I joined College Athlete Advantage (CAA) in July of 2021 for a couple reasons:

• Recruiting was a strength of mine as a college coach, so working in the recruiting space (and in baseball) was a logical transition.

• CAA was the recruiting service I trusted THE MOST as a college coach.

College coaches don’t have the resources (time/money) to attend all the events/games they want. They rely on people they trust (like CAA) to find players that may be a good fit.

Why do college coaches trust CAA?

• We don’t spam email college coaches.

• We’re constantly working to grow our network of college coaches.

• We’ve helped more than 700 players find an opportunity to play in college (all levels and all parts of the country).

We extensively evaluate our players’ ability and help them determine their most important values (priorities), and THEN we determine which schools to promote them do.

Here’s the best part…

We’re CONSTANTLY improving!

Our owner, Mike Orchard, is committed to continually developing and upgrading our platform to give our advisors and players THE BEST resource available in our industry.

Here’s an overview of our process:

Each advisor put’s his own spin on this process (this flow chart is MY spin), but the nuts and bolts are the same.

Here’s how it works:

A Big-Picture Look at the CAA Process

Gather Information

We’ve distilled the information college coaches want to see into four categories:

• Personal Information

• Video

• Metrics/Stats

• Academic Information

Our online platform (a one-stop shop for ALL your recruiting needs) makes entering this information simple:

Here’s the basic “personal information” coaches want to see:

• Name

• High School/State

• Primary/Secondary Positions

• Bat/Throw

• Height/Weight

• Contact Information

• Coach/Reference Information

Coaches watch a lot of video to form first impressions of players. Here are some best practices for video:

• Provide BOTH skills/practice video and game footage

• Keep videos short (no more than 2 min. with dead time edited out)

• Add updated videos frequently

• Label pitch types (for pitchers)

Producing useful video for college coaches requires work (filming and editing), but it’s necessary. Do the work.

Some coaches value metrics and stats more than others. We provide the numbers for coaches that want to see them (those that don’t can ignore them).

Here are metrics that coaches look at:

• Pitching Velocity

• Throwing Velocity (from position)

• Exit Velocity

• Sprint Speed (60-yard dash and home-to-first time)

• Pop Time (catchers)

• Spin Rate (pitchers)

Here are stats coaches look at for pitchers:

• ERA

• Innings Pitched

• Strikeouts

• Walks

• WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched)

Here are stats coaches look at for position players:

• Slash Line (AVG/OBP/SLG)

• At-Bats

• Doubles

• Triples

• Home Runs

• Strikeouts

• Walks

• Stolen Bases

Here’s a list of academic information to provide:

• GPA (update after each semester)

• ACT/SAT Scores (when available)

• Transcripts (update after each semester)

• Intended Major/Academic Interest

If you’re not sure what you want to study, at least take a look at the majors provided at your target schools and make sure they have 2-3 majors you MIGHT be interested in.

Create Profile

When I opened a recruiting profile as a college coach, I felt overwhelmed when the home page included a lot of information and videos.

Our CAA profiles include only the MOST important information on the home page (the landing page for college coaches). Click here for an example.

Our home pages include:

• Personal Information

• The three videos that best showcase the player (the “Media” page stores ALL videos)

• Contact Information

• Metrics/Stats

• Academic Information (GPA/ACT/SAT/Major)

We include separate pages with more detailed information (click the links to see examples):

• Academics

• Bio

• Media

• Schedule

Evaluation/Values List

Once your profile is complete, AT LEAST five CAA advisors (all former college coaches) will evaluate your videos. You will receive feedback about your strengths and areas of improvement in a number of areas.

We evaluate the following for pitchers:

• Velocity

• Change-Up

• Breaking Ball

• Pitchability

• Performance

• Size

• Mechanics

• Movement/Life

• Command

And for position players:

• Hitting for Average

• Hitting for Power

• Arm Strength

• Defense

• Speed

• Performance

• Size

You will receive a 1-8 ranking from each advisor for each category and an average ranking for each category.

Essentially we are evaluating your “skill” and “metrics/stats” to ultimately project the level or levels of college baseball that fit YOU best.

Next, we will guide you through a “Values List” exercise to help you determine which factors are the MOST important for YOU as you’re searching for your best fit for playing college baseball.

The “values” cover both athletic AND non-athletic categories:

• Development

• Academics

• Playing Time

• Campus Life

• Etc.

This is a critical part of the process because your values will indicate which schools are likely the best fit.

Imagine two players who have equal metrics and skills coming out of high school. Both players want to play college baseball.

Player A wants to be a brain surgeon. The quality of the pre-med program is his top priority.

Player B wants to play professional baseball. Athletic development is his top priority.

Although they have equal ability, different colleges will be the best fit for each player.

The COMBINATION of your evaluation and values list will help us work together target the CORRECT schools FOR YOU!

Target Schools

Next, you’ll make a “favorites” list including as many colleges as possible that COULD be a good fit based on your evaluation and values list.

It’s CRITICAL to cast a wide net to make sure schools don’t fall through the cracks.

Your personal CAA dashboard will include a “College Search” tool, enabling you to filter and research any college baseball program in the country easily and quickly.

You can filter schools by:

• State

• Region

• Distance from home

• Size

• Etc.

See a school you like?

Click the “Add To Favorite” button to add the school to your list of target schools.

Once we get your target schools squared away, the real FUN begins!

Promotion to College Coaches

The next step is getting your information in front of college coaches to determine who has interest.

This step is all of the following:

• Exciting

• Confusing

• Disappointing

It’s exciting when coaches express legitimate interest.

It’s confusing when coaches respond to your messages, but don’t give a clear answer about their interest level.

It’s disappointing when coaches say they’re not interested.

It’s important to expect to hear “no” a lot. Here’s the mindset you need:

Luckily, I will be there for you to help you through ALL these emotions!

We promote our players (and teach you to promote yourself) in a variety of ways:

• Introductory Emails (sent through our online platform)

• Personal Emails (sent from your personal email address)

• Social Media (click here for an article I wrote about best practices for promoting yourself through social media).

• Advisor Contacts (ME reaching out to coaches for you)

• CAA Network (ME using my own network of college coach connections AND the networks of our other advisors to help YOU increase your options)

• CAA Website (we post your information on our website, which is free for college coaches to view)

I will coach you through ALL of these promotion strategies to make sure we’re on the right track to maximizing your options for playing in college).

Introducing you to your target schools is one thing, but the MOST IMPORTANT part of the process comes next:

YOU HAVE TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY!

I wrote a comprehensive guide to the communication cycle here.

Advisement

I’ve saved THE BEST part of our service for last!

You and your parents received unlimited access to an expert in the college baseball recruiting process (a CAA advisor) from the time you sign up until the time you set foot on a college campus!

Here are some of the most common items for which we offer advice/coaching/guidance:

• How to respond to messages from college coaches

• What questions to ask on a phone call with a college coach and/or campus visit

• What questions you should be prepared to answer when talking to a college coach

• How to determine how the interest level of a college coach

• What camps and showcases are worth your time and money and which aren’t

• What a good scholarship offer looks like

• How to use scholarship offers as leverage to get the best deal possible

• How to compare and contrast your options

We will be with you every step of the way to answer questions about these topics and much more. We’re always a phone call, text message, or email away.

What Are the Next Steps?

Ready to get going?!

The next step is to schedule a meeting with me. Click here to schedule a meeting.

Why a meeting? Why can’t you sign up right now?

Because I DON’T WORK WITH EVERYONE! I have a limited number of players I can work with.

I need to make sure you’re a good fit for me JUST as much as you need to make sure I’m a good fit for you.

Got Questions?

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected] or send me a text at 319-883-0242 to schedule a phone call.