Re: One of son’s travel teammates at a P5 …
Looking back it was obvious the head coach didn’t like his recruiting coach’s recruiting effort on this player. The head coach had his assistants try to change almost everything about the kid’s game. In the spring the kid received zero attention. He didn’t travel. The third time he was the only end of bench player not to get into a lopsided home game he went to the coach.
The coach told him at the end of the season he was going to be told he wasn’t going to be invited back. The kid asked why he wasn’t told after fall ball so he could transfer then. The fireworks started. He was cut on the spot.
I had coached this kid through 16u and watched him for two years in 17u. I saw him as a solid top D2 prospect. This P5 was his only D1 offer. The rest of the 17u team went D1. Every player had P5 offers. Maybe the kid played, “me too.” It was a mistake. A recruit and the parents have to ask themselves honestly, what does this program see that not one other D1 sees? The kid didn’t play freshman year, transferred to a mid major and sat for transfer soph year, got beat out for a starting position his academic junior year and quit baseball.
Had he gone D2 he might have starred. The problem I saw I was the kid was a physical early bloomer. By the time he was a senior in high school I didn’t see how he could get much quicker and stronger. My son and several travel teammates suspected the kid was on roids.