Playing Division I is the dream of every high school baseball player. And why not? Those are the colleges that get seen on national TV, vie for the College World Series in Omaha and deliver standouts to the top of the draft boards.
"If you want to play college baseball, you want to play Division I," Lee-Davis grad Hank Parsley said.
In Wednesday's Virginia High School Coaches Association all-star game, however, five players represented the Metro area, and not one is headed to a Division I school. The VHSCA all-star game was delayed because of rain in the bottom of the fifth inning with the East leading 2-0. The game resumed, but finished after press time.
"I'm going to Ferrum because I decided I wasn't ready to give up baseball," Parsley said.
Like many players who give up the dream of Division I just to keep playing, Parsley found that there are perks to Division III he would not have gotten at a Division I school.
Parsley says Ferrum's tuition is about $34,000 a year. But he got an academic scholarship to cover about two-thirds the cost. Cosby's Christian Hamlett, who will play at Hampden-Sydney, got a scholarship covering half of Hampden-Sydney's $40,000 tuition, he said.
Had either gone to a Division I school, they wouldn't have gotten scholarships nearly as valuable. Division I baseball teams are limited to 11.7 scholarships spread across the entire team.
That means almost no one gets a full scholarship, and many players get as little as 25 percent. Student-athletes can often get more money going Division III than Division I.
And while the University of Virginia might be the best program in the country, it's not the only ball club near Richmond that wins almost all the time. Christopher Newport University, where Atlee's James Walsh will play, went 39-7 last year.
In the end, Hamlett said, baseball players just want to win.
And they can get that opportunity, even if they don't go Division I.
Or Division II or III. Powhatan's Kurt Taylor is headed to Pitt Community College, and Manchester's Augie Ayers to Louisburg Junior College.
Both are known for their prestigious baseball programs.
Hunter Ackerman, who pitched at Cosby and Clover Hill, went to Louisburg and was selected by the Cubs in the fourth round of the 2010 draft. Lonnie Chisenhall, a third baseman for the Cleveland Indians, played at Pitt.
Whether players are looking to win, get drafted or get a scholarship, all those options exist outside of Division I. And plenty of Richmond players are taking that advantage.
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