Texas A&M Kingsville- Texas

Don't know anything about the program other than it is D2.

The campus is fairly old and not all that attractive. The town isn't much to look at either. The academics are supposed to be fairly easy. That said, it has a world-class wildlife management program with opportunities to gain field experience on the 800,000+ acre King Ranch, just a few blocks away.

Texas A & M at Kingsville has several former teammates of my sons playing for their DII team. The coach is a native of Cuero TX which is very near my hometown. He is a very likable guy having been in charge two or three years. The field is nothing fancy as we saw when my younger son attended a showcase this fall. Kind of a mid -level DII. I myself was recruited for football there in the 1970's when it was known as Texas A & I. One plus is that Kingsville is not too far from Corpus Christi TX which is a nice sea coast city with some night life. The hitting coach/assistant is one of my son's former travel coaches and last summer he was the manager of the Texas Tomcats in the Texas Collegiate Woodbat league. So there is that connection for summer play. Last year the Javalina's were 28-25 with a conference record of 24-18 in the Lone Star Conference. They play other TX DII's such as Tarleton State, Angelo State, powerhouse Abilene Christian, Incarnate Word, and several schools in Oklahoma and New Mexico. They were in the playoffs a couple of years ago.

Just looked at TAMU-Kingsville's website for baseball and, on paper at least, the program looks promising. The head coach, who just completed his second year, is a former D1 player who was drafted twice by the Braves. Here's a blurb from the coach's bio:

quote:

Jason Gonzales enters his second season as the head baseball coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville. He signed on to take the job in August of 2008 and faced an uphill battle his first year without having a chance to recruit. With a full year to recruit, Gonzales has brought in a number of quality newcomers that could impact the club immediately. He has also been able to incorporate more of his baseball philosophy with a full year under his belt. In his first year, the team went 20-35 as they struggled to ever get on a roll. Despite the team struggles, left-handed pitcher Sam Strickland was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 25th round becoming only the fifth player in school history to be taken the in Major League Baseball draft. He had three players earn all-Lone Star Conference honors.

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