A Closer Look: Inside the Recruitment of Brady Stolzman
By Petra Otto, Rhino WI Public Relations
Navigating the maze of college baseball recruiting and getting recognized by D1, D2 or even D3 schools can be a tedious and frustrating process, particularly here in northeast Wisconsin. Until recently players were either dependent on their varsity or club coaches to get them noticed, or they were on their own.
Brady Stolzman, a 2015 C/3B/RHP from Appleton, can relate. Having played competitive travel baseball at the highest level throughout the Midwest since he was nine years old, the nationally ranked Xavier high school senior recalls the moment his varsity coach mentioned for the first time that he might have a serious future in college ball.
“I was the only freshman that the coaches pulled up to varsity, and it was for the 2011-2012 Eastern Valley Conference Regionals game.” He stepped up to the plate, and brought in the tying run. That year he was selected as “Rookie of the Year 2012” and ranked as “Top Catching Prospect Class of 2015” by Wisconsin Baseball Report.
Success with his travel team, more awards and invitations to prestigious showcase tournaments followed, and Brady and his parents decided that it was time to get actively involved in shopping the freshman’s talents around.
Brady signed up with the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) to make use of their network of scouts and recruiters and to obtain a national ranking. After that, he compiled a list of schools with a baseball and academic program that would fit his needs for a desired math and science major, and began mailing letters with his player profile to college coaches.
Brady’s mother Jeannie Stolzman stresses the importance of parental assistance and support. “Personal responsibility at a young age is key, but parents have to do their homework, too. Everybody wants to go to a D1 school but it is not always the best fit. Parents have to help with picking the right college. There are a lot of good baseball programs in the lower NCAA divisions and in the junior college ranks, too.”
At that time, Brady was also taking extra training lessons outside of his normal team practices from Coach Andy “Squeeze” Zwirchitz, a former Cincinnati Reds and NY Mets draft pick and 13-year veteran of professional baseball. “A good coach, one that is objective and doesn’t favor any player over another, is also important in this whole process,” Jeannie Stolzman says.
Aware of his player’s future potential, Coach Zwirchitz offered to help advance Brady’s skill level and developed a personalized program for him to train at home. In the off-season of Brady’s sophomore year he helped him create his first skills highlight video that they also sent off to colleges and uploaded onto NCSA and YouTube.
Reliant on Brady’s skills but dependent on efforts of NCSA recruiters and the quality of their work, the next year turned out “crazy busy” with college visits for the Stolzmans as they were trying to find the perfect match for Brady and his athletic and academic needs. While visits to D3 schools are unlimited (as are visits for academic purposes), the NCAA limits the amount of athletic visits to any D1 or D2 school to five total. Also, D1 and D2 coaches are prohibited from contacting athletes directly until September 1st of the athlete’s junior year. The results from these college visits were mixed.
In the meantime at the beginning of his junior year, Brady had joined Coach Zwirchitz to play for Premier Athletics, the new baseball program Zwirchitz had co-founded in Appleton. When Premier Athletics soon thereafter combined forces with Rhino Baseball Academy from Chicago, IL, Brady was able to take advantage of a whole new spectrum of resources to advance his goal of playing college ball.
Rhino Baseball’s network of MLB and Minor League connections as well as their highly qualified instructors with decades of professional and college level experience gave Brady’s play yet another more competitive edge.
Under Coach Zwirchitz’s guidance Brady performed P2 Performance’s X-Test, which is designed to gauge a player’s all around athletic performance and identify improvement. Taken once in the fall and then again in spring the following year, it provided Brady with independently recorded and therefore reliable scores that college coaches trust and want to see on recruits’ profiles.
Brady was also automatically connected with Field Level, one of the largest social networks for baseball recruiting and scouting that rivals NCSA with connections to over 2,200 college programs. It was Rhino Baseball’s own Field Level contact and recruiter out of Chicago, Brian Tehako, whose outstanding efforts and expertise finally connected Brady to the perfect college fit, and in spring 2014 Brady was offered a scholarship and made a verbal commitment to play baseball at Northern State University (NCAA D2) in South Dakota.
At Northern State Brady will be the starting catcher, and his team will compete in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) against other established D2 programs such as Minnesota Duluth, Upper Iowa and Minnesota State. Brady will be coached by Dean Berry, who is in his 4th year at the helm of the Wolves baseball program and was voted as the 2014 NSIC “Coach of the Year” by his peers.
Rhino Baseball is proud of Brady and the hard work he has put in, and is looking forward to helping other players on their journey into college baseball.
