As some of you have read on another thread, my son, a high school senior catcher, has suffered a possible UCL tear and might be facing Tommy John surgery, depending on the results the MRI shows. We'll know more in a week or so, and I'll update here when we find out.
I've been trying to learn everything I can, not only about the injury and surgery, but also about how it might affect his college baseball options, and academic options once he enters college. I remembered a friend who's son, a kicker at the University of Oregon, broke his kicking foot in the summer before his freshman year. The dad told me about his son "Gray Shirting" and taking classes while not even being considered a student yet at Oregon or any other college. He entered college a year later with quite a few credits earned, even though he was a true freshman, not a red shirt freshman. I didn't think much about this when he originally told me about it 5 years ago, but now it has become of great interest since there is a real possibility that my son won't be ready to play by next January. When my friend's son finished his college football career, he'd already earned his bachelors degree and was working on his masters. How many student athletes can say that?
On Saturday, I went to the juco that my son will be attending next year and talked with the Head Coach about his injury and how it might impact his prospects for playing baseball next year. One thing I asked the coach about was the difference between Gray Shirting and Red Shirting. The coach is very favorable about the concept of Gray Shirting, and told me that he and the AD expect many jucos to embrace Gray Shirting next year, especially in consideration of the new NCAA credit requirements for 3 year juco transfers. While we agreed to talk about it more at a later date, he left me with the impression that he'd much prefer my son to Gray Shirt than seek a medical Red Shirt if not ready to play.
The coach explained that Gray Shirting is very simple, and effective in helping a student earn enough credits to transfer at the end of three years. He said that for a player who's likely to be Red Shirted his first year or who has a serious injury, it might be the best approach to take if a student wants to play sports all the way through college. The coach explained that the student simply has to take fewer classes his first year, less than 12 units per semester. They are considered a part-time student instead of full time, and the clock on their 4 or 5 years doesn't start ticking until they enroll full time with at least 12 units per semester. He explained that my son could take 9-11 units per semester and not even be considered as having enrolled for eligibility purposes and he could then begin school a year later completely healthy and ready to go, while also entering with up to 22 credits already completed before ever becoming a full time student. Since my son has some transferable credits from high school classes, he might be able to enter Jr. College with up to 25 credits earned before the clock begins ticking. Given that my son is only an average student, this could be a huge benefit in helping him have enough credits to go on to play at a 4-year school, regardless of his injury.
Does anyone have experience with this? If so, I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions. I'm sure that many others would also benefit by learning about this seldom used option. With the new, more stringent requirements for 3-year juco transfers; Gray Shirting is something that many of us probably need to learn more about.
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