Something To Prepare Your Son For

fenwaysouth's post is spot on.  My son has always been driven academically.  When we dropped him off and I saw his baseball and class schedule I had a big lump in my stomach.  Fortunately he's him and not me, he was prepared and his school is very collaborative as far as the kids doing their homework and studying together so he got through everything great. This component that I mention, collaborativeness or cooperativeness among the students was something I saw in the US News review of the school when he was looking and I brought it to his attention but didn't think anything of it.  Turns out its the biggest thing that has helped him in his transition.  He has said that he literally feels that if he doesn't know the answer to something or is confused, he feels he can ask anyone on campus and they wouldn't hesitate to help him and he would do the same.  In turn,that has allowed him to view baseball as a 'release' from all the other stress and is really glad he chose to do it.  He's still nervous about the spring because of the baseball schedule taking more time but I get the impression less so than he was a month ago. 

Funny story about him between jr an sr y r in summer ball.  Me asking him do you want to play D1 him 'kinda'.  I said Is it more like you want the D1s to want you but you want tell them no you're playing D3 'yeah' ok from then on we focused on the school where he ended up.

My advice is that unless you cannot afford to send him to live away from home, they should be far enough away from mom and dad to learn to be independent.  

My son was 900 miles away from home, didnt have the luxury to come home on the weekends and most of the other players were very far from home as well, his teammates and coaches were his family. That helps IMO, to create a very strong bond that helps build a winning program.  It was tough not to be there for every game, but to be honest, we didnt have to be.  I also found the times that we did visit or caught him in the road were really special.

To be honest, I wouldnt want my son to come home on a weekend. Thats one of the reasons that UM was not a good fit, too close.  I will never forget his first christmas break, almost a month, he was antsy, the next year he had his own apartment and he left to be back much earlier.  I never will forget when he got back to school after that break, he called to let us know he arrived and  said "I am HOME".

During the recruiting process, make sure that you do ask if the campus clears out on the weekends. That may not be a good fit if your son is farther away and cant come home every weekend.

I have to say for us 6 hours was perfect. He didn't come home for the weekends.

I do have to say that attending almost all the games for the most part was a lot of fun.Not always perfect but almost all the parents went to the series home and away. Many parents who had kids on the bench as well came and we had a lot of fun dinners and drinks!!. We spent a chunk of retirement) but would not trade it now that he isn't playing anymore.

We loved So Cal and always stayed by the beach. So we had a lot of fun when we weren't at games as well. We made a lot of mini vacas The worst was the 3 day train ride to Texas(never again) to attend the Rice series.

Was worth it to watch Rendon hit.))