coachjwb
Well-Known Member
I've made a few comments on here in the last 6 months, and talked a few times on the radio show about some recent experience I've had with Junior College softball. In full disclosure, I had never seen a junior college game until my daughter Sarah became an Assistant Coach at Tri-C (Cuyahoga Community College here in the Cleveland area) around the first of this year. In the spring, I got to see Tri-C play against several other junior colleges like Owens and Lakeland, and some in the Baltimore area as well, and was impressed by many of the players and the overall quality of play of some of the better teams. The last 2 days, I watched Tri-C play in a fall tourney they hosted against 3 D2 schools and, while they had their hands full, they did win one game and were in most others. In the spring, after seeing Tri-C play Owens, I chose Owens to be my team of the week on the weekly radio show and, in doing my research on them, found out that they finish second in the nation back in 2011.
Here's the thing ... some of these schools can offer up to 24 full scholarships. Here's a link to an article I found ... http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/junior-college-juco-softball.htm. With the cost of college these days, I see this as a bit of a hidden gem ... essentially, players can go to school free for 2 years, and then possibly to go on and play at a 4 year college. Those girls that played for Tri-C this weekend certainly got some great exposure to some of the coaches they might be interested in playing for down the road. While I would say that most of the junior colleges I've seen play aren't quite as deep as the D2 and D3 schools I've been watching over the last 6 years, there's no reason they couldn't be if more players were thinking about this as an option.
I'm going to ask Bryan Komlos, head coach at Tri-C, to come on one of our future radio shows, but I just wanted to put this out there to raise a little awareness and generate some discussion. Ricky, let's definitely talk about this on the radio show this week as well.
Here's the thing ... some of these schools can offer up to 24 full scholarships. Here's a link to an article I found ... http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/junior-college-juco-softball.htm. With the cost of college these days, I see this as a bit of a hidden gem ... essentially, players can go to school free for 2 years, and then possibly to go on and play at a 4 year college. Those girls that played for Tri-C this weekend certainly got some great exposure to some of the coaches they might be interested in playing for down the road. While I would say that most of the junior colleges I've seen play aren't quite as deep as the D2 and D3 schools I've been watching over the last 6 years, there's no reason they couldn't be if more players were thinking about this as an option.
I'm going to ask Bryan Komlos, head coach at Tri-C, to come on one of our future radio shows, but I just wanted to put this out there to raise a little awareness and generate some discussion. Ricky, let's definitely talk about this on the radio show this week as well.