How does a left-coaster go about this?

The Midwest is a huge D3 and NAIA area. The D3 WS is often held in WI. The WIAC conference with UW-Whitewater, UW Stevens Point , and UW-LaCrosse usually have contending teams. Even though WI is not a baseball "hotbed", there is plenty of talent and because UW-Milwaukee is the only D1 school in the State that talent goes to the academic minded 4 year D3 programs. On the other side, Iowa, Kansas, and IL have real strong JC and CC programs.

Just go to the sites of D3 schools such as Marietta College, Wooster College, Otterbein then send them an email. Also Look up NAIA.org. D2 I think Tampa, Ashland, Grand Valley State. Look who were the top 10 teams in NAIA, NCAA D2, D3. Here is a link to NCAA Brackets then just search for each college.
http://www.ncaasports.com/baseball/mens
Also http://www.baseballnews.com/polls/
I would really look for a school that is good in what you want to study though then see how the baseball program is.

JBB,
I can only give an opinion. Understanding how some of the local colleges around here recruit players it’s obvious they don’t have a big budget (some probably don’t have ANY budget) or staff to recruit players. They do go through the same motions as the big colleges it is just on a much smaller scale. One would think the west coast player would have to be more proactive to get into the mix. Letter writings, phone calls, and the video would have to factor into being recruited. I would think it would be a big plus if the player could make a trip back to attend a workout for the coaches. You mentioned showcases. I don’t think most of the smaller colleges attend the larger showcases and this could be attributed to their budget constraints. They do attend the more local small showcases on a regular basis but they and the other 4 local coaches are just seeing the local players for the umpteenth time. As I was told one local NAIA coach had some connection with players in the Dominican and would sign these players sight unseen based on the recommendation of his “connection”. Luis Ortiz

JBB

Every year we have a player two from out of our area attend our showcases because of their desire to attend school in the Northeast at a prime Division III school---currently we have players from the middle of the country to the West Coast attending colleges/universities here in the Northeast at schools like Johns Hopkins, Middlebury and University of Rochester

TR - Are your showcases attended by all divisions? I.E. NAIA/D3-D1?

How would a player know which schools to contact ahead of time...telling them he's serious about NE below-D1 baseball? I would think a coach from a small school who sees a Californian in a showcase wouldn't expect him to be too interested...am I wrong? That was definitely the case with our son and D1s in the NE. There's a certain assumption out there that its hard to pry a California kid out of California.

Would the player have to work harder to sell himself as serious?

My son was a good (not great) student, a very good (not great) player and he was able to get several good offers outside of our domain on the "left coast."

We broke the process down into two componets, finding the right type of school (in his case smaller (<4,000 students)generally in the south or midwest. Once we did that we started a marketing campaign.

Phase 1, introduce the product to the market. We sent introduction letters to about 20 schools that met his general criteria (D1 & D3). We followed up with the obligitory questionaire. Then he followed up with a phone call to say "hello" and make initial contact.

Then we scheduled a series of trips across the country. In each case we made sure that we scheduled an appointment with either the head coach or recruiting director. In some instances because we were going cross-country we used the admissions department to help set up meetings.

In advance of our visits (ususally the week prior) we sent either written evaulations that my son had received from the various camp/showcases he attended or in certain instance a video if requested.

When we met with the coaches my son made a point of looking like a "clean cut - athletic" kid. I made sure that he did't wear his "baggy" clothes, rather clothes that showed his size and his athletic make-up.

Once this occured we moved up with all of the D3 schools and a couple of the D1 schools. From the mid-fall of his senior year he began getting regular letters, cards and calls from all the D3 schools.

When we got to his baseball season, he was lucky to have several good games at the beginning of his HS year. These games were featured, including a couple that had his picture, in our local newspaper. When this occured he would e-mail the link to the coaches that were following him. He also got a nice mention in SI.com and USA Today that we forwarded. Also, one of the local TV stations had a short piece oh his HS team that featured my son's defensive play. We copied this and sent it out to the various coaches.

My son applied to 8 schools, he was accepted to 10 schools (it was amazing how schools will accept you if they want you). As we moved toward April 30th (most schools require that you notify them of your intent), he started to receive both academic and athletic scholorships. One school (D1 in the SE) which started as his #1 choice came back to him literally the last day of April and offered him an athletic scholarship.

Between Thanksgiving and mid-January when HS baseball started we made a point of visiting his top three choices (1 - D1 and 2 - D3). Two of the visits where relatively quick which helped him get down to a top 3. We made a second short visit with the school he ultimatly chose during Easter break where he spent the night with several of the BB team, went to a game and out to a party with several BB players.

When it was all said and done he made his choice based upon the education that he would receive, the baseball program (coach, team mates and commitment to summer programs)and his overall expecation as to quality of life while going to school. Of his final 3 choices, only one the coaches had seen him play at all, the other two (including one that offered him a scholarship) has only seen him on video and evaluated him through phone calls.

Additionally, we as parents had him look at the real cost of his education. The full tuition cost, less scholarships received, student loan and their associated cost and the out of pocket cost of the town he would be moving too. In the end my son choose not the cheepest but the school (D3) that was likely the best fit for him.

What I learned from the process is that for all the showcases, travel teams and time and money spent preparing my son for college baseball, it is up to you to make it happen. There is many a coach whose prospective is "if they can't see them from the roof of the school - how can they recruit them?" This is not the case, they need to know who you are, why you want to go to their school and what you will bring to the program.

Ultimatly, they want to win. However, they (D1 & D3) only have so much money to spread around. If you are a good (you don't have to be great) student, coaches are very motivated to help you get accepted and receive some kind of merit based scholarships.

justbb, I think your questions are very much on point on the issues to be anticipated.
From what I know, the player first of all needs to be willing to play in cold weather... very cold. Talked last Friday with a local pitcher who went to Tufts. He said the cold is just something you never anticipate being from CA, no matter how much you are warned.
The schools, especially DIII, which might recruit nationally are quite limited and very tough academically(not much different than Ivy standards for the most part.) Mostly you are looking at schools like Amherst, Williams, Tufts, etc, in New England, JHU, Emory and Trinity(TX). (The vast majority of very good DIII's in NE and the Central US recruit locally/regionally..the number of CA players you might see at Southern Maine, Eastern Conn. St, Carthage, Marietta, etc is about none.) So, the player then needs to be a pretty fine talent with great academics, and try for admission at a very limited number of schools.
Finally, from what I know, the best chance of being recruited at those types of schools is finding a camp or showcase where they will see you. The pitcher I am referring to attended a camp either at Tufts or in the Boston area to be seen. Again, I am emphasizing being recruited. Most of those programs are competitive and they get that way because the coaches make a point of trying to see every player they are trying to recruit.
On the DII side, trying to get recruited to a top program like Tampa, Rollins, etc in Fla or Franklin Pierce and U Mass Lowell in NE does require the coach seeing you, being lucky or getting some signficant type of visibility. Tampa, for instance, is better than many DI programs and does a lot of JC recruiting in Fla. Ours got interest there but only after he played in the NECBL with 3 players from that program. Personally, I think it would be quite unusual for a left coaster to attract interest out of high school at the DII level in either NE or Fla without travelling to camps/showcases where he can be seen, being a very good player and then, as Fungo suggests, being more than diligent in follow up to convince the coach the travel and especially the weather are not an issue.
Even then, the weather will be some type of issue in NE.

Justbaseball, you might want to PM me, I know a fair amount about the subject

I personally think the HeadfirstHonor Roll Camp is the way to go, although if the boy is a senior, he is too late for that. I know that D was also scouted by several of the northeast schools at the Stanford Camp, and at the PG WWB tournament that I saw you at senior year. His friend, now at Williams, got a lot of northeast-type recruiting interest as a result of Headfirst Honor Roll, too. The wonderful coach at Amherst, Coach Thurston, was interested in D because of his video and his academic credentials, and had not seen him play live, ever. (Sent letter and resume, coach wrote back for video--that is the proper sequence I believe)

I agree with infielddad about the cold factor. Might as well be realistic. So I took D on the tour to Amherst & Williams during February break (having gone to school at Hahvahd, I knew what I was doing). He had pretty much made up his mind 5 seconds after stepping out of the Hartford CT airport. Seeing the guys practice in the field house and seeing the diamond covered with snow in mid-February pretty much sealed the deal. Still, there were other California kids there who were really happy.

I'd add a bunch of schools to the list infielddad provided: the Patriot League schools, JHU, Haverford, northern Virginia schools, Wesleyan, I think even Trinity in CT?

The key is to immediately contact the schools that you have interest in and let them know of your interest. Also let them know that you can come East next summer so that they can arrange to see you play in person.

As noted the recruiting budgets for Division III schools are limited and they truly appreciate the interest from athletes who come from out of the region

I agree very much with TRHit that the east coast coaches like to have and recruit left coast players. They know that these kids have played in very competitive leagues, and they would love to travel to see them but don't have the budget.
"My" kids (D and friend) were VERY warmly received by these coaches.

The other side of the question is how comfortable a California kid will feel if he is the only out-of-stater. It's true that even I, in a highly diverse U like Harvard, sometimes felt like the "token Californian" for all the attention you get with a different accent, different mannerisms, different ways of relating to people and the world. There is a LOT of difference between East and West in all kinds of ways. Yet tons of kids WANT to go East to see another side of the world, and the top schools back there do all have a nationally-based student body, even if they might be the only California kid on the baseball roster. So that just depends on the kid.

justbaseball

We have programs from all Divisions I, II, III---there are not many NAIA programs in our area

If a young man from the West Coast lets a college coach know he has interest in the program and school they will make sure they see the young man in action when he comes to the East Coast


We had a young man in from California last summer and he tied in a number of college visits while in the Northeast for our event. He stayed a few extra days to accomplish it and all the visits were predetermined

Jbb.....we went through it.....son attended HS in Arizona, and then we moved to California.....he is attending college in southeast because, as has been mentioned in this thread, we agreed the weather might be a little easier on him in Virginia....

You've been given lots of good advice....for us it just came down to identifying what schools son was most interested in.....contacting the coaches to see if there was any interest.....and then getting him seen by them.....he made 2 trips to the east coast.....don't want to simplify the process....it is a lot of work....but....it all came down to son calling college coaches....putting prep coaches in touch with the college coaches...and then arranging for them to get a look at him....

.....let me tell you also, that despite injury, home sickness, and a tough academic schedule.....he would do it again.

Good luck....

Regarding showcases and tournaments.... If a player has schools he might be interested in, I would recommend contacting the college coach and asking him which events he attends.

Two things happen... You find out where the coach is likely to be and he will know who you are once he gets there. Two fairly important items!

justbaseball,
Not to discourage your interest in east coast schools but Cal Lutheran down in Thousand Oaks is a pretty good school to look at, depending on how the academics match up. They always seem to win or contend for the league title and the coach is just a great guy to play for. They've also sent a few kids to the pro ranks with one pitcher making his MLB debut this past season.

Check out the Harvard camp. I know that just about every NESCAC team has people watching. I am assuming the pitcher InfieldDad was talking about was seen there, as the Tufts coaching staff has recruited many kids who were hopeful that Harvard would want them but were a little too small, not as quick, didn't throw as hard, etc....

This is pretty much how my brother ended up at Tufts...