My son too, has been flying under the radar and I just don't get it. He has spent alot of years preparing himself for the next level. For the past seven/eight years he has given up weekends, holidays, vacations all for the love of elite travel baseball. We have spent hundred of hours and thousands of dollars in lessons to get him there. I have seen him outperform the starters but still rcvd no playing time. In fact he played 4 games out of 28 (he played more games in one weekend playing travel than he did this whole season) He has the 5th best batting average (458) but only 21 at bats (whoopie). I'm not all about having my son play all the time every inning of every game - but know the players and know that subbing my son in and out of a game would have never lost the game. There was 28 players on the team and the same 9 played the whole season while the others played only during a blow out or a DH B game. This coach has inflated the egos of 9 and robbed the other 19. My son is a utility player played 3rd base in travel and was placed his only 4 games in the outfield (does it matter if it is L/C/R ? it is still the outfield) As far as behavior issues, he is well liked, no detentions, 3.0 gpa, responds well to criticsm, very coachble, cheers for the players but received no opportunities or time! Don't give me "you have to hustle and try hard to get noticed" because how can only those 9 players have it and the other 19 all be slackers? Our coach never looked at anyone after first game of the season. The starters are in fact good players however; there definitely is no skill discrepancy or lack of effort between those on the bench and those on the field!
So Tell me, what is it that we can control here? You can't control the politics. You can't control chemistry between coach and player. You can't control your size. You can't approach the coach - such boldness would surely get your kid labeled. You can't control the the inflated egos of coaches, players, and parents. Just what is it you can control?
Sorry for the rant and thanks for listening
inally posted by zombywoof:
quote:Originally posted by KnightTime:
You can't be serious, can you? I can't tell if this is sarcastic or serious.
Actually, it's quite accurate in what's written here. HS coaches do make a lot of mistakes. , There's booster club parents who's kid could get a slight edge unless he's a legitimate star. Then it don't matter who's on the booster club. Younger brothers of star players coming into a system are at an advantage Also, these coaches may not know the players they got as well as those who coached them before the HS coaches got them. Quite often, there's players who get an opportunity who clearly arent ready and there are others better suited who get screwed for one reason or another, even at the HS level.
However, things out of a players control such as success of the team. If the team's going well, the coach may be less likely to make changes or open up opportunities where if a team's struggling, the coach might give more shots to players to prove themselves. Sometimes timing is everything.
My son somewhat flew under the radar for about 2½ seasons until the varsity coach brought him up late in the season for very limited action.
I gave him some advise going into this season. I told him to to continue play the game right, be smart, hustle, hit the snot out of the ball as he always has, and make the coach look like an idiot for not playing him. Make it that it's the team's loss for not playing. He already knew that though. He just needed a shot.
My kid went basically from role/part time player in the preseason to full time starter batting 3rd for varsity by time the season started.
So while there may be things the player can't control, there are things the player can control and if they show they can play, some of them will get their chance to prove it.
My son had a small window to prove himself, didn't have the luxury of getting called up as a young player and make his mistakes. Nobody handed him anything. He took advantage of his opportunites and made the most of it. That's all they can do.[/QUOTE]