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While my son is still in HS, we'd like to see him play in college. We would prefer him not transferring, so we feel it's important to think of and be aware of as many possible reasons that would cause a player to transfer, especially when deciding where to go to school. I think discussing potential reasons will give him a more realistic idea of what life in college will be like.

I know of a few ball players from our area that went to D1 schools in 2021, but this fall they transferred to JuCos. I don't know their reasons and they could of had multiple.

Here's a list of reasons that come to mind:

-Change in finances (lost scholarship or can't afford)

-Academic (poor grades, doesn't have what they want to study)

-Play time expectations

-Homesick

-Coaching changes

-Better opportunity elsewhere

-Expectations did not equal reality.

What else can you think of?

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@baseballhs posted:

Being told they are replacing you with someone from the portal. 50% of our freshman  have been gone after the first year, 2 years in a row.  Many times it’s not a choice.

That's certainly rough. Do you think there's a way to prevent this from happening or reduce one's odds of this happening? Maybe directly ask the recruiting coordinator if this is something they do? Choose a program and/or appropriate skill level where you hopefully won't be one on the chopping block?

IMHO reason can be many,  use the KISS method transfers occur. Focus on what is the roster management strategy of the schools

Here is a link to see some basic data, in demo mode you can drill down on 4 pre-selected schools per division, e.g. UConn, LSU, Stanford.

Note, we've also published 2022 Fall Rosters (as 2023) where available

https://collegebaseballinsight...nover-insights-free/

@Momball11 posted:

That's certainly rough. Do you think there's a way to prevent this from happening or reduce one's odds of this happening? Maybe directly ask the recruiting coordinator if this is something they do? Choose a program and/or appropriate skill level where you hopefully won't be one on the chopping block?

Not really.  Probably depends on what type of school he is looking at and what level.  I think in top D1, there is no way to predict.  As, I mentioned in earlier posts, we had a freshman who sat 95-96 and touched 99 get cut.  He was quickly picked up by another strong P5.  He was at the appropriate level, he just wasn't with a coach who was willing to wait for him to develop. Outside of that, you can look at rosters and changes year to year.  See how many transfers they brought in vs how many didn't return. Ask questions of those in the program.  The coach is likely going to tell you what you want to hear.

There are many reasons that a player will transfer and most of them have been mentioned. But IMO (and I deal with this on a regular basis), there are 2 primary reasons. They are; 1) the player goes to a school that over recruits as a player not really sought after; and 2) the player goes to a program that he is not good enough to play at right now and gets no chance to develop. As baseballhs accurately stated, transfers are often not the choice of the player.
  I will add that the people that frequent HSBBW are much less likely to make those mistakes. But those that fly completely or partially blind make those mistakes all the time.

Take what I'm saying with a large grain of salt, and understand that my kid transfered not willingly this season.

Go back pre pandemic and pre new transfer portal rules and the majority of cases seem to be over recruiting and playing at a level that they aren't good enough to play at.

As been pointed out over and over, times have changed. Yes there is more talent than ever in college baseball, but there are tons of cases where coaches seems to just want to make changes for the sake of making changes. In this thread alone you have kids throwing upper 90s, 50% of freshman told to leave on teams. Did all these kids over shoot? There's middle ground between being a complete P5 stud and not being able to play at the D1 level. P5 coaches are always going to look to replace players, but I don't think lesser D1s schools are all "always looking to replace you" and "Coach needs to win to feed their family".

Of course coaches always want to win, but just like P5 coaches could over recruit and not deal with the consequences, you now have mid major and lower D1 coaches that think they are Tim Corbin, and cut players and try their hand in the portal. How many players in the portal end up making lateral moves?

Anyway JMO.

@Momball11 posted:

While my son is still in HS, we'd like to see him play in college. We would prefer him not transferring, so we feel it's important to think of and be aware of as many possible reasons that would cause a player to transfer, especially when deciding where to go to school. I think discussing potential reasons will give him a more realistic idea of what life in college will be like.

I know of a few ball players from our area that went to D1 schools in 2021, but this fall they transferred to JuCos. I don't know their reasons and they could of had multiple.

Here's a list of reasons that come to mind:

-Change in finances (lost scholarship or can't afford)

-Academic (poor grades, doesn't have what they want to study)

-Play time expectations

-Homesick

-Coaching changes

-Better opportunity elsewhere

-Expectations did not equal reality.

What else can you think of?

I don't know how old your son is, but I think it might be beneficial to realize that if your son wants to play in college, at some point, usually around 15-16 yrs old, baseball has to become his business. By this I mean he needs to begin to think in terms of 'is there an spot on the field that I can fill? what do I need to do to earn that spot? is there someone ahead of me in line for that spot and what do I do about that? what do I need to do to hold on to that spot and make sure the next guy doesn't take it from me?'.

Competition to play in college is fierce, at every level. And as someone wise on this board wrote "everyday is a tryout".

To directly address your point, I think, i.e. my opinion is, that it's unrealistic for you to expect your son to go to college and have everything fall into place athletically, academically, and socially for 4 years. Sure, it might happen, but a million things can change, go wrong or go right, which make it untenable for your son to continue at his first school. Flexibility is key.

However, if you are deadset on him not transferring then the question becomes - which other axis are you willing to flex on? If your son 100% wants to play baseball at the same school for 4 years with no possibility of transferring, are you willing to compromise on the level of play? Are you willing to compromise academics? How about flexibility in location (near/far from friends and family)?

What does your son want?

Last edited by SpeedDemon
@SpeedDemon posted:

I don't know how old your son is, but I think it might be beneficial to realize that if your son wants to play in college, at some point, usually around 15-16 yrs old, baseball has to become his business. By this I mean he needs to begin to think in terms of 'is there an spot on the field that I can fill? what do I need to do to earn that spot? is there someone ahead of me in line for that spot and what do I do about that? what do I need to do to hold on to that spot and make sure the next guy doesn't take it from me?'.

Competition to play in college is fierce, at every level. And as someone wise on this board wrote "everyday is a tryout".

To directly address your point, I think, i.e. my opinion is, that it's unrealistic for you to expect your son to go to college and have everything fall into place athletically, academically, and socially for 4 years. Sure, it might happen, but a million things can change, go wrong or go right, which make it untenable for your son to continue at his first school. Flexibility is key.

However, if you are deadset on him not transferring then the question becomes - which other axis are you willing to flex on? If your son 100% wants to play baseball at the same school for 4 years with no possibility of transferring, are you willing to compromise on the level of play? Are you willing to compromise academics? How about flexibility in location (near/far from friends and family)?

What does your son want?

A lot of good points in this and I appreciate it. Son is a 2024 (16 years old) and baseball has certainly become his business and he discusses the questions you mentioned with his teammates, coaches, parents, recruiters. I think these discussions are helping him formulate what he should be expecting at the next level if he is so fortunate. It will also guide him in making a decision of what to do post HS. That could even be walking away from baseball completely. It will be interesting to see what he decides.

I can't say I have the expectation of him going to college and everything falling into place. If there are people out there that are fortunate enough to have that happen to them when transitioning from HS life to post HS life...then good for them. Flexibility is definitely good to have on top of preparation. The more one can prepare, the better one can flex.

There are multiple reasons I'd prefer him not to transfer. Credits might not transfer. I want him to tough out a challenge instead of transferring as a means of escape. There would be another transition to deal with. Those are some of the reasons.

I hope there are some coaches out there that are still willing to invest in developing a player. I understand there are coaches out there that have taken advantage of the transfer portal, but I can't blame them when it's their livelihood. So we'll even discuss what to do if a coach says he's no longer welcome on the team. I think if he selects the school for the school with baseball being a bonus he may not want to transfer. He might just try playing club or being involved with baseball as a non-athlete.

I'm not sure about if he'd be willing to compromise on level of play to stay at the same school for 4 years. I'll have to see what he thinks.

As of right now he has a list of needs and wants. It's his responsibility to figure it all out. I'm just here to get him thinking about how to prioritize those needs and wants and provide my opinion when he'd like it.

@Momball11 posted:

That's certainly rough. Do you think there's a way to prevent this from happening or reduce one's odds of this happening? Maybe directly ask the recruiting coordinator if this is something they do? Choose a program and/or appropriate skill level where you hopefully won't be one on the chopping block?

Lots to cover here on the thread. I have lurked and commented on many threads over the last couple of years and do not have experience here (fingers crossed). My son is currently a freshman at a "mid major" D1.

I was pretty involved in my son's process. I would describe my role as "chief of staff" but at times was also psychologist, equipment manager, and intern (throwing BP at all hours of day and night, hitting grounders, facilitating "daily's" and more).

One of many things that I was involved in was research into all programs that my kid was contacted by and chose to contact. I researched old rosters and the latest roster. I tried to find past fall rosters if possible. I looked at commitments past and present on both PG & PBR. I researched to see what kids stayed and what kids were no longer on rosters. I looked to see where the current roster came from: HS, JUCO, D2, Grad students, etc. I also researched articles on coaches via google, searched for podcast interviews, contacted people here and other places that might know programs/coaches/more, and tried to make sure my kid was not being set up for failure.

Son was injured most of JR year and was offered by current school late April senior year (lots of warnings about that here on the board) and after a lot of research prior to offer about all things mentioned above and then a bunch more research and calls post offer son accepted. 

I could ramble on about things I learned about other programs (from D3's that had 85 kids at the fall "baseball meeting" to teams that had 58 kids in uniform for fall ball PRE-pandemic) but here is what we were told and how things have gone so far. RC told son he was offering him his "last spot" on team assuming neither of the 2 possible draft kids were drafted. Son told me during individual practices (vs team practice) early in fall that there were 35 kids on roster and 1 walk-on RHP. Travel roster in spring is 27 and that is my kids goal (along with obviously getting AB's, starting, etc).

Research anywhere and everywhere along with utilizing services like College Baseball Insights.  Subscribe to D1baseball and read about programs...anything you can find from fall ball articles to spring previews and prospect things. Utilize contacts here at HSBBweb along with travel team personnel, ex players from the team and even opposing teams. Look at history/bios of coaching staff to try to find connections to kids/organizations you might have contacts within.

Lastly I will leave you with this anecdote from this past weekend. I was watching a new D1 in town scrimmage the closest/best JUCO to town. In addition to 2 benches with 40+ kids I connected with a dad of a P5 freshman. We talked about our kids fall so far and had pleasant conversation. I knew that there were plenty of freshman commits to his school. When he told me it had been more tryout then development I said that had not been the case for my kid...some balance at least from my POV. Next he told me they had 20 freshman commits plus transfers and JUCO kids...I was very thankful for my kids mid-major experience so far.

@Momball11 posted:

A lot of good points in this and I appreciate it. Son is a 2024 (16 years old) and baseball has certainly become his business and he discusses the questions you mentioned with his teammates, coaches, parents, recruiters. I think these discussions are helping him formulate what he should be expecting at the next level if he is so fortunate. It will also guide him in making a decision of what to do post HS. That could even be walking away from baseball completely. It will be interesting to see what he decides.

I can't say I have the expectation of him going to college and everything falling into place. If there are people out there that are fortunate enough to have that happen to them when transitioning from HS life to post HS life...then good for them. Flexibility is definitely good to have on top of preparation. The more one can prepare, the better one can flex.

There are multiple reasons I'd prefer him not to transfer. Credits might not transfer. I want him to tough out a challenge instead of transferring as a means of escape. There would be another transition to deal with. Those are some of the reasons.

I hope there are some coaches out there that are still willing to invest in developing a player. I understand there are coaches out there that have taken advantage of the transfer portal, but I can't blame them when it's their livelihood. So we'll even discuss what to do if a coach says he's no longer welcome on the team. I think if he selects the school for the school with baseball being a bonus he may not want to transfer. He might just try playing club or being involved with baseball as a non-athlete.

I'm not sure about if he'd be willing to compromise on level of play to stay at the same school for 4 years. I'll have to see what he thinks.

As of right now he has a list of needs and wants. It's his responsibility to figure it all out. I'm just here to get him thinking about how to prioritize those needs and wants and provide my opinion when he'd like it.

Appreciate you responding kindly to my post. I re-read it and thought it was a little harsh. Apologies!

I guess my question is - why are you so deadset on your son not transferring schools? Hard for me to understand why that would be anyone's #1 concern, given the myriad of things that could change once enrolled, esp when adding athletics in the mix.

Do you have a specific school in mind for your son and don't want him to give up the slot once enrolled no matter what?

I'm no expert, but based on what I read here on HSBBW and from what I see in the wild, it seems more and more the norm that players transfer. Those staying and playing all 4 years at the same school are a dying breed. It's too bad but it is what it is.

"I'm no expert, but based on what I read here on HSBBW and from what I see in the wild, it seems more and more the norm that players transfer. Those staying and playing all 4 years at the same school are a dying breed. It's too bad but it is what it is."

I totally agree with you @SpeedDemon!  Transfers definitely seem to be the norm, BUT my son is starting his junior year at a mid-major DI (same school) and in his time there, they have had a total of 3 transfer out of his program and that is with a coaching change!  The league that he plays in has very few transfers because it is a mid-major and not stacked with draft picks. They all support each other like brothers and the "egos" aren't so prominent because they all have the same goal and that's to prove that the "underdogs" can compete with the "big dogs.".  I've heard it said on here multiple times that the top P5 schools are turning into minor league organizations so they are all fighting for those draft spots and coaches are fighting for that trip to Omaha.

My question would be..Are you ok with him sitting on the bench with very little playing time for 4 years as long as he doesn't transfer or will he choose to transfer if he doesn't have immediate playing time?   If it is the latter, then make sure he is playing in a division that equates to his ability, make sure your expectations match your reality and know that it IS POSSIBLE to play at the same school for 4 years of eligibility at the same school and without redshirting.  My son and 3 of his roommates are proof.

@used2lurk posted:

Lots to cover here on the thread. I have lurked and commented on many threads over the last couple of years and do not have experience here (fingers crossed). My son is currently a freshman at a "mid major" D1.

I was pretty involved in my son's process. I would describe my role as "chief of staff" but at times was also psychologist, equipment manager, and intern (throwing BP at all hours of day and night, hitting grounders, facilitating "daily's" and more).

One of many things that I was involved in was research into all programs that my kid was contacted by and chose to contact. I researched old rosters and the latest roster. I tried to find past fall rosters if possible. I looked at commitments past and present on both PG & PBR. I researched to see what kids stayed and what kids were no longer on rosters. I looked to see where the current roster came from: HS, JUCO, D2, Grad students, etc. I also researched articles on coaches via google, searched for podcast interviews, contacted people here and other places that might know programs/coaches/more, and tried to make sure my kid was not being set up for failure.

Son was injured most of JR year and was offered by current school late April senior year (lots of warnings about that here on the board) and after a lot of research prior to offer about all things mentioned above and then a bunch more research and calls post offer son accepted.

I could ramble on about things I learned about other programs (from D3's that had 85 kids at the fall "baseball meeting" to teams that had 58 kids in uniform for fall ball PRE-pandemic) but here is what we were told and how things have gone so far. RC told son he was offering him his "last spot" on team assuming neither of the 2 possible draft kids were drafted. Son told me during individual practices (vs team practice) early in fall that there were 35 kids on roster and 1 walk-on RHP. Travel roster in spring is 27 and that is my kids goal (along with obviously getting AB's, starting, etc).

Research anywhere and everywhere along with utilizing services like College Baseball Insights.  Subscribe to D1baseball and read about programs...anything you can find from fall ball articles to spring previews and prospect things. Utilize contacts here at HSBBweb along with travel team personnel, ex players from the team and even opposing teams. Look at history/bios of coaching staff to try to find connections to kids/organizations you might have contacts within.

Lastly I will leave you with this anecdote from this past weekend. I was watching a new D1 in town scrimmage the closest/best JUCO to town. In addition to 2 benches with 40+ kids I connected with a dad of a P5 freshman. We talked about our kids fall so far and had pleasant conversation. I knew that there were plenty of freshman commits to his school. When he told me it had been more tryout then development I said that had not been the case for my kid...some balance at least from my POV. Next he told me they had 20 freshman commits plus transfers and JUCO kids...I was very thankful for my kids mid-major experience so far.

Agree. I've been on many calls recently.  Everybody says the same thing.  Do your research,   there are many ways, different perspectives.  Bottom line the family need to be as informed as possible when making the decision.

I think my approach has changed with the NIL deals and transfer portal from when mine were going through the recruiting process.  I have talked about how diligent we went through with each school of researching them and knowing how many freshman were coming in and how many of son's position were they recruiting and so on.  But that has changed with the Transfer Portal.  I will give a personal example.  Our freshman class where son is at has not changed in numbers and types of players recruited but the transfer portal changed the game this summer.  We lost all 8 fielding starters off of last year's team.  Which all of them had been with the program from day one.  All were there as freshmen and played through the process.  Great opportunity for incoming freshmen and returning players.   But the transfer portal and grad transfers changed that.  We got a SS, 3rd base, and OF from there.  They will all three start I'm pretty sure.  We also brought in 3 juco players that will compete.  I'm not sure there will be a freshman starting except maybe 1.  The weird part was we kept almost all of our pitchers.  All four starters are back with all except 2 of the main relievers coming back.  We have guys waiting to play each position along with the freshmen but it will be a dogfight for a starting role next fall.  Our HC has said we have more draftees than ever before at any program he has coached at including ours, Arkansas, Missouri and others.  It will be interesting to see how it falls out.  We have talked a lot about LSU on here and the transfer portal greatly changed their landscape as I think they have 7-8 on campus this fall.  They are not the highest in the SEC.  There are 2 schools that got 10 transfer guys into their program.  That trend will greatly change how you look at recruiting.

I think it hit PItchingFan's team a little later than someone the others, but when your own players start getting poached, most coaches will end up in the portal.  I think what we have to understand, and help our kids understand, is that you can be really really good and still not get a chance.  If the game is on the line, coaches are typically going to go with experience.  Ours were told that point blank.  I also read an article on position guys in the minors that didn't make it to the majors (that were projected to), and it said 75% said that from day one their swing was tweaked or changed and they never got to get comfortable.  I can tell you from experience that it happens a lot in college as well.  Our case was pitchers but I've heard from a lot that they were changed, the change didn't work and then the coach didn't know how to fix it(or have the time to invest) so they were left to kind of flounder.  They get less opportunities because it isn't working and then when it doesn't work in a game, they don't go back to them, they go to an experienced transfer.  In retrospect, I would ask that question:  do you see something in my swing/pitching, that you would want to change when I get on campus.  Then decide if that is something you can work with.  Ideally, they like you how you are, because there isn't a lot of time or patience for a learning curve.

@baseballhs, you can ask those questions but you won’t get a straight answer during the courtship. No coach is going to tell a kid, during the recruiting process, that they intend to change his swing or his pitching delivery fir fear of scaring the kid off.  That surprise is saved for when the player shows up on campus and it’s often something that is driven by the position coach of that player. And position coaches change all the time which makes it more difficult to predict. My current pet peeve is the trend for PCs to drop a kid’s arm angle down to the side. Just so there is a sidearmer on the staff. A change like that is unjustified (more often than not) and doesn’t work out more often than it does. Meanwhile the “experiment” can set a player back to the point that he may not recover. But oh well. Next man up!

@PitchingFan posted:

I think my approach has changed with the NIL deals and transfer portal from when mine were going through the recruiting process.  I have talked about how diligent we went through with each school of researching them and knowing how many freshman were coming in and how many of son's position were they recruiting and so on.  But that has changed with the Transfer Portal.  I will give a personal example.  Our freshman class where son is at has not changed in numbers and types of players recruited but the transfer portal changed the game this summer.  We lost all 8 fielding starters off of last year's team.  Which all of them had been with the program from day one.  All were there as freshmen and played through the process.  Great opportunity for incoming freshmen and returning players.   But the transfer portal and grad transfers changed that.  We got a SS, 3rd base, and OF from there.  They will all three start I'm pretty sure.  We also brought in 3 juco players that will compete.  I'm not sure there will be a freshman starting except maybe 1.  The weird part was we kept almost all of our pitchers.  All four starters are back with all except 2 of the main relievers coming back.  We have guys waiting to play each position along with the freshmen but it will be a dogfight for a starting role next fall.  Our HC has said we have more draftees than ever before at any program he has coached at including ours, Arkansas, Missouri and others.  It will be interesting to see how it falls out.  We have talked a lot about LSU on here and the transfer portal greatly changed their landscape as I think they have 7-8 on campus this fall.  They are not the highest in the SEC.  There are 2 schools that got 10 transfer guys into their program.  That trend will greatly change how you look at recruiting.

Hopefully the other SEC schools will publish their roster shortly.

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@SpeedDemon posted:

Appreciate you responding kindly to my post. I re-read it and thought it was a little harsh. Apologies!

I guess my question is - why are you so deadset on your son not transferring schools? Hard for me to understand why that would be anyone's #1 concern, given the myriad of things that could change once enrolled, esp when adding athletics in the mix.

Do you have a specific school in mind for your son and don't want him to give up the slot once enrolled no matter what?

I'm no expert, but based on what I read here on HSBBW and from what I see in the wild, it seems more and more the norm that players transfer. Those staying and playing all 4 years at the same school are a dying breed. It's too bad but it is what it is.

Well I'm not sure I'm "deadset". I will say that in the whole scheme of things I view the primary objective of my son's college experience to come out with a degree that will propel him into a financially stable self-supporting career. I think we can all agree that the chances of being a professional baseball player is very low and one that is financially self-supporting is difficult to obtain. So I'm putting more value on his education. With that in mind, I want him to find a school that fits everything that he's looking for in a college education. If he just so happens to be able to play baseball too, that would be an extra bonus. Let's say he attends a school that meets all his expectations for what he's looking for in a college education and he lucks out with a roster spot playing baseball too. What would happen if he lost that roster spot? He'd have to decide whether to continue at the school or transfer. If one's putting priority in their education over baseball, then one would probably really hesitate leaving. This actually happened to my husband. He was a college athlete and his program was cut. He explored transferring, but he absolutely loved the school he was already at. He received several full-ride offers at well respected schools, but he ultimately decided to finish out his education at the same school. Just because the program no longer existed, it did not mean he had to stop playing his sport completely. He still competed, just not for his school. He found other avenues to compete.

So as my son is "school shopping". He's already said he's not going to just attend any school, just so he can play baseball. I do believe that there is a collegiate baseball program out there for everyone (it just might cost you an arm and a leg, or you may have to move very far from home). He understands that he's going to college for his education. He understands college is a financial investment, so he's investing in his education and not necessarily to play baseball.

To answer your other question. No, he does not have a specific school in mind. If he were asked to give up his slot, I'd support him either way just like I did my husband all those years ago.

I too passed opportunities to compete on a collegiate team. It was more important for me to go to a school that had what I was looking for. It was probably easier for me to make such a decision though because there was not even a smidgeon of a possibility of becoming a professional athlete post college.

@baseballhs there's coaches that try to "tweak' everywhere. One time my son made an adjustment to his swing as requested by a coach and he ended up doing worse. Coach ended up just telling him to go back to what he had been doing. He's just continued developing his swing and doing what @Consultant mentioned above by self-evaluating and making adjustments game to game, even from at bat to at bat. Seems to be working for him, so he now just politely listens to coaches and keeps doing his thing. I think he's open to what coaches have to say and he's willing to see if it makes a difference, but if it doesn't feel right or it doesn't lead to an improvement...he just goes back to what he knows.

@Momball11 posted:

Well I'm not sure I'm "deadset". I will say that in the whole scheme of things I view the primary objective of my son's college experience to come out with a degree that will propel him into a financially stable self-supporting career. I think we can all agree that the chances of being a professional baseball player is very low and one that is financially self-supporting is difficult to obtain. So I'm putting more value on his education. With that in mind, I want him to find a school that fits everything that he's looking for in a college education. If he just so happens to be able to play baseball too, that would be an extra bonus. Let's say he attends a school that meets all his expectations for what he's looking for in a college education and he lucks out with a roster spot playing baseball too. What would happen if he lost that roster spot? He'd have to decide whether to continue at the school or transfer. If one's putting priority in their education over baseball, then one would probably really hesitate leaving. This actually happened to my husband. He was a college athlete and his program was cut. He explored transferring, but he absolutely loved the school he was already at. He received several full-ride offers at well respected schools, but he ultimately decided to finish out his education at the same school. Just because the program no longer existed, it did not mean he had to stop playing his sport completely. He still competed, just not for his school. He found other avenues to compete.

So as my son is "school shopping". He's already said he's not going to just attend any school, just so he can play baseball. I do believe that there is a collegiate baseball program out there for everyone (it just might cost you an arm and a leg, or you may have to move very far from home). He understands that he's going to college for his education. He understands college is a financial investment, so he's investing in his education and not necessarily to play baseball.

To answer your other question. No, he does not have a specific school in mind. If he were asked to give up his slot, I'd support him either way just like I did my husband all those years ago.

I too passed opportunities to compete on a collegiate team. It was more important for me to go to a school that had what I was looking for. It was probably easier for me to make such a decision though because there was not even a smidgeon of a possibility of becoming a professional athlete post college.

Academics over athletics - great!

Or as we say here on HSBBW - the 40 year plan over the 4 year plan.

@Momball11 posted:


@baseballhs there's coaches that try to "tweak' everywhere. One time my son made an adjustment to his swing as requested by a coach and he ended up doing worse. Coach ended up just telling him to go back to what he had been doing. He's just continued developing his swing and doing what @Consultant mentioned above by self-evaluating and making adjustments game to game, even from at bat to at bat. Seems to be working for him, so he now just politely listens to coaches and keeps doing his thing. I think he's open to what coaches have to say and he's willing to see if it makes a difference, but if it doesn't feel right or it doesn't lead to an improvement...he just goes back to what he knows.

I think that is a good plan, and I think that may be easier as a hitter.  If a coach asks you to drop to submarine, it will be really obvious you aren't. In my son's case, also not that easy.  His shortened senior year, he had 1H, 1BB and 26K in 12 innings and sitting 93-94, so I'm not sure what they were fixing. He didn't get to pitch at all during fall because they were retraining his arm path.  He spent time one on one with weighted balls instead of doing bullpens. After spending four months being "coachable" he was also not better, but worse.  His coach said, "Where is the kid I recruited?"  It was very hard for him to revert back. Two other freshman were changed to side armers.  One is exclusively side arm and it does work for him.  The other moves between the two and has struggled at times with the changes.

@Momball11 posted:

I know of a few ball players from our area that went to D1 schools in 2021, but this fall they transferred to JuCos. I don't know their reasons and they could of had multiple.



If you know any of those players or families personally, or know someone who does, you may want to suggest that they make sure they know the academic requirements they'll need to satisfy while they're attending the JUCO this year in order to be eligible when they transfer back to an NCAA (or NAIA) program.

As I mentioned in another post thread a day or two ago, those requirements can vary depending upon a number of factors.  Those factors can include how many semesters they attend the JUCO, what four-year college division they're transferring to, the specific courses they're taking, etc. 

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