D3baseball.com Daily Dose

By Tom Kovic

Have you ever found yourself scratching your head during an introspective moment, in an attempt to figure out how someone or some team grabbed the brass ring before you did? I have! It can be a low and frustrating inner debate, but in most cases the difference between success and failure can be a very fine line and the game changer was simply that… The other guy “found it” and you didn’t. This is a very simple statement to make and the probable solution to a challenge that haunts a lot of us in many areas of our lives, but by making a dedicated effort to “awaken the wizard” inside of us could be the first step in moving to new and exciting personal levels, including the college search.

Awakening the wizard is just a simple phrase and nothing more. What it means to me though, is the opportunity to tap tremendous personal potential that for many of us remains dormant. It is the ability to take risks, remain committed and do things that, from a normal perspective, might seem ridiculous at best. What follows is my take on how prospects and families can reach deep and find that inner “dormant wizard” and shake him up a bit in an effort to transform the college recruiting process into a “quest” rather than just another “chore.”

The college search for athletes may appear on the surface as a natural challenge, when in reality it is altogether another beast to tame! If you happen to be one of those blessed “blue chip” athletes that rank amongst the top 5-10% of athletes in the country, your college search will be a lot different and a bit more facilitated. College coaches are, for the most part, brilliant recruiters… They’re going to find you! But what about the majority of high school athletes who do not fall into the “A” file, but are looking to compliment their college experience with a strong athletic component and play and compete for a worthy college program? Their strategy is going to be slightly different. They will need to awaken the wizard and make every attempt to find it.

When July 1, 2009 came and passed and you were sitting by the phone for the coaches to call, was it a long wait? My guess is yes! Being proactive and making every effort to initiate contact with the coaches is not only a strongly suggested approach to “getting on the radar screen,” it is permissible and it will be, in most cases, much appreciated by the college coaches.

This suggestion may appear simple at first, but typically, the closer prospects get to picking up the phone and placing the call, the more the “butterflies in the stomach” seem to accumulate! Essentially, prospects have two choices here: Either they can continue to put off the initial contact with the coaches, or they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, prepare for the contact and take a “leap of faith.” Remember, all of us have had our first date, first varsity game, or first whack at the SAT exam. “Firsts” will be with us throughout a lifetime. It takes courage to bridge gaps into the unknown, and navigating the college quest is no different.

Tournaments, showcases, combines and other college recruiting events are becoming more and more popular these days and they provide college coaches with the opportunity to evaluate talented prospects throughout the country. I strongly suggest that prospects take advantage of these events, but don’t just “show-up.” Research a manageable list of events and try to determine the consistent level of attendance that college coaches have shown over the past few years. Additionally, when you have lined up the events you plan to attend, do not hesitate to contact the college coaches on your current recruiting list to let them know you have sincere interest in their program and invite them to watch you play. It just takes a little time, organization and a willingness to “execute.” YOU have to make it happen.

Stirring up the wizard inside is a lot like developing and maintaining momentum in any given challenge. It’s not a sometime thing… It’s an all the time thing, and the moment you think you have it licked is the moment you will begin to lose ground. Remember, all the wizard represents is the personal potential each of us has to offer. Thinking about it is one thing… Committing to making it happen is altogether different.

If you believe in your heart that college entrance and the opportunity to play and compete as part of an NCAA program will simply “open up” and lie at your feet, you will most likely be disappointed with the results. That being said, the prospect and family who maintain a positive approach with a willingness to impeccably organize and manage their college search, while making a full and complete “active” commitment to the plan, will be giving themselves the best chances at success.

Several years ago and toward the end of my college coaching career I clearly recall a couple of lean years where my program was mediocre at best and we were not meeting the high standards I always set. I took personal responsibility, but I found myself focusing on just about everything “negative.” I was in a downward spiral and I knew I needed to get back on track.

Joel Fish, who heads The Center for Sport Psychology in Philadelphia (www.psychologyofsport.com), was instrumental in helping many of my teams and I enjoy championship success and I immediately turned to him for advice. Not surprisingly, Joel offered me the same advice he offered all of my athletes. “Your digging your own hole to hide in and paying more attention to everything that could go wrong, rather than remembering who you are and focusing on all you can accomplish.” He said.

Joel simply reminded me that I am the one in the driver’s seat and I have the ability to act and react to any situation… At anytime. I simply needed to take the advice I had given my athletes all along and remind myself that the true measure of a champion is not when things are going well, but when our backs are in the corner. I had to find it!

If we are determined to give ourselves every reason NOT to make a proactive effort in executing a worthy plan of action, then the best developed plans will remain in a state of potential and nothing more. Conversely, if we are willing to see each goal we present ourselves with as an opportunity to move to new and higher personal levels and with an unyielding willingness to commit, I truly believe we are half way there.

The college search for prospective student-athletes has evolved into a very competitive arena and one that will continue to be more challenging to navigate in years to come. You can choose to hope for the best, or you can choose to roll your sleeves up and get busy. The dream to participate in college sport is a passion shared by many of our son’s and daughters in an effort to compliment a tremendous 4 year experience and I suggest you “pick up the baton and run.” Just as our boy’s and girl’s have committed countless hours to grow their athletic skill that carried them to their current level of success, so can a meaningful and dedicated effort help our student-athletes find the right college match. I encourage you therefore to rise up, stay focused and swing for the seats.

Tom Kovic is a former Division I college coach and the current director of Victory Collegiate Consulting, where he provides individual family advisement and guidance on college recruiting. Tom is the author of “Reaching for Excellence”: An educational guide for college athletics recruiting. For further information visit: www.victoryrecruiting.com.

Summer is basically over here at D3sports.com, and we’re working hard to get the 2009-10 seasons ready to roll. Summer is the only time I really feel like I can sit down and do some of the back-end stuff on the site that is in my job description, specifically upgrading the message board software and the blogs.

This year’s upgrades didn’t change too much of what you folks as readers will see and what you’ll interact with, but in my non-techie reading of it, it looks like it will make the blog operate more efficiently. If so, that means one important thing for readers — we may not have to take it down so often on the busiest days on the site.

The rest of our summer has been spent trying to get the long-overdue redesign of D3hoops.com into shape. We have a lot of older pages that have information that we don’t want to lose. I actually found someone to put 11 years’ worth of the Team of the Week into a database so we could display those pages more easily, and we’re doing the same for football’s Team of the Week as well.

D3baseball.com has had some great content this summer, with Travis Cross, a Chapman student, joining Jim Dixon’s staff to provide some news stories and features. We are looking long and hard at getting all of the baseball scores on the site this year, not just for the 20-some conferences that use the PrestoSports system.

The folks at D3soccer.com are putting together a Top 25 poll for the first time and are getting their voter panels together. We’ll also have team pages on D3soccer.com this year for the first time, and hope to have those live within the next week or so.

Our jobs board, D3jobs.com, has had some great postings in the past year and we will continue with that. D3sports.com continues to be a work in progress. We’ve been strong into Twitter for the past six months or so, starting near the end of the basketball season. If you are on Twitter, I strongly recommend following @d3football, @d3hoops and @d3baseball — often the first word on breaking news will go out via Twitter, and in many cases, we’ll send out interesting stories or small news tidbits over that medium that may not make it elsewhere on the sites at all.

by Tom Kovic

I was a 2 sport athlete in high school and I was pretty good. Not that I was the blue chip kid all the coaches were drooling after, but I was a New York State Champion Gymnast and State runner up in Track and Field. I really did not know much of anything regarding skillful tactics in getting on the radar screen of the college coaches and quite honestly, did not begin the recruiting process until well into my senior year of high school. I’m thankful that both the Track and Field and Gymnastics coaches at Temple were paying attention late in the process and I was very fortunate to receive a full athletics scholarship.

My brief story is a valuable one and for only one reason. Don’t do what I did! What follows are suggested strategies for athletes and families who feel they might be a bit behind in the college quest.

What you shouldn’t do
If you happen to feel a little disoriented with the college search and that feeling of frustration is creeping in, don’t’ panic! When faced with any obstacle where time is a crucial factor, we tend to think firstly of everything that could go wrong in an attempt to size up the situation. This only complicates the matter further and creates a potentially negative approach to the issue.

Additionally, late starters typically react by flooding the college coaches with information and communication in an attempt to at least “connect with someone.” This will immediately be picked up by the college coaches as an act of desperation and I strongly discourage prospects from taking this approach.

Another reaction many families might feel compelled to execute is to take the first good offer that comes along. Whether it is an offer to tryout for a team or be invited as a walk-on, I will admit there is a feeling of comfort when a coach shows sincere interest in a prospect, especially late in the game.

What you should do
With every important decision we make, it is important to maintain clarity in thinking. No matter how overwhelming the current moment may appear, take the time to sit down as a family and adequately size up the situation. Do everything you can to keep negative thoughts at bay and maintain a positive approach to what may seem like a difficult journey. Remember the old saying: “Think you can, think you can’t, either way you’re right.”

Just like a good coach and a worthy team who is behind a goal or two with just a few minutes left in the game, approach your personal situation with the end game in mind and work yourself slowly back to present time. An organized and well thought out plan of action will give families and their children the best chance at success. Whether it is effective communication with coaches or planning that mid-August road trip to a half dozen schools, take a “team effort” in developing a step by step approach with targets and time-lines that will most likely be demanding, but doable.

The best laid plans are only as good as the manner in which they are executed and this is where your persistence and determination come into play. If your target for the day is to contact 5 college coaches by phone and communicate your family’s plans to make a visit to campus in 3 weeks, you have to do it. It might take 25 attempts to connect with each of the 5 college coaches, but you must remain diligent and stay the course. Like hurdles in a race, you want to clear one at a time with unyielding focus on each individual hurdle. Let the result of the race take care of itself!

Tips to jumpstart your late start
One of your first steps should be is to either create of edit your personal resume. By developing an easy to read, 1 page personal profile you not only inform the college coach to who you are and what you have accomplished; it will allow the coach in doing a quick and efficient initial evaluation. Keep this document to no longer than one page and include your academic and athletic highlights, along with any extracurricular leadership initiatives you have participated in.

On that note, you need to provide the coach with a simple, but effective way to evaluate your skill as a player. Round up your recent season game footage and pick out 5-6 minutes of your best stuff. Save it to your laptop and burn as many DVD’s necessary, to send to your consolidated list of schools… That’s next!

Streamline your list of colleges and universities that potentially fit your academic and athletic profile. I suggest a well balanced list of Division 1, 2 and 3 schools that meet your immediate needs (geographic region, size of undergraduate student body etc.). Develop a detailed contact list of the schools, coach’s names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses and save it to your recruiting folder. Add a separate list of “hard addresses” for the coaches in case they request a portfolio or when you are getting ready to ship your DVD.

Consolidate and communicate
Now that you are moving the boulder forward, it will be important to maintain the momentum you have created. Getting information in the hands of the college coaches is one thing… following up is another matter altogether! Remember, the college recruiting process is not about flooding the college coaches with information, it is about developing relationships and the best approach in this situation is to take a proactive effort in connecting with the coaches. Coaches are being bombarded with hundreds of inquiries of interest from high school prospects and do not have the time to personally respond to every athlete. YOU have to take hold of the baton and run the race and the best way to determine where you stand in the eyes of the coaches is to contact them directly.

Plan a road trip
If you reach this point in the recruiting process and I hope you do, there will be a lot of action happening and your recruiting plan will begin to get some legs. Taking a road trip should be a top priority for families and unofficial campus visits are a great way to take a look under the hood in an attempt to determine potential matches for their sons and daughters. Make every attempt not to just “show up.” Communicate with the coaches in an effort to coordinate a face to face meeting with your campus visit. Personal visits can make a big difference for certain prospects and I strongly suggest making the best of your road trip.

If you sense you are either late in executing your plans for the college recruiting process, or feel the need to jumpstart your plan of attack, avoid any negative energy that will contribute to a loss of focus in the process. Maintain a positive approach and use a team effort in reorganizing your quest with clarity and direction and you will give yourself the greatest chance at success.

Tom Kovic is a former Division I college coach and the current director of Victory Collegiate Consulting, where he provides individual advisement for families on college recruiting. Tom is the author of “Reaching for Excellence”, an educational guide for college athletics recruiting. For further information visit: www.victoryrecruiting.com.

by Tom Kovic

While attending the T-99 Lacrosse Showcase in Dallas last weekend I was impressed with the interest from many parents in “tactics” high school freshman can employ in preparing for the college recruiting process. My response was “plenty” and what follows are some suggestions and tips to jumpstart the college search for freshmen.

Build Your Information Base
Information is power and I suggest freshmen athletes and their families launch their college search by building a strong information base. Whether it means becoming familiar with NCAA rules and contact and evaluation time-lines, or understanding the important role of the NCAA Eligibility Center, this effort will become a fun family project that will grow more detailed and streamlined as the sophomore year approaches. A great place to begin your search is with the NCAA. Go to www.ncaa.org and become familiar in navigating this site, especially in the areas of eligibility and recruiting.

Measure your Self Awareness
When I begin advising prospects and their families, I always begin with an initial assessment to determine what their goals and dreams are and how the prospects “tick.” I developed 10 questions that have become very helpful in defining a prospects current position, while providing me with a general idea on how he sees the college experience potentially unfolding. I include questions in areas such as geographic location, size of school, level of play and social demographics just to name a few. My goal here is simple. I want these kids to begin thinking for themselves.

Look at a Diverse Grouping of Colleges and Universities
This assignment will be both educational and fun. It will provide families and their kids with an appreciation for different levels of athletic programs, while growing an appreciation and “gut feel” that will be specific to each institution. Try choosing 15 programs that are equally spread out between Division 1, 2 and 3. Do your best to stay impartial and this exercise will help you become a comparative shopper and an educated consumer. It will help you begin to develop that “gut feel” for doing an initial evaluation of a wide range of programs.

There is no “wrong” grouping of schools in this exercise. What’s important here is to allow our kids to dream and reach for the stars in an effort to begin creating passion and enthusiasm for what will be a very important life decision.

Attend a Few College Games or Practices
This might seem like a tough task considering the college and high school seasons typically overlap, but if you can break away from a practice or two or find a couple of weekend college games to attend, do it! This not only gives our sons and daughters a chance to see college programs in action, it grows awareness about college play that will help them begin to “size up” the level of skill that college athletes bring to the table, while providing prospects with a benchmark to reach toward in the future.

The college search for high school athletes is beginning earlier and the best prepared and better informed family will increase their chances in navigating the college quest with greater success and a higher level of confidence. That being said, I believe 9th grade prospects should be encouraged to jump start the recruiting process with an informed and educational approach that will begin to build a solid foundation for the future. Remember, bringing an educated, fun and enthusiastic approach to the college recruiting process is half the battle.

Tom Kovic is a former Division I college coach and the current director of Victory Collegiate Consulting, where he provides individual advisement for families on college recruiting. Tom is the author of “Reaching for Excellence”, an educational guide for college athletics recruiting. For further information visit: www.victoryrecruiting.com.

This was the season that didn’t want to end.

On Tuesday, even with the rain seemingly bearing down and needing just one game to finish the season, we ended up with 21 innings — in fact, 21 innings of well-played baseball.

I’ve now been to 10 Stagg Bowls, 10 men’s basketball final fours, one women’s basketball final four, a men’s lacrosse title game and now, a Division III baseball championship. And this was just the second time in the 23 Division III championships I’ve attended that the title was decided on the very last play of the game. (The other was the 2006 men’s lacrosse championship, an overtime win for Cortland State over Salisbury.)

The tournament was about what I’d expected, though I had never sat through an entire eight-team, double-elimination tournament before.

I want to make sure Mark Miller’s clutch pitching performance doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, and with more than 50 percent of people choosing his Tuesday line as the best of the day, I think the mission has been accomplished. But there were many other sidelights and notes from the long weekend in Appleton that merit mentioning:

Tuesday was a tense day, especially if you were a Wooster fan, apparently. Former Scots player Pat Christiansen, for example, stood in the stands and paced back and forth for the entire first game and most of the second game before taking a seat for the final couple of innings.

Was it just me, or did every bang-bang call at first base seem like a 50-50 proposition? I included a photo with this blog post of a call clearly missed at first — Wooster’s Matthew Pierce is safe because you can see he’s on the bag while St. Thomas first baseman Tom Wippler has yet to land. (The photo is crooked because he’s saving Dan Leslie’s throw from flying straight over my head in the right field bullpen.) Umpiring is inconsistent everywhere, this I know, and I wouldn’t argue balls and strikes, but it didn’t seem like close plays at first base were getting called correctly with any regularity.

In talking with the NCAA’s director of umpires, George Drouches, I learned that the eight umpires selected are taken one from each region, and while in other Division III championships events some pains are taken to make sure a neutral crew works championship games, the only precaution here is that an umpire doesn’t work behind the plate in a game involving a team he’s called games for before. But while Carlos Guzman (who worked the Mid-Atlantic Regional) wasn’t calling balls and strikes when Kean played in Appleton, he worked third base, and was involved in the most controversial call of the tournament.

After the first two days, Drouches told me, umpires were re-evaluated and scheduled for the final seven games, including the six-umpire crews for the championship games.

Carthage and Shenandoah should be given credit for having the best fans. In fact, Carthage had avid tailgaters, who were there when we arrived for the tournament’s opening game at 8 a.m. last Friday. Not that I was surprised: I’ve seen it before, when Keith McMillan and I traveled to Chicago a couple of years ago for D3football.com. Before heading to our 1 p.m. game, we drove by and saw some of the other stadiums in the area, including North Park, where Carthage was playing that afternoon. We got there three hours before the game. Brats were on the grill. The Carthage-Shenandoah game was the best of the tournament that didn’t involve St. Thomas and Wooster, so it was nice that it was played in front of the largest actual crowd.

I commented on yesterday’s blog post about the St. Thomas and Wooster players standing in line at the concession stand between games buying hot dogs, etc., for their pregame meal. But it wasn’t the meal of choice most days. I saw far more ice cream being consumed by players than any other food stuff. But the brats were my waistline’s weapon of choice.

St. Thomas and Wooster also had two-sport athletes play prominent roles this week. Ben Wartman, a D3football.com All-Region running back for St. Thomas, played catcher and started in the second championship game. We wrote about Matt DeGrand, who plays outside linebacker and threw the game of his life for Wooster in the win against St. Thomas. Also, Tyler Hadzinsky plays goalie and second base for Chapman and was an Academic All-American in both. I know these are not the only two-sport players at the tournament, but these were the ones that stuck out.

I was disappointed that there were only three radio crews among the eight schools, though I know that’s about par for the course. But the most interesting broadcast, in my mind, was Shenandoah’s, with a player on color (Bryan Claudio) who had done play-by-play for the team for some games online. We shared a press box room with them for one game and it was well done.

Chapman’s Wayde Kitchens told us he didn’t even bring his cleats to Appleton, but he didn’t tell us what his injury was. We found out after the tournament that it’s a tendon in his pitching arm that’s causing him trouble.

We’ll have more coverage still to come. Keep an eye out for the audio from the postgame news conference with St. Thomas, so you can listen to the coach and player’s first public reaction to winning Walnut and Bronze.

Well, at least the first one after the shouting and the piling.

After a little rain last night the dew heavy here at Fox Cities stadium. The tarp remains on the field with game time a little more than an hour away (wait their goes the tarp now). Their is a little standing water but the field looks playable.

Wooster is in the drivers seat today. The Scots are already in their dugout with St. Thomas still yet to arrive. Will it be Matt Schuld and McDowell in the first game, or will the Tommies keep him available in relief in the first for a possible second. Game one or two, the Tommies will need Schuld to pitch like he has all season for their second D-III Championship.

The Scots have their dynamic duo ready to go today but they might not need them. Sean Karpen, the favorite for the tournament MVP, is hitting the ball as well as he ever has. With a .373 team average (The series record is .407 – Marietta in 1983), it is not just Karpen who is slugging the ball. Add Stu Beath, Sean Swearingen, and Zack Vesco to those who have a tournament average above .400.

It is a rainy day for baseball, lets play one. Our prediction Wooster in one game