AZ JUCO'S

Fan, you sound as if it didn't turn out like you or someone close to you had planned. As with any college, the student and parent need to do thier homework and lots of research on the schools you're interested in. I think some of the things you state here are very unfair. (Inaccurate and inappropriate, also).

I know just off the top of my head that Glendale,Mesa, Phoenix, and Scottsdale are D2 JUCOs and are only capable of granting athletic scholarships if you are a resident of Maricopa County and only for tuition and books. And then to be eligible to get an athletic scholly at other schools within the Maricopa Community Colleges in Div. 1 (Chandler Gilbert and South Mountain) one must be a resident of Maricopa County. Even then seems like scholarship $$ is negligible.

The letter of intent is quite specific about how much money the scholarship is worth. If you sign it and there's no scholarship $ on it, well then there's no scholarship money and the kid is supposed to play for no athletic money. Each school can only have 24 signed.

However, take a look at the rosters of Yavapai, Cochise, and Arizona Western. I bet you find a lot of out of state students, I also bet you find 24 on each roster with a dang good baseball scholarship that includes tuition and housing.

I'm a 42 year old mom, I work swing shift dealing blackjack and pai gow, yet what I've said here is from my memory. I haven't had to look anything up. I have done a tremendous amount of research into where my son wanted to go to school, and to pursue a baseball scholarship at his school of choice.

Mom, quite a bit of what you say is very true, and home work was done and understanding of scholarships was also understood. Yet one thing coaches have a hard time determining with a player is his personality...the true person come out in time when they "settle" into a situation. The same holds true with coaches. A player while being recruited see's the very best that a coach has to offer and it is not until he is on campus practicing and playing that a player really finds out what kind of person the coach is. The coaches will take recruits by a few players who ae on their "A" list but never leave them alone to talk to the current players one on one. If they did that they might find out how negative the coaches really are...or that they don't really work on "skills" as they state but leave the players to work on their skills alone and unguided while they are out looking at the "next" recruits. How they will tell a player that is is a scholarship guy for next year...only to say "we only have scholarships for pitchers"...to find out another player from out of state who set up residency recieved the scholarship...as a non-pitcher. Or the coaches who say "this is your position to lose"...as he also says that to the other 2 or 3 guys. When they are recruiting a player and tell them "we only have 40-45 players at the break of camp and 20 of them are pitchers"...and come time for the start of practices there are 90...95...120
All I am saying is don't believe what you hear unless there is money associated to it...money talks B.S. walks.....just stating facts that I haven't had to look up either MOM

I'm with BasicMom on this one. I know there are always going to be differences when the fall starts, however, research is invaluable and if you did some you would see that over the past 2-3 seasons the number in the fall has always been high and always will be in AZ Jucos.

You also have AZ ST and U of A sending players to these programs from their fall fallout. I would say your research was limited and that if you did sign an NLI with $$ or not, it was clear. As for personalities and settling in that is the players responsibility, not the coaches. Unfortunately for some players it becomes a job they are not willing to commit
to.

AZ has many great players and most end up out of state for the reasons you stated. Most of their parents have put in 100's of hours of research to ensure the right "fit" and still some will be wrong...but most know what they are getting into.

Hope it all works out for you.

Think one has to be cautious of AZ JUCO's....here in Tucson there is a "committment list" maintained by a local newspaper....and looking at the '05 signees for Pima Community College here in the city....we personally know of 3, '05 catchers....all heading to Pima CC with high hopes....it has been said before.....and deserves repeating....in Arizona we have many good ballplayers but only 3 NCAA baseball programs....do the math....and understand why so many AZ players go out of state.....and why the JUCO baseball programs here have very large rosters....

Obviously you are one of the legions of bitter players/parents who ave attempted to go the JUCOroute here without an adequate understanding of how the "real world" works.
Some of what you say is true, but your comment about CGCC having 175 players tryout is way off base. The number was closer to 75, which is still high, but all of the schools do this.
The AZ JUCOs are pretty rarified air when it comes to baseball talent. If you plan on attending and getting serious playing time you'd better strap it on and bring your A game.

I know a couple of things:

1. The competition at these schools is beyond intense. I'm sure most could beat on a regular basis many if not most D-1 schools. It is very, very tough to play here,

2. Doyle Wilson at Chandler-Gilbert is one of the great coaches in all of baseball, not just the college ranks. He could play the game and he coaches it even better and he cares about his players, even those who don't play.

AZ JUCO's are tuff teams and in a tuff league. I had a full ride to yavapai college and the whole team was stacked. I played with some awesome players. I believe that many AZ JC teams can beat some DI schools.

My older brother pitched at Yavapai in the late 70s. I learned one thing from being able to watch the Roughriders play at Grand Junction one of those years:

1) It takes an incredible amount of drive and talent to become a professional ballplayer, because the guys on that team were the best players I'd ever seen outside of an MLB stadium (and having watched players at Michigan and Michigan State where we grew up), and NONE of them went pro. I think one was drafted in a late round, but that was it. I couldn't believe it. They were amazingly gifted players.

Having 75 players or 125 players! What is the difference? This is just stupid coaching! You can only play NINE people at one time. Ok all you baseball braniacs, lets redshirt 50 of these guys and dress 25 and then next year we only have replace 25. Where is the integrety of a coach? I don't care who it is, this is rediculus and mindboggling. I am with you guys that think this practice is a joke!

They don't redshirt these guys (maybe on occasion). They cut them. And then the next year, they get 100 more. The competition is very stiff.

And it is no different that what we see here in California at many of our jucos. There are four jucos in the Sacramento area, and one has probably 50 kids tryout, while the other three have between 75 and 125, each.

The competition to make these teams it tough, and the baseball is good as a result.

06catcherdad....just moved to California and we went last weekend to see a high school teammate of our son's playing here at an Orange County juco.....70 kids showed up for the first day of fall ball....we thought.....just like Arizona.....tough competition at the juco level....no doubt about it.....

No wonder why alot of these kids are opting and wanting to go out of state!

sportsbuff30:

Many if not most of the kids cut come from out of state. It's unbeleivable what the Arizona weather will attract. As for AZ kids, more ought to go out of state, but the distance is far and it is a tough place to leave. A lot of very good baseball players stop playing much earlier than if they lived elsewhere.

jemaz, Come on now if a coach recruits an out of state guy they are not gonna cut them. Trust me if he is getting any scholarship money they are not gonna waste a waiver for him to be cut. My point is simply this: These coaches are taking away oppurtunities for alot of these young men to continue their baseball careers by telling them how great they are and how bad they want them, and then cutting them. This is not right! If you already have 25 shortsops there is no need for your 26th. I hope you understand what I am saying, I am not saying that baseball and Arizona are not a great combo. All I am saying is that these coaches know they are in the wrong. This is not ethical.

sportsbuff, most of the community colleges here -- at least the ones in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and Scottsdale -- cannot give scholarship money. As far as the recruiting goes, most of it involves guys recruiting themselves to these schools or four-year colleges (especially Arizona State) sending these guys to the jcs. I doubt if it will ever change, and unless you are one of a select few players, you will find it very difficult to earn a roster spot at one of these schools, much less a place in the lineup. In many ways, as has been mentioned, you will find similar situations in CA. Lots of very talented players for very few spots. And the players come not only from in-state, but from across much of the country -- attracted by the weather -- making the situation all the more difficult.

Hey so, I was reading this post, and I can't help but post, what do you guys think about Arizona Junior College competition today? IMO, it's really not what it was back in 05. AZ jucos are still good, but I wouldn't go to say that most of them can beat a lot of D1 schools like they were probably capable of doing up till maybe about 4-5 years ago.

 

I know Central AZ is always strong, and Mesa won the D2 juco world series this year. But I feel that the talent at AZ jucos aren't what it once was, still good, but not like it was say in the late 90s and much of the 2000s. Also, I don't think ASU/UofA send any players to these jucos anymore after Murphy left. I went to a few juco games, and not every pitcher was throwing north of 90 like how everyone said they did back then. In fact, I was watching MCC play and I swear one of their RHP's was not even throwing 80, and I'd say the average velocity out here is probably somewhere between 82-87.

 

What do you guys think? I think one thing that still holds though and still is true, that a ton, and I mean A TON of people come out for fall baseball at every juco around here. I would say every team still has like 60+ guys come out in the fall. Guess that's what happens when there are only four universities (4 year schools) that have baseball here with the amount of kids and talent that kids here in AZ have. A close friend of mine that plays at Mesa told me about 75 came out in the fall of 2011. How exactly does this work? Can whoever that wants to come out can come out for fall baseball at the juco, or do ALL these kids sign with the college? And if so, do they knowingly sign and aware that they're competing with 60+ other players? Would you say it's still really tough to make it on a team around here like it was 10 years ago? Or would it be easier, just a little bit?