My son Chris committed to West Virginia State University in June. WVSU is a DII College located in Institute, WV and is about 35 miles from our home. It is a member of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and won the Conference Baseball Tournament this year; receiving the Conference's automatic bid to the DII Eastern Regional where they were two and out. The Head Coach for the last 27 years, Cal Bailey, is 60+ years old and a member of the West Virgina Baseball Hall of Fame. Yet he was unable to strike me out even once in several games when I played against him in an Independent League one season 30+ years ago [I like to remind him of that from time to time].
Chris was awarded the "Promise Scholarship" by the State of West Virginia due to his GPA*4.0* and his ACT Test Score *28*. This Scholarship will pay for all his tuition and fees at WVSU. In addition he received the "Valedictorian Scholarship" from WVSU as he was Valedictorian of his 2007 High School Class. This Scholarship will pay for his room and board as long as he stays in on campus housing ["NO son, you can't stay in an apartment unless of course you want to get a job and not play summer ball."] He received no money for baseball.
Chris ended the 31 game 2007 High School Season batting .452 with 10 doubles, 5 triples, 5 home runs and 24 base on balls while striking out only 7 times in 129 plate appearences. He scored 41 runs, stole 23 bases out of 24 attempts [bad call] and had 24 RBI's [thanks in part to 2 grand slams] while batting lead-off. And just to infuriate TR Hit even further and to keep Haverdad happy, his OBP was .558 and his SLG .788 making his OPS a whopping 1.346. But statistics are meaningless.
Chris was selected to the Little Kanawha Conference first team for the third straight year, was named Conference Player of the year by the coaches and was named West Virginia AA Schools First Team All State infield by the State Sport's Reporters. He was selected by the West Virginia Baseball Coaches Association to participate in the annual North-South Senior All Star Game. All in all, a very good year.
As for more detalis about why this college vs others we were interested in and pursued, still others interested in him that we did not pursue and lessons learned in this whole recruitment/showcasing process, I hope to write an insightful and valuable treatise on the subject soon and post it on this website in the hope that it promotes discussion and ferments thought for those interested. But for now I am just happy that it is over and Chris is where he wants to be.
Good luck to everyone still unsigned and Many Thanks from both Chris and I are directed to the cadre of great people on this website that helped us through this process. You know who you are.
TW344
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