Jame Madison University

There are some very good Virginia area posters who will chime in.  New coach just completed first season.  Former coach had been there for some time and I have never seen a lot of love for him posted anywhere so new coach has a rebuilding job ahead of him.  Nice turf field - a little off campus as I remember.  Nice school with a nice campus.

CTDad2017,

In terms of the program, my thoughts are that it can only get better from here.  Coach Ike knows how to recruit in-state, but it remains to be seen how he'll do with out of state recruiting.  I'll assume for the moment you are from out of state based on your screen name.  More will be demanded of the current players/coaches as this year was the "shake down cruise" and they did pretty well overall based on last years last place finish in the conference.

When my son competed against JMU (2011-14) and the former head coach, they were known for hitting and boy could they hit.  Pitching and defense were "opportunities for improvement" (as they say in coaching circles) on those teams.  I'd expect Coach Ike to improve in all areas on the field and begin to reach out to the JMU baseball community for more financial support.  With the right support and success, JMU could surpass its glory years.   Their biggest challenge is the emergence of UNC Wilimington (boy can those guys hit!) and William & Mary.  So, I think pitching has got to be first and foremost if they are going to move up in the CAA pecking order.  When I look at the 2016 CAA pitching stats sheet, you have to go down quite a bit to hit a JMU pitcher.  That has to change if they are going to have any success. 

It'll take a few years to turn around a program, reputation and mindset that was their under former Coach McFarland.  Change takes time, but it is an opportunity worth exploring IMHO to be a part of that change.

JMO

I have heard in CAA circles that Coach Ike got the ok to clean house as needed.  

The team has quite a Friday afternoon/night following on the neighboring rooftops and hillsides!  Saturday, too.

Field is something to be proud of.

They have a nice ticketing structure for visitors....like  10 tix for $25, which worked nicely when son played there for a 3 game series..  (No comp tickets for visiting team guests that weekend).

Everyone that goes there seems to love it.  

In today's paper, it was announced that JMU will award COA stipends to the men's and women's basketball teams. Could baseball be far behind?

First, JMU is an excellent academic institution. For in-state students, it's very difficult to gain acceptance. That was certainly the case in 2016.

Coach Ike recovered well last year from being behind the eight ball, as he came on board after the bulk of the 2016 recruiting season and filled the bare cupboards. 

Having said that, I thought the program would be more aggressive in their recruiting of the 2017 and 2018 classes. GMU, W&M and VCU recruit well, but with what JMU has to offer to the excellent collegiate ballplayer candidate, JMU can recruit at least as well as these 3 programs, if not better. 

There's a real opportunity to trump all other collegiate programs in the Commonwealth (except for UVA), so I'm curious as to why action has not been taken.

Thank you all for your comments.

Great school and program. A 2016 friend of ours recently committed to pitch at JMU this Fall. My 2017 son likes the school so much that he will probably go there and play club if he cannot find a low D1, D2, or D3 that he really likes.

RC was at Radford during that rise in the Big South.  At least 5 -  2017 commits already (2LHP, C, OF, INF) that I have heard.  Coach Ike sat down with parents at WWBA last year, introduced himself, knew players names, high schools, spoke about how much commitment parents have on this journey, and stated his desire to recruit stronger in Central VA than his predecessor if the players will come.  

I personally have seen JMU out often on the recruiting trail this past year, while I have heard others state that was not the case the last few years of the last regime.

If he has the funding and support, I suspect he will turn the program around in the next few years.

How do you find out which coaches will be at WWBA??  We are going July 8th - 15th

RKBH posted:

How do you find out which coaches will be at WWBA??  We are going July 8th - 15th

We'll be there as well July 8-15. You can pretty much answer your question with "everybody."

Just a quick comment.

I am surprised to see the comments about the former coach (Spanky MacFarland). My son was recruited by him and he was known as a pitchers coach. He has even written a book on pitching, and seemed to care about building the program. I suspect he was close to retirement, but decided to stay on until his son graduated last year. Then he called it quits. So while the program might have grown stagnant to some degree in the last few years, he should be judged on the totality of his work, especially now that he is retired.

As to the school itself, JMU would be a great academic choice.