The Road to Omaha…and Appleton

Steve Bernhardt: Building the Better Ballplayer

This is the time of year that college baseball turns it attention to the post-season. Teams hope to make runs through Conference Tournaments, Regionals, Super Regionals and ultimately the World Series. There is nothing better in the game of baseball than playing for a team that wins a Championship. Being the only team left standing (or dog-piling as the case may be) at the end of a long season is a feeling of accomplishment that very few get to experience.

When most fans think of the College World Series, they think of Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha and the games that have been televised for years on ESPN. The players who join us for our Omaha Pro Weekly Training and Tournament get to attend some of these games and I must confess that the atmosphere at Rosenblatt Stadium is unbelievable. This is the highest profile World Series for college baseball, but it is certainly not the only World Series for college players. In fact, Omaha is only one of seven college-level World Series that will be played over the next month.

The Junior College Division III Championship is hosted in Tyler, TX while the top teams at the JC DII level play in Millington, TN. The Junior College Division I World Series is a great event held in Grand Junction, CO where Chipola College won last year’s event before a crowd of 10,000 plus at the final game. The NAIA hosts its National Championship in Lewiston, Idaho where host Lewis and Clark won last year’s final before a crowd of 5,400 fans. The NCAA Division II World Series is played in Sauget, IL where the University of Tampa under Coach Joe Urso will try for their third Championship in a row this year. And finally, local Baltimore powerhouse Johns Hopkins, where eight Baseball Factory alums contribute, will try to bring home the NCAA Division III title from Appleton, Wisconsin.

The bottom line is that all of these National Championships provide top-level competition in great atmospheres. Players who participate in any of these World Series will leave with memories for a lifetime and some may even leave with a National Championship Trophy for their school and a ring for their finger.

When you choose a school, make sure that you approach the selection process with an open mind. Division I baseball offers many great opportunities, but they are not the only opportunities—and for some they are not the best opportunities. My guess is that the players who won last year’s Division III National Championship at Kean University wouldn’t trade places with anyone. They’ll tell you that Appelton is a pretty cool place to be this time of year.

Bernhardt played for five years in the Colorado Rockies organization. As Executive VP of Baseball Operations at Baseball Factory, he oversees all events and instruction. Bernhardt currently serves as an Associate Scout with the Colorado Rockies. He received his B.S. from the University of Richmond where he was an All-Conference player.

Balanced Attack – Part 3

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

For the past two weeks I have written about the importance of a “Balanced Attack” to the college recruiting process for high school players. Parents need to avoid the “showcase and college camp itch” when it comes to every invite received in the mail. Try not to allocate your family’s entire budget to these two categories. As I mentioned last week, showcases and college camps are important, but they need to be a part of an overall strategy that makes sense for your family’s goals and objectives.

The theme at Baseball Factory from our staff is constantly stressing to families that they need to look at four different areas of focus EACH year when determining their plan of attack to prepare for college baseball. Leaving out any of these four areas can create an unbalanced approach and leave you behind the curve.

I spoke last week about Academic Performance and Skill Development as the first two areas of focus. For those parents that are scratching their head and are looking for some guidance, here are the final two areas to focus on when creating a game plan for the college recruiting process:

3. National Tournament Competition – How does a player stack up against nationwide competition? If your son lives in New England and wants to play baseball in the South, how does he compare to players that live in Florida? As I have said to many parents that attend Baseball Factory events, how many high school baseball players that live in Florida want to come North to play in college? Not many, so if your son wants a spot on a college baseball roster in a warm weather climate he needs to know how he compares to players in that geographic area. It may be time to say no to another local tournament (playing with and against the same kids he has competed with for the last 10 years) and challenge your son in a new environment. This experience will bode well for him when he steps onto a college baseball field for the first time and sees players from a few different states. This would have helped me a lot when I transitioned from high school baseball to the University of Pennsylvania. It was a little overwhelming to see bigger, stronger players from Arizona, California, and Colorado for the first time as a college freshman.

4. Promoting yourself to colleges – College baseball is not football or basketball. It does not have the recruiting budgets or scholarships that those big revenue sports have. Therefore, it is much harder for college coaches to know about all the talented high school players in the country. College baseball coaches lack the budget, resources, and "where with all" to recruit high school players as compared to their football and basketball counterparts. As a result, players need to be their biggest advocate when it comes to promoting themselves. Showcases and college camps are only part of the picture here. You need a realistic game plan and some tools to follow up with coaches on a consistent basis. What about schools that haven’t seen your son play at all? How are they going to know about him? You need a professional webpage to help market your son to coaches. That web page should have an edited video of him performing and an unbiased evaluation of his skills. These tools are helpful to initiate a dialogue with a college coach and open the door for communication.

You also need to know what schools are realistic for your son’s baseball ability, academic performance, and social considerations. Think twice about hopping around to only Division I college camps if your son is best suited for a smaller program. Seek guidance on schools that are a good fit for your son and don’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing.

Good luck in the process. Stay focused on your game plan and your balanced attack with pay off in the long run!

Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.

5 Days & Counting!

See You There!