D3/JUCO programs

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Jul 14, 2017
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What D3/JUCO colleges in the NE/SE have good softball programs?


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marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
What D3/JUCO colleges in the NE/SE have good softball programs?

That is a wide, wide range and a huge geographic area - and you are in general talking about two very, very different type of student and student athlete.

D3 and JUCO are not equivalent levels of softball or least really hard to compare - even within D3 conferences and JUCO conferences. It is REALLY diverse.

Can you give us a little bit more info to narrow it down. What criteria are you looking for? What kind of student? I could probably name 200-300 programs pretty easily based purely on softball - but that is not going to really give you any real information.

To give you an idea lets look at 2 very different programs... Both great softball programs but very, very different.

MIT in MA currently has a fantastic DIII softball team. Academically as you can imagine the player profile it is pretty incredible. There is also NO athletic money - it is all academic. Right now they are probably as good as a mid-D1 program, but would struggle against the top 50 D1 programs. Finsihed really high in DIII NCAA last year

Chipola in FL has a fantastic JUCO softball team. In general a lot of D1-level athletes have played here for 2 years before moving onto different 4-year D1 schools after for a variety of reasons (close to home, improving profile, etc, etc). They are also getting athletic money - in general full coverage of tuition. Chipola most years are more than capable of holding their own aganst very good D1 programs. Have won JUCO national championships

For a high school player there is probably not a lot of players (actually probably none) who would be looking at both programs. It is two very different types of person (not necessarily better or worse or anything - just different with different profiles and goals)
 
Last edited:
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
I agree, too big of range. You could get answers anywhere from a couple hundred to none.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
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Dallas, Texas
I agree what was said before.

The NJCAA (Juco Athletic association) is divided into 3 divisions. Division 1: Scholarships for everyone! Division 2: Only a few scholarships. Division 3: No scholarships.

The top NJCAA D1 teams would probably beat most NCAA D3, about 2/3 of the D2 teams and about 1/4 of the D1 teams.

(NOTE: The west coast states have their own juco athletic conferences.)

Here are the top 20 NJCAA Division 1 teams for 2018.

1 Florida SouthWestern State FL 48-3
2 Chipola FL 46-1 (Finished 2nd in 2018)
3 Temple TX 34-5 (Won the 2018 championship)
4 Butler KS 43-3 1
5 Tyler TX 47-6
6 Central Florida FL 49-9 150
7 Indian River State FL 41-11
8 Southern Idaho ID 40-8
9 Eastern Arizona AZ 47-8
10 Seminole State (OK) OK 40-3
11 Wallace-Dothan AL 53-3
12 Chattanooga State TN 46-8 90
13 Howard (TX) TX 34-7-1
14 Indian Hills IA 43-8 70 17
15 Salt Lake UT 31-12 60 18
16 Seminole State (FL) FL 49-11
17 Wabash Valley IL 43-8
18 Yavapai AZ 45-10
19 Iowa Western IA 42-8
20 Northeastern Oklahoma A&M 32-10
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Last Fall Chipola beat Mississippi State, Tennessee, and IIRC had LSU beat until bottom of last inning. When Jake was at Chipola she threw against SC and it took 10 innings to resolve the matter 2 - 3. She got an offer the next month. This year another NJCAA pitcher of the year from Chipola, Krystal Goodman is headed to Alabama. These results are certainly not typical but shows the possibilities. D1 JUCO ball in Florida is unlike any other state. They often have up to 24 full ride athletic scholarships including housing, food, books, tuition, some even pay for your parking decal. Also in Florida they are not 2 year Community Colleges, they are 4 year State Colleges. I have had some players get their AA while in High School, then earn a Bachelors Degree in 2 years while playing NJCAA, then move on to an NCAA/NAIA school and get started on their Masters. Like we say, it does not matter where you start, it is all about where you finish. :)
 
Jul 14, 2017
181
28
Thank you for the responses and please excuse my broad question. In all honesty, we have no idea where to start her search and as an incoming sophomore- I fear that we are already a bit behind.

My DD has no specific major at this time. Her overall average was a 91% this yr.

For financial reasons, I am leaning towards a JUCO to start with.

Knowing that many of you have been through this process before, I thought it would be a good place to get some ideas.



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Jun 11, 2012
741
63
DD is going to a D3 in downtown Boston in the fall. She has a specific major in mind and wanted to be close to home but in a city. Boston was the perfect choice. We toured all the schools in the city with anything close to her major early junior year (she had already been emailing coaches in the area with her major and had narrowed it down to wanting to be in the city). She took the lead from there, she liked a few schools, hated one and loved another.
The school she chose has a great coach, does well in their conference and has a great program in what she wants to major in.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Thank you for the responses and please excuse my broad question. In all honesty, we have no idea where to start her search and as an incoming sophomore- I fear that we are already a bit behind.

My DD has no specific major at this time. Her overall average was a 91% this yr.

For financial reasons, I am leaning towards a JUCO to start with.

Knowing that many of you have been through this process before, I thought it would be a good place to get some ideas.

You are NOT behind. Don't ever think that. Everyone's journey is different. Non-student athletes are generally not even seriously looking until their junior year. JUCO's don't recruit until most kids are seniors because they often get players who don't qualify for their 4-year school or decide they want to stay close to home and so on. A lot fo D3's NEED SAT/ACT scores before they recruit you and so on. The #1 JUCO last year (Florida SouthWestern) probably watches 3-4 games of ours each season to keep tabs on some of our players but he told us flat out that most of our teams GPA's likely mean they are not for him. One time he told us to call him when they are all finishing their junior year..

With needs based money and so on, don't limit your search at the beginning. Nothing wrong with the JUCO route, but keep an open mind. There is a LOT of money out there. And I mean a lot. If you dig hard you can find all sorts of funding. I have been at D3 where they tell you tuition is $65k, but when you get all the figures, the average out of cost for students is less than $10K.

A good place to start is websites such as College Confidential - https://www.collegeconfidential.com/ where you can put in various criteria and you will get lists of colleges that match. Things that are important - location, size of school, environment, public/private, coed, urban v rural v college town, distance, academic standards, selective, diversity, religious v non religious, liberal v conservative and on and on and on. These are things that MAY be important things.

You also need to go see a few campuses - finding a college is a process of elimination. Your DD learning what she actually likes versus what she thinks she likes. When they are 13 a lot of them want to 'go away' for college - but many by the time they are 17 will reconsider and want to stay close to home. And it might sound sunny and great in Florida until you get there and it is 110 degrees or that snow and cold is awesome and pretty in New England until it is -10 and your car doesn't stop when you push the brakes.
 
Last edited:
Dec 2, 2013
3,409
113
Texas
The #1 JUCO last year (Florida SouthWestern) probably watches 3-4 games of ours each season to keep tabs on some of our players but he told us flat out that most of our teams GPA's likely mean they are not for him. One time he told us to call him when they are all finishing their junior year..

To add on to this. When speaking with this coach this week at the JO Cup he said that he is looking for players that can play at a high level beyond Juco and Marriad is right. He is looking at 2019's right now. Jucos have to wait longer until all the D1, D2 players have been scooped up and see what is left. Depending on the program the players that can play D1 that play Juco either were under recruited, not seen, late bloomers, grades, money, coach got dropped, etc. There is a player that went to Georgia in the fall but ended up back home in the spring of 2017. She is a high level player that played at well known local Juco last year and did very well. Maybe she will be back at a P5 D1 in a year or sooner?

There are plenty of competitive D3's in the NE, but you have to be able to get in academically. Williams, Amherst, Tufts, MIT etc. Do your research and then narrow your choices. SE and NE have probably 300 schools in the D3 and Juco world.
 

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