Youth Sports

[baldy1]

Sept 4, 2022 17:33:20 GMT -6 allend said:

Sept 4, 2022 15:36:18 GMT -6 baldy1 said:

Baldy jr jr’s Southern Miss visit went about as well as it coulda. Before Saturday, I woulda given it little chance of my son attending there and it’s 6 hours from home. But dang, we were super impressed. Nice school, focus on academics, great baseball facilities, coaches were rock solid. The pitching coach is known for player development and his resume’ is solid. (They just had 5 pitchers drafted this year, which is bananas). That’s good and bad tho as there’s online chatter of LSU coming after him. They’ve won 40 games a year 6 years straight. They beat LSU twice in the Super regionals so they are a program that can compete with the bigs.

We were told So Miss was a dump, so expectations were really low but the description couldn’t have been less informed. Nice football stadium too for a smaller D1 school (holds 35,000). And got to hang with Brett Favurahah. Not really, he was just standing on the sidelines with us nearby. Some of the fans in the crowd recognized the baseball coach and that my kid was being recruited and started hollering to Baldy Jr Jr that So Miss is the place he should be, etc. (they didn’t know who Baldy jr jr is, just trying to make him feel welcome). It was a hoot. I told my wife on the drive home that I hope she’s ok wearing mustard yellow So Miss attire in a few years. He has one more visit in a few weeks for comparison, but the bar has been set.

It’s disappointing AU and some of the SEC schools weren’t blowing up his phone Sep 1 (when the recruiting contact goes full force for juniors). His stats are equal to one of the pitchers AU picked up - but can’t throw as fast yet as the other kid from Norm’s kid’s school that signed with AU. AU had nice things to say to Baldy jr Jr’s travel coach but they don’t seem to be moving in that direction anytime soon. We aren’t gonna sit around, hoping and waiting (as much as I want to!) as many schools fill up their baseball teams two years in advance. So we’ll focus on the schools actively pursuing him and get that part of his future solidified.

Have never understood the “Junior Commitments” that happen in many other sports than football.

Soccer was the same way.

There’s always the transfer portal…

Agreed. We were expecting to be able to wait until his senior year as a year of development can be huge and he could have the velo that AU wants by that time. But coaches are offering kids younger and younger and wanting to lock things up as far in advance as they can. Some teams will oversign. A certain Georgia school, for instance, will offer 20 kids but u can only have 35 on a baseball roster (only 27 of which have partial schollies), so if you already have 25 kids on the roster and offer 20 and they all accept, you then have 45 kids show up to start the season, which is obviously 10 too many. They’ll basically have a tryout and tell 10 kids “yeah we offered you but you’ll never see the field.” They will at least honor the kid’s scholarship money for one year but their schollies must be renewed annually instead of a 4 year guarantee, so those kids won’t get renewed. Basically they’re hoping the kid will leave and play elsewhere. It’s a dirty secret at some schools that has left folks flapping in the breeze.

That’s why So Miss wants to know commitments early in the process as they don’t oversign. They don’t have a tryout at the beginning of the season as there’s no need. They have 35 kids total show up to start the season so nobody gets cut like that. It’s a tough dance as a few kids will change their mind, so they do their homework and offer kids that they guesstimate will be solid on their commitment.

[baldy1]

Baldy jr jr had a few more visits (Wofford and Kennesaw State) but decided to make it official and is So Miss bound. It’s so strange he needs to commit this early but that’s the state of college baseball. Teams are filling up already for 2024 kids. It’s nuts! Very excited for him!

[bb4au]

Congratulations!

[Jet]

He can’t wait to play in the Brett Fav-Ray Mississippi Allocation of Federal Funds Stadium.

(Congrats.)

[hoopie]

My in-laws retired in Hattiesburg for 20+ years and my FIL started the computer science program. It's flat and hot down there, but a good college town with good folks. Reminds me of Ga. Southern where my daughter went. Hattiesburg also reminds me of AU years ago when many of us went.

[cincytiger]

So exciting!! Congratulations!!

[baldy1]

Oct 2, 2022 11:58:26 GMT -6 hoopie said:

My in-laws retired in Hattiesburg for 20+ years and my FIL started the computer science program. It's flat and hot down there, but a good college town with good folks. Reminds me of Ga. Southern where my daughter went. Hattiesburg also reminds me of AU years ago when many of us went.

Agreed on It feeling a little like AU in the old days. That may be why I liked it so much. Definitely gonna be hot there but he’ll survive that part. Now me? No sir, I’ll be inside in the A/C.

[API]

The Baldy1 and Lara fam will prolly have to relocate to Demopolis for the next 6 years so that they can see both of their boys play sports.

[baldy1]

Oct 3, 2022 7:02:16 GMT -6 API said:

The Baldy1 and Lara fam will prolly have to relocate to Demopolis for the next 6 years so that they can see both of their boys play sports.

Lol. Definitely gonna be putting some miles on the car if we don’t relocate!

[API]

Baldy1, given that the vast majority of baseball schollys are 1/2 scholly, is that 1/2 off of out of state tuition or do athletes get 1/2 off of in-state tuition? How does that work?

[baldy1]

Oct 3, 2022 8:00:05 GMT -6 API said:

Baldy1, given that the vast majority of baseball schollys are 1/2 scholly, is that 1/2 off of out of state tuition or do athletes get 1/2 off of in-state tuition? How does that work?

Every school is different. For most schools, out of state tuition is double or triple in-state tuition. SoMiss seeks to attract kids/athletes from other states and their out of state tuition is only a few thousand more than in-state tuition. (I THINK that applies to ALL students.) So we get 50% applied to out of state, which isn’t much more than in state. SoMiss also gives academic scholly with $ based on how well you score on ACT and GPA. Some schools only let you take athletic OR academic money but not both. He’s a good student, so after also applying academic $, it will cost about the same for him to attend SoMiss as it would to attend UGA. UGA is pretty cheap for in state folk b/c of the lottery funding but out of state = 3x that of in-state.

Don’t know how other out of state schools do it other than Wofford - they charge $70k (yes, $70k) for ALL students and offer 40% for baseball scholly. No idea what Kenn St does as we cut off those discussions early as he knew SoMiss was a better fit. Would love to tell you how Auburn does things but they didn’t actively recruit him - just saw AU just got a kid from Mississippi who has the EXACT SAME STATS (velo, grade by Perfect Game) as Baldy Jr Jr. But I’m not bitter. No sireee.

[aumom]

Congratulations! Baldy Jr Jr’s good news warms all our hearts.

[digger4aumb]

Congratulations Baldy Jr jr's We have followed your career via your dad. Makes us all feel like proud parents.

[baldy1]

Baldy jr scored his first collegiate point today. (It was just a scrimmage vs Ga State, but still. He got fouled on a dunk. Good day for the kid and a little sunshine for our crappy week. (Baldywife is doin awful after Wednesday's chemo, but that actually got a smile out of her.)

He had another neat moment during the game - Baldy jr knew one of the refs. The ref used to train Baldy Jr in basketball in middle school during the summer. He stopped josh as they were headed to the locker room to say hello. Kinda neat.

[digger4aumb]

So happy for Baldy jr. hope he enjoys his schooling their.

My heart goes out to your wife. We will all continue our prayers for her. And really for the whole family.