My son is a sophomore at a 5A school in the DFW area. He turned 15 last December (skipped a year in elementary school) so he is young for his grade. But, he's just over 6' and 160 pounds and still plenty of time to grow.
He just completed the JV season. Team has 8 Sophomore's throwing between 78 and 83. My son is on the lower end of that group and it took a while for him to earn innings.
When he got his chances he went 12 1/3 innings over 7 appearances, gave up no earned runs, struck out 13 and walked 2 and opposing batters hit .095 (4 for 42) against him. Throws a two seam, knuckle curve and splitter all for strikes. Gets a large majority of his outs on ground balls.
He's a very good student. This will be his fourth summer going to Duke for a college course through Duke Tip program. He scored 1390 on practice PSAT (old scale) as a Sophomore and should get the SAT near 1500 on the old scale.
He is a diehard Florida Gator fan. Mom and Dad are alums, room is painted orange and blue and went to national title game in Glendale in January.
All right, too much information there.
He wants to go to Florida without regard to whether he gets any interest from any other colleges if he continues to develop as a pitcher.
What insight does anyone have into walk-on programs at schools like Florida? As competitive as admissions are at schools like Florida these days, it would certainly help if there was a way to get the coaching staff to let admissions know that they might have an interest in my son as a possible walk on. We're certainly hopeful that he'll gain admission without that help, but it is so hard to predict college admissions and any legitimate edge is worth pursuing.
Do coaches at programs like Florida have open tryouts for walk ons? When would it be appropriate to make contact?
Any advice would be appreciated.
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Of course, here's hoping that plan A works out for him 