Northwest Conference

Like all the western region conferences it's a strong conference, though probably not as strong overall as the SCIAC.

Check out this thread on another board that is fairly recent.

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=8424.0

I am MIF Dad in that thread; I found the info I received to be helpful.  Certainly since then Linfield's fortunes have changed, baseball-wise, and others have moved around quite a bit.  Even Lewis & Clark, described as a doormat in the thread has a new coach and is playing the game better, from what I have seen.  We have one user here at HSBW with a son at Willamette, where I believe the kid has been happy with baseball and very happy with the school experience.  I've known a few grads and they all love it.  My son had a friend at Pacific, and he seemed to be happy there.

Yup, agree with JCG... some decent D3 baseball (although overall quality dropped when previously perennial power Linfield fell off), some beautiful campuses and good schools.  But a kid from LA might have a hard time with the Pacific Northwest rain... and rain... and rain... (some spots worse than others).  GORGEOUS in the summer but that's not when he'll be there.

Also, most are pretty expensive and, of course, no athletic $ for D3's.  Distinctly D3 - won't be mistaken for anything else.  And remember, D3 is the level most incentivized to "recruit" as many players as possible onto campus since it doesn't cost any scholarship $.  So, make sure your son knows where they see him fitting in the program.

More on the positive side - unlike one of our previous discussions regarding Calif. D2's, most of these schools are much less likely to bring in JC transfers.

i went to Willamette to play ball many eons ago (when we were naia).  i transferred after two years after getting hurt but i really  liked the whole college experience there.  I was a stem major and got accepted to a stronger school for my major, but the overall academic quality was very good. smaller classes than the large university i ended up at and a much more homey feel.  everyone knew everyone else, everyone was friendly and everyone seemed happy to be there.  

baseball wise, we were a non-scholarship conference but there seemed to be academic money that (wink wink, nudge nudge) no one had been awarded.  as a small school with strong alumni relations, there seemed to be a pretty big endowment and academic money as well as work study type jobs for athletes (run the washing machine, check ids at the gym, etc) were readily available.  

for competition, we played our conference, of course which was good, not great, but we also scheduled a number of the D1s in the area as well as a couple of D2's in cali during our spring road trips.  portland, portland state, Oregon state (oregon didn't have a team then) chico state,  and lewis clark state (during their heyday) were some of the non conference games we played in the two years i was there.  

the rain does take some getting used to if you're not from the pnw.  we washed 13 of our first 21 my freshman year.  as a kid from honolulu, it took a little time to understand that that gray that covered the sky in november wasn't going away until march or april.  

funny culture shock story (for a kid from hawaii where there's very little hunting culture).  freshman year, during fall practice, i noticed that our  sr catcher/team captain and our assistant coach were there.  I asked where coach and buff (the catcher) were.  the HC looked at me like i had two heads and said "deer season opened" and walked away.  also, our soph ace used to play long toss between starts by throwing a retrieving dummy to a lab pup that he was training for the next fall's duck season.  

in summary:  great place and great school experience.  don't expect a lot of sun for a good portion of the year.  don't have a career ending arm injury.  don't buy a 40 oz from a guy in the dorm who happens to have a case in the trunk of his car.  

and the roadside apple stands in the fall are amazing.