Tagged With "freshman"
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
IMO, the following are the priorities: 1. Academics (you didn't mention). Immediately (if you haven't done so already) focus on his HS academic path. Injuries, girl friends, life - each can derail baseball; but nothing derails good grades earned in the most rigorous academic environment. Academics are the only sure fire way to maximize his potential college options. Most likely, he's too far away from college to begin marshaling coherent thoughts about preparation and an involved parent...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
How is hit bat? exit velocity? is he lifting weights? I see your in Georgia which seems like it would allow for more PG events, I would explore higher level travel teams. I have a freshman also and we let our son play with his friends on a good competitive team up until 8th grade but we didn't go to big events and he realized as well that he needed to move up in competition. We might not get to a perfect game event this summer as the big Texas travel teams at 15u tend to concentrate more on...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
Pretty much agree with Goose. Grades are just as important, if not more, as baseball skills. Usually the first question a college RC or HC will ask is for ACT/SAT scores and/or GPA - assuming they are interested. The NCAA minimum GPA to play is 2.0 (individual schools may require higher), but most coaches prefer higher like 3.0 or better. At this point I would concentrate on academics and making the HS team. It's not the end of the world if he is not on varsity as a freshman. The varsity...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
Welcome you have come to the right place. Great advice so far. 1. Make a plan and work the plan. - Figure out what schools and interests your son has for college and make a list of schools that match those. 2. It is early but find someone you respect who will give you an honest assessment of your sons skills and projectability . (note this is someone who does NOT want to take your money) 3. Once you get an idea of his skills and school interest then you can start to review the college review...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
Don’t throw spaghetti off the wall to see what sticks. Have a business plan. The hard part right now is where he projects for college ball. Those compliments he’s receiving are based on further development. But they may be tracking his progress. Pat some point figure out what college conference is viable for his future. Then select teams within those conferences that could be baseball and academic fits. Social and cultural fit is important too. Make a list of about fifty potential programs.
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
Welcome to the site. Great info from others as usual. You have found a great resource as guidance for your and your son's future path as it relates to baseball, high school and college, among other things. OK, on one hand, he is getting consistent compliments from a variety of sources and levels about his advanced skill set. On the other hand, he hasn't played an inning of HS ball and "Outfield gets kind of dicey because he doesn’t have much experience out there so tracking fly balls can...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
Sorry have to butt back in here....Cabbagedad, I guess things are flipped in GA, the OP doesn't live far from me. Triple crown has a strong presence at 14u and up . The super elite teams play only PG, and only play about 6 tourneys because that can get costly. For most 14u and up teams here if you aren't playing PG that weekend you are likely playing Triple Crown. USSSA is dead here after 12u, TC and PG are where the older kids play.
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
One other note that refers to what some here have mentioned. I started down the recruiting path about the same time you are. The summer after 8th grade, our youth coach told us my son had the potential to play college ball, and to pitch varsity as a freshman. When he actually pitched varsity as a freshman, I figured the guy might know what he was talking about, so called a friend who was a former D3 baseball coach and athletic director. I bought him drinks and picked his brain about travel...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
That's good to hear, actually. I do some contract work with them and they still have made minimal inroads in the Western US with the older groups. I'm not saying they aren't able to put some teams/brackets together for older groups on occasion but they are not to the point where many RC's are taking the events seriously out here. I know they have a couple featured events in Atlanta for HS age clubs but if you scroll through their 2018 tournament events on their website, probably 90+% are...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
Wow, I like that "closed file" reference. I don't think I've ever heard quite that perspective before. That's a great piece of relevant substance for the directive of "don't show until you have something to show".
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
May-July is when 15u and up play here. I took a look at the site and they seem to all open to high school age teams during that time. They are also usually Wood Only, which our guys like. It surprised me to hear that USSSA was so big in other parts of the country when I first joined this site. They aren't even mentioned after 14u here, and most stop playing by 12u.
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
I have never seen your son, but he is about the age when he can start to put on real muscle. Get him in the gym lifting weights, get him into speed/agility drills. For the gym without a trainer (or limited use), look up Eric Cressey's "High Performance Handbook". Colleges want athletes. This is on top of baseball work. Read this site. Use the search bar for threads that are of your interest. And like RJM said, have a business plan.
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
We’ve never had his exit velocity checked. Something I will definitely look into. The only thing I’ve ever been told is that he has extremely fast hands. We went through a year long rebuild after one of his coaches tried to slow his hands down and ended up getting his entire batting stance off. He’s been doing weight training with the HS team since school started in August, before that he worked out regularly with a PT. There’s a lot of good tournament teams around this area so I’ll be...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
One of the best "gifts" a parent can give her/his baseball-playing son is the understanding that an ambition to play beyond high school doesn't stop at developing as a player; or, even at also becoming an accomplished student in the classroom. Accepting responsibility for a sizable chunk of one's recruitment is an important sign that the player is truly dedicated to achieving his dream and mature enough to step up to the task of having a significant hand in determining where he ends up after...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
It is however very difficult for these kids to find that time if they are multi sport athletes. And if they are not from a wealthy family and have to work. My son works or has baseball practice every single day plus lifts every day after school. Sometimes he works 12 hours on saturdays. He has two jobs and sometimes works one in the day and other at night on saturdays. There is homework as well. And every once in a blue moon we like some family time. It's all well and good to say the parents...
Reply
Re: Single mom of a freshman catcher looking for some helpful tips
Sounds like your son is developing a lot of the skills he will need for success long term — hard work and prioritization. My 2018 doesn't work as much as yours, but otherwise, he lives much the same life. It is a team effort early on, and we had the same arrangement as you to start, with me doing research and bringing it to my son. We used his email address to send video, and I admit, we worked together to write a sort of templated email, and then the two of us took turns sending them out.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Great post. We don't get the perspective of the current player enough here... thanks for doing that.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Excellent post, one of the best I've ever read here. Great advice. I'll add one thing...get your school work done. Freshmen year is the toughest adjusting to the work load.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
That is an awesome post and I really enjoyed reading it. From my perspective it was on the mark on almost every point.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Wow! That’s one of the best posts ever made here. Results may vary based on the demands of your degree. But there is time for a social life. All the teammate and baseball stuff is dead on. I was standing outside a hotel one night when a university logo’ed bus pulled up. On the bus was a friend and former teammate of my daughter I hadn’t seen in a year. We chatted for a while. Then she was called. She smiled and said, “I may be leading the country in scoring. But I’m still a freshman. I have...
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Ok, I'm in my 50's and I believe I was just put away by a 19/20 year old who is in more touch with baseball reality than I could ever be. And to think my kid distorted the truth a bit when he told me how college was.... . Great post.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Thanks for the insight! I’ll be sure to share with my soon-to-be college freshman!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Had my jr. to be read it and he said it was remarkably accurate. Now we're giving it to his frosh to be little bro.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Blud15, Priceless! ! We need more of your hands-on wisdom! Keep posting!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
God bless you BLUD15. Son who just finished frosh year as well felt it was very accurate + from the heart. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with those that are getting ready to face what you just went through!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Hey BLUD15! Anything on texting your parents every now and then?
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
They are going to need things form y'all and y'all will need to know things from them. I wouldn't expect daily communication because things do get busy during the school year but several conversations a week is about the norm, I would say.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
This is great and so very timely for me! Thanks Blud I'm copying and emailing to my 2019 son who leaves in a month! Great advice.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Required reading for all rising Freshmen! Thanks so much for the post, and all the best to you!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
My son (rising college Soph, just like you) read it, agreed with everything. Very good and accurate post. Best of luck to you this year!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Thank you! This is so awesome! My son will be a freshman this Fall and I’m sure it will be helpful.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Fantastic post and concur it should be required reading for any incoming freshman. Well done!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Great post. I'm guessing that at nerdy D3 colleges "your mileage may vary" on some of these points like social status and parties, but there's alot of universal truths there too. I passed it on to my rising Frosh. Thanks!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
My son had official visits with 3 “nerdy” HAD3 and one HAD1. One of those nerdier D3’s was the biggest party school he saw and it totally turned him off.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
I think the thing that surprised our whole family is how much there are actually two teams in college baseball — a team of pitchers, and a team of everyone else. My son headed off to college with a teammate from HS. They lived on the same floor, about three doors apart, one is a pitcher, one a MIF. We would ask our son "how's the SS doing?" "I don't know, never see him." Heard from the other boys parents that they got the same thing in reverse. Just something we really didn't expect.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Great post!!! My son only communicated when he needed something! lol Other than that "crickets"!
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
You can't believe how hard balancing school and baseball is, in a nutshell. Your basically working two full-time jobs.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
With all due respect, the biggest party weekend I ever experienced in my college years was on the Harvard Yard my Freshman year with high school friends from there, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, and Williams. Partying is virtually universal on college campuses of all stripes, colors, and levels.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Mileage may vary with any STEM major at any level. I know what my kids put into being science and math majors and playing. Engineering is more challenging.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Party school? Dartmouth is located in Hangover, NH according the the students. Every school is what you make it.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
This was a great post and I’ve had my future freshman read it. Thanks for the assist.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
Don’t wreck a scooter and stay outta the HC’s office. (son wasn’t great at either)
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
I have searched this site and the web but really can’t find much info. I know all schools have fall ball and this how the team is finalized. Is there a schedule any where, is it mainly inter squad? The NCAA site said the coaches get 8 hours per week, is that right? Any info would be appreciated.
Reply
Re: Advice for Incoming College Freshman
I went back and looked. Our fall schedule was announced Aug. 31 and included three JUCO games and an intrasquad tournament, along with a scout day.