All right, here we go. Time to get moving on 2018's goal of playing college ball. I want to bounce around some questions and get feedback as to how to approach things.
The background:
2018 is approaching 6'0" and is 150-155 lbs. A RHP able to touch 80 back in the spring. Mostly upper 70s. Right now he's not qualified to get interest really from anybody. But, I fully expect him to grow to at least 6'2" or 6'3". This comes with requisite weight and strength gains too.
The problem is, who knows when this will happen? Over the next several months? At age 20? I suspect that next year he should be approaching 83-84 on the gun - just going by past year-to-year improvements, where he currently stands and planned training regimens.
So. He would like to play at as high a level as he can and for as good of a program as possible. Academics will be a factor. He's a good student and will need to go to a school that approaches his academic abilities.
He too understands that lower divisions may be in the cards. That would mean that he should be reaching out to D3s and JUCOs.
I am a little afraid that he MIGHT hit a growth spurt and pass the D3 or JUCO talent level next year. Not saying D3 or JUCO might not still be a preference, but just saying.
At the same time, what if he is squarely on the JUCO, D3 talent level? Don't want to have wasted months on higher level schools and be late to contacting D3s and JUCOs.
Is it okay to somewhat play the field? I am thinking that possible he should get a good JUCO ride for a couple of years if he can and grow and develop and see where he can go from there. But, maybe he will fall in love with a little D3 and choose to do 4 years out of the shoot.
This may have been very confusing. The TL/DR version is this. How okay is it for a kid to show interest in lower level programs while it also being known that he's holding out hope for something bigger?
Feel free to PM if you'd prefer.