@DanJ posted:There might some value in polling the HSBBW population here. A) did your kid ever garner comments like "He'll be D1" or "He's a D1 talent"? B) did he end up going D1?
My kid sure got comments like that. By just about every coach he played for. One spent several years in the minors, is still a stud athlete and is quite possibly the smartest baseball mind I've ever come across. So multiple people with resumes sent comments just like that our way and from a very young age on. Just last November, my son signed his LOI to go play JUCO ball this fall. He still has a shot at playing D1 ball after JUCO, but that's still TBD. He did get some good interest from a couple D1 schools, but obviously it wasn't good enough. In my mind, those comments you're hearing are cancerous. Or at least CAN be. When taken with some humility and humbleness, they can give you warm fuzzies. And who doesn't like that? But take them seriously and they'll have you straddling the fine line between optimism and entitlement. My son ran in to at least some struggle with letting go of the bright lights of D1. Thankfully, he was able do so and see the incredible opportunity that he DID have.
Hey now that's great insight.
I have older kids who will play college sports. One of them dominated in 10U-12U and will go on to play D3 in college. It was very hard for us to scale down our expectations. Took years, but reality is here. And it's 100% fine. More than fine.
So maybe the question should be - what makes a D3 vs mid D1 vs high D1 vs pro player? One amazing pitch that can fool batters and a couple mediocre ones? Ability to mix pitches that all look the same at delivery? Change of speed? Two sets of pitches? Overpowering speed? Lots of height? Seems like someone should be able to draw up a matrix with probabilities.