The College Baseball Process: Important Lessons Learned

by James Vlietstra

January 24, 2025

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I’ve had several people asking why I haven’t been doing a lot of writing lately. The reason for this is I have spent the better part of the last 20 months or so helping my son on his journey to pick the college that is best suited for him to continue playing baseball. 

I’m going to share our process and hopefully provide some insight which can help the student-athlete in your life. If you find any of this information as useful, please share with others. This entire journey was tiresome and exhausting but we learned an awful lot along the way. 

First off, let me introduce you to my son, Derek P Vlietstra. He has played baseball since he was four years old, following in his big brother James’s footsteps. He was always one of the best on his team and was a perennial all-star in his local little league. However, nothing at the time that seemed like a career was possible. 

He joined a travel team in 2021 called the Newburgh Red Storm and developed a great relationship with Coach Joel. In the spring of 2022, he tried out for his high school jayvee team as a first baseman and right handed pitcher throwing mid 60s as a 15-year-old. He was cut from the team. Instead of giving up, he became more determined. He was very shy off the mound, but as comfortable as a fish in water on it. By the fall, he was routinely throwing 68 for his travel team. 

That offseason, his travel team had winter workouts that he refused to miss. We were traveling 35 minutes each way four times a week. The results were evident. He was now throwing 75, but instead of playing for the school, he decided to focus on his travel team. He was now 16, standing at 6’5”, 185 pounds. This was the first time he started seriously talking about wanting to play baseball in college. 

During the summer, he participated in several events. He did his first Prep Baseball Report (PBR) in which a prep school in Massachusetts reached out for his hitting. He was also invited to Cortland, NY, to play in the PBR Senior Games. We went to a showcase in Connecticut for NCSA. We went to Cressey Sports Performance (CSP) in Massachusetts to work out with Yankee coach Eric Cressey’s team. 

We set up profiles on NCSA and started posting videos. It was the start of his senior year. He was a late bloomer with no varsity experience. Those that saw him on the mound said he projected well to college, but at this point not enough people had actually seen him. He had zero college offers. 

We set up a new email account, specifically for his baseball activities, something I highly recommend. This allowed us to keep it clear of clutter. Every email sent or received from this account was baseball or college related.

We started sending out emails and filling out recruitment applications. We contacted lots of schools, mostly at random. We didn’t exactly have a game plan. He was contacted by a couple of coaches that saw him on NCSA and he had his first couple of telephone interviews. This was incredibly exciting and an important step in the process. 

Right after Thanksgiving, during the offseason workouts, Joel suggested that we join Field Level. I had never heard of it but figured it couldn’t hurt. Coach was actively contacting college coaches and endorsing Derek. Before we knew it, we had dozens of coaches contacting us and I was setting up 8-10 phone interviews a week. 

By the way, I say “we “ because I tried to filter the messages down to the ones that were a realistic possibility before actually setting up his interviews. This way he could concentrate on his schoolwork and offseason workouts. I was basically his secretary. 

Through Field Level, he actually sent letters to every single D1 and D2 coach in the country. He only heard back from about 8-10 of those and got as far as a visit with one. However, between December and April, he had interest from well over 100 coaches, mostly from JUCO and D3 schools. 

In the meantime, he was also applying to several different schools. Sending out transcripts was like a part time job. We also visited as many as we could get to. The coaches we met with could not have been any nicer, making the decision that much tougher. There were a few coaches that asked him for an immediate decision, but that was the year that FAFSA (Federal Student Aid) was months behind schedule, so we patiently waited to make any decision. 

High school sports is often not what you know but who you know. He literally thought there was a real possibility that he would get cut from his varsity team, as the coach didn’t know him. All this while he had scores of college coaches practically begging to get him on campus. Ultimately he made the team and he flourished. He was now 6’6” and throwing 82-83. Every game he pitched, I posted videos that got more messages. He led the pitching staff in almost every category and was invited to play in an all-star game hosted by the Hudson Valley Renegades, the  Yankees A+ affiliate.

Ok, so enough of his personal story. What did we learn from this experience that we can pass along to younger players?

The numbers aren’t in your favor. Every year, there’s between 2.2 and 2.5 million little league players. About 480,000 go on to play high school baseball. 39,000 go on to play NCAA baseball. Of those, roughly 450 will be drafted each year. 

Work Hard!!! Keep Playing!!! Every year, there’s less players from the previous season. Be the last one standing. Do more than what your coaches expect from you. Go above and beyond. You have to be self motivated. 

After high school, there’s many choices. D1&D2 vs D3 vs NAIA vs JUCO. There’s 300 D1 schools, 283 D2, 389 D3, 212 NAIA, & 318 JUCO. D1&2 are typically the best 1% that have been on college radars since they were 12/13 years old. D3 does not offer athletic scholarships. NAIA does. (I honestly know very little about NAIA). JUCO also has scholarships. In fact, a local JUCO is the only one that offered my son a financial scholarship for baseball.  

Grades!!!! This is probably the single most important piece of advice. Get good grades!! The first hurdle to going to the college of your choice is getting accepted.  My son had a 3.7 GPA and still was denied to some schools. Also, all schools have a merit based scholarship. Meaning the better the grades you had in high school, the more you receive in scholarships meaning the less you pay. Remember, that college education will remain with you long after you are finished playing sports. 

Apply, apply, apply!! The more you apply, the more options you will have. Take into account the factors that matter to you: in state or out, close to home or far away. Better weather or icy cold winters. 

Finances are obviously an important part of the decision making. Local public community colleges are relatively affordable. Private universities, not so much. Make sure to fill out the FAFSA forms as well as any state financing assistance before the deadlines. Some bordering states offer in state tuition. Use another school’s offer as grounds for an appeal for the offer you received. The more you can save, the less you will be in debt post college.

Make an informed decision. We had a list of questions to ask at each school/ coach. We took notes of all the schools we spoke to or visited. Things related to the campus, the food plans, regarding his preferred major and future employment opportunities, distance from nearby activities. 

Take your time. This may be the biggest decision of the first ¼ of your life. Weigh out your best options choose carefully. There’s no reason to rush into a bad decision. On the flip side, also don’t procrastinate. Once you find the right fit for you, start the process, visit again, get familiar with the campus. 

Be organized. Keep track of who you have contacted. Post lots of videos. Have lots of engagements. Unless you’re part of that top 1%, you need to help yourself be seen. I recommend using Field Level. You don’t need to pay for a subscription. While there, check out the Activity Rankings. 

Have the right coach. You want a coach that goes out of his way to promote you to as many people as possible and treats you like family. All some people need is the opportunity. 

Limit your showcases. There’s probably a showcase or college workout practically every week. Some of these are just a money grab. These can get very expensive and stressful for the players. I recommend going to just a few. We were happy with PBR and NCSA. We also went to a couple of college events that felt like he was just a number. Good for the experience, but that’s about it. 

As stressful as it can be, you still want the experience to be fun. We visited colleges in eight different states and spoke to coaches in 30 more. The trips were memorable. Also, make sure you schedule your visit with the college that you also set up a time to meet with the coach and get to talk with him. 

There are a couple more issues that have come up in the past six months or so. First off, in D1, they used to offer 11.7 scholarships to be divided among 40 players. A new proposal is that the roster would be cut to 34, but everyone would be eligible for a full scholarship. That’s great news for those 34 no longer having to pay for their education. But 300 schools times six players each is 1800 players no longer at D1 schools and the subsequent trickle down effect.

The second issue is a recent court case that seems that the two years spent at a JUCO do not count towards the four years of NCAA eligibility. This likely means an influx of JUCO players for their age 19 and 20 seasons before a move to D1. The ramifications of this have yet to be determined. Likely, of those 34 scholarships, many will be reserved for 21 year old freshmen ready to contribute immediately. 

Regardless of where your student athlete decides to attend college, if you have done your due diligence, it should be the right decision and who knows, perhaps they will continue to play beyond college.