<p>If one is not recruited by the university is it still possible to try out for team?</p>
<p>Lol I think the answer to that question is obviously no.</p>
<p>email the coach and ask … he is the only one who knows the true answer</p>
<p>Yes, teams have walk ons ever year. Just contact the coach and let them know you’re interested. Good luck!</p>
<p>Chiraj is absolutely wrong.</p>
<p>thanks i will touch base with coach.</p>
<p>^ Haha, I see what you did there…</p>
<p>Since Ivy league teams, by Ivy league rules, have far fewer players and recruit fewer players then the NCAA allows, there are generally walk-on roster spots available. </p>
<p>But you should be aware that Penn treats its baseball seriously - which means they practice the Ivy league max (less then NCAA rules allow), plus individual workouts, plus captains practices, etc. This means that the commitment to be a baseball player will impact your ability to study and socialize. Make no mistake, there are three things a D1 athlete can do in college (academics, social, and athletics) and it is very very difficult to do all three well.</p>
<p>The Ivy league makes NO accomodations for athletes - no special tutors, no special meals, no recheduling exams (one Ivy league team last year bussed (16 hours) to a southern state on Thursday, played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, left immediately after the game, arrived back on campus at 8am, and had mid-terms beginning at 9am. The bus lacked outlets for computers. What this means is that while everyone else studied from Thursday morning thru Monday morning, those guys were riding a bus, playing baseball, and trying to study.) This is not a whine; it is simply laying out the conditions under which you have the privilege of playing at an Ivy league school.</p>
<p>From the skill perspective, a decent percentage of the team will have potential to give proball a try (not the same percentage as South Carolina, but a significant percentage). Every team’s frontline starters will sit 90. In another strange twist (designed to supposively not disrupt class room time), the teams play two doubleheaders on weekends (league play). Try studying after you arrive at the field at 8am and leave the field at 5pm - two days in a row!</p>
<p>My point here is that being a baseball player on an Ivy team is real baseball, without institutional support. (One further twist: if you’re on financial aid, you are expected to work during the entire year, and during the summer (even if you’re playing on a summer team away from home).)</p>
<p>Is this personal experience?</p>
<p>Close enough to personal experience from another Ivy in the same division to be very well versed in the good, the bad, and the ugly of Ivy baseball.</p>
<p>I am sure a student with a passion for baseball throughout his youth would be willing to play no matter what. If things do get rough as you have given examples of I am sure that student can simply say enough and remove himself from that situation. I appreciate your insightful information but this does not seem to be the norm and more the exception? I know it will be a hard road but I think the dedicated athlete will at least give it a shot.</p>
<p>Every player on the roster was the absolute stud of their HS team; dedicated their life to playing baseball to the virtual exclusion of all else - except academics. Baseball was THE EC. Yes, someone can quit the team; there is no contract. During the past three seasons on the team I am familiar with, two players (both seniors, both reserve players) left the team to focus on their senior year. Close bonds are forged - lifetime bonds that you have earned by sharing a common grueling experience. Those bonds are forfeited by leaving the team.</p>
<p>The norm is this for a freshman: practice in one form or another begins almost immediately after school begins (these are “voluntary”). Virtually every freshman comes to school in what he thinks is great physical condition - he quickly learns that, compared to 21 year ld men, he is tail-end Charlie (and he does the same workout as those men). Three weekday a week lifts (usually at 6:30am) which end around 8:30 leave the freshman this question: eat breakfast or take a nap? Whichever is chosen cuts into your day (in other words, you’re either tired or hungry). During the “voluntary” portion of this period, five days a week, you head down to the practice area to work your skills (pitchers throw bullpens; hitters work on their stroke). This period consumes about 20 hours per week - for the slackards!</p>
<p>Then begins fall official practice. This lasts about a month. I believe that Ivy teams practice 12 official times during this month which culminates in a couple of live scrimmages with college teams. While there are 12 official practices (three per week), these are simply added on top of what you were doing before (lifting and individual skill work continues essentially parallel). During this period, the time commitment increases to about 30 hours per week.</p>
<p>Once fall practice is over, you go back to the lift and individual skill routine. During mid-terms, more time is allowed to study (actually it is more accurate to say you are still expected to workout, but that you can alter your times to get your work done).</p>
<p>By the end of mid-terms, most Ivy students ( not just athletes) realize that the exams are not the same type as were so easy in HS (as we can all see from these threads, Ivy students were powerful HS students (and baseball players as a rule are not exceptions). This means that most students - especially in the math and sciences - results of the mid-terms represent the worst grades of their lives. The period following mid-terms is a real eye-opener; there is no extra credit available to ameliorate that mid-term grade; only some problem sets, a paper, and the final to raise that grade.</p>
<p>Most students respond by retoooling their methods of study. Most students make that transition and do fine from that point on. But it takes every fiber in their body and every neuron in their brain to accomplish what was so easy in HS. This is the normal experience of a student in an Ivy school (and many othe rschools). For the baseball player (and every other athlete), this process occurs at the same time that he lifts before sunrise (and by the end of mid-terms, lifting before sunrise means a walk through the freezing cold to the gym), and works on his skill game most afternoons and every weekend.</p>
<p>For the freshman baseball player at an Ivy, that first semester is exhausting - mentally and physically - but the best experience the player has ever lived.</p>
<p>After break, focus turns to the season. Now the real time commitment begins. Once official practice begins (around the beginning of February), the time spent on baseball increases to 35 hours per week (this is measured from the time you begin the trudge to lift til you return to your daily activities).</p>
<p>Finally, the season begins! And, for most freshman, the season means a hefty measure of baseball futility. Think about what it was for most ninth graders trying to play varsity - at a HS baseball power. Overmatched would be a kind word. But, over time, the player gets bigger, stronger, smarter, and more skilled and eventually (as you know, baseball is a game of incremental improvement) shines on the diamond. During the season (which for Ivy teams is 10 games shorter then other D1 teams) the time spent on baseball is amazing. Mid-terms (as I described) are very difficult, but the season is over well before finals and baseball doesn’t interfere with either semester final exams.</p>
<p>My point is this: you need to LOVE baseball; breath baseball; cannot think about life without baseball to play baseball at an Ivy school. Go in with your eyes open and you will find the most rewarding part of your college life waiting for you.</p>
<p>Stemit, your post makes me wish more than anything else that I could have such an experience. Excellent job describing the freshman life!</p>
<p>OK points are interesting.</p>
<p>One item that stemit did not mention: Many D1 walk-ons spend most of their freshman year sitting on the bench, as coaches tend to favor their recruited players and more seasoned junior and senior walk-ons.</p>
<p>My son did not want the experience that stemit described. Instead, he’s happily playing a first-string position (last year, as a freshman) for another ivy league school as part of their club baseball team. See: [New</a> England Club Baseball Association](<a href=“http://www.necba.com%5DNew”>http://www.necba.com).</p>
<p>thanks gibby for your input. i figured it would be a tough road and the option your son is in sounds great.</p>