D3 -- Summer After Freshman Year

My son went through this ten years ago. He was also a California kid that played at an academic D3. What we found the key to placement was the D3 he is attending, the coaches track record of placing kids and what your son has to offer. 

Your son needs to talk with his coach within the first month on campus. He should let him know that he wants to play somewhere next summer and see what he has to say.

My son played in the Great Lakes league after his freshman year (great experience), the Atlantic league after his sophomore year (terrible experience and a great waste of a summer) and the New England league after his junior year (so so experience).

He should focus on places where he will play. Going to a well recognized league and playing only a game or two is a waisted summer.

AD2018,

Also from California with boys who've played / are playing D1 and D3.

D1 players generally get placed by their coaches in Summer Leagues the prior Fall, i.e., way before Spring playing time.

In my experience, D3 players may or may not get coach assistance / placement for Summer Leagues.  And many D3 players choose to pursue work, internships, etc., instead of or in addition to playing in the Summer.

And pitchers have a lot more options than position players and can get placed later...all the way through the times Summer Leagues start (thank you HokieOne!).  D3 position players are lower on the totem pole unfortunately...and I have one of those too.

I recommend that your son talk to the college coaches who are recruiting him to understand how they do Summer League placement. And talk to some current and former players.  Quite an eye opener.

And then once a college Freshman, he engages his coach in the Fall to discuss placement.  If the coach makes a placement that works for your son and family, then great!  If not, then the player can engage Summer Leagues and teams directly.  Typically there are web forms for prospective players.  And most leagues will have a GM and Head Coach directory so that he can email.  

My oldest had "premier" league placement this Summer but had way too many innings for a 70+ game schedule and loooong travel times between games.  So he said no to that.  He had to take a Summer class and then was very blessed to find a great opportunity in an awesome league that played 42 games.  My youngest got no coach assistance (none of his college teammates did either) so he reached out to a league and was selected for a spot.  

There are a lot of leagues.  You can peruse rosters to get a sense of where the talent comes from.  The California Collegiate League does have D3 players and is a very good league.  But there are a lot of leagues that could work.  Some considerations:  roster size, playing time, travel distances between games, number of games, host family vs. paid for housing vs. living at home, georgraphic location, need to work/intern, etc. etc.  There are some leagues with an enormous number of games and very long travel distances between locations.  There are some leagues where a player could work or intern in the morning and play at night.  There are leagues that have only 20 or so games and cost $2,000. 

Thanks for the input.  Worried a little that D3 might be too casual re. summer.  My son views himself as a D1 capable player (coaches have told him that he is, at least defensively), so he would like to be able to play with those kids (D1 players) in the summer.  Will definitely ask the coaches when we get back East.

AD2018, great info in the replies above. For your specific questions:

Many, many options. Full-time collegiate leagues, part-time collegiate leagues, adult leagues, etc. 
The Cape is out... way out.
No real feeder leagues, it's more based on coach relationships.
For D3,  it's mostly coach recommendations and players finding their own spots.
No tryouts, that I'm aware of.
Check ABs for D3 sophomores in the California League. There may not be any with significant numbers.
No, a D3 who gets playing time in the spring is not necessarily in a better position than a D1 who doesn't. Too many variables.

To keep it simple for your son, he should have 1 or 2 questions for his coach. "Do you want me to play somewhere?" If the answer to that question is yes, then try to make it happen. If the answer is no, then the next question is, "Can I have a team call you if I can find my own spot?"

If he ends up searching for his own opportunity, he should be looking for as many ABs as possible. 130 ABs against average D3 pitching is better than 30 ABs against higher level pitching.

Northwoods League is excellent and features players from D1, D2, D3 and Juco's (i.e. a wide range).   In general, there are a lot of players who aren't quite good enough for Cape Cod but are excellent ballplayers

I get the sense, and somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but not every single roster spot in that league comes exclusively through college coach placements.  Sometimes it is other connections such as a former travel coach, sometimes it comes from a player being proactive and reaching out to a Northwoods League GM and getting placed or at least on the radar.

The other thing I've seen is that rosters turnover as the summer goes by.   Pitchers hit their pitch count, injuries happen, and sometimes players have to leave early.

I think at the very least a capable Catcher could find himself a spot in the last 1/4 of a season filling in with a Northwoods team.   Obviously not the 1st choice but still a "foot in the door"

AD2018;

A strong summer college league will provide the necessary experience for his next year. As a freshman he will have maybe 20 AB and hours of "bull pen" activity. Two of our former Goodwill Series/Australia coaches to Australia are now coach a College Summer teams in Southern California. They are "no nonsense" former College coaches. Please send me your e-mail and I will send info.

Bob <rwilliams@goodwillseries.org>

Ask the coaches to place you in a summer league but when I graduated highschool, I just played for the same summer team I had the previous summer. Most of our roster were D1 and a few juco guys. 

Once you get in college, the coaches will place you in a summer league

Son at Midwest D3. Coach willing to help place and gave contact to players who wanted it. Son choice local summer So. CAlf team. 

ILVBB posted:

My son went through this ten years ago. He was also a California kid that played at an academic D3. What we found the key to placement was the D3 he is attending, the coaches track record of placing kids and what your son has to offer. 

Your son needs to talk with his coach within the first month on campus. He should let him know that he wants to play somewhere next summer and see what he has to say.

My son played in the Great Lakes league after his freshman year (great experience), the Atlantic league after his sophomore year (terrible experience and a great waste of a summer) and the New England league after his junior year (so so experience).

He should focus on places where he will play. Going to a well recognized league and playing only a game or two is a waisted summer.

Keep in mind there are more variables than the league. There's the player's needs, fit, team, location, coach, teammates, field, etc..

3and2Fastball posted:

Northwoods League is excellent and features players from D1, D2, D3 and Juco's (i.e. a wide range).   In general, there are a lot of players who aren't quite good enough for Cape Cod but are excellent ballplayers

I get the sense, and somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but not every single roster spot in that league comes exclusively through college coach placements.  Sometimes it is other connections such as a former travel coach, sometimes it comes from a player being proactive and reaching out to a Northwoods League GM and getting placed or at least on the radar.

The other thing I've seen is that rosters turnover as the summer goes by.   Pitchers hit their pitch count, injuries happen, and sometimes players have to leave early.

I think at the very least a capable Catcher could find himself a spot in the last 1/4 of a season filling in with a Northwoods team.   Obviously not the 1st choice but still a "foot in the door"

Some kid in the Cape League was an early season fill in until the CWS ended. He got off to a hot start, was asked to stay, led the league in hitting and became a bigger pro prospect.

Re: Summer Leagues in California. Our D3 son has now been in two. He's a PO. IMHO, traveling distance is crucial. Few of these summer college ball teams have buses so transportation should be a consideration. I will no longer recommend his first team b/c of that very reason. The distances were insane and costly. 

The makeup of the leagues was similar re range of playing ability--very inconsistent. But, as a PO, he rec'd plenty of time on the mound in both. 

His coach did not place him. He, with others from his team, chose their own and paid for their own summer experience.

We hosted a player this summer. It was a blast. But jeez, I forgot how feeding athletes adds up.