Are there any schools New England boarding schools with stand out baseball programs? When we visit schools, it always seems like the most underfunded sport.
I get it. There’s snow on the field til April and the season doesn’t really get going until school gets out. My son doesn’t even really care about a great record as much as a great experience. He’d also like at least a few true “baseball players” rather than just a whole team of hockey and basketball players picking up a spring sport.
Also, I’ve never been a “sports parent” (Dad does sports, I do academics, and the whole boarding school thing is completely foreign to both of us), so have no idea how to approach coaches and what to submit. Does it even matter for baseball? It doesn’t seem like a recruited sport.
SMS has a good baseball program. They have several players that that is their major sport and played on state championship teams. Their baseball team went to Haiti for spring break. They have batting cages and have been practicing despite the official sport season not starting until after March 9.
Note that the operative word in the OP’s question is “standout.” And the answer is “No.” There are “good” programs, programs with “beautiful” fields, etc. But if an athlete is looking for a “standout” program, New England is not where it’s at.
That said, NE BS’s do indeed recruit for baseball.
@skieurope funny you say that. DH grew up in NH, went to college on baseball scholarship. Thought he was a baseball baderss. Moved south after he met me and now he’s like NE has nothing on the southern states when it comes to baseball!!! Lol. So, I guess it’s all relative based on surrounding
One advantage New England players with talent have had historically, however, is that they can be valued for their relative lack of overuse injuries vs. locations like the south where teens are often playing year round. With the move towards competitive, year round club teams in the past decade or two, overuse injuries are an issue. Unfortunately, with the building of more indoor facilities in New England, it’s starting to become more of an issue here as well.
@doschicos That’s actually one of the things I’m looking forward to. Right now, baseball is year-round for Lizardkid. It will be nice for him to get back the opportunity to play other sports in what should be his “off” season.
@buzzn03 The southern thing is right on. We always laugh that despite our amazing team, we’d probably get spanked if we went to tournaments down south. We’re looking forward to Cooperstown where we will face mainly southern teams to see how we do. DS is on a state championship team and has amazing stats. I say championships and stats don’t take into account who you are playing. That’s why I was wondering what to send to coaches.
Also a question about coaches’ recommendations: Not to be super judgy, but these guys aren’t the best writers. Are all recommendations written?
Schools are not admitting the coaches - they are admitting the kids. No school is expecting Pulitzer Prize quality prose from a rec. Remember, many recs are written by those whose first language is not English. This is a non-issue.
I wouldn’t be quick to dismiss coaches at the NE boarding schools as lunkheads. In most cases these coaches are also teachers and have excellent writing skills. The head BB coach at Governor’s, the top ISL team last year, is also the school’s Director of Admissions and has degrees from Middlebury and Harvard. My kid’s ISL school’s BB coach graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin and did his Master’s at Columbia. He’s a math teacher and college counselor. The head coach at St. Paul’s earned his undergraduate degree in interior design (interesting) but the assistant coach “recently received his M.A. from The Bread Loaf School of English (Middlebury College); his current academic interests are the intersection of literary theory and educational policy and the fiction of Don DeLillo.” At Andover, the 10 time Central New England Prep champions, the head coach has a Master’s in Education with a concentration in English from UMass Amherst.
These are just the schools I checked. If you’re concerned about the writing ability of coaches you can look up their academic qualifications on the schools’ faculty directories.
@Sue22 I’m sure the BS coaches are highly qualified to write recommendations as well as scholarly papers. I was specifically referring to my son’s current coaches. They have a hard time communicating in writing and will often call my husband to compose e-mails for them.
My friend’s son plays baseball for Hotchkiss and he’s very happy with the program there. Baseball is his primary sport. My understanding is that while he wasn’t exactly “recruited”, the coach at Hotchkiss definitely took an interest in him.
Interesting note about coach recs: my son runs XC and asked his 8th grade coach to write a letter for him, which we then sent to boarding schools. He’s a good runner, but certainly not impact-level. Anyway, every school that admitted him talked about that coach rec, which was apparently 5% about his XC skills and 95% about him as a person and member of the team. My impression is that schools are looking at sportsmanship, attitude, being a team player, and other qualities that are just as important as the level of skill. So OP, I wouldn’t worry about how well-written the rec is, just make sure that the coach talks about some of these other qualities as well. They are important to boarding schools.
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. DS is very excited to play no matter what the situation is, we just wanted to make sure we were comparing apples to apples.
Looking at past records over a span of 4 years, it seems most schools are evenly matched. There is only one school that has a dismal record (yet is a known "sports’ school) and DS is okay with that if he loves everything else about the school.
A phone call between a current coach and the BS coach is often an option as well and sometimes welcomed as it provides an easier exchange of info and they can both talk in “coach speak”.
It feels like country club sports like squash seem popular at most schools along with other high cost sports like hockey and lacrosse. Baseball has its place because of history but there’s no emphasis like other sports. My DD’s school does recruit for baseball but because it’s a spring sport, lacrosse gets all the press.
I know that a few Salisbury baseball players have gone on to D1 baseball programs and in the past few years a few have been drafted by MLB teams. George Springer of the Astros went to Avon Old Farms. In general, though, I think you are correct that baseball isn’t a high priority BS sport in New England.
