Pacific University: Coaching Staff?

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4167.0

 

Historically one of the bottom teams in the NWC. THE NWC is a very good D3 conference. They have to compete with Linfield, Pacific Luthern, and Williamette. Read through the thread I posted above about the conference from another board. It dates back to 2005, but should give you some good insight. 

 

 

 

Good Luck. 

Our son is a senior on a NWC team and was recruited by Coach Billings when he was at UPS, visited campus etc. Son chose different school. Billings was a nice guy, seemed like a straight shooter, earnest. Having seen him coach, he has a good demeanor on field, team always played hard. Son says they always liked playing UPS, good bunch of guys, a reflection of the coach. I heard he ran a competitive Fall program with a fair amount of roster cuts. Pacific Univ has a nice field, and they are hosting the NWC conference tournament this year, I believe

Pacific University did share the NWC title in 2012, that was a senior heavy team that had some talent

BLD pretty much summed it up with a nice link. The only other thing to consider for a non PNW player is the weather. Lots of games in cold rainy conditions, kids from the region are likely are familiar with it but for a player coming from Cal or some other warmer climate might have more difficulties. Pacific will have a very difficult road to break through to a regional given the competition in the division. 

Yeah, the weather thing has occurred to us -- especially since the coach has emphasized the quality of their INDOOR training facility in several exchanges.

BOF brings up a great point. The West Regional has been played in the PNW. Stories of horizontal rain in close to freezing conditions, in May.
Coach was previosly at Puget Sound. That team has not had a lot of success in the NWC. The loggers have been consistantly a middle of the road NWC team. They usually finish in the middle to the bottom of the league. Every once in a while they will rise up and place second, but not often.

Of course, the weather issue must hold for all the schools in PNW.   Kid has also applied to Linfield and Willamette in the same conference. Of course, he'd rather stay in California.  But he will go ANYWHERE just about that gives him a chance to keep playing (including Ohio  BLD)

 On a related note, what do you think explains why some schools in a given conference -- say the NWC -- are perennial contenders -- while others are constant also rans.   If it were a matter of scholarships and competition for top draw D1 prospects, it would be easier to explain.   But these schools have similar academic profiles, similar degrees of selectivity, and similar cost profiles, I would guess.  Plus they must be recruiting from the same pool of potential players.  Does it mainly come down to the quality of the coaching?  Are some coaches just better recruiters?

SluggerDad,
Ohio qould be happy to have him. Plenty of teams here looking for young men with your sons skill level.

SluggerDad,

 

So how does that work? Once he gets into those 3 schools how does he decide where he'll be going next fall?  Is it just a question of which of the coaches gives him the most encouragement?  Or looking at the rosters and guessing on the potential for PT?

 

BTW living in NorCal and having spent plenty of time on OR as well as in the Northeast, I think that the climate in OR will be easier to adjust to than, say  OH, MA or ME.

 

Good question.  I don't really know the answer to that one.  Maybe just a feel thing.  You got any thoughts on that?

 

Also, by the way, he may not get into all three, to begin with.  He's a decent student, but not a great student. Not taking anything for granted there.  HIs GPA/SAT scores put him in the lower half of admitted students at most of the places he has applied, , but he is in the range, not at the top by any means, but not at the absolute bottom either.

 

That's why he didn't apply early decision/early action  -- needed those senior grades to bolster his case.   (Had lots of maturity and organizational issues frosh/sophomore year but thankfully has finally grown up).   So I think he sees himself as hedging his bets, with his application strategy.  

 

He's also banking on the combination of being an artist and a baseball player making him more attractive to admissions officers than his straight academics alone would.  We'll see if that works. fingers crossed. 

Good luck.  We do know one kid at Willamette - he seems happy and it looks like it's a good school in a nice town. I don't know much about the others.  It's been said a zillion times here but I'd make sure that he goes to the school where he'll do well and be happy even  if he  never steps on the diamond.

The NWC is arguably the best kept secret in D-3 ball. Terrific small academic schools, above average facilities and solid coaching. Former Yankee Scott Brosius is the head coach at Linfield.

Schools like Linfield, Trinity, Chapman in the West tend to get a number of D1 athletes which make them perennially top 10 D3 and Regional teams. Like in Wisconsin, there are fewer D1 programs so they tend to get the borderline D1 athletes from the PNW region, which is something to consider when picking a school like LInfield. Brosius' could coach at any level and is one of the best coaches in D3 baseball (actually any level NCAA IMO), which is one of the reasons Linfield tends to break through the West Region to the CWS more than some of the others. My son has a friend at Pacific that would never see the field at Linfield or Trinity, and he is a Jr this year and should start to see the field.

 

Good luck. 

the only thing I would add to this conversation is that the weather in Walla Walla (Whitman) and Spokane (Whitworth) is better than the weather on the west side of the Cascades.  Both schools have good facilities, and Whitman's academic program can hold its own with almost any other liberal arts school in the country.  Whitworth is no slouch either.  Whitman's program seems to be on the upswing and Whitworth is consistently solid, though not on the same level as Linfield.

All of the schools mentioned are great academically. I am a Willamette grad and having nothing but great things to say about my alma mater and the other schools in the conference. However, baseball was always third string to Football and Basketball (this was mid-1990's). I couldn't even tell you where the baseball field was located. I wish I would have paid more attention at the time.

 

My daughter has a friend from California that plays for Pacific. He is a freshman this year and I know that he was really thankful to find a place to play after high school. With all the competition in California, I think he felt overlooked and was relieved to find a great school to play at.

 

The weather sometimes gets a bad wrap in Oregon and Washington. Yes, we get a lot of rain, but it's usually more gray than raining all the time. And, although it can be cold in March and April, cold is really a relative term. I would rather play in 45-50 and drizzly than 10 degrees and totally frozen. Yesterday, it was almost 60 here with not a cloud in the sky. The weather in the desert regions of Oregon/Washington may be drier, it is way colder for longer.

 

As someone else said, D3 baseball is a great kept secret up here mainly because we don't have the number of college teams that other areas have. With only 3 D1 programs in the state of Oregon and 1 D2 program (soon to be 2 Div 2 programs in the fall of 2015), there aren't a lot of other opportunities for good baseball players in our area. The D3 schools get stacked with some good players in a relatively concentrated market.

Which school is soon to be D-2?

Apparently Concordia

 

Yes, Concordia will be Div 2 starting with the fall 2015 school year.

Yes, Spokane and Walla Walla have much less precipitation, but they are much colder in the winter, early spring.  Spokane I believe is in the top 10 or so of snowiest cities in U.S. with a population over 100,000.  At Whitman, on-field practice, throwing, etc. has been impossible for stretches this winter and the previous three seasons due to snow, and/or frozen fields.  However, by late March, the weather can be spectacular for baseball more often in the east, than out west of the cascades.

Well the kid really liked Pacific and the coaches really liked him.  So we'll see. Still other options and avenues to explore.  Going for a visit to Cal Lutheran soon.  

That's great.  Good luck.  Just curious and it may help provide info for others searching for info, but how do you handle a situation like that in terms of applications?  I think  you mentioned applying to Pacific already. Has  he also applied to CL and other options you're looking at, or are schools willing to accept late applications from kids that coaches want admitted?

He's applied to all the places he's looking at now.   He applied only regular decision.  He is, and has been,  in touch with all the coaches at the various places to which he has applied.   Has been for awhile.  Also,  he's been upfront about his plans to apply regular decision (and his reasons for applying regular decision.)

Many Schools outside the Nescac, ask that a student apply early action just so they coach and athlete knows that they are accepted. It helps the coach and the athlete with recruiting. The coach knows that the recruit can get into the school and the Athlete can use that as leverage with other schools. Every that was interested in my son asked him to apply early action. None asked him to apply early decision. 

Now many Nescac, and other very selective schools, may ask for early decision and the coach may use one of his tips or  so they know where the recruits slots. Fenway has discussed the slotting system on several different posts. 

Right the kid would have applied early action -- and that was discussed with several coaches -- but really needed those senior grades.  Started out as an immature, indifferent student.  Grew up finally, thank god, and started buckling down. 

SluggerDad- I live not too far from the campus and I've watched my son play a few games on the field at Pacific. One of my son's HS teammates played 4 years there and loved it, but that was of course under the prior coach.

 

There are a lot worse places for weather. Yeah, it's damp. But so many fields are turf nowadays, the game still gets played. Last time I was at Pacific's field, it did not have turf. Does it now?

 

 

 

 

We have also had interest since son pitched at the Az Sr Classic.  It is a school son is interested in and we plan to visit.

The kid will almost definitely not be going to school in Oregon. Still waiting to here from Pacific but no reason to go there over Cal Lutheran.   Thanks for all the info, though.