West Point

Millionaire dollar education!

Oh yeah I know all about the academy education. I started my college career at Air Force. Im just wondering how baseball recruiting works with them. Son received email from coach after seeing him play last week.

You should have an email.

My son was recruited to West Point this year.

The coaching staff is outstanding. The team is literally a family and the players are very supportive of one another. The field and support facilities are first rate. Personally, I don't think you could do better if the fit is right.

West point is not for everyone. You have to remember that committing to the school means a commitment to serve as an officer in the Army after graduation. At the same time you are receiving an education worth about $250.000.00. The character building is priceless!

West Point was recently ranked 3rd by Forbes. It is an excellent university that is challenging academically. Out of approximately 60,000 initial applicants, 1200 or so are admitted.

Limited summer ball due to having to do mandatory military training in the summers. Nonetheless, the program turns out exceptional ball players.

Advice I saw on here years ago regarding service academies: make sure your son's intentions are to be an officer in the military first, and play college baseball second. That's the reality he will face. Having said that, my son is very happy at Navy (in his second year) and I can't recommend SA's enough, as long as you go into it with your eyes open and understanding the commitment being made.

Drop me an email anytime if you wish to know more about the program. Son played and is a '11 grad.

chip@chipporter.com

Chip

quote:

Originally posted by CPLZ:
Drop me an email anytime if you wish to know more about the program. Son played and is a '11 grad.

chip@chipporter.com

Chip

CP,
How nice to "see" you, hope all is well.

Hiya Barb,
All is good, thanks. And I hope all is well with you and your fam!

CP

Chip, if West Point is such a family with good coaches how is it that they make a player unhappy to the point of leaving. A high draft kid for a program like W.P.and don't use him much. I was there for a game last year and watched the coaches style. As for a school and military beacon for this country, there is no questioning the quality. Hope these coaches would understand the baseball communities communicate the integrity of their promises. Make sure that your son wants to be an officer first and understand baseball comes after many other responsibilities.

Any program can have unhappy players that leave - never heard of one that did not. I would be interested in more explanation of your veiled comments as my son is about to accept his appointment and is going there as a recruited baseball player. What promises did the coach make that were not kept? I would expect that anywhere that takes the term student - athlete seriously would tell you that baseball comes after other responsibilities.

YesReally...you seem to have a good feel for what is going on. It seems that CELTDAD's 1st sentence question was answered by his 2nd sentence.

quote:

Originally posted by CELTDAD:
Chip, if West Point is such a family with good coaches how is it that they make a player unhappy to the point of leaving. A high draft kid for a program like W.P.and don't use him much. I was there for a game last year and watched the coaches style. As for a school and military beacon for this country, there is no questioning the quality. Hope these coaches would understand the baseball communities communicate the integrity of their promises. Make sure that your son wants to be an officer first and understand baseball comes after many other responsibilities.

A little late on this response but here it goes. Coach Sottolano is the perfect coach for West Point. He is the coach, he plays those who should be playing. He sticks with a player when that player devotes himself to his program. My son played because he wanted to play for Army and the coaches. The team is in the middle of a great year (maybe record setting, we will see). These kids should be thanked for going to West Point knowing what is in front of them. To perform at this high of a level and achieve a degree at West point is outstanding.

I am a little bias. Yes, the sacrifice is great, but it is definitely worth it. If you receive a letter from this staff, consider it an honor, if you go, be prepared to be challenged to the limits of your ability, if you make the team be proud, if you start and succeed, considered yourself as the best.

Army is the first team in conference history to begin Patriot League play with 12 consecutive victories. The Black Knights have won 13 straight regular-season conference games dating back to last season.

Saw them play this year - this group of players has great team identity.

Army swept Bucknell over the weekend to clinch first in the Patriot League. Logan Lee pitched a no/no - first time on Doubleday Field since 1957.

quote:

Originally posted by CELTDAD:
Chip, if West Point is such a family with good coaches how is it that they make a player unhappy to the point of leaving. A high draft kid for a program like W.P.and don't use him much. I was there for a game last year and watched the coaches style. As for a school and military beacon for this country, there is no questioning the quality. Hope these coaches would understand the baseball communities communicate the integrity of their promises. Make sure that your son wants to be an officer first and understand baseball comes after many other responsibilities.

Celtdad,

I did not see this until just now, so I apologize for the late response.

The family, what is known there as ABF (Army Baseball Family), is representative of players and their families and not the coaches (IMHO). The closeness of the players to each other is quite unbelievable. The motto at WP is, cooperate and graduate, meaning that you can't do it as a Lone Ranger, you need to lean on your fellow cadets to get through. The degree to which that happens with the players on the baseball team is unprecedented, even for WP.

As to draft picks, that really isn't an indicator of a players ability, only one persons opinion of it, and it doesn't reflect competition at the position. We had one draft pick show up and start his freshman year, flat out couldn't play. Hit around 200 as an OF, no power, and a constant sense of entitlement. He left after freshman year, went to a Pac 10 school, and rarely left the bench for 2 years until he was cut.

As to the draft pick you saw, he was playing behind a former Conference MVP and future draft pick of the Padres. In his opportunities to play, he didn't distinguish himself yet as a must play player. All three infield positions that year were manned by all conference players, so in this particular instance, it would be hard to criticize the coaches decision.

The coaches are a different story. I disagree that Sottolano is the perfect coach for WP. I don't care much for him, as a person, or a coach. I am not alone in this regard, and may be part of a majority, but obviously there are contrary opinions also. Among his faults, I believe his history shows that he abuses pitchers, both in games and practice/bullpens. The evidence is the number of pitchers that did not finish their careers at WP healthy. It is a staggering number. As just a single example, in 2010 Army won the Patriot League and was the #1 seed in the playoffs and were beat in the first round simply because they couldn't field healthy starting pitching for a 3 game series at the end of the season.

Some on this board beat me up a little for my past opinion on the head coach. Today the academy let him go and removed him from the base. You can discount people opinions, but I know the quality of the individuals that got a raw deal from him and his behavior. One of my son best friends is a senior there now, and in top 100 of his class. I think West Point is one of the great institutions of this great country. Hope Matt can turn around the treatment of players going forward. That kid who coach chased away is playing in the reds organization and doing well. So it wasn't lack of talent or determination. I was at a game and personally watched his poor behavior and verbal abuse during the game from the dugout. All recruits going forward, hope the school gets a coach worthy of that great school.

 

While Coach Sottolano was the primary reason my son went to the Academy - he was also the biggest reason he left.  I too am a big supporter of the Academy - but life on the baseball team was - well I am not sure how to adequately describe it.  I have to wonder if my son would still be a Cadet if this had happened last fall.

I hope that Coach Reid will be a much better role model for the players - it is hard to tell because he seemed to operate in lock step with Sottolano while he was there and did ont do anything to better the situation.

I hope that the current players will have a less stressful season this year.

Any Academy can be a fantastic experience for the right person.  As a West Point graduate, I always tell people that "I never went to college, I went to school."  It's a different type of experience, one that I immensely treasure, but it is not for everyone.  Baseball, or any sport, should definitely be a secondary reason to attend an Academy. 

I agree with your post CH10Dad.  Simply choosing the Academy put Baseball second - that was fine - my Cadet was just not prepared to give it up altogether.

Wow..been a while since I've been on here

Re: above quotes...

Didn't see anybody being beat up re: opinion of head coach..saw some express different opinions, which might lead to the discounting..but no "beating up". Discounting is a common thread for online opinions based much on personal experiences that differ. 

Re: Reid and player treatment, I think it has already become evident (from my grapevine) that the atmosphere has changed. Reid is a great guy, very good X's and O's coach, but Sottolano was a great Recruter (notice capital R) for the Academy. Reid will have a hard time matching that. It takes a unique person to be able to get athletes to commit to a service academy. 

Getting back to differing experiences, "chasing away" is the total opposite of the feel I got re: the player you reference. (btw, I feel one of the reasons my son did not attend a favorite ACC school of mine and his was that school's bit of a rep for "chasing away" no-longer-wanted players) I had decent knowledge of this situation...I always felt this player came in with one foot out, so I feel "lack of determination" was A factor. If you don't come in with a 4 years attitude, 4 years @ the Academy will be much harder than normal.
Re: my opinion...

Much of CPLZ's and ahsbb's comments ring true to me. My only difference would be the metered up disdain for Sottolano by Chip. Much of this because mine and his experiences were fairly differing. I understand his points on this, but, according to other variables, the effect of an "intense personality" has different results. My son's overall experience would be considered very good. (caveat...I had very little communication with Coach from the time of recruiting visit until graduation) My son also understands the negatives associated with Coach's "style", but did mention to me (I did constantly ask ) that he did not feel he would have been as successful in his time there without some of that. The past few seasons have been a great success story for Army baseball, so we know it was a difficult decision for those in charge to let Sottolano go...the pattern of behavior cited is a continuing focus for the military in general and, in the end, apparently could not be ignored further.

I came away from my son's graduation and commissioning in 2012 with an extreme pride for a place that remains a great hope for leadership in this nation. Our years there left us with contact and friendships with some great people (a couple of them here), and more patriotism than ever. ABF forever.