United State Collegiate Athletic Association

Practically everyone has heard of the NCAA and most people know at least something about the NAIA. But what is the USCAA? I must confess I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago when Jim Chester, head baseball coach at Penn State – Greater Allegheny told me about the United State Collegiate Athletic Association.

When Penn State – Greater Allegheny went from being a two-year college to a four-year college it, along with the other Penn State branch campuses, elected to join the United State Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). 

The origins of the USCAA date back to 1966 when athletic directors from the Lake Erie Conference and the Eastern Shore Basketball League formed the National Little College Athletic Association with 10 member schools. In 1989 the association changed its name to the National Small College Athletic Association (NSCAA).

In 2001, the NSCAA was reorganized and was renamed the USCAA. The USCAA is nearing 100 schools in membership and has two Divisions. Division 1 schools award scholarships and Division 2 schools do not.  For baseball, all teams play in one Division so both scholarship and non-scholarship schools compete for one title. The USCAA holds a national champion baseball tournament and names All-Americans and Academic All-Americans.  The 2010 USCAA World Series was held in Old Orchard Beach, Maine and was by all accounts a first-class tournament.

The principal advantage of playing in the USCAA versus NCAA D-3 is that there is slightly more baseball team allowed in the fall season for USCAA schools.  USCAA schools are allowed five weeks of fall practice (versus 16 dates for D-3) and three fall play dates (versus one in D03).

Both Penn State-Greater Allegheny (PSGA) and Penn State-Beaver (PSB) were ranked in the top 10 USCAA schools at the end of the 2010 season. Mike Visloski of PSGA led the USCAA in hitting and Greg Frederick of PSB led in strikeouts.

The PSGA program has been on the rise since the hiring of Jim Chester for the 2007-2008 academic year. The program had been winless in 2006 and 2007 and returned only 10 players for 2008.  Since his arrival they have averaged 27 wins while relying almost entirely on WPIAL players. The roster has grown from 12 players in 2008 to 30 players for the upcoming 2011 season.  Chester had a very successful 2010 recruiting class (landing such players as Zak Schmidt from Moon, Scott Dierdorf from Hopewell and Tyler Amrhein from Montour) and is a constant presence at WPIAL games and events.