Division III baseball season gets underway

By Dave Kisor

The preparation for conference championships and long tournament runs leading to the Division III Baseball Championship doesn't start with spring training; it starts with the fall "nontraditional" segment, essentially the first week of fall term classes at most institutions.

The 2009-2010 NCAA Division III Manual defines two playing "segments" of which one ends with the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships. This "traditional" segment is of course the spring season; however, this "traditional" segment starts the same day as the fall "nontraditional" segment. How can this be? As it turns out, the Division III baseball playing season is set at a maximum of 19 weeks. This is the combined total of time of the fall and spring segments, thus, the start date for Division III baseball, regardless of the segment, is set as "September 7 or the institution's first day of classes for the fall term, whichever is earlier." The fall segment must end on October 30th. In reality, what is typically called the "fall season" or "fall ball" is part of the playing season and optimizing the fall segment as preparation for the spring segment is the priority.

The NCAA limits the number of contests a team may have during the playing season to forty in the spring segment, here including games and scrimmages. For the fall nontraditional segment teams are limited to "one date of competition", so it is typical for the fall segment to include intra-squad "games" and other contests that are not official, as well as regular practices.

So what are the objectives of the fall segment? Head Coach Jeff Jenkins of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has clearly defined objectives. According to Jenkins, the first thing to accomplish is to "Get our new players comfortable with D III baseball and our program here at Rose-Hulman". For the given playing season and starting with the fall segment, it is clear that the new players are adjusting to many things, on and off the baseball field, so it is understandable that getting the players comfortable is a priority. As Jenkins states, "The players need to accomplish working baseball around a very rigorous academic schedule." The fact that the playing season starts at the time fall term classes start clearly puts the new D III baseball player on a steep organizational learning curve. When considering the fall segment relative to the spring segment, the fall segment can provide the opportunity for the coaching staff to determine the "make-up" of the team. As Jenkins points out, "Players will know where they are on the depth chart and what they need to do to move up that depth chart."

James Grandey, Head Coach at Bluffton concurs; "The fall is a very important time for evaluation and team development. We only get 16 days to evaluate our team on the field and see how our first year players compliment our returners."

As the team progresses in the fall segment, the groundwork is being laid for efficiency in the time leading up to the official contests. On the team level, coaching staffs are sharing their approaches to the game and giving the players vital experiences in "game" situations. "We put in all our drills, defenses, philosophies and the players know exactly where they are in our program." Furthermore Jenkins offers "the players have a comfort level with the program and the coaches."

Grandey states "[In the fall] we are focusing on improvements in all areas of the game. We are taking an approach to teaching many of the details in playing good team defense. With the weather the way it is in February [in Ohio], we are unable to teach a lot of details when we are practicing inside. So, we are taking advantage of the fall weather to emphasize cuts and relays, and other aspects of team defense that are difficult to teach indoors. We are also using this time to work on positional skill development, making sure we teach each position group the techniques we like to see them using and then reinforcing those techniques as the fall continues."

At this time, across the country more than 360 Division III teams are starting their 2009-2010 baseball season. Clearly, the fall "nontraditional" segment is a time spent preparing teams for the rest of the season. Grandey puts the fall segment in context saying "I don't think you can underestimate how the fall prepares players to play together and learn each other's strengths and weaknesses. It also allows the first year players to get their feet wet and have a better understanding of what college baseball is about."