“He started once and played 7 innings total. He had the chance several times to show off his arm in RF throwing people out at 2nd and throwing to 3rd to hold the runner. He made two diving/sliding plays. Batting he was almost perfect on being productive 100% QABs, all line drives to the gaps and was quickly gaining on the total number of hits the Senior had that played RF all season long.”
All in seven innings! Wow! And the Army brags they do more by noon than most people do in a day. It appears your son put forth a Herculean, all state effort in seven innings!
For a coach who is a jerk he was more complimentary of your son over seven innings of play than my son’s good coach was over an entire all-everything career.
RJM, My son played all of the JV season, in 3 years this was the first year he was allowed to start in the field. He was mostly used as a DH prior to this season and would rarely play the field and even if he was in the lineup and on the field he was without a doubt always pulled first to sit. He has lead the team in offense every year and even won an mvp. He is a great outfielder, and that is something the coaches did not know until they actually let him play in the field. This year for JV he batted high 400 avg and slg a high 700, last year was about the same and the year before. At summer ball Perfect Game (were he played up two age levels) he lead his team and varsity team mates in stats and he started every game with his varsity team mates. This year at the end of JV he moved up to varsity, my son batted 7 times, and played RF 7 times, he had 4 line drive hits (2 doubles), one line drive out and 2 walks. The current senior right fielder had 12 total hits for the whole season. My son did great in right field getting 2 of the 3 outs in two innings. He threw a player out who tried for 2nd after hitting the ball down the line and to the side fence. he made one diving catch and one sliding catch, he did make a great throw to 3rd to hold the runner( hard throw on a line). The last time the senior threw to 3rd it went 20 feet high over the fence at 3rd. I am not picking on the senior, he is a good guy, just not a top 12 player in the program.
So RJM, my son made the most of the balls hit to him and pitched to him every inning. I have stated on here for 2 or 3 years now that my son plays hard and gets good results, and if a coach wants to win, why do they choose not to play certain players. I am no fortune teller but as he has went along he has shown year after year that he can play at that level and do it well. We like the compliments from the coaches but how blind do you have to be to make a statement that they didn't know he could hit so well! Playing RF I understand, (sort of) they never let him play the field, but now they think he is great at it.
Saw this on twitter last week, "If you have a problem with your kid's HS coach, check these boxes before complaining:
- Does my kid spend 10 hrs/week doing extra work?
- Yes he works with me and has lessons, HS practice gets in the way.
- Does my son pound the weights?
- Yes he works out everyday at school and has made great gains, the football coach brags on him.
- Does my son want this as bad as me?
- We have had the conversation about if he wanted to quit any year. He has stressed to me that he wants to play as high as he can.
- Does my son compete in practice?" I hope so, I quit going to HS practices the coaches just confuse me. He works very hard a travel ball practice.
His attitude is good, he has manners, he is top 2 in grades on the team and he is the only player that is in STEM. He hustles on and off the field, tries to finish his conditioning first to show how hard he works.