My 2010 son has made a difficult decision not to focus his college years on baseball. He will be taking a difficult lab intensive science major at a great UC college and feels he needs to commit his time and energy to one or the other.
This site has been the greatest tool we found throughout the recruiting process, and I want to thank the developers of this site and all of the contributors that post here. He can move on now with the confidence that we did everything we could to do in our pursuit of playing on at the next level. He should have no "what-ifs" in his future regarding baseball.
My son loves to compete both in the classroom and with a multitude of sports and activities. Playing for a D1 baseball program simply doesn't allow him to experience the variety of things he wants to make part of his college life. He was always considered a borderline D1 talent (kind of a 7-ish rating on a 10 scale). He had no D1 scholarship offers and didn't find a match at a variety of smaller schools that were interested in his baseball skills. His choice came down to attending a school with all the academic opportunities he wanted (research, and a variety of specialties within his major), or choose a school to play baseball with less of a match academically.
His HS coaches and administrators, many parents, and many teammates are a little disappointed that he isn't going to college to play baseball. My advice to him was to not let their feelings change his path. I stressed to him that all the time and money we spent on the showcases, the summer and fall scout baseball, and the camps were all part the process of determining what direction he would head. We enjoyed the time together and can move on.
He is content with his decision and that is what matters most. He can play club baseball with this college, which is a pretty decent level of baseball, or can play other sports at the club or intramural level.
I think back to when my son was 5 or 6 and began playing sports. The idea at the time was to keep him busy, help him become coordinated and athletic, and to help him learn all the valuable life lessons about leadership, teamwork, competition, and respect. We never expected him to take it to the level he did, but I can certainly say our original goals were met and exceeded, and he will carry these skills on to whatever he does in life.
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