If your son is headed to a big division 1 school out of high school, how can you get him on a summer team in the alaskan league? Does anyone know how this works or have any experience with it as far as how long it lasts and what it is like?

TX, they are assigned by the coaches to those leagues in the fall/winter of their freshman year for the following summer.

Graduated seniors generally play with the 18U group.


It starts the day after they finish college season...(most try to sneak a week off).

They play about sixty games in sixty days.

Almost like the minor leagues with food on a broken down bus after the game minus the $1,100 per month.

There are some really excellent posts about the pros and cons of the various college leagues here.

Do a search on "Alaskan League"

..it looks to me like there are two thread just like this.

Someone trying to tell me something?

quote:

Almost like the minor leagues with food on a broken down bus after the game minus the $1,100 per month.

...and I can't understand why my kid isn't bugging his coach everyday to sign him up.

Guys, for any league , junior has to be recruited by the team's coach, it's like the early signing, best players get recruited earlier in the fall. It's not for everyone, they play about 42 games. Good luck.

bobby ...

quote:

for any league , junior has to be recruited by the team's coach,

Not quite sure to which "coach" you are referring ... the summer league coach? the college coach? If you are referring to the summer coach and inferring that the player has to be recruited by the summer coach, I would beg to differ with you. Our experience with our son and with other college players we know is as follows:
>>Freshman year, was told in January that he was being placed in the Alaskan League; college coaches had actually secured a spot for him in the fall but didn't want to tell him that at the time; team he played for had strong affiliations with his college coaches ... 2 of them had actually coached for the Alaskan team in the past.
>>Sophomore year, played in the Cape AFTER a referral from his Alaskan League pitching coach who was supposed to coach in Hyannis that summer but elected to go back to Alaska. Son was kept on the Cape roster based on the referral. His college coaches didn't have many affiliations in the Cape, but did place at least one player a summer there.
>>Several teammates and friends' sons played in the leagues that their college coaches had affiliations with and some played in new leagues (Hawaii and Texas) in the recent past.

So based on my experience, the summer coach is not the one who recruits the player ... at least not in the majority of the cases we know. Instead, the college coaches help secure the spot. Some players do contact summer coaches themselves, especially if their college coaches do not actively pursue summer placements for their players.

As far as it not necessarily being for everybody ... I agree with you there, but we have found that almost every player we know personally who went to a summer collegiate league benefited from the experience, either from the extra at-bats or innings pitched facing strong competition from players they won't ever see during a college season. As long as a player is interested in pursuing a summer league, I personally believe it is to their benefit. If they aren't interested for whatever reason ... many of the players who spent their school year far from home elect to not play in the summer ... that is their choice and they generally seem to make the best of their situations as well as those who play. Just a matter of personal preference and desire.