April 1, 2022
This is a guest post from Dean Stotz, former Associate Head Coach of Stanford Baseball (1976 to 2014). To help student-athletes get even more insight into the recruiting process and how coaches approach their task of finding the right recruits for their program, we’re going to feature thoughts from Coach Stotz over the coming months.
Click here to learn more about Stanford All-Star Baseball Camps – great recruiting camps run by Coach Stotz and the current Stanford Baseball coaching staff – which run immediately following the Headfirst Honor Roll West Sessions 1 & 2 in late June and early July: Stanford All-Star Baseball Camps
Many high school baseball players have the same question: will I have the opportunity to continue my baseball playing career in college?
It is a tough question – but in all my years of coaching, almost every high school student-athlete that I’ve spoken with underestimates just how many choices and opportunities you have when it comes to playing college baseball.
Not including community college baseball, there are 1127 programs nationwide where you can continue your athletic and academic career. Here’s the breakdown:
Division 1: 303 schools
Division 2: 254 schools
Division 3: 382 schools
NAIA: 188 schools
To see the complete list – and to learn a bit more about each and every one of these 1127 programs, click on the link below.
Click here to see the complete list of college baseball programs
When I retired from coaching 8 years ago, I vowed that as long as I am healthy I’ll continue to do what I was doing for almost 40 years while coaching at Stanford: create college baseball opportunities for as many student-athletes as I can.
While coaching at Stanford, my primary focus was my own recruiting – and winning as many Pac-12 championships as I could! But that wasn’t my only motivation. I have spent my entire life mentoring and helping young people, and that hasn’t changed in my retirement.
I am proud that student-athletes who come through Stanford All-Star Baseball Camps go on to play at Stanford. But I’m just as proud that many players who play at Sunken Diamond each summer at our camps go on to continue their playing and academic careers at many, many other great schools and baseball programs.
One thing that I want you and your family to keep in mind is that many D2, D3 and NAIA programs do not have very big recruiting budgets. This means that they need to be efficient – their success is oftentimes just as much about what high school players have proactively expressed interest in their school as it is about who they (the coaching staff) see play and are interested in.
Here’s my suggestion: sit down and take a look at the list of programs linked below. If there’s a school on that list that interests you, reach out to them. You never know what might come of it, or what shape your opportunity will take.
