Princeton Advanced Camp 07/29-08/01

d1

2.5 hr drive from md; wouldve been faster if there weren't so many tolls.

arrived on campus at 0815. nice town. havent really seen main parts of campus yet. 1939 dorm is old, furnishings are new. single suites. bring a fan; no a/c. registration and field is 10 min walk away.

lunch was dry; dinner much better - dogs, grilled cheese, taters. still hungry though, walked to wawa's at the end of campus. i guess everybody goes there.

clarke field is next to the football stadium. i think it was named after a former oriole catcher who became first princeton coach. nice seating on first base hill, very little shade. bleachers on third base side. press box directly behind home plate. not sure about dimensions yet, haven't been in the outfield, but cf seems at least 400 ft.

rained out so we got a chance to see indoor facility. very impressive. they have a diamond where we took grounders and shallow outfield for short pop flys.

mostly combine activities today:
timed in 30, 60
vertical jump
arm speed gun

they wanted gpa and psat or sat scores.

camp is bigger than notre dame -- 138 players.

we will have 11-12 teams with coaches from yale, brown, columbia, usna, georgetown and some d3s.

hope it doesnt rain tomorrow...

Good luck, Deuce. Sounds like a good camp and a great opportunity.

thanks, stanwood, it was a great camp! 138 players from all over the country -- including the ones i met from LA and HOU. i highly recommend to any So, Jr or Sr with a strong combination of GPA and SAT scores. all college coaches in attendance were approachable and easy to talk to. i'm hoping to visit their campuses at some point. can't say enough about the whole experience!

I just graduated but i went to the Princeton camp So and JR year. It was one of the better college camps that i went to, and they have a large number of players and other Ivy colleges that attend. Since i have good academics and mid to upper D1 ability i figured Princeton would have been an ideal school. I was recruited by and talked to basically every coach in the Ivy League. Princeton was the only school that would never return emails, phone calls and other contact. If your looking at an ivy school with better baseball my recommendation would be UPenn or Brown. Dartmouth and princeton are ok too, dont trust harvard, columbia and cornell will probably never win the ivy but have pretty nice coaches. my recommendation would be to visit your top schools, decide how cold you wanna go, and make sure every coach is totatly honest with you. if you want top baseball and good academics, look at UVA, Notre Dame, BC, or schools like that. idk i can go all day with this stuff, hope that helps

why do you say do not trust Harvard, I hear the coach is a stand up guy...

well im just gonna speak from personal experience...i was recruited by head coach joe walsh from harvard, as well as by basically every ivy league school, i went to his camp and did the best i had all year. he called me next day for an official. after a month or so of the process continuing, i told all other ivies i was gonna sign with harvard and passed up a ton of other amazing offers. walsh told me i was slotted in one of the top spots, told me everything to do for admissions, told me academically what was required and i said i was fine, said admissions cleared me, i spent so much time on my application and all, finally a month later i got a notice from the school saying i was not cleared by admissions, i called walsh and all the coaches trying to find out what the heck was going on, and never heard from any of them again. walsh ignored all my calls for literally a month. i had other people and college coaches try calling him on my behalf and he ignored their calls too. i have no clue what happened, he must have lied about being ok'ed with admissions and basically told me to apply so i woudln't sign with any other ivy. i still have never heard from him and dotn really care. he has no integrity at all and made my recruiting process hell. a lot of coaches may seem like the perfect type on the surface but that doesnt mean anything. i passed up so many offers for his school and after this incident there was barely anything left. so basically this guys a joke... and shoudlnt be coaching at all. yea even i thought he was ok at first but its stories like these that nobody knows about. anyways people that say he's a great guy dont know much about him. and honestly, whos gonna say that a coach isnt a great guy, cause i def tried doign my homework on him.

Thanks for the information, my son had received a letter from him...

lefty - thanks for the heads-up and inside info on coach walsh/ harvard. i guess the lesson to learn from your story is that we should keep our options open throughout the admissions process, don't over-commit to any one program and realize that the baseball coach can't tell the admissions office who to admit especially at the ivy league level. i met alot of coaches this summer and it was easy to fall into the trap of believing everything i was told.

quote:

Originally posted by 2deuce:
i guess the lesson to learn from your story is that we should keep our options open throughout the admissions process, don't over-commit to any one program and realize that the baseball coach can't tell the admissions office who to admit especially at the ivy league level. i met alot of coaches this summer and it was easy to fall into the trap of believing everything i was told.

Good advice. That said, the coach definitely has some pull as to who might be accepted. If it wasn't for baseball and the coaches recommendation, I seriously doubt my son would have been accepted. There are usually over 10,000 applications for 1,000 slots.

The coach was very upfront with us and told us that you could be the next Roger Clemens and if the admissions office does not think the student can handle it for whatever reason, you aren't getting in.

well i hope your son is having a good experience with the baseball team. Walsh said similar things to me and told me where my academics needed to be and said I was fine. The fact that he never called me after numerous calls to his cell kind of speaks for itself. To never speak to someone after they apply to your school is pretty messed up.

So to people that are looking for the right school. Always keep your options open and have multiple schools to fall back on.

quote:

Originally posted by leftypitcher818:
well i hope your son is having a good experience with the baseball team.

Lefty, I was referring to Coach Whalen and Dartmouth. My son graduated and had a great experience baseball and otherwise.

I find this very hard to believe Coach Walsh is stand up guy there must more to it..

At no time did the coach ever promise my son a spot he said that admissions had the final say and was adamant about that..

A friend of mine from the southeast had the same exact thing happened to her son. He ended up at another Ivy, but it was very scary for them.