Choosing Collegiate League

lafmom, summer collegiate league selection is largely based on the efforts of your son's college coach. Hopefully the coach will have some prior relationships with certain leagues and franchises. The Coach will make the contact and try and get your son signed.
Most of the better leagues and teams will have their rosters filled in the Fall and, if selected, your son will sign a contract by the end of November and many will be signed earlier. A number of openings do reoccur in the Spring due to injury, grades and other variables
There is a wide variability of experiences between leagues and even between teams in leagues but their is a very common thread that every team wants to win. No player should go with the idea that this involves a summer vacation.
The summer experience was critical for ours in having an opportunity to play at the next level because he came from a DIII program. Being in New England, playing against Team USA, and proving he could succeed with top DI players in front of a lot of scouts was was a goal that his college coach had set for our son when he was recruiting him and was a committment the coach worked extremely hard to successfully complete.

I'm a couple years from this yet but also wondering about costs and living arrangements.

Again, there are variables. Our son lived in a college dorm one year and with a host family the next. Was not charged for either. I know of situations where the players do pay, usually in the range of $100 per month. Many franchises also help the players with a summer salary either by locating jobs in the community or paying them for helping put on clinics.
There is not a cost associated with playing as far as I know.
There is also wide variability on food. One team fed the players before and after games, home and away, and fed them very, very well. I think that is more the exception though.
And finally, transportation can be a huge issue. Ours did not have a car his first year but there were several players who did. Next summer he needed the car because of the location of his host family and no other players living close by. That was a bit of a hassle but ended up okay.

Lafmom,
Just want to make a comment on your post.
For my son , his assignment was given two weeks after he began school, which was quite overwhelming to him at the time. His coach told him he was going and that was it, he wasn't given a choice. Turned out he didn't go, only because he put in a lot of innings as a frosh pitcher and gave up his spot to a player who did not get in as much time as he did. The summer rest and to condition for fall practice was more important to him, maybe that will change next summer.
There are many very good summer leagues and most serve the general purpose of getting time in to improve your game, getting playing time you didn't get as a freshman, sophmore, summer instruction. For the player going into his draft year, it is a very important summer, I do believe that is where the importance of where you play comes into the picture. And the player should go to a league where he will find success, that is why many coaches secure spots. Sending a player to a summer league that is beyond his abilities is not good, sending a player to a league that would be very easy for him is a confidant booster, but then can struggle against tougher conference competition later on. Choosing to play close to home after being away all year is a personal decision that should be respected and never questioned. Or going to play where the league holds a tradition or history despite lower quality fields is important to some and not be questioned. In the long run, the decision should be discussed between player and coach, even if a player has to wait it out the season to see where he falls in the mix of things.
JMO.
As far as expenses, it varies I suppose. At the cape, you pay your host family for room/and a summer job is available is you want it. Also traveling to the league is sometimes supported by them, with a set fee or a per mile charge. If players are lucky, the host family feeds them, as my son's host family called ot see what type of food he prefers. Some do not, but just give kitchen priveledges. At the cape, host families apply years in advance for the opportunity to house a player that might be a star someday, it is a very prestigious thing for them to house a player. I met a family this year at Clemson that came to watch their player they had hosted for his first start of the year. They were now part of his family and I was very impressed.

Thanks infdad! Question: If signing is done in the fall, how do freshman get signed when they have barely established themselves with their respective college coaches at that point? Do college coaches promote their freshman players to these leagues in the fall or are they more concerned with establishing there own rosters for the spring? Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide I am assuming our sons need to broach this subject fairly early on with their coaches. Just saw TPM's post above so it appears some coaches are very proactive in the process.

InfieldDad, Excuse my ignorance, but are you saying there's NO fee for the player. Are these leagues supported by sponsorships then? Do host families do this just out of a love for baseball. I'm seeing a picture of my son eating someone out of house and home and being kicked to the street because they can't afford him! Thanks for all of this great info.

quote:

Originally posted by ClevelandDad:
Thanks infdad! Question: If signing is done in the fall, how do freshman get signed when they have barely established themselves with their respective college coaches at that point? Do college coaches promote their freshman players to these leagues in the fall or are they more concerned with establishing there own rosters for the spring? Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide I am assuming our sons need to broach this subject fairly early on with their coaches. Just saw TPM's post above so it appears some coaches are very proactive in the process.

Good question. If a player comes to the program already established as a future draft pick, he goes first. As for my son, again it was discussed even before he signed with the school. Signing for a summer league only prevents you from changing your mind later on to play somewhere else, sort of like an NLI for summer league, but you do not have to attend if you choose not to play at all. Some players do have to prove that they are able to handle certain leagues if the coach doesn't know his ability. However, in my opinion, the really smart coach has been watching his "recruit" all year and has a pretty good idea of where he might fit in for season and the summer.

There ar emany parents here whose sons have played in different leagues, they might be able to fill in better on expenses, where they went and why.

Lafmom,
Leagues are supported by fundraisers and donations.

There is certainly a variability amongst college coaches on the importance of summer leagues. Mine was lucky enough to find a coach who felt it was hugely important.
From what I can tell, many college coaches view summer placement as an important part of their job and the player's development. Ours had seen our son play at the Stanford camp and before he was even in school had talked with us about where he thought he should be placed and the plans for each summer thereafter. Assuming the college coach has seen your son play, he should have a good idea of where his summer might best be spent before he ever steps on the college field.
When you get to college, you will see the Fall involves an incredible amount of effort for the coaching staff. Not only do they have the practices, team functions, etc, they indeed are placing players for next summer, they are filling out scouting reports for pro teams, and they are recruiting for next year. I think most of the good ones know that each element is critical to having ongoing success and commit to getting everything done in the Fall so the focus can be strictly the team thereafter.
In general, if playing summer ball is important to your son and his college coach, I would agree that early discussions are important. However, as I alluded earlier, a lot of spots open in the Spring due to injury, grades, etc.
lafmom, the people we met who organize these teams are pretty incredible. The truly share a love of baseball. Once you get to meet and talk with them you find that most are very active in their community, have full time jobs and then work at least 10 months out of the year on baseball. The Texas Collegiate League and Northwoods are for profit but most are not for profits and are supported by 10 months of incredible effort in the community that end up benefitting our sons so greatly.

Wow!

Great topic lafmom and huge thanks for the information infielddad and TPM Will follow this thread closely for anyone elses perspective as well.

Yes, thanks for the great info. Infielddad, my son is going to a JUCO, so the coach has a game schedule and games to take care of as well. They all certainly wear a lot of hats!

Thanks for all info.

ClevelandDad,
No problem, I gave info to the best of my kowledge without getting into which league is better than others.

Lafmom,
fall is a very busy time for coaches, one of the reasons why they want to get the recruiting out of the way, asking for early commitments. Besides all of what you mentioned there are official visits on the weekends, getting teh freshman into a routine. It all becomes quite exhausting so when christmas comes some of them can take a well deserved holiday.

TPM Thanks and I too do not want to get into a what league is the "best" in anyone's opinion. Just interested in personal experiences and the facts on these summer leagues. I'm also very interested in the consideration of playing close to their college or further away. It seems like it would increase one's exposure to be in a different part of the country. However, this may not be true? I'm sure son's coach will make the right choice for son, but I at least want to know how it all works.

We had our first experience with summer leagues this year. Son redshirted on a top- 35 team. Didn't have any season stats so assistant coach that placed players in summer leagues didn't have many options.In my son's case,he had to pay $200 to play on the team.He lived with a lovely host family.They provided some dinners but were only required to provide breakfast.Players provide their own transportation to games.Son also had to pay for a summer membership to a health club so he could continue his workouts. Unfortunately,most of the players were local to the area and had played there in previous seasons.With 14 pitchers, innings for the out-of-town guys were few and far between. Overall, not a good experience. Definately hoping he gets in a more established league next summer.

A very good source of college baseball information is [NCAA-baseball.com].

You can review stats, see the various leagues listed and get contact information.

My experience with the C.I.C.L. (Central Illinois Collegiate League) has been very positive. Our team provides comfortable bus rides to all away games.They feed the players before and after away games. They do not charge a dime. At home the player's are housed at no charge in upscale, condo like dorms. Two to a room on the road @ decent hotel's. The home field and most others are well above average.

The CICL has been around about 50 years and is a great place for top level player's in any division.

This summer I was the assistant coach for a team in the Southern Collegiate League which is comprised of teams from GA, SC, TN, and NC. As stated by other posts there are leagues for just about every type of player. The SCBL has alot of DII players and mainly freshman and soph that play DI. We play at 42 game schedule then playoffs. We have a rule that a pitcher cannot start a inning if he has already reached 85 pitches. I like this rule as its set up to prevent pitcher abuse after a already long college season. Most of the facilities are pretty decent as well, Davidson College, Winthrop, old minor league stadiums..ect

Players stay with a host family or another player who might live locally for no charge. Transportation to games is by chartered bus and since we were centrally located. I believe our longest trip is about 2hr 45min each way. The way the schedule is set up the teams do not have to stay overnight on any road trips as well.

From my experience this summer I would say all of our players benefited from the play. For some its humbling what a wood bat can do do you, but I guarantee they are better hitters by the end of the summer then when they started. Sometimes a player needs the time off during the summer time, but if possible I reccommend to all the players on my college team to play in a Collegiate League.

Greenville, I think our coach expects kids to play in the summer. My son wouldn't know what to do with out it anyway!

Soxnole, The CICL is one of the leagues that my son's college appears to send kids to. I'm anxious to talk with the coach and see what the plan is regarding summer ball. That looks like it may be a definate option - at least in our minds.

Fieldrat, Do you mind sending me a PM and telling me what league this was?

Thanks again everyone. This is great info for us green college parents!

I've posted before on the Valley League, in which my son has played for two summers, and don't want to be a summer re-run but would be glad to answer any Valley League questions anyone has, via PM or otherwise.

Players stay with host families at no cost to them, many families will feed them occasionally but not required, and the players have their own schedules, not conducive to sitting down for dinner, usually getting to the field around 3:30-4:00 for 7:30 game. Free food after games is a frequent event, sometimes concession stand leftovers, sometimes pizza. Some teams have supporters take turns cooking post-game meals for the players. Travel is for most teams by chartered bus but a couple have team-owned school buses. Season is 44 games, then playoffs. Wooden bat all the way. All settings are rural, small town situations.

We're lucky as the field is 15 minutes from home,and 5 mnutes from my office. Being local obviously enhanced son's chance to play here; his college stats didn't get him here. Oddly enough, his freshman year, at a D-2 in South Carolina, he had offers to play in 3 different leagues within two weeks of arrival, flattering but puzzling to this day.

My son played in the SCBL that NGreenville wrote about. Interestingly, we had to pay to be on the team and we paid rent to stay in a team house, so it looks like things very not only between leagues but teams, as well. He was assigned to the team by his college coach.

Great experience overall. Very good competition with players from all over, even as far away as Japan.

His team team had some overnight travel.

It was good to be far away from home, get a taste of the south (he loves it) and get some character-building at bats against some very good pitchers. Also to catch some very good pitchers.

Only downside was the number of catchers, although the coach was fair with the rotation. Just makes it hard to get into a groove when you're playing only every third or fourth game.

Lots of memories for him.

Here's a tip if your son goes far away for the summer: Omaha Steaks. Nice gift for the Fourth of July!

quote:

Originally posted by lafmom:

How did your son end up in whatever league he played in? Was the college coach instrumental in a referral or recommendation and did your son follow coach's advice? When did he get asked or recommended to participate in his league? Are there advantages to playing in a league away from where you go to school (exposure to new coaches/scouts). Would your son do anything differently involving his choice of collegiate league?

Thanks folks!

Instead of getting into specific leagues, I think lafmom was asking about how they got there in the first place.

We contact college coaches and college coaches contact us. We then get a opinion on the player with their stats or coaches reccomendations. Also there is a interested player form on our league website where players can sumbit it to express interest. We then follow up with their college coach with the previous mentioned background inquiry.

soxnole - Thanks for that link, I knew of some of those sites, but that link is clearly designed for one-stop shopping on anything related to college baseball.

Everyone else, thanks for the useful and timely information

Here is the Skilton's link to Summer Wood Bat leagues. Might be more information than is needed but is information and resources that we found helpful.

http://www.baseball-links.com/links/College_Baseball/Summer_Leagues/

Lafmom ...

Ref league funding:
This varies by league but the leagues such as the Cape Cod League, Northwoods (I believe) etc. that are partof the 8 or 9 "sanctioned" by the NCAA are permitted to receive funding from major league baseball. That helps with some of their costs.

Again, everyone, thanks so much for all of this great info and resources. I and others have learned much more than we knew this morning about this opportunity. Son will now be prepared to discuss this subject when we get to school in a couple of weeks.

Just a FYI the NCAA is no longer certifing any Summer Baseball Leagues.

http://www1.ncaa.org/eprise/main/membership/membership_..._baseball/index.html

For those that don't know what that means;

(2) Proposal No. 2005-2 – Executive Regulations – Summer Baseball – Certification Requirement.
(a) Recommendation. The cabinet unanimously requests that the Management Council adopt noncontroversial legislation, effective immediately, eliminating the summer baseball certification process.

(b) Rationale. Historically, summer baseball league certification was a process through which Major League Baseball could provide financial support to summer baseball leagues using the NCAA as the administrator of the funds to prevent jeopardizing the amateur status of student-athletes participating in those leagues. Recent changes in the definition of a professional team now permit a professional sports team to donate money to an amateur team without jeopardizing the amateur status of the participants. Currently, there are numerous summer baseball leagues that operate without NCAA certification. All student-athletes, including those who have participated in certified summer leagues, must follow, and will be required to continue to follow, legislation that exists in other parts of the NCAA Division I Manual (e.g., NCAA Bylaws 12, 14, 16 and 17). Therefore, Bylaw 30.15 is no longer necessary. Further, elimination of this program will greatly reduce the administrative bureaucracy for the membership, student-athletes and the national office. The cabinet is supportive of this noncontroversial proposal after receiving the recommendation from both the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet and the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee. Finally, the elimination of the certification program will not have a negative impact on student-athlete well-being, recruiting or intercollegiate baseball competition.



(c) Budget Impact. Potential administrative cost savings.

TPM,
Let’s cut to the chase... What does all this mean? Am I going to get a refund check or do I owe more money for last summer?

Fungo,
You are on a roll these days.

Take it for what it is worth, I can't figure out anything they write

Oh by the way, I found a BUBBA BELL on the minor league roster!

TPM ...

Thanks for the update ... don't follow the NCAA rulings much these days. It may save the NCAA administrative costs but I suspect it will increase costs for the leagues. Some can ill afford it, I'm sure and it may increase player costs to participate in the previously sanctioned leagues.

There's only one Bubba...(Bama Bomber) My friend G. Legg. In his more active days on the HSBBW he would keep us rolling on the floor with his barefoot, bibbed overalls, Alabama backwoods humor. We all laughed until our sides ached while reading his "Bubba perspective". When we finally caught our breath we realized ole Bubba wern't so dumb.

Based solely on our experience with Chatham of the Cape Cod League the past two seasons:

(1) The player pays the host family $50 per week for room and board. After all home games and most away games, the team provides dinner.

(2) The team pays up to $250 each way for player travel between home and the Cape.

(3) Jobs are provided for those players choosing to work. Most work the team's daily camp or perform field maintenance.

The first two items, we were told, conform with NCAA regulations.

The team funds itself through (1) contributions at games in lieu of admission fees, (2) merchandise and concession sales, (3) proceeds from 50/50 raffles at each game, (4) corporate sponsorship, and (5) donations.

Son has played in NECBL the past two seasons.
I would have to say it has been the best baseball experience of his life.

Travel allowance - based on home location.
Food provided by host family. They even wash his clothes LOL.
Part time job set up by team management.
Average home attendance about 2000 - in a fun little city that loves its baseball.
Excellent competition on the field.
All games broadcast on internet.

Just a great baseball experience - a throwback really.

Our son is playing in No Carolina in the Coastal Plains League. He didn't know that he was going until his end of season meeting when his coaches asked when he was leaving? They had set him up with a team, but the coach didn't call him. After some scrambling they gave him 2 options, stay local or go to North Carolina. Since his college is only 40 minutes from home, and the local teams have a lot of the same guys that he has been playing with or against for years, he opted to go. He was on a plane within a week! WHAT AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE! We bought his plane ticket and that's it. He has an incredible host family. Southern hospitality at its best. He shares a 3 bedroom "cabin" on their property with another player. His parents both work so his "Mom" keeps their kitchen stocked with whatever they want for breakfast,lunch and snacks. Since they play 6 night games a week, they are seldom around for dinner. Home team provides food after their games. Usually snack bar or Chick-Fil-A, etc. He is always included in family get togethers, etc. They are honorary city guests and get all the free golf they want. Have access to the Country Club for swimming and hanging out. "Fans" throw parties for them on their off days. $5 bought a summer membership at the "Y" for working out. The Thomasville/High Point community has totally embraced them.

They are at the field 7-8 hours a day so wasn't really able to work in a job. No internet access so didn't end up taking a class (so it's back again to 17-18 units a semester).

I don't know how this league compares to the others, but the experience has been fabulous.

Geez Momx4, My son would think he's in Heaven! Having someone and a community care for you and you're able to be completely absorbed by playing baseball! I'm really glad I asked this question as I had no idea that these kinds of opportunities were available to these kids - what a life!!!

This is just another example that some of the best people I have ever met have been through this game, at all levels!

Mom x 4 has done a great job of capturing what can be available in certain leagues and with certain teams. Our son's experience one summer included a family day around July 4, some days of boating in the waters off Newport, a number of fishing trips, a lobster feed, several team dinners on off days, a trip to Boston for a Red Sox game, playing Team USA before a raucous noisy sell out crowd and lots of scouts, and from, what I could tell, a lot of very nice scenery that a college baseball player would enjoy. Oh yes, they did manage to play 42 games and playoffs also!
His home family were two of the nicest people ever. As he was leaving, they had him sign a personalized bat they had made for him...and said they would mail it to him when they learned about him playing professionally.
Whether you are in the Cape, Valley, Alaska, Coastal Plain, NECBL, and I am sure others, there are some wonderfully generous people who work very hard during year and who open their homes and hearts during the summer.

My son just arrived home from two months away in Texas. His host family provided him with a car, gas card , and enough food for him to gain 10 pounds, something that I have not been able to do in two years... They even insisted that I stay with them when I came into town to watch him play.
Final game, host dad has the video camera going non-stop -- what a wonderful experience for us all.
By the way, I was also introduced to 'mojitos' and 'frito pies'. Not sure which is the most lethal...

How come my son is the only one who kept emphasizing the really nice "scenery?"

URKMB,
Don't you know the food is always better at someone else's house?