Well, this is it — the last of the redesigned D3sports.com sites is finally launching as we bring the new-look D3baseball.com into the world. And it’s just in time, more or less, for the 2011 Division III baseball season.

D3football.com, D3soccer.com, D3hoops.com got similar makeovers from our friends at PrestoSports. D3sports.com has turned from being a placeholder site with one story and a bunch of links into a place where can also give some coverage to sports such as lacrosse, track, softball, cross country and other sports.

I hope you will find everything you expect on our new site. Some of the archives are not yet brought over, but that process will continue. When I met with Presto last spring to discuss design, I told them the only thing we needed to keep was the logo, that which you see at the top of this page. But even that wasn’t the best look we could give it, so that’s been given a nice once-over. From a look and feel perspective, nothing else was sacred.

And this is what we have, finally, a modern news site worthy of the fine student-athletes and great sport that we cover.

If you have questions, please drop us an email at info@d3sports.com or use our feedback form. Or since this is our blog, you can comment here at the bottom of the page.

new site · preseason · PrestoSports · redesign

By Tom Kovic

The college experience is, in many cases, the most important four years in our children’s lives, as it will shape their future personal and professional direction. That being said, securing admission to a college or university that best match students’ desires, strengths, and aspirations is essential.

Whether it happens to be that long awaited home improvement project, saving for a summer vacation or preparing for retirement, I think we can agree that any worthy project will go through a “launch phase.” This phase consists of a time of dreaming, planning and targeting specific time-lines to hit as you begin to “execute” your plan. The same holds true in the college search for athletes and below are snapshots of general suggestions that might just help you along the way.

Gather Information
Gathering information is critical to the successful organization of any worthy project. Building a college recruiting information base can begin as early as the ninth grade as a family hobby and increasingly grow into a highly organized, disciplined project by the end of the junior year.

Begin by gathering information on the student-athletes colleges of choice including team and coach profiles, statistics, ranking, and academic offerings. Continue to update and maintain individual e-files on these favorite college programs.

Develop your initial college list
This is where the fun begins! You have built an initial knowledge foundation about the college search and you have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for in a college experience. Now it’s time to develop a grouping of institutions that potentially meet that end.

Peterson’s College Search (www.petersons.com/collegesearch) is a great resource where you can input specific information about what you are looking for in a 4 year college experience and up comes a listing of colleges and universities that initially “match.” Investigate both the general and athletic college websites. From there you can begin to put together a more detailed list of coaches and their contact information.

Build your Team
Parents, prospect, high school/club coach, college advisor, guidance counselor and a personal mentor could all be part of your team in the college recruiting process. Each team player will have a specific role to play in order to ensure the prospect’s best chances in navigating the college search with confidence. Advance goals should be set with clarity and purpose that compliment the organizational structure of the recruiting process.

By selecting the team approach, the responsibilities are equally distributed to the area experts. All assignments should be clearly spelled out and communication between the team members should be frequent and consistent. This will help streamline the college quest and assist in avoiding any confusion that could contribute to unclear thinking, misdirection and potentially poor choices.

Define Yourself: The Profile
It is important to streamline your portfolio into a comprehensive and efficient format that stands above the rest. Keep your profile simple, neat and professionally formatted. Make the job of initial evaluation easy for the college coach by highlighting pertinent information including:

• Personal and school contact information
• Academic standing, awards, and test results
• Physical characteristics
• Athletic clubs and level, showcase tournaments, and elite camps
• Athletic Statistics, Records, and Awards
• Mission Statement
• Coach’s Comments

Show your Stuff: The Video
A videotape, DVD or web stream are means of developing a first impression and trust me when I say that first impressions are remembered. Typically, a coach will roughly evaluate a recruit within the first 2 minutes of a video. They need to! Along with the hundreds of profiles, they are also being bombarded with hundreds of videos!

Make your video succinct, professional, and yet attention grabbing. Keep in mind that as individual collegiate sports differ, it is important to communicate with the individual college coaches about their requirements for DVD footage.

Develop your Plan
A knowledgeable consumer will have a clear edge in the pursuit of the attainment of any worthy product. I believe that the same holds true in the college search and I encourage families to make every effort and commitment to organize pertinent information regarding this process and to execute well-designed plans.

Develop timelines that will target general events in the beginning of the college search (making unofficial visits, maintaining your data base, and attending competitions) and continue with more specific events (compiling a video and player profile, communicating with coaches, and making official visits, etc.) as time progresses. This will increase the chances of “hitting targets” throughout the recruiting process.

Similar to a NASA Space Shuttle launch, the beginning phase of any college recruiting plan will be time consuming, demanding and require the greatest effort. That said, once you break free of that “gravity” and you remain persistent with your plan, you will give yourself the best chance in building and maintaining momentum toward your ultimate goal.

Tom Kovic is a former Division I college coach and the current director of Victory Collegiate Consulting, where he provides individual advisement for families on college recruiting. For further information visit: www.victoryrecruiting.com.

Copyright © 2010 Victory Collegiate Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

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It is great to see the support for all the teams and players here at Fox Cities Stadium. As game one got under way, I heard some excitement from the Cortland State crowd. Soon I was able to identify some of the supporters. Steve Assmann is here with his wife Nancy and his in-laws Pauline and Ron Tucker. They made the 14.5 hour trip from Auburn NY. Their son Mike was on the Cortland team two years ago, but did not make the trip to Appleton. This year, he is here at Appleton and the Assmanns and Tuckers could not be happier for Cortland and their son. I will follow-up with Steve and the group as they weekend progresses.

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INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division III Baseball Committee has released its postselection regional poll. The committee has ranked the top 15 percent of eligible teams in each region. The following teams, with records through May 16, were included in this week’s regional poll.

Central Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Buena Vista 29-9 29-11
2. North Central (Ill.) 26-9 31-9
3. Carthage 23-13 28-16
4. North Park 24-12 28-15
5. Ripon 22-11 24-15
6. Webster 28-3 33-9

Mid-Atlantic Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Johns Hopkins 34-2 38-4
2. Kean 30-7 34-10
3. Widener 24-8 25-12
4. Alvernia 29-10 32-10
5. Keystone 27-6 29-7
6. Rowan 22-11-1 24-14-1
7. FDU-Florham 31-10 33-11
8. DeSales 22-13 25-17
9. Penn State-Behrend 28-13 29-15

Mideast Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Heidelberg 34-6 37-6
2. Wooster 30-6 34-7
3. Marietta 24-10 32-11
4. Washington and Jefferson 29-7 32-10
5. Adrian 26-11 29-11
6. Manchester 21-14 26-19
7. Thomas More 30-12 31-14

Midwest Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. UW-Whitewater 33-4 38-5
2. St. Thomas 32-6 33-7
3. St. Scholastica 31-5 38-6
4. UW-Stevens Point 25-13 29-15
5. Concordia (Ill.) 27-6 31-9
6. Bethany Lutheran 28-10 29-11

New England Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Tufts 22-3 31-5
2. Wheaton (Mass.) 30-7 32-8
3. Western New England 31-10 33-10
4. Eastern Connecticut State 25-12 30-13
5. Worcester State 30-9-1 31-9-1
6. Keene State 21-13-1 26-15-1
7. Westfield State 30-9 30-9
8. Bowdoin 22-13 25-15
9. Curry 28-12 29-13
10. WPI 23-11 23-11

New York Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. SUNY Cortland 27-4-1 32-8-1
2. St. John Fisher 27-12 28-12
3. Oneonta State 25-11 28-11
4. Plattsburgh State 18-9 30-10
5. Rochester 28-12 29-12
6. Staten Island 29-11 31-11

South Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Shenandoah 26-7 34-8
2. Salisbury 23-10 27-11
3. Mary Washington 19-11 26-12
4. York (Pa.) 28-14 28-14
5. Millsaps 23-12 25-15
6. Methodist 24-13 28-14

West Region In-Region Overall Record
1. Chapman 25-5 30-9
2. Linfield 28-7 30-10
3. Pomona-Pitzer 27-7 29-9
4. Texas-Tyler 31-9 35-10
5. Mississippi College 32-6 36-9
6. Trinity (Texas) 28-6 32-7

[Note: The above rankings do not guarantee a team’s selection into the national championship.]

NCAA · rankings · regional

The NCAA Division III Baseball Committee has released its third 2010 regional poll. The committee has ranked the top 15 percent of eligible teams in each region. The first record is regional record, followed by overall record. Selection information, along with a postselection poll, will be posted Monday, May 17.

The first record is regional record, followed by overall record.

Central Region :
1. Buena Vista 26-9 26-11
2. North Central (Ill.) 26-7 31-7
3. St. Norbert 20-7 23-10
4. North Park 23-10 27-13
5. Carthage 21-11 26-14
6. Webster 25-3 30-9

Mid-Atlantic Region
1. Johns Hopkins 34-2 38-4
2. Kean 28-7 32-10
3. Widener 24-8 25-12
4. Alvernia 29-10 32-10
5. Rowan 22-11-1 24-14-1
6. FDU-Florham 29-9 31-10
7. DeSales 22-13 25-17
8. Keystone 24-6 26-7
9. Frostburg State 21-7 29-11

Mideast Region
1. Heidelberg 31-6 34-6
2. Marietta 22-8 30-9
3. Washington and Jefferson 27-5 30-8
4. Wooster 30-6 34-7
5. John Carroll 21-10 25-14
6. Adrian 26-11 29-11
7. Anderson 19-9 26-14

Midwest Region
1. UW-Whitewater 30-3 35-4
2. St. Thomas 28-5 29-6
3. St. Scholastica 27-4 34-5
4. UW-Stevens Point 23-11 27-13
5. Rockford 24-12-1 26-12-1
6. Concordia (Ill.) 27-6 31-9

New England Region
1. Tufts 22-3 31-5
2. Wheaton (Mass.) 30-7 32-8
3. Western New England 31-10 33-10
4. Eastern Connecticut State 24-10 29-11
5. Keene State 20-11-1 25-13-1
6. Worcester State 30-9-1 31-9-1
7. Westfield State 30-9 30-9
8. Bowdoin 22-13 25-15
9. Curry 26-12 27-13
10. WPI 23-11 23-11

New York Region
1. Cortland State 26-4-1 31-8-1
2. St. John Fisher 27-12 28-12
3. Rochester 27-10 28-10
4. Plattsburgh State 18-9 30-10
5. Oneonta State 25-11 28-11
6. Staten Island 29-10 31-10

South Region
1. Shenandoah 26-7 34-8
2. Salisbury 23-9 27-10
3. Mary Washington 19-11 26-12
4. York (Pa.) 28-14 28-14
5. Millsaps 23-12 25-15
6. Methodist 24-13 28-14

West Region
1. Chapman 25-5 30-9
2. Linfield 28-7 30-10
3. Pomona-Pitzer 27-7 29-9
4. Texas-Tyler 31-9 35-10
5. Mississippi College 32-6 36-9
6. Trinity (Texas) 28-6 32-7

NCAA · Regional rankings