March 11, 2019
The recruiting process is a team decision, making it important for you to be seen by as many members of a program’s coaching staff as possible. At Headfirst Honor Roll Camps, we take your exposure to the next level by partnering with NextPro – filming every at-bat and pitch at Headfirst, tagging it to your profile and sending it directly to the schools in attendance. This verified game footage not only gives you access to high quality game film to use in your recruiting, but also effectively puts you in front of the entire coaching staff.
Our goal is to maximize your exposure – both at camp and throughout your recruiting journey – to help you achieve your goal of playing high-academic college softball. Our custom-built game matrix and coach-assignment schedule ensures that all coaches can watch you in a game-setting during camp, but we also understand that it’s impossible for them to watch every at-bat for every player.
In case a coach from one of your target schools misses an at-bat or an inning in the circle, they can watch your verified game film on NextPro. With five different camera angles on every field, every at-bat and pitch is tagged directly to the batter and pitcher involved, and all footage is sent to the coaches’ inbox. With this feature, you not only have the opportunity for direct engagement with your dream schools, but also to put your video highlights in their inbox to stay with them beyond camp.
Whether it is the head coach or recruiting coordinator who first watches a player, most recruiting decisions at the top-academic schools are made by the entire coaching staff using a “crosschecking” system. Other members of the staff will follow up on what is reported by the coach who first discovers the player. Since it is important for student-athletes to be a strong holistic fit at high-academic schools, it’s likely that the entire coaching staff will evaluate and interact with a player before committing to them.
Coordinating your summer schedule to get in front of all the coaches at your target schools can be a time-consuming and expensive process. This is where having verified game film can make a significant impact on your recruiting process. The video feature at Headfirst offers the opportunity to expedite this process by putting your verified game film in front of the entire coaching staff. Once you stand out to a coach at camp, they no longer need to wait until the next time they see you in-person for other coaches on their staff to confirm their evaluation. They can quickly send the game film to rest of the staff to effectively and efficiently move you up their recruiting board.
We recommend that players have a video highlight to include in their outreach to coaches. Given the high volume of emails these coaches receive from interested recruits, including a video helps your message stand out by allowing coaches to see how you play, and get beyond the numbers to see you as a player. Often this video includes players going through their “showcase” portion – 15 swings in the cage, 10 reps in the field, running the 20-yard dash. While this certainly helps coaches gain a better understanding of the skill and potential of the student-athlete, it gives only a partial picture for how a player projects in actual game play.
This is where verified game film takes your highlights and outreach to the next level. Coaches no longer need to imagine how your practice film translates to live action in a game. The video provided by NextPro shows coaches live at-bats against other players at camp, giving them a reference point to use in their evaluation. If a batter puts together a strong plate appearance against a pitcher that coaches ranked highly during camp, or a pitcher strikes out a batter that had an impressive offensive showcase, this footage will have a greater impact on the coaching staff than a video of practice reps. They not only have the footage of you performing, but also have notes on all the other players involved in the exchange to help set a benchmark for what they’re seeing on film.
In addition to sending video highlights of every at-bat and every pitch to all coaches at camp, NextPro also gives student-athletes the option to purchase their individual video highlights after camp. If there are any schools on your target list that were not at camp, this option allows you to send them high-quality footage of all your at-bats or pitching appearances from camp.
Once you get on a coach’s radar at Headfirst, they can simply play your video for the rest of the staff and put your name on their recruiting board. The clip above shows just how easy it is for coaches to access your footage – it’s as simple as clicking your name in the database and pulling up the highlights they want to see.
For more information on how this video feature can expedite your recruiting process and enhance your experience at Headfirst, give us a call at 202-715-6654.
