collegebaseballrecruitingguide posted:I don’t necessarily agree that a high school kid needs to have a job in order to mature, especially as an athlete. If your athlete is aspiring to play ball at the D-1 or a competitive program at any college level, they are going to have to work far more (and harder) than a 2-hr practice after school when out of season. Oh...taking AP courses? Tack on time for that too. Look, I get it, everyone on this board walked 7 miles in the snow to school, barefoot no less, and that is what made them adults. But let’s face it, and this is for the parents of 2022-2023+ kids who aspire to play competitive HS and/or collegiate baseball: If they aren’t working hard on their game or grades, don’t gripe to anyone but yourselves that they didn’t have time to get extra practice in because they were bagging groceries. It’s a different world, and while I know there are always one-off exceptions, you are really kidding yourselves if you think any parent is getting their kid a roster spot because of the work ethic they showed by having a part time job.
...watched NFL Gametime or whatever it was a couple weeks ago. James Lofton was one of the studio hosts. In one segment, they flashed all time receiving yards on the graphics behind him. It showed "James Lofton 14,xxx yds", about 12th all time and also showed the couple guys above him in yards. He circles his yards and says "What you need to know about these receiving yards is that they were all up hill...."