Basketball and football at the high school level is far advanced beyond where baseball is. That is especially the case in our geographic area. At most schools baseball is an after thought to the three other major sports, basketball, football and s****r.
The basketball program at Whitney Young replicates a college experience and is sponsored by NIKE. The same is the case for the basketball program at Simeon as well as at a few other select CPS schools. These programs are highly disciplined and have a high coach to player ratio. At Whitney Young the coach to player ratio is 1 coach for every 3 players. They have coaches who specialize in every aspect of the game and are on the bench during game situations and providing the players with direction and strategy. That is a huge teaching advantage for any program to have and is a key missing ingredient for most high school baseball programs.
Consequently, it is no accident that the Simeon and Whitney Young basketball programs consistently rank among the best in thea area. I have watched with great interest as my son has been one of the players in this program for the last two years. I believe that there is a lesson in all of this for high school baseball to improve.
The Whitney Young Sophomores last night advanced to the City Championship Game which will be played at the UIC Pavillion on Saturday at 5:00 pm. The opponent is another NIKE sponsored team, Simeon. It was Whitney Young and Simeon last year for the city championship at both the Freshman and Sophomore levels. It is no accident that these teams are at the final dance. For the Sophomore team at Whitney Young, the team today will have a team practice immediately following school, then check into a downtown hotel, this will be followed by a team dinner at Tuscany on Taylor hosted by the school principal Dr. Joyce Kenner; tomorrow morning the team will have a team breakfast, review tapes take in a movie and then change into dress shirts and orange ties and take a charter bus to the UIC Pavillion.
This week the Whitney Young boys varsity got to the final four and played in a televised game at DePaul McGrath Arena. They lost to Washington, but the entire program was in attendance wearing their NIKE apparel as they supported the Varsity team. Last night the Lady Dolphins of Whitney Young won their State Sectional Game played at St. Ignatius and will advance now to the Super Sectional to be played at Loyola University. Girls basketball Varsity Coach Corey Irvin is among the best coaches in the area. Once again this kind of success starts with a solid program and excellent coaching and good raw material; i.e. players who want to work hard and excel at the game.
Perhaps MLB and the league teams in major markets need to look at sponsoring high school baseball teams just as NIKE is doing. The MLB could select programs that are focused on improving diversity. That is perhaps the best way to advance American athletes into the upper echelons of the game. It all takes money and sponsoring select high school baseball programs can provide a good return on investment and that is what it is about. The CPS schools would be an excellent proving ground for this type of a strategy. So CPS are you with me on this?
Every business (and baseball is a business) wants a good ROI on its investment dollars.