St. Mary's - Moraga, CA

St. Mary's is a real, first class, baseball program. The coach has been there 2-3 seasons and is in the process of transitioning the program. His first year he brought in a good number of JC transfers which did not produce great results. This fall is the second year of freshman that he were recruited by the new staff.

I was very impressed with the coaching. We got to know them (not well) during my son's senior year when we were looking at St. Mary's. As a father, I liked the coaches and thought that they were on their way to developing a good program.

We have known a good number of his recruits and as a whole they are solid players. However, he still only has two real classes of recruits. Give it a couple more years and it will start producing.

If you haven't been, the campus is really pretty.

It is a lovely setting. It seems a fair amount of NorCal players go there. I hear they are building a new baseball field/facility also.

CADad ...

PM coming to you ...

They played a very soft non-conference schedule last year and as such were not prepared for the tough conference games. The WCC is a very competitive league. St. Mary's was a football powerhouse in the 40's. They had to wait for all of the Alumni to die before they could drop football. They are now going to concentrate on Basketball and Baseball. They have the worst baseball facility in the league, USF is a close second. Plans are underway for a new one. Prior to the new coach the program was pretty much out of control. They now offer the full complement of scholorships and are getting some good recruits. I would give Soto a couple of more years to turn it around.

Major, I have some areas of disagreement. While St Mary's did play several non conference games that made me wonder, they also played a 3 game series with LSU and played/beat Oregon St in the River City Classic.
With that said, St Mary's was not "out of control" with the former coaches. In fact, those coaches recruited a number of very good players like Teahan and Wayne and others who were drafted and did well professionally.
My view then and now is that St Mary's did not and does not have enough depth to compete in the WCC. Part of that is the cost of the school. I will be very curious how the new NCAA rules on scholarship allocation impacts St Marys.
In my view, the major reason that St Mary's isn't competitive in the WCC is that neither the former nor current staff recruited players with considerable upside and developed those players.
IMO, both the former and current St Mary's staffs have recruited some top level talent, but not enough to beat a USD/Pepperdine, etc. So they need to find the talent that permeates the Bay Area/Central Valley but, for whatever reason, hasn't risen to the top. USF excels at finding those players and developing them once they enter the program.
The jury is still out on the staff at St Mary's.
To answer CADad, St Mary's is a DI program, period.
It is a school that because of the cost, geography, facilities and location has struggled in baseball.
But it is surely a school you would want your son to see and consider if he has that opportunity.

INF

I think you misunderstood my "out of control" comment. What I was referring to was off the field problems with a number of the players. Under the current coaching staff there is a no tolerence policy. One rule violation and you are out. Your comment with respect to the cost is incorrect. St. Mary's is on a par with the other WCC schools. It is hard to compete for talent when you have other excellent public funded programs nearby. The new facility should help. The current facility is not as good as most high schools.

I misunderstood your comment as well; St Mary's has recruited some top players but has lost the very top players to other programs, specifically those further south in Calif. They have been concentrating on getting better pitching which is the right move, but on the other hand, they have not been getting a lot of productive players with the bat.

They really don't have a lot of power hitters in their line-up which will be a problem in trying to compete in the WCC, so power hitters who could be productive, would be very valuable to St Mary's.

Major, I think we are viewing the "cost" a bit differently for this school
It is cost wise on par with Pepperdine and USD for instance, which, to me, is a drawback. I personally think it is tougher to recruit to St Mary's. Thus, if the cost is the same as other WCC programs, I feel that works to their detriment.
I agree it is much more expensive than the public schools which is also a detriment.
If they compete with USF and Santa Clara, with equal cost, they end up behind, IMO, because of location and how the quality of education might be perceived on a comparative basis.
My view is that St Mary's needs a competitive advantage to get enough quality players. With the total cost being around $45,000 when you build in travel, books, etc, even though it is equal to other WCC programs, equal cost of that amount is a disadvantage.
On the prior staff, I know two players from that program. While there were issues, neither the players nor parents ever talked about "out of control" off field issues of the type you suggest.

I need some up to date info/ opinions on St Marys, gonna visit there this weekend and probably commit my MIF son from AZ.....

quote:

Originally posted by Majorkahuna:
The new facility should help. The current facility is not as good as most high schools.

They must have nice high school fields up in Sammamish!

From a spectator's viewpoint, the facility at St. Mary's is poor. On the other hand, the playing field is in very good shape, and compares well with e.g. Santa Clara. St. Mary's is a good place to play and practice baseball.

Spectators may indeed prefer some of the better high school fields.

After our visit we were very impressed with Coach Soto and his philosophy on baseball. It sounds like he has built the team they hired him for and the future seems bright. The field itself was OK according to my son, the stands could use a face lift if not a total overhaul. I have not seen wooden bleachers like those around for a long time! I believe we are going to say YES and sign a letter for 2009....Go Gaels!!!
Any additional feedback is still appreciated though!!

My son's summer team used St. Mary's as a home base the last two summers so I have sat many an hour watching baseball there. I agree that the stands could use a face lift (how many layers of paint are on those bleachers? and how much lead? A little shade might be nice as well).

The field itself was fine - some minor issues with a lack of maintenance (e.g. not watering enough) two summers ago but last summer appeared to be better.

Was it the nicest field he played on? Not even close - but far from the worst. I agree that some high school fields were nicer as were most of the college fields.

While my son was not actively recruited by them, I did have some limited interactions with the staff as they attended many of the summer team games. I always found them to be incredibly polite and the kind of people that I would like to have my son play for.

My understanding is that any concerns around the field should also be tempered by the fact that they planning to build a multimillion dollar new facility up behind campus. Not sure where that stands but I think construction is supposed to be underway.

Bottom line, I would not pass up St. Mary's because of the field. It is a fine university and a program that appears to be on the rise.