Anyone have a son with club baseball experience in college?

[Anonymous]

Care to share experiences? Hard to make the team? Lots of travel?

[Anonymous]

This will be school specific. The school’s website might offer the schedule for the previous year. The schedule will tell you how many games and where they are located.

[Anonymous]

My kid plays club and the things you ask about as PP said are all very school specific.

My kid is at an Ivy school and the club team stinks. It wasn't that hard for him to make the team...though it seems he also made it during a lull in kids trying out (2 years ago) and he said it was more competitive this year.

For his team, they don't cut anyone who previously made the team. It's not run like Varsity. It's completely student run.

That said, only the really strong players travel to games...though the travel is also somewhat voluntary. Life happens and kids just can't travel to some games, so there is somewhat of a "who can travel this weekend" aspect to it and you take what you can get.

Home games are very different...the kids want to win the games, but nobody cares too much about that to the extent again that they run it like a varsity team. There are lots of substitutions.

Other schools will run their teams their own way, and some schools are very competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid plays club and the things you ask about as PP said are all very school specific.

My kid is at an Ivy school and the club team stinks. It wasn't that hard for him to make the team...though it seems he also made it during a lull in kids trying out (2 years ago) and he said it was more competitive this year.

For his team, they don't cut anyone who previously made the team. It's not run like Varsity. It's completely student run.

That said, only the really strong players travel to games...though the travel is also somewhat voluntary. Life happens and kids just can't travel to some games, so there is somewhat of a "who can travel this weekend" aspect to it and you take what you can get.

Home games are very different...the kids want to win the games, but nobody cares too much about that to the extent again that they run it like a varsity team. There are lots of substitutions.

Other schools will run their teams their own way, and some schools are very competitive.

This is good info.

Also, club sports in college (baseball included) is VERY HARD to stick with. The athlete will find out very quickly how much they love baseball and how badly they want to play. It will be almost purely intrinsic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid plays club and the things you ask about as PP said are all very school specific.

My kid is at an Ivy school and the club team stinks. It wasn't that hard for him to make the team...though it seems he also made it during a lull in kids trying out (2 years ago) and he said it was more competitive this year.

For his team, they don't cut anyone who previously made the team. It's not run like Varsity. It's completely student run.

That said, only the really strong players travel to games...though the travel is also somewhat voluntary. Life happens and kids just can't travel to some games, so there is somewhat of a "who can travel this weekend" aspect to it and you take what you can get.

Home games are very different...the kids want to win the games, but nobody cares too much about that to the extent again that they run it like a varsity team. There are lots of substitutions.

Other schools will run their teams their own way, and some schools are very competitive.

This is good info.

Also, club sports in college (baseball included) is VERY HARD to stick with. The athlete will find out very quickly how much they love baseball and how badly they want to play. It will be almost purely intrinsic.

I am PP...it's not hard for my son's team because of the loose way the students run the team. They don't expect 100% participation at practice or games, and nobody cares too much (yeah, they would be pissed if they had to FF away games, but that's never happened).

However, that's one school...and the next school could run it like they think it's the LSU varsity team.

[Anonymous]

Who typically coaches club baseball? Do they hire someone to do this, through the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who typically coaches club baseball? Do they hire someone to do this, through the school?

Many times nobody...it's entirely student run/coached. Again, maybe the more competitive teams hire a coach through some school funding and player/parent donations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who typically coaches club baseball? Do they hire someone to do this, through the school?

Again, probably very school and sport specific. My DS played basketball and lacrosse in high school. His freshman year, he joined the club lacrosse team. Their dues were pretty pricey (several hundred for a semester) but they also had a professional coach that the team hired. He quickly dropped it because it was too competitive for him. He then joined the club basketball team. That team is totally student run and he only pays $50 for the entire year. My older DS went to the same college and was on the club swim team - similar to club basketball, it was totally student run and only $50 for the semester.

[Anonymous]

My friend's kid played club at the University of Oregon, and it was a high-level experience. They flew all over the country to play and definitely had real coaches.

Not baseball but I know a girl who played club lacrosse at Florida and she told me that they had a practice squad, kids who played some during home games, and then a travel squad. So they didn't make cuts, but not everyone traveled to away games.