Liberty Flames

My son received interest from them.I have heard Toman was an excellent coach and well respected.It is a strong Christian school from what I have heard.Maybe others know more about that aspect.A new stadium sounds beautiful.My son went to a name value school,honestly if it were a good fit and a GOOD coaching staff I wouldnt be really get hung up on that.My son wanted to stay on the West Coast so he didnt visit.Good luck

2015 attended their camp this fall and was very impressed with their coaching staff and quality of current roster. Keeping them on the short list for baseball quality and faith based education. There is a lot of excitement surrounding new facilities. You can check out the progress on their site's Web cam. Study the University Distictives and their web site for a clear picture of the environment. If you can't buy into their mission this might not be a good fit.

I don't know anything personally but one of our son's very good friends and one of the hardest working players we have ever known signed his NLI and will enter Liberty next fall. I know the family is very happy with his choice, and as the dad was an excellent collegiate baseball player and has been around ball his entire life, they knew what they were looking for.

Lynchburg is quite a college town with Liberty Univeristy, Lynchburg College, and Randolph College within the city limits.

Liberty has a unique Christian culture, so it will not be everyone's cup of tea for a college experience. Not many colleges still have single-*** dorms, curfew, and dress codes.

http://www.liberty.edu/aboutli...y/index.cfm?PID=6909

Liberty has the largest on-line university and I understand that financial aid is generous.

I clicked on the link and was surprised to see Liberty announced the signing of 20 players this fall. They stated they had 3 players drafted in 2012 so they don't have to fill in for lots of players leaving for professional baseball. Is there a good reason for this?

Your example makes sense, seemed like a big # when I saw it.

Lynchburg is an interesting town and being pretty much right in the middle of VA, lots of opportunities to go to skiing, hiking, beach, DC, etc. The James River goes right through town so floating and fishing and those types of things are available if you like.

The university seems to have alot of cash as every time I go through there, more stuff is being built. It is definitely a different place, so you want to check it out thouroughly to make sure it is the right fit. Google 'The Liberty Way' to read about the student code of conduct and what is expected of folks there.

They recruit a lot of JUCO kids from Washington state. This is from BA:

• As usual, Liberty was able to tap its Northwest junior-college pipeline to form the backbone of its large class, which features nine freshmen and nine juco transfers. Bellevue (Wash.) CC teammates Tyler Cox and Andy Smith should be key pieces of the lineup in 2012. Cox, a catcher/first baseman, has good righthanded pop, while Smith covers plenty of ground in center field and has good table-setter skills. Columbia Basin (Wash.) CC transfer Kody Young is a strong-bodied righthander with an 86-89 mph fastball from a three-quarters slot and a slider/changeup/forkball combination. He and Edmonds (Wash.) CC transfer Brooks Roy should compete for weekend rotation spots; Roy is a 5-10 bulldog with an 86-90 fastball and a quality changeup
http://www.baseballamerica.com...ng/2012/2612510.html

Upon returning from their fall camp, where I was amazed at the size of the horses they had in the pen, I did a comparison of some top ACC schools and found there were none that came close to the number 6'4" plus players.

Toman mentioned in the below PG article:

Toman-Liberty

High quality program, high quality kids. Not the place to go if drinking and partying is big on your list of important things to do, but lots of money being spent on building the campus means there is always something for the students to do besides drink. They even have their own 12 month a year ski slope and lodge for the kids to use no charge. Faith based courses required for graduation can add to hours needed to graduate, especially important for transfers in, but faith is not shoved down the kids throats. Concern about curfews and dress codes are not rally a factor. They are looking to upgrade conference to FBC conference from FCS. They struggle against Coastal, but last year they beat St. Johns 3 out of 4, beat UNC at Chapel Hill and shut out UVA in Charlottesville on a 2 hitter and won over 40 games. This year they open with 3 at South Carolina, then come home for 3 in their new 7 million dollar stadium against Penn State so they play a tough schedule. The academic support given the players is first rate, Coach Toman has structured the program like South Carolina where he coached for 11 years before taking Liberty job. Facilities are first class and getting better, big player lounge where they spend most of their time, and a new dedicated weight room is to be part of the new facility too.

They typically under recruit meaning they end up with less than 35 players on their roster. Over recruiting has not been an issue as at some schools. Announcing 20 signees means a lot of walk ons and typically not that many will actually show up on campus. I have never heard of anyone losing their scholarship once it has been given like at some schools if you do not perform up to a certain standard, nor have I seen anyone dropped. Attendance is ok, lots of parents and a good amount of students, especially on weekends. The new stadium will charge admission which was not charged before so we will see how that affects things.

Bottom line is I am very happy my son was given a chance to play there, I do not believe he could have gotten a better experience anywhere else. I talk to his friends at other universities and just about all they talk about is drinking, I am glad he is on a campus where that issue does not exist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAz51vzFHP0

You might enjoy this, Ryan is one of this years captains at Liberty. This is long but worth watching even if you are not interested in Liberty as he gives lots of good information for those considering baseball in college. This will give you a good idea of the type of kids at Liberty.

quote:

Originally posted by Bb4me:
I clicked on the link and was surprised to see Liberty announced the signing of 20 players this fall. They stated they had 3 players drafted in 2012 so they don't have to fill in for lots of players leaving for professional baseball. Is there a good reason for this?

The way it was explained to me by one of the coaches, was that more are invited than there are roster spots, so some of those kids will be cut/washout after the fall season. So where some kids might get guaranteed Spring roster spots, not all do.

Not to turn anyone off to the idea of going to Liberty, but it is more religious than many other colleges. So if you have no issue with a religious Christian education, great. But rest assured it is a strong component of the schools philosophy. Don't forget, the school was founded by Jerry Fawell who also founded the Moral Majority.

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