Before I get into the article…

If you or your son is a 2025, and you haven’t started moving on the recruiting process, it’s time to get going!

You’re not behind (unless you’re a D1 prospect), but it’s important to get on the radar of as many coaches as possible before your summer season.

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Here’s a question I received via email recently:

What are the “benefits of playing college baseball for student-athletes that do not aspire to play professionally?”

This is a great question, especially because so few players actually do get the opportunity to play professional baseball.

Only about 10% of high school players go on to play college baseball. As the ownder of College Athlete Advantage, Mike Orchard, often says: “If you play college baseball, you get an A grade for high school baseball.”

Of the 10% that play college baseball, how many do you think go on to play professionally?

I don’t know the exact answer, but I know it’s a small percentage.

With the odds stacked against you to play professional baseball, the following question may cross your mind:

“What’s the point of playing college baseball if I don’t have a chance to go on and play pro ball?”

It’s a valid question.

College Baseball Isn’t for Everyone

There are many benefits from playing college baseball, even if you don’t want to play professional baseball. Before I get into the benefits, however, I need to point out that college baseball is NOT for everyone.

I recently counseled a high school athlete in another sport who is on the fence about playing his sport in college. He told me:

• He’s leaning toward NOT playing in college

• He feels like his identity has been tied to his sport for too long

• He knows he doesn’t love the sport

• He’s afraid to quit because he’s never experienced life without the sport (fear of the unknown)

• The enjoyment isn’t there.

This is a great example of someone who should probably NOT play in college.

However, I encouraged him to explore WHY he lost his love for the game before making a final decision. If it’s possible a change of environment and scenery could reignite his passion for his sport, then maybe playing in college is worth a shot.

Playing college baseball is a huge commitment and requires a lot of time. At times you’ll need to sacrifice social activities, sleep, study time, and more (check out my article about time management).

If you don’t absolutely LOVE the game (and practicing for hours every day), college baseball probably isn’t for you.

The Benefits of Playing College Baseball

Assuming you DO love the game, the benefits of playing college baseball are many, even if you don’t aspire to play professional baseball.

Discipline

Succeeding in college baseball and succeeding in life requires discipline.

Discipline = Doing what needs be done even when you don’t feel like it.

Here’s a take from Nick Saban:

I’ll highlight this quote from the video:

Here are some choices you’ll need to make to be successful as a college baseball player:

• Studying when others are socializing

• Putting in hours of “boring” practice nearly every day

• Fueling your body well

• Prioritizing sleep

• Seeing athletic trainers regularly to prevent/treat injuries

I could go on, but I’ll stop at five.

Here’s the best part:

The discipline you develop to become the best baseball player you can be will ALSO help you become an excellent parent, spouse, employee, etc. throughout the rest of your life.

Physical Health

It’s common knowledge that exercise and nutrition are key factors for optimal physical health.

These bahaviors are baked into the normal routine for a college student-baseball player.

Between daily practice sessions and consistent strength and conditioning routines, college baseball players get plenty of exercise.

Many college baseball programs teach players about optimal nutrition for performance and recovery as well. Most players are motivated to follow this advice if they are convinced it will give them an edge on the field.

A study published in “Frontiers of Psychology” in 2022 supported these health benefits, stating, “It was found in our study that athlete students generally performed better in health behaviors and led a more active life, compared with non-athlete students.”

Resilience

It’s widely accepted that baseball is “a game of failure.”

I’ve heard some form of the following statement at least a thousand times:

Baseball players can fail 7 out of 10 times and still make the Hall of Fame.

While I cringe at this statement because it define success ONLY as getting a hit, I support the notion that baseball is a difficult game and even the best of the best player are going to “fail” and make mistakes quite often.

It’s critical, then, for baseball players to learn how to respond to failure appropriately.

The game teaches resilience.

Every time a player “gets knocked down,” (gives up a home run, strikes out, makes an error), he must pick himself back up and reset quickly, which is truly the definition of resilience:

“Able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.”

Baseball players MUST develop resilience, or they won’t last in such a difficult and unforgiving sport.

Resume Builder

A Google search for “Do employers prefer student-athletes” provides A LOT of articles to support the idea that employers DO, in fact, value what student-athletes bring to the table.

Marie Atrim, vice president of talent acquisition at Enterprise, is quoted in this 2016 article: “We see a lot of transferable skills in athletes.”

These skills are not difficult to list:

• Dedication

• Discipline

• Leadership

• Responsibility

• Teamwork

I could list many more.

The bottom line is that playing college baseball is a GREAT enhancement to any resume. Certainly some employers will value hiring former athletes more than others, but highlighting your college baseball experience and the character traits it taught you will NEVER hurt.

Socialization

Transitioning from high school to college is difficult and unnerving for many young men and women:

• It’s the first time you’ll live away from your parents and hometown.

• You’ll be away from your high school friend group.

• You have to acclimate to a brand new way of living in an instant.

Participating in college baseball gives you a group to identify with as soon as you step on campus. Often the team will have social outings planned early in the year to help you get to know your teammates.

Your college coach may also pair you with another player as a roommate.

For these reasons, playing college baseball can help calm any anxiety you have about transitioning from high school to college.

Teamwork

The ability to collaborate with others and work on a team is essential in today’s world. Regardless of what you choose to do after college, you WILL have to interact and get along with others to thrive.

Playing college baseball gives you four years of on-the-job teamwork training.

Within your college baseball team, you’ll learn:

• How to resolve conflicts

• How to lead and how to follow

• How to listen and how to speak up

• How to form and maintain relationships

• How to get along with people you don’t like

…AND much more.

This is one of the main reasons employers LOVE hiring former student-athletes for their organizations.

Time Management

Playing college baseball is a HUGE time commitment.

Between practices, workout, study tables, team meetings, and getting enough rest to recover from all of the above, managing your time well is a MUST.

You won’t have much time for things other than school and baseball.

You will have to make sacrifices that non-students-athletes don’t have to make.

I’ve written about this topic extensively in the past. Click here to watch a video I made about time allocation for college baseball players and click here for an article I wrote about setting goals and managing your time based on your goals.

Please comment or reply if you have questions and/or want more depth about certain topics.

All the best!

- Matt

P.S. If you'd like to schedule a free consultation with me to discuss your specific recruiting process, reply to this email or sign up for a time here.