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Question:
Hello, our son has just graduated from high school and wants to play college baseball. He doesn't have any offers or any coaches recruiting him because we thought he would be recruited and we thought our high school coach would help more.”

Answer:
If I had a dime for every time I heard that I might be able to pay my credit card bill!

The first important thing to remember is that if schools have openings, they will take new students up to the start of school. Sure there are application deadlines, but a college can do anything they want, and if there are students who want to attend, and they have beds to fill, they will take students at a late date. There are also coaches who for one reason or another might still be looking for players to fill out their roster. Maybe a few players signed with the draft, got cold feet and didn’t want to go to school, transferred, got hurt, or quit the team, so the coach may need additional players. The college baseball season is a long season with many games, and you need players to make it through.

At this point there is three things I would recommend. The first is to find anyone in the baseball community that can either help you assess your skills or help you find a place to play, i.e., someone that might have some connections and can make a call to a college coach.

The second thing is to call a bunch of coaches and plead ignorance. “Coach, my recruiting process didn’t go as expected, I am really interested in playing baseball in college, I am looking for a place to play, and was wondering if you had any openings or had any recommendations for me.”

The third thing to do is realize that the choices you make today will not necessarily be something you have to live with tomorrow. If the goal is to go to college and play college baseball, look at the bigger picture. Ask yourself what would be most beneficial for me in the short term and what do I need to do to find a place to play at a school I feel comfortable with. The answer may be to attend a local college for a year, get good grades, and give yourself time to research programs and contact coaches for next year.

The loss of one year of college baseball doesn’t mean the loss of your college baseball career if you look at the big picture. Giving yourself an additional year may in the long run be more beneficial than enrolling in a baseball program you might not be comfortable with. The other option is perhaps Junior College, again with the goal of giving yourself more time to find a 4-year program that would be happy to have you. Some families panic at such a late stage and they take any offer thrown their way rather than deciding what’s best in the long run.

Most Junior College coaches know that your ultimate goal will be to go to a 4-year program and they will help you accomplish that goal. Enrolling in a 4-year program with the hopes of transferring after a year will in the end be more difficult for many reasons, two being the limitation the NCAA places on contacts and the lack of help you may receive from your NCAA college coach who may be offended you want to leave his program.

For more information on the college recruiting and application process see The Making of a Student-Athlete
 
 
 
 
 
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