How I got Recruited to my "Dream" D1 School

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Learning Engine

In 2017 I was a 16 year old "non prospect" throwing 78 mph.

Fast forward 2 years, I get an offer from my Dream D1 school (@StanfordBSB).

This is the story of how I did it:

Important Note:

I took a very intentional approach and I believe I'm mostly self made, however luck also played a major role.

This is the process I followed, but won't be replicable for everyone.

My hope is that it can aid someone’s baseball journey in a small way.

The 4 steps to get recruited:

1) Become a Desired Product

2) Distribute

3) Showcase

4) Be Relentless

Lets dive in: ⬇️

Step 1): Become a Desired Product

AKA “Become good”.

As baseball players we're essentially products in a competitive market place.

There are thousands of players trying to get recruited, and we have to stand out.

How?

We need to identify the qualities that are most in demand.

For the longest time, velocity has been the number 1 sought after metric for pitchers.

Throwing 94mph will always get more opportunities than 84mph.

So how do we throw 94?

The full breakdown of how I gained 18 mph in 18 months:

https://x.com/GessnerJosh/status/1735749693186117973?s=20

But.... throwing hard isn't enough.

Becoming a desired product also involves academics (i know... it sucks).

But having good academics lead to:

• Playing in the AZ "Academic" Game

• Academic Scholarships

• Academics not being a bottle-neck in my recruiting process

How did I improve my academics?

1. Elected subjects I was good at.

I eIected essay based subjects, because i was better at writing.

2. Practice tests, Practice tests, Practice tests.

Doing well in standardized tests (SAT) is grinding out practice tests and learning from your mistakes.

Step 2): Distribution

Once you are:

• Throwing at least 90 mph

• Working on your academics

you can start distributing your product.

This basically means creating some interest around you.

How?

As a player in Australia who wanted to play D1, this proved to be a difficult task.

No college scout was flying 20 hours when they can recruit someone a car ride away.

Luckily, the internet does just as good of a job.

After my trip to Driveline baseball I got bullpen video of myself SPRAYING 90-92 mph. 😂

With this video, I cold emailed 100+ college coaches.

I put in effort to make the emails as personalized to the school as possible.

The results were unbelievable.

I got 0.5 replies out of 100.

0.5 because I didn’t get a single email back.

However the coach at @UW reached out to Ryan (@hyphen18) to ask if he knew me.

Obviously getting no replies sucked.

Turns out though, 0.5 replies was all I needed.

Ryan got in touch with me and asked if I wanted to join a recruiting trip for Australian baseball players.

The team was @nxtgenbaseball, comprising of 20-30 promising players.

We were headed to Arizona.

This trip would change my life.

Note: Currently, there seems to be better ways to create interest such as @FlatgroundApp.

However I still think there’s value in showing initiative and cold emailing coaches.

Consider doing both, to increase the surface area of your luck.

Closed mouths don’t get fed.

Step 3): Showcase

Initially you have to get into games where scouts will be.

For me, this was the Arizona Fall Academic Game and the Arizona Fall Classic.

As you show your competence, scouts will come to you.

Go out, and let it rip.

Showcase the product of your work.

At these showcases I was able to pitch to my fullest potential, leading to multiple offers from schools.

Stanford WASN'T 1 of them.

This leads me to step 4.

Step 4): Be relentless

When I set my sights on @stanford, Ryan and I did everything we could to get them to come watch me play.

But..... It’s never that easy.

They told us they weren't able to fly out to AZ.

Basically a rejection.

I don't know why, but this didn’t stop me.

After my recruiting trip I planned an additional trip to visit schools that had offered me.

I put Stanford on the list.

I hadn’t been invited to a visit, I just planned on showing up.

When I landed in the USA for my final trip, I made a call to the Stanford recruiting coordinator from a payphone at the airport. 😂

"Hey can I just come see the campus?"

He said yes.

At this point I had not been offered, and pretty much toured the campus as a student.

I don't know if showing initiative helped in the end, or it was just luck.

But 1 week after my visit I get a call from Stanford, telling me they found some room on the team.

I received an offer from my dream school.

Boom! Thats it. How I got an offer from my Dream D1 school.

In summary:

1) Become a Desired Product

2) Distribute

3) Showcase

4) Be Relentless