Coaches Round Table: Mark Jelks Arkansas Monticello

December 25, 2015

All college programs have different ways to evaluate talent and come to their final decision on who to recruit and when they recruit them. I have sat down with Coach Mark Jelks University of Arkansas Monticello to discuss how his program works through the recruiting process.

PBR: At what grade do you start evaluating players for recruiting purposes?

Coach Jelks: For us we start evaluating players their JR year, but we really don’t start pursuing student athletes until the summer before their SR year. The reasoning behind that is there are a number of kids out there and at the DII level we have to try and do our due diligence on. We also have to keep our eye on guys that have continued to develop at a higher rate than others between their JR and SR year, not to mention the late bloomers that really take off late in the SR season.

PBR: What are some of the biggest factors for you to recruit a student-athlete?

Coach Jelks: Athleticism would be one of the biggest things I look for. You can always get a kid in your program that will gain some strength, velocity, and speed. However, there are some things that are just God given, and athleticism is one of them. After that we evaluate on a number of different levels. I am sure that the 5 tools that most people associate with baseball is the next deciding factors which are speed, arm strength, defense, hitting, and power.

PBR: What are some of the reasons you would not recruit a student athlete?

Coach Jelks: The most obvious answer is grades and test scores. It is important for student athletes who are interested in playing collegiate athletics to go talk to their guidance counselor and make sure that they are up to date on NCAA eligibility requirements, as well as, going through the NCAA eligibility center. Another process I do is look through players social media accounts to see if there are any profane or derogatory comments, and/or pictures on their sites. That is a new process that I feel like a lot of college coaches are doing to screen athletes on off field issues.

PBR: What is the one skill a position player must have for you to recruit them and why?

Coach Jelks: That is a difficult question to answer. I would not say that there is that one thing physically that every kid that we recruit or that is on our roster has skill wise. I feel that every kid we recruit does something that is special to set themselves apart from others in many different aspects. If there is one thing every player on the roster needs to have that we look for is competitiveness.

PBR: What do you value more from a pitcher, pitch-ability or power and why?

Coach Jelks: I would be lying if I said we did not look for power pitchers, however, I do feel that pitch-ability is key. You have to command all aspects of the strike zone, change speeds, and movements. That is what pitching is all about, to disrupt a hitters timing, if you can do that you can be very successful on the mound.

PBR: What advice do you have for student athletes that have a desire to play college baseball?

Coach Jelks: I think it is important for players to identify their top 5 schools that they feel they could make an impact at, send those coaches an email containing a skills video, and register to attend one of their prospect camps so they can be evaluated by their coaching staff. We currently have 13 players on our roster that have attended our prospect camps, that is something we take very seriously.

Coaches Round Table: Mark Jelks Arkansas Monticello

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