

• 0:00 — Introduction
• 0:37 — Hunter Pence Baseball Academy becomes a Giants scout team
• 3:14 — How the Recruiting 101 questions came together
• 4:07 — When does the recruiting process start
• 4:52 — Why the timeline starts later than families think
• 5:46 — Blinders on: comparison robs the process
• 6:41 — Deeper evaluations, and offers still coming in November
• 8:13 — How to get a college coach to notice you
• 10:59 — The best way to communicate with college coaches
• 12:55 — Recruiting as a job search, and knowing your lane
• 16:45 — Choosing the right program for your son
• 20:37 — Go where you are wanted and where you want to go
• 24:12 — Is a recruiting service worth it? Ask the college coaches
• 26:05 — Look at who helps players reach the lower levels
• 28:44 — A breakdown of the college levels
• 32:37 — Why grades open up academic money
• 35:45 — Involving your high school or travel coach
• 38:47 — Should you expect your travel organization to help
• 41:37 — Making sure the right people know your player's name
• 45:19 — Be where your feet are

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Aaron Cunningham is a Baseball Forward recruiting advisor and handles recruiting at Hunter Pence Baseball Academy in Houston. Subscribe to the Baseball Forward Podcast for more conversations with the players, coaches, and leaders elevating the next generation of the game.