Mines head coach unexpectedly resigned. What now?

Great question.

Unfortunately...or fortunately?...it will depend on who the new coach is. Make contact when you know.

is this Colorado School of Mines?

Yes, School of Mines. I looked at their web site today and they have hired Jerod Goodale who was an assistant coach at Angelo State University in Texas for the last two years.

My son sent him an introductory e-mail last night. We arrive on campus this Thursday and will seek him out.

There is also a South Dakota School of Mines

leftydad2,

I think you have approached this unexpected problem correctly and as you say, I would try to establish a personal connection as soon as you can before the Fall workouts begin. This also lets him get to meet your son on a more personal level than just showing up with the uninvited walk-ons. Good Luck!

this is a tough scenario for you lefty and I feel for you and the uncertainty you are feeling. My son is thinking about CSM.

My daughter plays college softball and turned down playing in a D1 non scholarship scenario to play D3. It was a tuff decision and we agonized over whether it was the right decision. As she started her fall semester word came that the entire staff at the D1 school had resigned en mass.

You just have to believe things will work out in your sons best interest.

Thanks for the opinions everyone. The coach responded by email this morning (which is a positive) and said he will be holding walk on tryouts next week. I'll keep you posted.

I think every school is different, and it also depends on which coach leaves/gets fired.

One head coach(HC) liked my son and with the pitching coach(PC) said they were going to offer scholarship money. The HC winds up getting fired, but the PC was still there and spoke to the new HC on my sons behalf. My son performs for this new HC with the same velo and stuff as he had shown before. The new HC sits down with us and says he has a new philosophy, and that to receive scholly money, RHP's need to be throwing 92 and above, and LHP need to be at 90 and above. Since my son had only topped out at 88, we were offered a preferred walk on with a guaranteed spot. The only trouble was that this school cost $50k+, so it went from being my sons first choice to off the list.
We had another school put together an athletic and academic package by the assistant HC/recruiting coordinator. It was a nice offer and we were seriously considering it. Sure enough that coach quit to take a job at another school. When we spoke to the HC, he said he had heard about my son and authorized the offer, but had never seen him pitch. So since the other coach was gone, we would need to have himself or the new recruiting coach see him first.
Needless to say, both situations were very disappointing. The first one eventually caused the PC to quit. It was not over my son specifically, but because he had a very different philosophy than the new HC about strict velo numbers equaling scholly money. Still he defended the guy because as he put it, the new HC was under the gun to produce right away or his job was in jeopardy.

Hopefully in your sons case the new coach will honor the old coaches agreement to at least give him a spot if he performs well in the tryout or Fall ball. It would really be a shame for your son to get stuck in a school he was going to play for only to lose a year and have to start looking all over again.
As others have said, get in touch with the new coach ASAP and try to establish a rapport with him. Let him know what the other coach had promised and that your son made a commitment to go there on that promise. Hopefully that will have some sway since it is a walk on, vs. having to give money based on a former coaches evaluation. You would think that without money being involved, it would be the honorable thing to do.