I've been waiting to post an update on my son's college baseball experience until he landed at his new school and it's happened so here we go. So much to describe; I'll do my best to keep it succinct while being as informative as can be in hopes that other families will find something useful from our experience.
An editorial note: I'm going to write this post as politely as I can, but when a good player leaves a good school, it's not always about the player. My son loved his university, his teammates, and the assistant coaches, but I have to leave it at that. If you need to know more, for whatever reason, please DM me.
The Background: 2016 HS grad; First Team All State Centerfielder; recruited by hometown PAC-12 school; recruiting coach had known him since 12U and followed him since 14U.
College Freshman Year: Son was confident of "fitting" the program as a player and a guy. August before 1st freshman quarter, HC called the family in for a quick talk to tell us the OF bench was very deep and a red-shirt was likely this year. Son fought his way onto travel squad and appearances as a pinch runner and defensive replacement from the 1st weekend. Player turnover in the program has been high and team dumps several players every year, so we thought our guy had passed the tests.
Summer Collegiate Baseball: Son was psyched to be heading to summer baseball in Virginia, far from home. The week he left for VA, we heard separately from three baseball professionals (an area scout, a crosschecker, and another D1 coach) that Jacob has tools that project post-college, but that they would be neither developed nor fully realized at his present school. To be specific, through a 3rd party, the area scout said son's a definite follow but would never be drafted out of the program.
Despite this information, son was set on returning. He believed his tools and work ethic would be all that was needed. But we knew that if he went back, it would be to end his baseball career there. He was heartbroken, but he played and hit extremely well in Valley League in Virginia and was confident that he could transfer to another 4-year school.
Side note: The Valley Baseball League is a great summer collegiate league with kids coming from a variety of conferences including the SEC and ACC, but also very strong Mid-major conferences, DII, and a couple JuCo programs sprinkled in. I will forever be grateful to the folks in Strasburg, Virginia, and son's teammates for supporting him when it became clear he wouldn't be returning to his university for his sophomore year. They showed him that there are great guys playing extremely high level baseball at schools and in conferences we've never heard of before, and that one need not attend a name-brand university, in a name-brand conference to compete, develop, and get exposure to pro-scouting.
Gap Year: Son returned to the West Coast and enrolled in the hitting and position player program as a "Gap Year" player at Driveline Baseball in Kent, Washington in August. He interned at an investment bank and made a few $$ while he lifted, hit, and worked on expanding his defensive skill set. He began hearing from NCAA DII, NAIA, and JuCo schools getting offers that ranged from full-rides to walking on at a Top 3 JC, in the Southeast. One of the DII opportunities was extremely interesting in several ways, but especially the coaches.
But son felt like he belonged in DI, based on his freshman year and summer, and he waited patiently (while I pulled out my hair). Meanwhile we researched every angle of the eligibility issues he was facing (this included a formal consultation with Rick at Informed Athlete). We learned that for NCAA D1 eligibility, taking the year off of college to train and intern did not suffice for sitting out a year of competition. So son enrolled at the local CC (no baseball) to complete an AA degree which would make him eligible for competition as a redshirt sophomore as of Fall 2018.
Upshot: On the first day of classes at the local CC, he was in line getting a parking pass when he got a call from a coach in Texas seeking his interest in D1 baseball in the Lone Star State. Coach is a Northwest guy and had known son from Youth and HS baseball. We have a mutual friend that follows son and that friend sent son's hitting video to coach (unbeknownst to any of us). The call came on Monday January 8. By Wednesday son had done his due diligence, committed, applied to transfer, and started packing. On Sunday January 14, son flew down, on Monday they had team meetings, and on Tuesday, a week after enrolling at the local CC, he was attending class at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Son will sit out of competition this spring and be eligible to compete as a redshirt sophomore in Fall 2018.
I really apologize about the length of this post and there is absolutely a ton of stuff to unpack about this young man's experience. Things like really understanding what "fit" means, eligibility stuff, the importance of having a supporting network of objective observers and trusting them, making choices without any ego involved, why he chose not to bounce-back transfer 4-2-4, really loving the game of baseball, and authentic-to-the-bone self belief. But I'll just post this as it came out of me today, and see where the thread takes us.
