Reply to "Question about High School Tryouts"

quote:

Originally posted by YHF:
My 8th grade son will be trying out for Freshman ball next week. He's coming off a knee injury (in addition to having Osgood Schlatters). He finished physical therapy for his knee injury just a couple weeks ago and his doctor told him to work his way slowly back into catching.

How would you coaches suggest we handle his injury situation.

YHF, am I understanding correctly that your son is an 8th grader and trying to play up on a high school freshman team? Assuming that's true, I wouldn't rush anything, or expect too much.

I don't know the philosophy of your HS coach, but don't get too upset and use the injury issue if your son gets cut from a high school freshman team while he is still in 8th grade. Remember, he would be taking a roster spot away from a true high school freshman, and many coaches, including me, would be very reluctant to do that. In our program, we want as many young kids as possible, and that means keeping as many 9th graders as possible. We don't know how freshmen will develop physically or mentally by the time they are juniors or seniors, or who will end up dropping out of the program due to injuries, grade issues, behavioral problems, playing time issues, loss of interest, etc.

Our school district does not allow middle schoolers to play high school ball, so it's not an issue in our program. Even if we didn't have the district restriction, I would probably not allow an 8th grader to take a roster spot, unless I had a very low number of 9th graders turning out, and couldn't fill a freshman roster.

I can wait for the 8th graders to arrive and develop when they're freshmen. It doesn't matter to me how an 8th grader helps our freshman team win. Even if the 9th graders are bad, we still need to develop players at every position at every grade level. That helps our program as a whole. The point of freshman and JV teams should be to develop players, not necessarily worry about being solid at every position or win every game. I know everyone wants to win, but varsity ball is when winning counts. That's just my opinion and perspective as a high school coach.