i need some help

Basically, three options exist:

1. Drop baseball and move your focus to academics and other aspects of college life.

2. Try to change the situation, by discussing things with your coach (using diplomacy and tact). This may or may not produce results. But option 1 would still remain if acceptable results were not obtained from your discussions.

3. Try to change the situation by changing schools. This is not a sure fire solution, as you know.



Give the matter full consideration. Try to examine all aspects. Weigh the pros and cons. Set your priorities and proceed accordingly. I would recommend discussing things with your folks. They have been around the block a few times.

Take your course of action and don't look back.

It sounds like you have a lengthy commute that complicates matters. Perhaps rooming with someone full or part time may help. Discuss issues with a trusted upper classman. Perhaps others have similar issues and the coach can be approached as a group. You also should share your problems with your parents.

You should also consult the Academic Enhancement Coordinator listed on the the team website.

I could have misunderstood your original post as sometimes I do, but a coach can't have all day practices on a whim, or at all actually -

if you are ncaa read the DIII manual which coach should know by heart - tho there are some that disregard the rules in place and try to just do it their way

there are limitations on athleticly related activities and required days off, so if he's out of sync somebody needs to let him know

the AD & compliance get pist by the paperwork and bad press generated by "self-reporting" ncaa violations, even minor ones have caused heads to roll

at first glance that meeting & conditioning test sounds like it wouldn't meet ncaa rules



ncaa DIII Manual

I have to think that the times being shown in the opening post are not correct----coaches may try to skirt the rules but not to the extreme you mention

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TWP11...

Welcome to the HSBBW!

Achieving high academics and quality baseball at any school is very, very difficult at ANY school, in ANY program. Kudos for what you have been able to accomplish so far. IMO you are a shinning example of a true student athlete. I have one at DI 4.0, a family friend at DIII and watch both of them go through the same struggle, so I understand the incredible amounts of time and energy that are required, particularly when the culture does not appear to value, understand, or make any allowances for such lofty academic acheivements. You have shown real character to be able to stick to your academic goals regardless. Good for you.

Observations...beyond any NCAA Rules issues...

Hindsight is 20/20...playing the blame game now is only going to consume more time, and more energy. I'd move forward.

If you really want to stay at the school and in the baseball program...start by trying to work within the system...

...Communicate. Begin with the Spring...The spring schedule may change everything. I'd research and find out what it will look like. Yes, there is more time spent in travel...but given the schedule to date...It may actually be a lighter load. Maybe not, but research it, before any next step.

Next start communicating with the academic people, then to the coaching staff...express your difficulties, your concerns and frustrations. They may have no idea. Maybe this is a communication probelem as much as anything else. Maybe they value and appreciate the difficulty and the ability of a player to get high grades and this high profile academic may be of value to the program and won't want to lose you. Maybe they don't know of your difficuties. I'd guess that given your scenerio....if you of high academic caliber, are struggling there has to be players that this schedule is making, or close to making ineligible. THAT will definitely be a concern to the program, and something they will look at. And while I understand the promises, I understand your academcis goals, but you may also choose to dial down your academic load, and keep your GPA. The reality is that many academics who play ball do so.

Good Luck!

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I agree with TR. Most coaches work you early and then you go to class and then back to the workout. You even get time to eat.
I'm having a hard time understanding a guy who had a 3.9 gpa complaining. If your team has barely a 3.0 gpa average I think they are doing quite well. That is probably in line with most BB programs.
I don't think switching colleges will see any difference in workout schedules.

Thank you to the moderator who closed the thread when it deteriorated. Since there was some good discussion on this topic, I cleaned up the thread and re-opened. Thank you also to the members who were trying to steer the thread back in a positive direction with their posts. I hope you don't mind that I deleted those replies since they didn't quite make sense after I deleted the negative stuff.

Julie

I wondered what had happened to my post on here earlier Julie. I thought I was experiencing censorship for the 1st time in my life and I'm just a good old boy here from the south.

Though what I posted probably came across pretty hard I was trying to, well, I think you know and it's probably best that you did what you did. Maybe a PM in the future to let those of us whom were deleted know that was what happened would certainly help with the confusion. I hope my post wasn't construed as negative for it wasn't meant to be.

My concerns are for this young man and I hope he finds what he is looking for. My son will be at that level next fall and this is starting to get close to home for many of us.

YoungGunDad,

There was no problem at all with your post, or with the majority of posts in the thread. There seemed to be only one member with negative intentions, and other members made posts trying to correct him. I understand that there may be some folks who will read this and think that I should not have "censored" the thread at all. But I want our first-time poster, who started this thread saying "i need some help", to be able to come back to the thread and read that help, without interference.

Thanks for your understanding,

Julie

TWP11,

It seems like you have experienced some time conflict in the fall semester. Please realize that your experience isn't that unusual for college freshmen. Lots of students end up with poorer grades than they expected, but it sounds like you were successful in getting everything done.
So is the time expended worth it? To help you decide, here are a few recommendations.

First, don't quit right now. In fact if you quit at this time, after having achieved a 3.9GPA, I'd guess that the reasons comprise more than just a time conflict.

Second, start keeping a log of when you practice. Don't include transit times, or the time spent eating meals with the team. Within a couple of weeks you'll have an accurate idea of the baseball time commitment, and the extent to which baseball is really cutting into sleeping time. You may be surprised by the results.

Talk to some upperclassmen to get a sense on how the time commitment changes during the season. Maybe a lot of the time is spent on bus rides, on which you can study or catch up on sleep. Also consider that baseball may be more fun once actual games begin.

Next bear in mind that lots of college baseball programs consume more than 30 hours per week in the fall. Compare that to what your program requires in order to get an idea if your program is unusual, or if your coach is really unreasonable.

Only you can decide if the enjoyment you get from participating in baseball justifies the time expenditure. But if you really "love the game", I think you should keep playing until somebody tells you to stop. Or, maybe you've realized other things are more important. In that case, walk away without regret. After all, part of the college experience is learning how to balance conflicting desires.

As a college professor, I see a lot of this with athletes and working students. I see GPAs dive as students try to carry too many credits and work full time. It is not worth it! What you need to do is cut back on the number of credit hours you take each semester to make things more manageable. As long as you get out in 5-5.5 years, no one is going to care that you spent an extra year in college. Maintaining your GPA is much more important when you go up for your first job than getting a degree in 4 years.

Your college has academic advisors. You should have a discussion with them and map out a plan so that you can continue your academic success.

At times, there are other considerations NA. Not everyone can afford - financially - to stretch a four year program out to five years. Especially given how expensive college has become.

Welcome to the HSBBW!

I missed some of the other comments, but here is my conclusion from reading over your post several times.

You have mentioned long practice hours, friday, saturday and sunday. You have not mentioned weekdays. If this is true, then your coach has committed to academics, allowing you to have off during the week for class and studying. If your situation is different than my interpretation, please elaborate a bit more regarding your situation.

Baseball is a huge committment, congratulations to you in maintaining a terrific GPA.

I just don't get the stuff happening on the 14th,a weekday, a 3 hour meeting with conditioning tests after (that brings you to 1am). I would double check with coach, give him the benefit of the doubt, he may have made an error.