Baseball is life:
In Florida check out the Sunshine State Conference Schools. They are all pretty heavy into Division II baseball and they are not considered high academic standards for admission schools for the most part {Rollins might be an exception}.
I have been to the campus of Rollins, University of Tampa, Saint Leo & Florida Southern. In no particular order, here are my impressions.
Saint Leo has a very nice baseball field located on campus but not much as far as indoor facilities for baseball are concerned. It has a small but adequate weight lifting area. It is located near Tampa, FL [maybe 30 miles away] but is in a rather rural area and has its own golf course that is free to students. Assistant Coaching staff is very friendly but inbred [i.e. all played for Saint Leo either last year or a couple of years ago] Did not meet the head coach. The two coaches I talked to seemed interested in my son and wanted his high school and summer schedule. They also said to send them information on any showcases he was attending.
Rollins has an older field in need of some work. The field is located several blocks away from the campus. The head coach is fairly new, from somewhere in New England and, as of December, 2005, had yet to pick up a Florida car license. The coach seemed to me to be all business but was very interested in my son when I gave him his sophomore HS stats. He wants to see a tape and wants us to go to his camp.
Florida Southern won the Division II World Series in 2005 and has had an excellent baseball program for several years as far as win/loss record is concerned. I did not meet any coaches while I was there and did not see the baseball field [it too is located off campus]. The campus is located in Lakeland, FL somewhat inland and borders a lake. They have their own water ski jump in the middle of the lake. The indoor facilities are located in a large [for DII at least] gymnasium complex. Their weight room is excellent.
University of Tampa is located in down town Tampa, FL. The baseball field I saw in my visit in 2004 has been replaced by a brand new field so I assume it is in good shape. They had outdoor batting cages and pitching areas that were under roof but not completely enclosed. That may have changed also. I was very impressed with the Head Coach, Joe Urso. He cannot be much over 5'6" if that and he played for 5 years [I believe] in the California Angels farm system. He is a UT graduate and has been there about 5 years now and has one of the best DII programs in the country. The indoor facilities are housed in a large Gymnasium and the baseball team has their own locker room inside. Probably the best weight lifting facilities of all of these DII schools. He seems to recruit a lot from FL but he told me to send him tape and showcase events when my son was a junior. I watched a practice and it was a good mix of business and fun. The pitching coach he had at the time had experience as a catcher with the Yankee organization.
I also visited Stetson University, located in DeLand, FL, between Orlando and Daytona Beach. Stetson is a DI in the Atlantic Sun Conference but they have very high academic requirements for admission and would probably not be a great fit for your son.
In Georgia, I visited Mercer University in Macon, GA about 1 hour south of Atlanta. They are also have very high academic standards.
In North Carolina, I visited Elon University and my son attended a camp there. They also have high academic standards.
In South Carolina I visited Coastal Carolina University, a public University in Conway, SC near Myrtle Beach. They have a good looking baseball field that is located on campus. Although the school itself does not take many out of state students [4% I think], the baseball team probably has 33% of the players from out of state. I met an assistant coach who told me to send a tape of my son and his stats and, if they were interested they would contact me. I did not get to see the indoor facilities. I watched a game between Coastal and West Virginia University and my overall impression of this year's team, at least, was that they had pitchers that could throw hard but they had control problems, at least the 3 that I saw pitch in that game. Of course, I only saw three pitchers. Their pitching coach for the last 10 years, Bill Jarman, left Coastal as an assistant coach in June 2005 to become the head coach at Lander University, a DII school in south-western SC. The Head Coach at Coastal, Gary Gilmore, recently signed a long term contract and should be there quite a while. He has a reputation as a fair and knowledgable coach and I saw nothing during the game that would alter that reputation in my mind. I did not get to see their indoor facilities.
As for Lander University, located in Greenwood, SC, I had a fairly long phone conversation with Coach Bill Jarman [I happened to catch him in his office one day in December] and we discussed his baseball philosophy very candidly and openly. I was very impressed by that conversation. I have not yet visited the campus or seen the facilities. The assistant coach he brought in is Chris Moore and he has minor league experience in the Rockies organizaion as a position player.
Hope this helps but all this is just my impression. What I like might not be what you and your son like. Good luck.
TW344
