Found myself thinking more about this topic last night: If you want to be the best baseball player you can, then you want a coach who will push you (and you have to push yourself). That means a lot of time on the field and in the gym (and you want a coach dedicated enough to be there with you).
But if you devote that much time to baseball, you probably can't also be a world-class concert pianist. (Yes, a handful of folks can do both. They are one in hundreds of millions.)
All of us go through life having to parcel out our time and energy--some goes to family, some to work, some to church or coaching or fishing... HS students are no different. There are 24 hours in a day--some portion goes to school and studying, some to athletics or other pursuits.
Seems to me what any caring parent wants is for their kid to find a balance--to challenge themselves and succeed on the field and off. If your kid truly has early-round draft pick talent, then he might focus more on baseball than on the classroom. (Or maybe he can accomplish both. In that case, I think my point about balance still holds, but the balance may look different.) For 99+% of athletes, education is the key to being able to earn a living as adults. Baseball is terrific and you want your kid to work hard and succeed there; but if push comes to shove, it's not most folks' top priority. (And this site is HSBaseball Web, not Draft Pick Web.)
A good coach wants that balance for his players, too. He's going to demand a lot from them, but not so much that it hurts their academic performance or their health. Like all humans, even a great coach is going to get that balance wrong sometimes. My posts here weren't meant to attack CoachB25--sounds like he was committed to his players and his program. I just wanted to ask: Does asking most HS baseball players to show up for very early workouts on school days have too much potential to hurt their performance in school? (I get that CoachB25's workouts were voluntary. But if a kid wants to play, he's going to try to show up for them.)
I mentioned this topic to my son last night. He reminded me (I had forgotten) that his HS team tried a few 7:00 a.m. workouts last winter. Son attended those, but not enough kids showed up and those that came strongly preferred evening workouts. I don't know if any parents expressed concerns last year (I did not). Sounds like my son's HS coaching staff made a call they thought was right for their program. I got no beef with that.