MKbaseballdad posted:My son was a 2016 RHP who is now in the Centennial conference. There was no guidance from the coach as far as I know about where to play this past summer but we were definitely not looking for a "travel" team after the grind he had gone through the previous two summers. We wanted him to stay sharp pitching while not throwing too many innings, to work out so he showed up in shape and to work so he'd have some of his own money on campus.
That last one is something it seems like we overlook a lot here on this board - students go through a lot of money - pizza, wings, BBQ, Walmart, bookstore, I could go on and on with the charges I see on his debit card. Since his schedule had always been dominated by sports, practices, workouts, tournaments, etc he had rarely had time to work and put away his own money so we thought last summer was the time to start.
Baseball wise he found a local college wood bat league that also had one adult team (NYPD team) that played 36 games and playoffs in about 5-6 weeks. The talent was mixed - lots of D3 players, a few D1 players and several who had just graduated. His team had lots of just graduated HS players who were going on to play at D3 schools and they got spanked most of the first third of the season but came back to make the playoffs. He went to every game the first 2 weeks, was used in relief several times while the coach got to know him and then earned a start once a week for the rest of the season and just had to go to that game - so much less of a grind schedule wise.
I know the expectations for D1 vs D3 players over the summer are different but the summer between graduating and going to College seems to be a grey area. Both RHPs who played with my 2016 in HS who committed D1 (in 2015 and 2016) played in the same league I mentioned above before they moved on to college.
With there being no NLI, in D3. I do not believe many D3 coaches will work to find you a place to play. It is in there best interest to not have you seen by other schools. At my sons school, they have lost more than one commit in that summer before freshman year. A coach from a D2 or NAIA, or heck in one case a D1 saw a player and was able to offer a scholarship. Admittedly in most of the cases I have been aware of the player eventually regretted changing schools. In most cases they struggled to get playing time at the new school.
My son played the last year with his summer team and they played really good competition, and he was able to be a position player for one more summer.