@ILoveBaseball04 posted:Some odd things have happened on the route to HS tryouts and that leaves us wondering...how much of high school tryouts actually come down to the tryout itself?
Particularly when dealing with a very large high school with teams at every grade or nearly every grade, a couple of things seem obvious at this point - the coaches have community contacts they can tap, the kids all have a footprint having played for various (often local) teams at this point (and Gamechanger to the extent one trusts it
), and how often have coaches already seen various kids lifting, participating in camps, and open workouts...
Curious what experienced folks think about this.
In the case of my two oldest sons, the high school tryout was a significant event. My oldest sons were going to go to a specialty high school on the other side if the County. The baseball coaches (and players) had no idea who they were and what they could do until tryouts. Our county allows for 8th graders to try out for JV High School.
My youngest son had the challenge of trying out for one of the two most loaded programs in the County. The school is a mile up the street from our house, and had a successful/knowledgeable Head Coach. He did have the advantage of attending open gym for weight lifting, and running. Participation in open gym was optional, but attendence was kept so that gives you an idea of how optional it really was. Because of his older brothers, he was somewhat of a known quantity.
In their case, the high school tryouts did come down to the tryout itself which is what it should be.
JMO.