picking a school

If your son finds themselves in a situation where they have multiple options that meet their academic and baseball goals, count yourself very fortunate.

I don't think any coach will definitively answer the "travel with the team" question.  Generally, the coaches create a depth chart based on Fall or early Spring performance and then pick players to travel based on the depth chart.   I think that the chart changes from year to year.   I remember my son being something like 8th on the pitching depth chart his first year, so he felt like he would get a chance to travel since they usually take 12 pitchers for a 3-game series.  BTW, mid-week games are usually different since the team might not have the same roster restrictions.

As for the bad record, it depends on what your player wants to study.  If your player wants to major in business, and the school with the losing record has a great business school, why not play there?  A team's record can change yearly depending on who's on the team (which is generally two years out from a recruitment year, so that's hard to predict), but a degree lasts a whole lifetime.  Just my two cents!

If you're fishing in the right pond there really shouldn't be too much variation between schools when it comes to winning %. In theory you should have similar interest from schools in the same wheelhouse. 3 strong, winning programs or maybe 5 lesser programs.

The only time I could really see such a variation would be bottom feeder P5 vs strong mid majors, or lower level D1 vs D3. If you have 4 offers from programs that are competitive in their conference I would rule out anything less than that. If you have offers from 4 bottom feeders and 1 winning program I would question how good of a fit he is that only one traditionally strong program is interested in him.

Other factors like $$$, culture, prox to home, school size, conference, etc will probably play a bigger factor before win %.

Great insight, ty!

You make a list of  “above the line” (acceptable) academic colleges. Then you pick places you believe you can get on the field. My son chose a better than .500 team with a rising star coach. The program got better. He played in three post seasons and on two ranked teams. And the coach left after two year for greener pastures.

@nycdad posted:

If your son finds themselves in a situation where they have multiple options that meet their academic and baseball goals, count yourself very fortunate.

Interesting question.  My son would wholeheartedly agree with @nycdad and @RHP_Parent.  His decision was mostly academic, and he knew he was coming into a program with little success.  He didn't care about team history.  The opportunity to get on the field as a freshman was realistic, and worth his time.  Little did we know that he was among the best recruiting class the school had seen at the time, and his class would be solid contributors to a league championship his sophomore year. 

The hard part was culling from a long list of engineering schools, determining who was genuinely interested and redefining what was most important to him.  His final decision between 3 schools (two D1s and a D3 school) was the easy part. 

Just my experience.

Lots of good answers, I strongly agree with @PABaseball.

Depending on the program and budget, actice rostered players will travel on weekends but not necessarily weekdays. Redshirt players often have few opportunities and all depends on the HC's decision.

Most important, a player should choose an  opportunity where they will be in the lineup AND get a meaningful education.

@TPM posted:

Most important, a player should choose an  opportunity where they will be in the lineup AND get a meaningful education.

As usual I agree with Fenway and TPM and now PAbaseball. I would only add that winning is a lot more fun than playing for an average or losing program, and given the choice I would strongly recommend "stepping down" a level, D1>D3 and given the same education, costs, etc, play for a winning program. From personal experience regular season play is interesting, but nothing compares to Conference Championships, Regionals and CWS games as far as interest, fun, comradery of parents and player and lasting memories. The "Vibe" of being a winner transcends baseball IMO.

JMO.

I'm split on this one.

Part of me says: 95% sure college will be the last 4 years of your baseball career. Do you really want to spend the very end, and make all those sacrifices and spend all that time, to be on a team that loses 67% of the time and gets routed in half their losses? Is that fun?

But, the other part of me says: Elite and winning programs come at a cost. The commitment is greater. The sacrifices are deeper. And, you are more of a piece of meat there than anywhere else. When winning is the top priority, it's really a business and not as much fun as you think sans the dog pile moments.

I guess you have to pick your poison?

@Francis7 posted:

I'm split on this one.

Part of me says: 95% sure college will be the last 4 years of your baseball career. Do you really want to spend the very end, and make all those sacrifices and spend all that time, to be on a team that loses 67% of the time and gets routed in half their losses? Is that fun?

But, the other part of me says: Elite and winning programs come at a cost. The commitment is greater. The sacrifices are deeper. And, you are more of a piece of meat there than anywhere else. When winning is the top priority, it's really a business and not as much fun as you think sans the dog pile moments.

I guess you have to pick your poison?

I brought this up with my son years ago and he didn't care that much about past program history.  I think he saw it as an opportunity to get playing time and a leadership challenge to help turn a program around.  Little did he realize how hard that is to do, and how important team leadership, culture and coaching (recruiting and game mgt) need to be aligned.  Part of the reason his team went to the NCAAs his sophomore year was because the offense clicked (changed hitting coaches) and the pitching and fielding got even better.

My point is don't over look an opportunity to provide leadership where it is needed and take on a significant challenge if that is your cup of tea.  Being a cog in a competitive baseball machine with limited or no playing time was not an option for my son given his major, but it can be option for others as long as you know what you're getting yourself into.  @BOF's excellent strategy about dropping down a division (D1 to D3) to play meaningful postseason games made a lot of sense for his son 14 years ago (my son hosted his son's OV), and I think it actually makes even more sense these days given the portal, and transfer frequency.

JMO.

Dad of 3;

Selection of a school involves attending their games and practices watching the "body language" and "non-verbal" communication between players and Coaches. Picture your son in this environment. Look for a relaxed profiles.

If a player "strikes out" what does the Coach do?  The teammates? Many centuries ago Freshman Baseball at Michigan State U,  [110 players],  4 years later at the College World Series only 5 remained.

The key was the strong Summer Leagues and the cooperation between AD and Football Coaches. All 3 QB's played baseball.

Bob

As my son headed into the recruiting process I started attending games of programs he might want to play. I sat near the parents. I started conversations with, “Which one is your son?” I hardly ever met a parent who wouldn’t talk endlessly about their son’s journey from 17u to present. I walked away with a lot of information. You just have to look through a lens of how happy the parent is with their kid’s situation.

At one game a West Virginia dad heard me asking questions. He approached and asked if my son is a pitcher. At that point it was a possibility. The dad commented I sounded like I knew something about the game (I was a 16u travel coach). He handed me the team stat sheet and said, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

My son was being recruited by 3 schools...2 more serious than the 3rd.   The 3rd was a "better" school, in a bigger conference.   The other 2 were in a smaller conference, mid-majors and pretty close as well as how competitive they were and not far from home.  He got offered....and took the first one.  It was less than an hour from home.  He went in with 7 freshmen, 6 that he at least know somewhat from his years of travel ball.   In 4 years the team never won more than 30% of their games.....and missed the conference tourney every year.   The HC had been there forever...and really just seemed to be coaching out his contract and collecting a paycheck....at least for my son's last 3.   Fortunately he really liked the school and his teammates....so it was still at least bearable, though the coach really never "played to win", even in my son's senior year when they finally had a shot at the conference tourney heading into the last 2 league weekends of the season.  It really was depressing considering the coach had had quite a bit of success earlier in his career.   We didn't go into it expecting son's school to win the league every year.....but he did expect them to at least be somewhat competitive.   Would he go do it over again?   Maybe....because as I said, he liked the school, had a lot of friends from his hometown at the school and really liked the teammates.

@Dadof3 posted:

It was discussed on here a little bit ago about not playing for a school with a bad record due to moral and to lose the winning "feeling".  I get that.  At what point do you think it is beneficial to pick a school with a 500 or below win % with the thought that if they are losing maybe the coach is more willing to give a freshman a shot?  Someone also mentioned about traveling with the team.  Is that a question a parent/kid could ask of the coach - do they see me/son traveling with the team.  Probably getting ahead of myself - still a few years off, but trying to build up my knowledge for when it comes time.

My son's travel coach/ organizer gave us some very wise advice when my son was in the heat of the recruiting process.  He said, "the most important thing is for you to find a coaching staff that loves your game."   He went on to add that there are several of his travel scout team that are signing with "Big Name" power five teams, that will see their D1 experiencing likely come to an end after the first semester.   

This is the most important subject/advice for this site and the only reason I stick around here:

From @coach may who has not posted in years: "You will know when they are really interested in you"  For those who don't know of him go back and read his posts. Great man with great advice.

From Mrs BOF after meeting the head coach from what became my son's school: "Now that is a man I can trust with my son for the next four years"

My personal advice:1) Use baseball to get you into schools you might not otherwise qualify for or be interested in. 2) Winning is a lot more fun than losing. 3) You are not going to play professional baseball so enjoy every minute of your college baseball experience. 4) You do not need to necessarily play summer baseball; the key to your future are summer internships. You can play summer ball early in your career but you are better off working out and getting an internship for your future.

@Ster posted:

My son's travel coach/ organizer gave us some very wise advice when my son was in the heat of the recruiting process.  He said, "the most important thing is for you to find a coaching staff that loves your game."   He went on to add that there are several of his travel scout team that are signing with "Big Name" power five teams, that will see their D1 experiencing likely come to an end after the first semester.   

Often people say "Go where you are loved", I think that the above is an important variant.  Coaches have types and if you see that your traits match up with others that the staff has recruited it is more likely that you are actually loved.

@BOF posted:

This is the most important subject/advice for this site and the only reason I stick around here:

From @coach may who has not posted in years: "You will know when they are really interested in you"  For those who don't know of him go back and read his posts. Great man with great advice.

From Mrs BOF after meeting the head coach from what became my son's school: "Now that is a man I can trust with my son for the next four years"

My personal advice:1) Use baseball to get you into schools you might not otherwise qualify for or be interested in. 2) Winning is a lot more fun than losing. 3) You are not going to play professional baseball so enjoy every minute of your college baseball experience. 4) You do not need to necessarily play summer baseball; the key to your future are summer internships. You can play summer ball early in your career but you are better off working out and getting an internship for your future.

100% on every point.  Mind reader!

@BOF posted:

This is the most important subject/advice for this site and the only reason I stick around here:

From @coach may who has not posted in years: "You will know when they are really interested in you"  For those who don't know of him go back and read his posts. Great man with great advice.

From Mrs BOF after meeting the head coach from what became my son's school: "Now that is a man I can trust with my son for the next four years"

My personal advice:1) Use baseball to get you into schools you might not otherwise qualify for or be interested in. 2) Winning is a lot more fun than losing. 3) You are not going to play professional baseball so enjoy every minute of your college baseball experience. 4) You do not need to necessarily play summer baseball; the key to your future are summer internships. You can play summer ball early in your career but you are better off working out and getting an internship for your future.

My son had a new coach redshirt junior year. He told his coach he needed to be hooked up with one of two summer teams so he could do an internship in Manhattan. He had graduated in three years. He was halfway through his MBA.

His coach went nuts on him for asking. He called the league garbage. My son figured it was better than not playing at all. He had surgery post season eliminating the need to play ball. He would have done the internship no matter what. It was with a Big Four consulting firm. He worked for them for five years after college. It put him in position to get an earned equity position in a young consulting firm.