3 minute read
00 AM for the Purchase of Athletic Supplies
Mass. college baseball coaches have great advice for prospects
Despite missing H.S. season, parts of summer, opportunities still exist for recruitment
Advertisement
By Steve Freker
High school baseball players looking for a ticket to a potential college roster in their future still have plenty of opportunities to achieve their goal, according to a panel of college coaches who recently participated in an informative virtual discussion on recruiting.
Many high school baseball prospects, particularly Class of 2021 juniors, who consider themselves “next up,” were devastated when the coronavirus pandemic erased the spring sports season for all high schools nationwide. Though many state officials nationally, as well as those here in Massachusetts, now say the surge in virus cases is behind us, the impact has already cut into the summer season. The spring school season, combined with the summer baseball months, was considered prime time for recruiting 2021 juniors along with top prospects from the Class of
Assumption College Coach Mike Rocco
2022 sophomore class of baseball prospects.
A group of well-known, Massachusetts-based college baseball coaches all said that far from the “all is lost” feeling experienced by some disappointed high school players, they instead should sharpen their focus and keep pursuing their dreams.
Looking for players who are “a good fit”
A m h e r s t C o l l e g e C o a c h J.P. Pyne
for the program
“We are still recruiting, we are still looking for good baseball players,” said Division 1 Merrimack University head baseball coach Nick Barese, “but most importantly we are looking for good baseball players who are a good fit for our program. That will never change.”
Coach Barese was joined on a three-coach panel which included Mike Rocco, head base
Space for Lease
3 Large Rooms, each with Large Walk-in Storage Area.
or Aerobics Studio. Located at Route 1 South at
Walnut Street. Rollerworld Plaza, Route 1 South, 425 Broadway, Saugus.
Merrimack University Coach Nick Barese
ball coach at Assumption College, a Division 2 school located in Worcester, which plays in the NE-10 Conference, and Amherst College head baseball coach J.P. Pyne, a Division 3 school which is a member of the high-end academic New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The three coaches combined to deliver a tremendous, nearly four-hour virtual “Zoom” session coordinated by the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association (MBCA), a 350-plus member organization comprised of Massachusetts high school and college baseball coaches. Over 50 high school coaches and about a dozen college baseball coaches participated in the virtual clinic.
Pandemic-related factors affect future college rosters
Both Coach Barese and Coach Rocco confirmed that there would be fewer spots on their recruiting shopping list for Class of 2021 players this year, but they pointed to other pandemic-related factors as well. Namely, all collegiate baseball players have been granted an additional full year of athletic eligibility, since the college seasons were ended about three weeks after they began in the spring, due to the pandemic. That means that seniors who played this past spring can come back for another year to replace the season they missed, if they wish.
“Naturally, that’s going to tighten up rosters and reduce spots, depending on how many seniors come back,” Coach Rocco said, “but we are honoring any and all commitments we have made; that includes committed players from the 2020 and 2021 classes.”
“Some seniors will come back, others will just go out into the working world, not wanting to be full-time students an extra year just to play a last year of college baseball,” Barese said. “Obviously, there’s a cost involved with a decision like that, and parents and players will have a big decision to make on that value of another year, especially in … uncertain financial times.”
Coach Pyne said the “senior return” factor did not affect his program as much for a lot of reasons, particularly since his brand of student-athletes at
