What can anyone tell me about this program? Have any of you played/had sons play on this team?
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Track down SDBB on here. Some of his son's friends or teammates played on one of their teams. He should be able to put you in contact with soemone who can help you.
They field teams in various parts of the country. I think that they have a team in either Mineral Wells or Wichita Falls, TX. I know that one of their teams plays in Alaska each summer. We have a family friend who played for AIA in Alaska this past summer and had a great experience. He plays ball at a D2 school and said the pitching of the opposing teams they played in their league was incredible. PM me if you want his name and number.
I spent the last two summers with AIA. The first was as a player before my senior year of college where we spent 2 weeks in Texas, 3 weeks in Nicaragua, 2 in Venezuela, and a final week in Puerto Rico. Absolutely amazing experience to get to travel to Latin America to not just play ball, but see how others play the game and be able to use the game of baseball to tell people about Jesus Christ.
I coached this last summer with the AIA team in the Florida Collegiate Summer League. We were pretty outmatched by the other teams who were made up of mostly d1 guys from Florida. We had mostly d3 and naia guys with a few d2 and juco guys as well. I think we had two current d1 guys on the team with a few who'd transfered from d1 to other schools. It was another great experience, especially for a 22 year old who played d3 ball and had just finished a playing career.
Anyhow, Athletes in Action is the sports ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. This past summer AIA had five teams that played different college summer leagues throughout the country (Alaska Baseball League, Texas Collegiate League, infield had it right, they play in Mineral Wells, Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, Florida Collegiate Summer League, and New York Collegiate Baseball League). In the past, and hopefully the funds will be there in the future, teams have traveled to Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Players raise their support for the summer, usually somewhere around $4,000. That's different from other leagues where there's little to no cost, but the support goes towards paying for major costs like food, housing, and travel during the summer. Players are selected through an application process in which recommendations from coaches and others are used to select the players based on the players abilities and personal attributes.
If you or your son has a heart for God and baseball, this is an awesome way to spend a summer. I could go on and on about my experiences over the last two summers.
For everybody here, AIA also has teams in other sports that play throughout the country and the rest of the world during the year, too. One of my close friends played volleyball this past summer in Turkey with AIA. She loved it.
Feel free to pm me if there's anything else you'd like to know. You can also check out their website, aiabaseball.org.
I coached this last summer with the AIA team in the Florida Collegiate Summer League. We were pretty outmatched by the other teams who were made up of mostly d1 guys from Florida. We had mostly d3 and naia guys with a few d2 and juco guys as well. I think we had two current d1 guys on the team with a few who'd transfered from d1 to other schools. It was another great experience, especially for a 22 year old who played d3 ball and had just finished a playing career.
Anyhow, Athletes in Action is the sports ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. This past summer AIA had five teams that played different college summer leagues throughout the country (Alaska Baseball League, Texas Collegiate League, infield had it right, they play in Mineral Wells, Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, Florida Collegiate Summer League, and New York Collegiate Baseball League). In the past, and hopefully the funds will be there in the future, teams have traveled to Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Players raise their support for the summer, usually somewhere around $4,000. That's different from other leagues where there's little to no cost, but the support goes towards paying for major costs like food, housing, and travel during the summer. Players are selected through an application process in which recommendations from coaches and others are used to select the players based on the players abilities and personal attributes.
If you or your son has a heart for God and baseball, this is an awesome way to spend a summer. I could go on and on about my experiences over the last two summers.
For everybody here, AIA also has teams in other sports that play throughout the country and the rest of the world during the year, too. One of my close friends played volleyball this past summer in Turkey with AIA. She loved it.
Feel free to pm me if there's anything else you'd like to know. You can also check out their website, aiabaseball.org.
CCKnights,
You have a PM
You have a PM
Interested in any new information anyone has on this league recently.
Mom,
This is not a league, but an organization, that field teams in different summer leagues. The list above is still pretty accurate.
BishopLeftiesDad posted:Mom,
This is not a league, but an organization, that field teams in different summer leagues. The list above is still pretty accurate.
Is anyone familiar with the leagues they play in? Wanting to make sure it's a competitive league. Any suggestions around Texas, Oklahoma, NM?? Out of state isn't a problem as long as we know the league is legitimate. We did a local league this summer that ended up being a waste of time and money.
The NYCBL has been around for decades, and I think the Rochester Ridgemen (AIA) joined in 2012. That league might be a good fit for your son if they still have open roster spots. You'll find the contact information here:
Are you looking for an AIA team in particular or a league in general? If in general there has been lots of commentary on many of the leagues across the country. With out knowing your sons skill level, it would be difficult for me or others to suggest a league. It is important for a player to go where he has a chance to compete for playing time and get his work in.
In the Great Lakes League The Xenia Scouts are also an AIA team:
http://www.xeniascouts.com/aia/
If you go out to there main site you can see the teams in all the summer leagues:
http://www.aiabaseball.org/teams/
Alaska, Great Lakes, and the NYCBL, are all respected leagues.
Can they compete with the Cape or Northwoods? no.
I can highly recommend the Valley league, My son played there one summer, but there is no IAIA program in that league.
What year is your son in college? Is hss coach placing him. Some of the leagues can be difficult to get into.
Mom, check this team out.
They have a link to apply. I hope everything works out.
Reviving this from last year. Seems like the teams in Great Lakes, Alaska and NYCBL are historically in the bottom third of their respective leagues. Son is a LHP freshman at a D3 — he cares more about facing good competition and getting some exposure than playing for a team that is going to win the championship. Looked at the rosters from last year and they seem like a mix of D2 and D3 guys.
I gather the AIA is the organization that pulls these teams together, but what else should my son know? Would it be better to be part of the Alaska league, Great Lakes, or NYCBL? Heard on different threads that Great Lakes is well run. How about Alaska nowadays? NYCBL and PG split a couple years ago… any reason?
IMO, your son will face better hitters in any of those leagues than he's going to see during his college season. Check the D3 players on those rosters for college class and IP. I would expect most of the sophomores (that will be your son's designation next summer) who got innings to be in the NYCBL. Alaska and Great Lakes are a higher level.
There are other faith-based teams playing summer ball, too. FCA has teams in the NYCBL, the Southern Collegiate Baseball League and the California Collegiate. Also check the Haysville Aviators in the Jayhawk Baseball League (Kansas). There are probably others.
If your son doesn't get to pitch much during his freshman year, then it will be important for him to get innings in the summer. If he does pitch a lot during the college season, then his college coach probably won't want him throwing a lot of innings in the summer anyway.
Does your son have an offer for one of these teams? If I was forced at gunpoint to put these leagues in order it would be as follows.
1 Alaska
2 Great Lakes
3 New Year
But each league has teams that could play up and compete well in the higher league. There is not that much difference between the leagues.
The Great Lakes has really expanded recently. New teams have not built the network with higher level programs, so some of the teams are still working on building strong programs.
If faith based is important to you, and your son, and Catholicism is OK, consider the Lake Erie Monarchs. They are sponsored by Catholic baseball players for Christ. My son almost landed there, but the Settlers jumped in with a contract, before the Monarchs got around to offering.
The talent your son will face in any of these leagues is stout.
I won't go into all the reasons for the split between the PGCBL and the NYCBL. It has been discussed several times. There are tons of old articles available about the split. It happened back in 2010. That is a long time in summer baseball. The leagues had philosophical differences.
One other faith based baseball org.
http://www.fcabaseball.org/teams
California Collegiate Baseball league
Team: SoCal Catch
NYCBL
Team Genesse Rapids.
How do offers and contracts work with the summer leagues? I thought a college coach placed you, you showed up and played, and found a host team. And most the leagues start early June and end late July, correct? I'll be dealing with this next summer... thank you.
Most teams have a contract for you to sign. It binds you to that team. In some of the higher leagues, it might be a 10 day contract, especially at the start of the season. Cape uses them to tide the team over until, players get knocked out of the NCAA playoffs.
Takes you off the market like an NLI.
Thanks Bishop and MidAtlantic. No offer, his coach asked if he is interested and I told son I’d ask the group if they had any info on Athletes in Action and the various leagues (I’ve done some homework) I also wondered if the AIA program/selection process is different than other teams in those league (especially Alaska) seems other teams pull more D1. Faith-based summer team would be a good thing. I am sure the competition will be top notch.
Gov posted:How do offers and contracts work with the summer leagues? I thought a college coach placed you, you showed up and played, and found a host team. And most the leagues start early June and end late July, correct? I'll be dealing with this next summer... thank you.
I think the odds of your coach getting you placed increases the higher the level of college ball. My D3 son had three different experiences.
- his college coach found him a spot
- he found his own spot that was a better opportunity than coach had for him (coach was in agreement)
- a summer team coach contacted his coach with an offer (summer guy coached against son's team during college season)
Quick update since I asked for some advice: Son was offered (and accepted) a spot on the Xenia Scouts in the Great Lakes league. Happy for him. Will be tough to not have him around this summer, but this is his journey/dream. Having heard some horror stories about host families and bad behavior by players during the summer — hopeful this team will work out well. If anyone has some advice for my son and really for me other than the obvious stuff — I’d welcome it.
For now — looking forward to watching him on Sunday throw in an inter squad scrimmage during parents weekend.
Great news!
My guy is looking at the nycbl team or playing on the international trip.
MAM posted:Quick update since I asked for some advice: Son was offered (and accepted) a spot on the Xenia Scouts in the Great Lakes league. Happy for him. Will be tough to not have him around this summer, but this is his journey/dream. Having heard some horror stories about host families and bad behavior by players during the summer — hopeful this team will work out well. If anyone has some advice for my son and really for me other than the obvious stuff — I’d welcome it.
For now — looking forward to watching him on Sunday throw in an inter squad scrimmage during parents weekend.
I never heard a bad thing about the scouts or their host families.