Where to Go From Here

Simple, you tell him you can't afford to send your son there.
I suggest you look at D11 or other colleges that do give BB money.
Don't be too realist about your sons level of play. Be proactive and contact several colleges that he would like and with some BB money you could afford. Let them say no rather than you shutting out possible colleges that might be interested. You could also look at JCs which are much less expensive if you are interested inn that.
We actually could never afford US colleges without a substantial BB and academic scholly.
Also you are probably in the majority of people who can't afford college.

dont overlook going the JUCO route. Alot of times it is the best fit for many players both baseball wise and academically. It would be a good oportunity for your son to complete 60 or so college hours as well as get a lot of innings on the mound. At the end of 2 years at a juco there may be a substantial scholarship offer from a D1 or D11 that may not be there right now.

Duece;

You and you son can attend the JC Fall games
in the Bay Area.

If you are near Rohnert Park [SSU], I will introduce you and your son to the Coaches and you can observe their practice games.

From this observation, you will have an ideal of the competitive nature requirement of your next step.

On Friday, there were 54 pitchers remaining for the 20 roster pitching positions. "Red Shirt" or playing at a local JC will be an option for many of the players.

Bob Williams

Welcome to the hsbbweb, you've come to the right place for lots of advice. Having a senior you are smack dab in the middle of college application time. I would assume your son is going to college with or without baseball. It sounds like your off to a good start applying to a variety of colleges that he would want to attend with or w/o baseball.

Has your son gotten any guidance from his travel team coaches as to which level of college ball they think he is capable of playing? This is a great time to be proactive by contacting college coaches and/or applying to schools.

Take advantage of Mr. Williams offer to watch and meet the coaches. He is very generous to make this offer and has tons of experience in this business!

Good luck, it's an exciting, nerve wracking time.

Please believe there will be places that your son can play ball and you can get some kind of financial aid (scholarships and grants). However, in my opinion, you will have far more options if you expand your horizons beyond California and the west.

My younger son had grades a test scores comparable to your son. He is at a very good privated liberal arts university in VA. He receive both scholarships and grant money such that the cost of education was less than or equal to going to a California state university and half of what it would have been at a UC.

As to letting a coach know that it may not be doable, tell him. Part of his job is to help families navigate through financial aid. You won't know what he can or can not do until you ask for help. It is true that he won't be able to get you athletic aid at a D3, but he may be able to help you get aid for being a "left handed tuba player." So the sooner you expand your horizons and ask for help, the better your chances of finding a good opportunity for your son.

Do not scare away from applying to a college over the sticker price. Apply and see what is offered and what money can be applied for. You might be surprised.

I know one of the D3 my son was looking at 3.5 was cut off for 6,000 academic. they didnt offer much else. they did invite him to come there and try and get a leadership scholly that was 1,000 a year. but this school was 33,000. even with 7,000 in schollys it is still out of our abilites at this time. Thats a big part of decisin to go the JC route.
depends on plyer, some kids want the 4 year right away for the education, and college exp. very individual decison. good luck.

ILVBB,

Just wondering how your family went about "expanding your horizons." That is the hurdle we are trying to best right now in the process in our house. Son plays on a good travel team but who's contacts are mostly in the area. However the schools that are of an interest to son are on the east coast, mainly due to size and area of study. We of course have followed advice found here and made contact with those schools, most have followed up with requests for more information and also most have offered information on camps.....however those camps on Sat. and Sun., 1000 miles away are not possible during school, and hitting more than 1 or 2 outside of school are getting more and more precious due to cost.
Just wondering how you went about getting your son looks so far away from home.
Ours is a 2011 so we have some time.
Thank you for any insight.

Do you have good video of your son playing quality competition ?

Whosonfirst,
Thank you for the nice comment you made when I announced my son's verbal committment. Since I now am able to figure out who you and your son are,let me assure you he will have multiple options to play college ball where ever he wants as long as he is seen by the right people. He truly has great talent. I think if he wants to play in the East then he needs to focus his efforts in that direction. One invitation my son had gotten that we didn't follow up on was from Head First which had Ivy League , east coast, and the service academies as well as Stanford. This probably would be one that would be attractive to your son. I would try to go to events during the summer especially after his soph and junior years at East Cobb or Jupitor Since these are in the south East. Next year maybe attend a Perfect Game Sunshine event as a starter. Your son has the type tools that could get him an invite to the Nationals Event if he has a day like he is capable of. We went to a little higher Perfect Game event and that is where a major league scout directed us to the school my son ended up verbally committed to. If there is one or two specific schools he really is interested in then I would definitely attend their camp. There is also the East Coast Professional showcase in that area. Believe lots of east coast colleges attend this event. There is an event here in Texas we will be attending on Nov. 9th that last year had every major league team as well as about 30 colleges present. I think he would have a good chance of getting one of the east coast Major league teams to possibly put in a word with east coast coaches they know. You can PM me about this showcase if you want.

Whosonfirst:

Great question; thanks for asking. My son’s sophomore year we sent out 25 letters to most of the name D-1 schools on the west coast. He got either a questionnaire or a camp request form. By his junior year, he was not getting the “love” that you would expect if he were being recruited. At that time, I (dad) started to help him focus on what he wanted from school.

We established his wish list:

Warm weather
Either business or engineering program
Opportunity to play baseball
Nice campus (that was big for him)
Affordable golf nearby (his hobby)
Accessible by Southwest airlines (my criteria)

During the summer after his junior year he went to a number of recruiting events, where he got various evaluations. Most said that he could play baseball at the college level, the Stanford camp said he was “Good HS ability, not draftable, but a 4-year college level player.”

We took this to heart and expanded his horizon beyond the west coast top 20. We made three trips the fall of his senior year. The first one was to the Carolina’s where he visited a number of academic schools (mostly D1) that had baseball programs which had moderated success. In each case we made an appointment with either the head coach or the recruiting director. We also had the coach from his travel team call in advance to brief the coach as to what my son’s baseball level and upside looked like.

The second trip was to several very good D3 and D1 schools in Ohio. Again we made appointments and had the coach write letters (I ghost wrote them from the coach's signature) to the various colleges on my son’s behalf. The third trip was to Texas to visit the school he is now attending and one other that fit the profile.

On each trip, we made a point of spending most if not the entire day on campus. We made an appointment with the admission staff to get their read or alternatively to have an admissions interview. We generally made arrangements for my son to sit in on a class and on each trip he spent the night in the dorms with a baseball player. In effect, he got to live the life of a college student that played baseball.

This was a huge eye opener for my son and helped “expand his horizons.”

Also, making an appointment with a baseball coach helped set things in motion. He was not dealing with the “big-time” programs and as such, they were open to my son. Most (not all) asked for a video which were able to provide, two of the programs offered him walk-on roster spots when we visited, most however, told us to keep them informed as his senior year HS progressed. During his HS season, we were able to send electronic newspaper articles about my son and his team to a handful of coaches.

As the season went on he was getting letters, e-mails and calls from three D3 programs (two of which offered him substantial merit scholarships) and one D1 program that were vacillating. We ended up making a final trip to the two schools that he was considering during a 3-day break during Easter when he did not have either a game or practice. Again, he spent the day with the baseball team, went to a class and in one instance watched a game from the dugout.

In the end, he made his decision based upon what he had come to learn; not what he had perceived when we started the process. As a dad, I have come to appreciate the fact that this was the last time I could help educate my son on one of the most important decisions a young person can make.

What was “funny” was the day after he committed to the school he now attends; he got a call from the D1 school that he thought was his dream school. The coach called to tell him that he had a small scholarship open up and he wanted him. My son thought about it and realized that he had a far greater opportunity at the D3 that he attends and that 4-year academic money beats a 1-year athletic scholarship. In the end, he made a decision based upon his experience, how he was treated and his assessment of the probability of playing baseball.

And I would like to add that ILUVBB's son is wrecking the place with his stick. He is one of the best hitters in the land, and only a soph last season. I'm certainly glad he's on 'our' side!!

Wow, that's an amazing post ILVBB
I would agree with him, a substantial amount of schools here on the East Coast are known for their academic reputation, and are also strong in Baseball.
Being a LHP, your son has an advantage that a lot of players don't have,which is being coveted in baseball.
I personally think you should do what ILVBB said, and expand your horizons, if it is in the budget that is. I know that my father and I spend hour after hour discussing what is possible to achieve in the little amount of time that is left.
Video is great for your son, if you could show him doing well for a decent amount of time against a team that is known to be good, I think that sending Video to possible schools would be a prime way to follow up a phone call, and then hopefully a visit.
One thing I do wish I had done, is do a perfect game event, which I recieved an invitation for, but declined because of the fact that they're just expensive.
These events get you seen by tons of people, and I know there's an unsigned senior showcase in Rutherglen,VA which may have gotten the deadline pushed back, but it may be a bit late for that.
Impact Baseball also has one in Cary, NC, at the USA Baseball Complex, but those are both this weekend.
Also, there are good public DIII's, here in Virginia such as Christopher Newport, which is very good, and the coach is a great guy that wont lead you astray.
Take everything with a grain of salt though, and let your son do the work, don't do it for him.

My two cents.

Duece, Did not mean to hijack your thread here but thank you ILVBB for a wealth of information and Three Bagger for info and kind words also. I would say we surely have a map to follow that you guys have well worn the trails. Thank you.
Krakatoa, that school in San Antonio is just down the road and high on the list. Life couldn't be that simple.

Thank you to all for your sound advice. My son and I have had some great conversations stemming from this blog. A special thank you to Bob Williams for your efforts.