Well, its finally done! My son Matt has committed to coach Tawney (VJC Baseball here on the hsbbw) at Stevenson University (formerly Villa Julie college).

It has been an amazing journey, starting last fall when we hooked up with Tom Rizzi (TRHIT) and went to Jupiter for the WWBA tournament in 2007. Matt played with College Select this past fall and we got to see alot of colleges in the northeast. Put him on the College Select commit list, Tom!

He had the most interest from Stevenson, Ramapo, Farleigh Dickinson, Ithaca, Elizabethtown, Albright and Moravian, but decided on Stevenson based on the fact that its an up-and-coming school (it recently made U.S. News and Report Best Colleges list) and because he felt a closer relationship with the coaching staff and players at the school. And financially, its very reasonable compared to other schools.

Its about 3.5 hours away, so we'll be able to get down there once in awhile to see him (hopefully playing!).

The HSBBWeb has been such an incredible resource for us. If not for this site, we wouldn't have met Coach Rizzi, we wouldn't have been at the tournament where coach Tawney and I met, and I wouldn't have had one percent of the info I have now as far as recruiting. And, as a coach as well, I've learned so much from other coaches and contributors to the forums.

I plan on making a donation to the hsbbw today to show my appreciation. In the world of internet waste, this site is is refreshing and rises to the cream of the crop!

Thanks!
Joel Bratter
goMO

Joel - that is a very nice post - congrats to Matt and your family!

Think about how much you have learned in the process and now you will be one of the experts with some unique perspective in which to share. Add your experience to the thousands of others who post here and you simply have the best baseball site on the planet.

PS - I think you can change your signature line now

Congrats to Matt---he worked hard for it

Thanx for the kind words

Congratulations from one catcher family to another!!

Congrats from one Iron-Hlls family to another. I hope to make some of the Columbia games this year so when MO comes in I'll try to look you up.

Thanks Double Eagle. Hopefully we'll give you more of a game this year! Looks like its scheduled for Friday, 4/17.