What might some considerations for starting a new ball program at a CIAA DII school

Im just scratching the surface but cost is one thing. Licensing? Insurance? I don't know what else.

A local college around here had a baseball program in the 50's. Now its basketball and football as well as other sports but sadly no baseball. Historically Black College also. Just no baseball. Very perplexing. Im thinking why not have a baseball program. I have contacted the AD who was enthused but left it to me. Can't say that I could get a program started but why not look into it I thought.

Finding a field to play/practice on is one thing. Equipment etc...etc..

So please if there are ideas or things to consider Im all ears.

Oh yeah how to fund it....???

Recruits....??

Scheduling....??

Thanks in advance

 

Are you referring to Fayetteville St?

 

I am.

Yes Fayetteville State. Am I wrong that they currently do not have a baseball program but did some time in the 50's or 60's?

I was looking up some stats one day and ran across a professional player who had played at Fayetteville State.

Just looked it up again. James Bibby played there 62-65. From Franlinton, NC

 

Keith Shumate at NCA&T

I'm sure NCA&T and their outstanding Head Coach (Keith Shumate) would be a valuable resource for you.

 

HBCU's have a problem in general with baseball. Most HBCU's try to keep their teams predominately black to stay true to the roots of the school, but it's tough to do that in baseball. One of the things you have to take care of before anything else is whether or not the school is ok with a team that may be predominately white. Some HBCU's have a problem with that.

Please don't take this post as being racist or anything like that. HBCU's are a touchy subject to some people and each one has different feelings towards athletics and racial composition of their teams.

 

They had a segment on HBO about Bethune Cookman or FAMU and baseball. They have had success recruiting caucasians for their program and the players seem to be accepted very well at the school. The players interviewed loved the school.

 

I agree about Coach Shumate.He has turned a program around winning 10-12 games a year to winning 30or 40 a year and making the regionals.They gave Clemson all they wanted 2 yrs ago.We had a clinic at our high school in December 2006 and Coach Shumate spoke on baserunning.He was awesome.Great baseball coach who does a tremendous job at A@T

 

I coach at an HBCU and I can tell you that we could care less about the racial makeup of the baseball team or any other athletic team. Our emphasis is on enrolling quality students who want to be at the University for their education and want to play baseball here. Our coaching staff is dedicated to helping these young men reach their goals both academically and athletically. We as coaches are judged on on 3 criteria: graduation, wins, and development of players. Ask ANY student at our University if they care what race an athlete is - I am certain 95% of the students could care less. We have a player (white) who transferred in from The Citadel. He made the comment that the student body treats the white players at our University far better than the black players at The Citadel are treated. Bottom line - GRADES & TALENT get you on the baseball team. Performance keeps you there.

 

I applaud you for your standards. I don't believe anyone is suggesting otherwise. I took the point of the thread asking how does one start a baseball program at a HBCU. I don't believe one can dismiss the fact that there are unique challenges that are presented that other schools may not face.

I brought up the HBO segment because they asked about those challenges in interviews of players and coaches. It was very informative with many viewpoints made.

I'll see if I can find it and post it on here.

Here is one article that addresses those challenges: http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_01668.shtml

and:

By college age, the pipeline for black baseball players has narrowed to a trickle, said Fred Decker, who retired as Western Michigan's baseball coach last year after 791 wins over 29 seasons.

"I had a call some time ago from a disgruntled person asking me why we didn't have more black players on our team," Decker said. "I said, 'I'll tell you what, you go on every scouting trip with me next summer, and you look at the pool of players that we'll have an opportunity to pick from, and you'll see what the problem is.'

"The youth programs, especially in the areas where African-American kids live, are just nothing compared to what they were 25 years ago. When you don't have participation at the young level, there's no development program to feed into the high schools, so there's no place for the college coach to go to get them."

 

Re Braves and Challenges of HBCUs

Braves - I did not take offense and I apologize if it came across that way. My comments were in response to what "SuperJon" posted about the racial makeup of teams. For the uninformed, HBCU means Historically Black Colleges and Universities. http://www.blackcollegebaseball.com is an excellent site regarding the HBCUs that offer baseball. The teams at most, if not all, are quite diverse at these schools.

I have coached AAU, USSSA, Showcase, etc. - seldom did I encounter another black coach. Oftentimes, not only was my son the only black player on our team - he was often the only black player at the tournament. There is not much difference at the high school level. When I graduated high school in 1980, I was the only black player on my high school team. I can recall playing against South Granville - Donald Timberlake and I used to laugh about being the"flies in the milk".

The original intent of HBCUs was to provide students of color an opportunity not available to them at other colleges and Universities during the era of segregation. While integration has removed some barriers, HBCUs still serve a very useful purpose.

With respect to baseball, HBCUs are seldom able to attract the "blue-chip" recruits. Given the choice of being on the team at UNC, NCSTATE, UNCW, ECU, etc. players have chosen those schools. However, with the new NCAA scholarship rules, we at the HBCUs are fielding more and more phone calls from players who are looking for a place to PLAY - rather than simply be on the team elsewhere. Whereas the "name" Universities can pick the superstars, we at HBCUs know that we will have to DEVELOP players who may not be high school stars, but are quality students as well as solid baseball players. What we offer is an opportunity at an education as well as fulfilling lifelong dreams of playing college baseball.

The biggest challenges faced by most HBCUs is the lack of practice facilities. This challenge varies based on the size of the University. Therefore we are quite creative and make very good use of our resources.

Certainly money is a challenge faced by ALL baseball programs; however, HBCUs feel that pain a bit more than the "name" Universities. As we tell any prospective recruit into our program - "make sure you want to be a part of our University and that you want a degree from here." Baseball is baseball - no matter where you play.