My son is at Cisco. He chose to go there after meeting with Coach White at a tryout. Coach White was an assistant at Howard Payne (D3) for eight years prior to Cisco. A friend of ours (an LHP) played for him at HP and thinks the world of him. Coach White is extremely personable and energetic - and he is having to build a program from scratch and on a shoestring budget.
Asst. Coach Hughes was previously the assistant at West Texas A&M. He has minor league playing and coaching experience. Along with Coach Jones at WTAMU, he was known for doing a lot with nothing.
Both coaches let you know up front that certain behavior often found in college situations (alcohol, drugs, etc.) will not be tolerated and will cause your dismissal. They told my son a "first time alcohol transgression will get you in trouble with the law first, your parents second, the coaches third. If there is a second transgression, it will be between you and the law only, because you will be off the team."
Cisco is a typical, small west Texas town that has experienced boom and bust. Just remember, the town of Cisco is not the big city and it will be a culture shock for big city dwellers. It is small town life and NOT a four year "college experience." Not a lot of outside distractions, dances, bars, etc. He and his friends went to the local HS football games for entertainment this past fall.
The classes have been good and tough - you have to earn your grades. Since we were not familiar with Cisco, I have gone over a lot of his classwork and assignments to assess this for myself. My son's biggest complaint is that he doesn't see the large number of nice looking young ladies that he saw at the four year schools he considered. Oh well, it helps keep him focused.
The campus is old, but it is maintained. Don't get me wrong, you won't confuse it with Blinn, Navarro or McClennan, but it is quite servicable. The field is new, but it looks like a good 2A field (a lateral move for my son). If you are looking for a really swank field and field house, you won't find it here. By the same token, you won't find swank facilities at very many of the D2, D3 and JUCO's in Texas. The dorms, well...
If you have the grades and apply early, you can get in the academic dorm. It has been remodeled and it is nice. I was not impressed with the other two. My son, and quite a few other baseball players, live off campus. Mine is in a one bedroom apartment at about $350 a month. He was scheduled for a dorm, but there was a SNAFU with the new baseball players at the start of the year and all of the dorm rooms were taken. They called and offered him a dorm room over the holidays, but I told him he could keep his apartment.
Back to baseball. This fall, there were at least as many walk-ons as invited players. Many had good credentials, played on good select teams and deserved a good look. The ones I talked to had waited for someone to notice them and make them a big offer - they weren't proactive until it didn't happen. When they didn't get signed where they wanted, they wound up scrambling for a place to play and the prospect of going to a "new team that needed everything" appealed to them. I think I saw 45 pitchers on the depth chart at the start of the fall. Seems like there was about 120 boys in the fall (total) with just the two coaches to work them out and make roster decisions. A large number of players were cut in the fall and others have indicated that they won't be back for various reasons (homesick, small town, not the college experience, too far down on the depth chart, giving up baseball, etc.).
Mine (an LHP) with his late summer birthday is probably the youngest on the team and may redshirt, play JV, or make the travel squad. Still up in the air between him and the coaches. No matter what, he is thankful for the opportunity they (Coaches White and Hughes) have given him. He has continued to develop since he has been there.
Overall impression, this has not been the college experience he (and we) hoped for, but it has been an opportunity that he (and we) are thankful for. He is willing to develop and wait for the "college experience." He has been successful in his classes and he has developed as a player. Will he go somewhere else? Sure, don't know where or when, but like all JUCO players, he is always looking for the next place to go. If he knew then what he knows now would he go to Cisco again? Yes. For him, it was a "fit."
Hope this helps.
