Scholarships

Baseball scholarship?  Academic/merit money?? 

In my experience, test scores (ACT/SAT) mattered the most, at least initially, to determine whether a school/coach felt my sons were a fit.  For "academic" schools, we found a 3.0 unweighted GPA to be the floor that those schools would consider.

If a player is "pretty good", i.e., national class, a 3.0 GPA is wonderful.  That player, barring other issues, will likely be offered a roster spot at most schools.  

Athletic scholarship is a whole different animal.  I recommend a search of this site as there are a zillion threads on baseball money or lack thereof. 

Hi Infiekd,

You didn't really give a lot to go on, so I will start to throw out questions that I think others will want the answers to before anybody can give you advice. I'm sure I will forget some important stuff too.

You say your son is pretty good. What exactly does that mean? Do you have any numbers like pitching velocity (if he's a pitcher) or infield or outfield velocity? If he's a catcher do you have his pop time or other catching metrics? What about a 60 yard time or any batting metrics? Have you ever had him evaluated or has he attended any type of showcase? These are the types of questions you need to answer before you really know where he fits in the baseball landscape. Pretty good is a relative term that can mean different things to different people. Having the hard numbers will also help you target specific schools at the level he best fits, like D1, D2, D3, JC, NAIA.

In order to have any idea about scholarships, you have to narrow down the athletic level of school he is targeting. There are different caps on baseball scholarships at the different levels. If you are asking about merit scholarships, then that is really school specific, so again, you really need to narrow down the schools. There is a current thread that discusses scholarship blending. 3.5 gpa seems to be the magic number for being able to combine baseball athletic money with academic merit aid (at least at the D1 level) without having the academic money count as athletic money.

What your asking is really a pretty complicated question. If you haven't done so already, your best bet is to find someone in your community that can give you an honest assessment of your son's skills and help you come up with some of the important metrics that people will want to know. If you can't find anybody reputable and local, then try looking for showcases like Perfect Game. There may be others in your area that I am sure others on this board can help you identify.

My son is a JR pitcher 85-88 mph

6-3 220

looking for a smaller school in VA. 

ACT 25

sat 1650

He like engineering but open to all studies. 

Plays for a small showcase team. Did ok at EastCobb. Has had a few d2 make contact. 

Thanks

Infiekd posted:

My son is a JR pitcher 85-88 mph

6-3 220

looking for a smaller school in VA. 

ACT 25

sat 1650

He like engineering but open to all studies. 

Plays for a small showcase team. Did ok at EastCobb. Has had a few d2 make contact. 

 

Thanks

 

I did a search for you on www.collegeboard.org and put in the perameters for schools 1) in Virginia; 2) had baseball teams; and 3) engineering programs.  This is what popped up:

For Civil Engineering (there are many others, but most have Civil):

George Mason, Old Dominion Univ, UVA, VMI, and VT.  (VMI is the smallest, the others huge).

When I put in "General Engineering":

Danville Community College (CC), James Madison, New River CC, ODU, Thomas Nelson CC, and UVA.

Having THREE community colleges opens up some possibilities.  There are other smaller schools that have baseball, but not engineering programs.

Go to www.collegeboard.org and then to "college search" near the top and you can find other schools.

So he's in the ballpark for D1 presuming he's an RHP, and definitely so if he's a LHP. 

Physically, he will stand out and get looks.  Then he'll need the velocity.  Would obviously be better if he throws harder than 85.  Better still if he has other pitches.

Roughly half of all recruits in a given year are pitchers.  Every team needs lots of them.

While it's great he knows the type of school where he'd like to be, "a smaller school in Virginia", that is exactly the opposite of what I usually recommend, i.e., cast a very wide net.  If he'll look beyond D1, there's a lot of smaller schools in the mid Atlantic area. 

A 25 ACT with >3.0 GPA in a college prep curriculum is a starting point for some solid academic schools, though not the Washington and Lee's in my experience.

Do you have a vetted list of schools compiled?  Once you do, the time is now for your son to be contacting/targeting those schools.

Don't wait to see what comes to you. Make a business plan. Execute it. Be in control of the situation.

Figure out what level of conference he can potentially compete. Decide which colleges in the conferences are academic, baseball, social and cultural fits. Contact the coaches expressing interest. Ask where to get in front of them to demonstrate skills. 

Attend games of potential colleges. Talk to parents. I never met a parent who didn't want to talk about their kid's recruiting process. Find out which kid is theirs to weigh what they are saying. 

I agree with RJM's point....don't wait to find out who CAN be interested in your son...take the initiative to find out who is interested in your son.  You can do this by yourself, through the high school coach & travel coach or others. 

As MidloDad has stated many times.....Virginia has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to college baseball.  My oldest son was throwing a similar velocity as your son when he was a high school junior but he did not have your son's frame.   My son was offered at D1 mid-majors and D3 schools.  Your son has the potential to get some additional looks by some of the bigger D1 programs.

I believe the best thing your son can do is spend the time to boost his board scores and I think some additional doors will open athletically at the D1 level and academically at the D3 level.   Also engineering is a "rough rodeo" regardless if he plays college baseball or not.  I would be sure engineering is what he wants to study because he is going to limit the target schools considerably in Virginia and elsewhere.

As always, JMO.  Good luck!  

keewart posted

Danville Community College (CC), James Madison, New River CC, ODU, Thomas Nelson CC, and UVA.

Having THREE community colleges opens up some possibilities.  There are other smaller schools that have baseball, but not engineering programs.

Go to www.collegeboard.org and then to "college search" near the top and you can find other schools.

 

With regards to the VA JuCo's, there is one additonal JuCo in VA that has a baseball programs-  Patrick Henry CC in Martinsville. 

New River's baseball program struggles to field a team every year.  There have been times the team folded halfway through the season.

Danville has a decent team, but are now a D3 JuCo.  New River and Patrick Henry are D2 JuCo's. I think Thomas Nelson is D1.  Patrick Henry has a very competitive team and has competed in the Region X tournament for the past 4 years.  I'm not sure if PH has any sort of engineering program as my son just took General Studies and didn't declare a major until he went to the D2.

In full disclosure, my son attended PHCC for two years before transferring to a D2 University.  PHCC has had three coaches in the past 4 years, but all have been very good coaches.  The current coach was previously an assistant coach at Wingate. 

Don't discount JuCo ball.  It is competitive ball.  Often there are D1/D2 drop downs who play JuCo ball before transferring back to D1/D2.

Agree with Keewart, RJM and Fenway.  Formulate a plan and then follow it.

Good luck!