collegiate summer baseball leagues

Varies by location.

Typically most of the summer league "assignments" have been taken care of by now. Whether the player has any input varies greatly by coach and player. Freshman players may get assigned later in the year after the coach sees him play. Some summer teams don't want injured players or freshman that aren't playing.

Travel costs will depend upon the summer team, except for Alaska my son paid for all his summer travel. Housing costs are typcially up to the host. My son never paid for housing, but he may have just gotten lucky. It helps to treat the host family and your teamates well. My son lined up his own host family through a recomendation from a teamate who played on the same team the year before. I think my son paid $100 for one league, other then that he didn't pay to play.

The summer season length varies by League. Look up the particular league's schedule for last year to get an idea.

The experience is more about the team organization then the league. i.e. the experience at one team in the same league can vary greatly from another 10 miles away.

My son played in three different summer leagues. As has been noted already, most (not all) placements are done by the time the season begins in the spring. However, we that being said all of my son's placements occured in the spring.

What you need to know is for the most part summer collegiate leagues are a business. Some leagues make good money running a team; while most do it for the good will that it brings a community.

Generally, the "better" the league the less it cost you. Leagues generally run from June 1st through the first week in August (a couple run longer). They expect kids to arrive a couple of days before the 1st game.

My son played in the Great Lakes league after his freshman year; the Atlantic League after his sophomre year and the New England League after his junior year. He had a great experience at all except the Atlantic League, which was awful.

There was a great corelation between the cost and the experience. The more it cost; the worse it was. Summer leagues for nearly everyone; coaches included, is about showing your stuff. With that comes a certain degree of "politics" which goes with the entire process. By the end of the summer, my guy was fried and couldn't wait to get home.

Look in the "After High School" section below-lots of topics with lots of info on the summer leagues.

Thanks, gentlemen!

My son is a HS senior, so perhaps I'm jumping the gun a little bit. But I realized that I really don't know jack about the subject and figure it's never too early.

In terms of freshmen, what you guys are saying just reinforces the notion that one shouldn't underestimate the importance of making a good impression right out of the gate during fall workouts. Not only will it determine playing time in the spring but will determine what your son will be doing the summer following his first year.

Hokieone--thanks for the pointer to the "After High School" section.