2014 Players, Welcome to the college recruiting process!   Over the next 18 months, 90% of you will make a decision on where to go to college and where to continue your baseball playing career.   90% is the percentage of kids that move from the Gamers program into college baseball.  If you are a 2014 player, you are in this process right now. Our college process is built around YOU taking control and responsibility for this process.  There is a great academic and great college baseball experience out there waiting for you.  Over the next 18 months, it is up to YOU to make it happen.   This means: Athletically - becoming the most physical athlete you can become by May 2013.  Training & Nutrition!!!! Baseball - becoming the most skilled baseball player you can become -- at the plate, on the mound and in the field.  That means reps, reps and more reps. Academically - achieving the highest GPA and ACT test scores you can achieve over the next 18 months. These areas are all things that you have been working on for years.  Over the next 18 months, they will be put under a microscope. The Gamers college process is a very personal and individualized. We want EVERY player to end up in a great situation.  Our process will help lay the foundation.  But, it is up to you to build the house. We will kick off this process with a College Process meeting on Thursday September 13th at All-Star Performance.  The meeting will be from 8-9:30 pm.  Attendance by 2014 players and at least one parent is mandatory.   In preparation for this meeting, you are required to complete two assignments. 1 - Complete a player profile Click here to download the template in Microsoft Word.  Fill it out and email it back to mwhiteside@all-starperformance.net. Click here for an example of a good profile. 2- Put together an initial list of target colleges.   Click here to download the Microsoft Excel template for target colleges. There are literally hundreds of potential colleges that you could play at.  To take control of this process and to proactively market yourself, you need to target a set of colleges that fit with your baseball potential and academic potential. This is the first step in the process.  To fill out this list, you will need to ask yourself (and talk with your parents about): - What baseball level can I realistically play at?   - What colleges are a good fit for me academically? - What colleges would I be interested in regardless of baseball? - Do I want to go far away from home, 6 hour drive or stay close? - What colleges can I afford for the non-scholarship part of tuition? You are tackling these issues a full year before your classmates at school.  But that is the reality of the baseball recruiting process. You list if colleges will change 18 times over the next 18 months.  That is part of the process and taking control over it.  Make it YOUR list, not somebody else's. Both the player profiles AND initial list of colleges are due to Matt Whiteside by September 10, 2013.  So you have 3+ weeks to work on them.  Start the process right now, before the school work starts piling up. There are a lot of information resources available on the Gamers website in the Clubhouse section.  You need to log-in to see them. User name is Gamers2013.  Password is stlgamers. Your success in this process will largely be dictated by how much effort, focus and organization you put into it.  This process creates a great life lesson opportunity.  Take control and responsibility, follow the process, and meet the deadlines and you will be happy with the results. See you soon, Coach Gallion