Two more EDH Vipers players have recently committed to colleges, they are:

Martin Agosta, RHP, Jesuit '09, to St. Mary's College.
Chris Piwinski, C/OF, Jesuit '09 to Yale University.

Congratulations to Martin and Chris!

I love these type of posts. They put to bed the myth that all is lost if a signing dows not occur at the early signing period in November. Huge congrats to these young men!

Congratulations!

CD, you are so correct about not every signing needing to be an early signing. Our travel club, which is from the greater Sacramento area, is fortunate to have a large number of players (about a dozen currently) with college committments, so I probably have a bit better perspective on signings than some people. With that in mind, I'll share the following to consider.

There were only twelve early siging period HS players (class of '09 seniors) that we're aware of from our entire metropolitan statistical area. That area covers approximately 1.4 million people. Of the twelve, three came from towns ranging from 20-45 minutes outside Sacramento, so the actual number from greater Sacramento is even smaller.

The two players I referred to in my earlier post have gone through a long and involved recruiting process that involved several excellent universities for each boy. In the end, they were able to commit to their 'first choice' type of school, so it is a win-win for the boys and for those schools. They could both have committed to other schools earlier, but found it was worthwhile to wait and see how things played out.

It wouldn't be appropriate to name names, but I know of at least three more players from our club who are in various stages of being recruited by some very top level universities where the admissions process is more involved than normal, so will likely be announcing several more class of '09 committments in the next 90 days.

On the other hand, I've never seen very early recruiting (I'll define 'very early' as before their junior year ends) at a higher activity level than it is today. A couple of our class of 2010 players already have made verbal commitments, several more have offers on the table to consider, and several more still are taking visits in the next 90 days where I fully expect offers to be made. I don't care for this trend, but it is a fact of life these days.

It can happen very early, early or late, you never know when the right fit will be found. One of our class of '08 players didn't generate much interest from D1 schools till July, after he'd graduated. It was too late for those schools to even get him admitted, so he has to play one year of Juco ball, but he's heading to UOP, a Big West school, after only one year of juco ball. That is a great example of how late it can happen.

Congrats to those players, I know Chris, My son played with him on a team when they were 13-14. Chris is a great kid from a great family. Great news for both of them.Sounds like your doing a great job with your team Dan. congrats to you as well.We faced the pitcher this fall thats going to UOP.Throws pretty well.My son would of been at UOP with him but God had other plans. But I trust God, hes always taken care of us. he wont let us down now.

Fan, Yes Chris is a wonderful young man. He also had an offer to play for one of the top aceadmic universities on the west coast, but his dream is to attend an Ivy League school, and Yale was right at the top of his list. He's not only an outstanding student, but a better catcher than they probably realize they're getting. Were it not for the fact that he's playing behind one of the top prep cathers in the nation, Andrew Susac, on both his HS team and our summer team, Chris would be much more highly regarded for his catching skills.

The pitcher you referred to who is headed to UOP is Patrick O'Rourke. Patrick is an interesting and encouraging story for any student-athlete who isn't an early sign. Patrick came out of high school with no offers from any college. In fact, he had a rough high school season his senior year, and I had my doubts about how he'd contribute to our team because he'd never played for us before. Patrick took every advantage of his opportunity this past summer, and flourished. He went from throwing 82-84 in March-May, to suddenly sitting at 88-90 with good command. He not only was dominating in Connie Mack, he pitched very well on our collegiate team in the few opportunities he got with them. The college coaches noticed and he now will be attending a great private university after one year of juco ball. Patrick was given a challenge and an opportunity, and he made the most of it. I'm very proud of what that young man accoplished, as are his parents. He's got a high ceiling, IMO.