University of Mary Washington, Va.

Excellent academics

Baseball is strong every year

Coach Sheridan is a great guy and a real straight shooter


We have had a number of players there over the years

but has he already selected his freshmen, or does son have a shot as a walk on?

Catch R....If your kid can play, he'll play. A friend of the family ended up having a stress fracture in his lower back the fall of his senior year in HS and had to stop everything for almost 4 months. Once he was cleared to play (first day of practice) he never looked back, had a very solid senior year but no one showed any interest in him. This kid ended up contacting UMW on his own and they told him to register and walk on to the team. In an effort to make a long story short.....he walked on, made the team, as freshman became a starter and ended the year leading the team in almost every offensive stat and was named 2nd team all conference as a freshman. Best of luck and based on this one experience I'd say it's safe to say your son will have his opportunities !

UMW, formerly Mary Washington College, is still relatively small (about 4,000 undergrads I think). In my day it had only recently gone coed and was fairly open to anyone of the male persuasion, so sometimes we older folks don't realize how far it has come academically since those days.

The fact is, average SAT's of entering freshmen at UMW are third in VA, behind only UVA and W&M, ahead of Va. Tech and Madison. That fact catches a lot of people by surprise!

Baseball wise, they have one of the better playing facilities you'll see in DIII. They have a history of winning. A former teammate (just finished his freshman year) is there and enjoying it. Though I hate to tell you, he WAS recruited (around this time last year as I recall). He still had to survive fall tryouts and not everyone who tried out made it of course. So, just go in with your eyes wide open, take nothing for granted, and be ready to compete!

I will say they are not one of the schools you hear nightmares about (e.g., stories like recruiting 50 or more freshmen and then cutting a bunch of them in the fall, which does happen at some schools with regularity).

Hey Catch R,

Congratulations and good luck to your son. We looked at a number of CAC schools, including UMW, and ended up at Saint Mary's of Maryland. UMW looked like a great place too.

CoachV

Congrats to your son. A former HS team mate of my son was recruited heavily from UMW as a catcher and just finished his first year there. He enjoys the program and the competitive schedule they play.