smokeminside posted:
Wesleyan's Dresser Diamond from Foss Hill (aka Doobie Dome, Maryjane Mound, Reefer Ridge, Pot Peak, Grassy Knoll, etc)
Chaz, sorry this is so long. I got carried away. This is about the facilities as well as my 2019's Wesleyan recruiting experience.
First, if you are going to pick a NESCAC program based on the quality of the actual baseball diamond, dugouts, backstop, and bleachers/stands stick with Trinity. Its field was used in 2018 for the NESCAC championship, and will be used again this year. Hamilton and Colby's fields are really its only competition (unless one has a passionate commitment to grass). Every other field in the NESCAC is grass so the weather is a big issue.
RE: Wesleyan's field, the first time I walked on it I felt a ridiculous wave of nostalgia. It is almost Identical to my alma mater's diamond-- part of a much larger field, surrounded by beautiful, unique campus buildings, and banked by a nice, small hillside that parallels the left field line.
The sightlines are fabulous from the hillside and when the weather's nice the games feel like county fairs, albeit very liberal county fairs. Let's just say that wafting smoke you're noticing is not bar-b-que smoke, though I do hear it will give you the munchies (not that I would actually know anything about that). Another advantage of the hillside is that the school observatory is there, which offers not only a different way to experience elevation, but also has a vending machine that sells Doritos.
The indoor facilities are nice but, unfortunately, despite the great setting, it would be hard to find a worse playing surface in the NESCAC. The football field runs right through RF and CF. The larger surrounding field is also used for many other big events throughout the year. Calling the surface uneven is being generous. The fences and backstop are temporary, erected every spring and taken down at the end of the season. There are no dugouts--if it rains, players pull out umbrellas -- and the "brick" backstop, which looks on TV like the real deal, is actually made out of some kind of plastic composite. they do the best they can with what they have but the diamond is not a top priority.
Re the program itself, my 2019 had an unusual recruiting experience with Wesleyan. Son had several offers from NESCAC and Centennial Conference schools but turned them down. He was more interested in other HA schools in the midwest and west. Unfortunately, at those other schools he only got the "if you get in you're on the roster" speech. They weren't going to use a tip/slot/etc. on him.
So, he still tried to get into those schools on his own but was denied or deferred. He wrote and asked the coaches at those schools to help followup with admissions but they didn't even bother to write him back. This made him unhappy, so he decided to circle back to the schools that had offered earlier; of course those spots were long gone. He did get support from one east coast HA school in the form of a letter from the coach who really liked him and helped explain his situation to admissions. He was then deferred there in his ED 2 round but the coach kept after him to follow up with admissions so he wrote an earnest letter describing his ardor for the school. Then he had to wait, and this is where things actually started with Wesleyan.
Over the past year, I had somehow developed a relationship with two other HA coaches who had seen my boy play but also knew he was absolutely not interested in playing for them. One was at my alma mater and the other was the coach who had recruited my older boy to his HA school. Since I had more than passing relationships with these guys I broke the cardinal rule that dictates parents should not get involved in this kind of thing and I wrote both coaches asking for advice.
They both said check out Wesleyan AND they both called Coach Woodworth on my son's behalf. 2019 then contacted Coach Woodworth and sent video. Woodworth was great. Listened carefully, didn't make any promises of admissions because he too had used his slots, but promised to still shadow 2019's app through admissions. He called my guy several times as the weeks went by and he had a current player write my guy. The letter was hilarious, extolling the bar scene in downtown Middletown and the fact that the team takes a two week trip to the west coast every year. Both of these factors impressed my boy but then he was finally accepted at the first school whose coach originally offered him back in the fall (that he had said no to then and where he was subsequently deferred) and he jumped on that.
Woodworth is professorial. Quiet. An alum. Only the third coach Wesleyan has had in 75 years. Team has fun and is quirky, edgy, brainy, personality-wise. But that's the whole university in a nutshell, too. My older boy LOVES playing there when his team visits every year. He loves the atmosphere, the way the fans razz him and his team, and the fact that he's usually played well against them doesn't hurt either. I've asked him not to love the atmosphere too much. I'd hate to see him come down with reefer madness.
So, Trinity has the best facilities and a slightly more conservative and pragmatic student body. Wesleyan is looser, the coach is not obsessed with baseball. My older boy says kids on both teams seem to have a good time, which is not always the case with other NESCAC teams.
At the least, give Wesleyan a visit, which I realize you seem to be planning to do.
Good luck!
Smoke - Another great post. What a beautiful field.
A coach at a competing NESCAC school told me that Wesleyan does not play the national anthem before games, while his did. He told me this knowing my political leanings. Anyway, not playing the national anthem may be common at NESCAC schools, I am not sure.