Baseball: A Coaches Thought

Baseball at the Next Level

http://www.scholarshipstats.com/baseball.html

Physical features

	Avg. Height	Avg. Weight	Avg. Arm Strength
NCAA D1	6’1 above	180 lbs above	90pmh +
NCAA D2	6’0 above	170 lbs above	80 mph +
NCAA D2	5’8 above	150 lbs above	70 mph +

 

http://www.ncsasports.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/SportsSpecificRecruitingGuide1.pdf

The Data presented is relevant to my professional portfolio as a Varsity Baseball coach and helps me developed my coaching philosophy when approaching an athletic who has the desire to play at the next level. I used a Microsoft table to showcase the data as some of the quantitative data are based on averages that are specific to both physical features as well school numbers. A pie chart and a bar-o-graph would not have represented the data as accurately as the Microsoft table. When developing and preparing athletes to play beyond high school, as a Coach it is important to help players establish and accomplish goals throughout their high school career. One main goal that all high school baseball player may have in common is to play baseball at the colligate level whether that be NCAA Division 1- Division 3. Athletic ability lays the grounds on whether a player is D1, D2, or D3 as far as the success level they may perform at. There is a great difference in physical feature of a D1 and D2 athletes compared to that of a D3 player (NCSA, pg.2).  Along with physical ability college recruit look for academic achievement when evaluating a player and deciding to offer an athletic scholarship. At the Division 1 there are a total of 297 schools with and average roster of 35 players with roughly 11.7 scholarships to offer to the team (O’Rourke). If we do the math there is a little over 3,000 scholarships offered at the Division 1 level with there being about 10,000 players that meet the criteria of playing at the highest level in college baseball. In other words there is a third of Division 1 baseball player on scholarship whether that be full or fractional (partial scholarship).

Looking at Division 2 despite little to no difference in athletic ability when compared to Division 1, the numbers are somewhat similar to Division 1 when it comes to athletic scholarship, but with slightly less opportunity. Crunching the Numbers at the Division 2 level out of 267 schools there are a little over 2,000 scholarships offered to a athletic body of about 10,000 players (O’Rourke). This mean there is about 23 percent of Division 2 players who receive athletic scholarship which is less than a fourth that play. When we look at the Division 3 level both athletic ability and scholarship opportunity various greatly. The NCAA rules does not allow Division 3 player to be offered athletic scholarship, but all players are offered academic scholarship to accommodate for the cost of tuition (O’Rourke).  Looking at the numbers at the Division 3 level there are 389 schools with over 13,000 players, which none are offered athletic scholarships.

This information is critical when developing players to play baseball at the colligate level. Along with developing the physical traits needed to play at each level; players are required to obtain academic standards in order to maximize their chances of playing colligate ball and being rewarded with scholarship opportunity. In conclusion, coaches and players should develop academic achievement as well as establish high academic goals in order to assist in building an impressive recruiting portfolio.

 

O’Rourke, Patrick. Play Your Sport In College, Scholarship Stats.com. Washington State University. 2014.Electronic

NCSA. NCSA Athletic Recruiting: Sports Specific Recruiting Guide. Next College Student Athlete.2017.Electronic

http://alyb.org/blog/travel-baseball-a-flawed-system/

This article, by Chris Candido, underlines the flawed system that travel baseball functions on. There are good intentions that come with playing full-time travel baseball, but the expense is costly. A misconception of travel baseball and the recruiting process has build a million dollar platform for travel baseball in the United states. As a high school, and Dixie youth baseball coach, I see many times that players are confused as to what is the best way to get better as a baseball player. As a result of the confusion, they are led and tricked into believing that having the latest gear, or joining a showcase baseball team will make them hit better, throw harder, and get more recruiting looks. My personal opinion as a former player and coach is that travel baseball does help with recruiting but comes at a costly expense.  According to the article, the average family spends about $2,000 dollars for their kids exposure and participation on a high profile team. As for having the recent gear that makes players feel like they are hitting, and throwing harder, the truth is that it just makes your look better. I am a strong believer that if your look good, then your feel good, resulting in playing better, but all this comes from building confidence. I have been coaching for 4-years which is fairly new, but within my four years I have learned that playing with confidence and going 100 percent all the time is all you need to become a better baseball player, and get this is free of charge: You pay with dedication and teach-ability. You do not need to be on a elite baseball team to be a better player or get recruited,  it boils down to maximizing you opportunities as a player, and sometimes it take performing at a high level when you think people are not watching.