15u questions

Hi. Welcome.

In my experience, all tryouts are all pretty much the same, at every level. Coaches will easily pick out the obvious stars and the obvious not-stars. The bulk of the players will be somewhere in between. Make sure you get there early and your son shows enthusiasm. That will put him ahead of most other players.

Next best advice - go where you're wanted, i.e. where your son has a good chance to start at his preferred position. This may not happen at the level you expect, or on the team you expect, but if you're flexible there will be a spot for him. Don't pin your hopes on a certain team or program, because they may not be the place that will maximize his skills. Forget prestige - play where you can. It's all a sorting process, with a funnel that gets narrower and narrower the higher you go.

Keep your expectations for freshman baseball very low.

Good luck and have fun!

I would try to find a way to ask this:  given that there are tryouts and kids have to "make the team," how will they run the team?  If there are 5 MIF, will they share time sort-of equally?  Or will it be run like a HS team where the best 9 play, and the rest get garbage innings?  If the latter, where does your son fit?

At 15U and 16U we saw kids/families who seem to have expected to start every game, or pitch several innings a weekend, drop out when that didn't happen.  My guess is that there was no communication about this at tryouts.  For sure paying a ton of money, plus travel and hotel, to pitch one inning a weekend was not what they signed up for.

Is there off-season training and development?

Start following PBR Okla and NOC Enid Jets Baseball on Twitter. Look for tryout camps on JuCo campuses. There is no hurry on attending one but as soon as you are ready go do that. NOC Enid has a camp in the summer (or fall) that is a prospect camp for all HS age players. Other schools have coaches at this camp too so it’s a chance to be seen by 6-8 OK JuCos at one time. Highly recommend doing this.

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far!! How big of an issue with his high school not being that good of a team? It is not a big name baseball school but moving is not an option.

@Richeyd80 posted:

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far!! How big of an issue with his high school not being that good of a team? It is not a big name baseball school but moving is not an option.

Not an issue.

Players are mostly recruited through travel programs. A college coach might never contact the high school coach. The college coach is going to see the player play first hand in travel against much better talent than the typical high school team. College coaches are busy coaching in the spring. If there is a call to the high school coach the questions are more likely to be a about leadership, citizenship and keeping up academically.

So it is important to pick the right travel team to get to the next level?

@Richeyd80 posted:

So it is important to pick the right travel team to get to the next level?

Nope, it is important to develop the talent so the player can get on the right travel team. 

If I could rewind and go back I would focus more on getting better first. Lessons, skills development, velocity training, weight training first. After he hits puberty then the right travel team matters. 

I have a buddy in Catoosa, his son is at NE OK State. He may be able to provide some details more specific to that area or in general.

@Shoveit4Ks posted:

I have a buddy in Catoosa, his son is at NE OK State. He may be able to provide some details more specific to that area or in general.

I am on the eastern side of the state

@BOF posted:

Nope, it is important to develop the talent so the player can get on the right travel team.

^^^^^^^  *******

@BOF posted:

Nope, it is important to develop the talent so the player can get on the right travel team.

If I could rewind and go back I would focus more on getting better first. Lessons, skills development, velocity training, weight training first. After he hits puberty then the right travel team matters.

Now that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for that!!!

If the player has college potential the right 17u travel team finds him.

100% important to start with training, especially with an eye to college.  But, you still have to play some kind of baseball in 15U summer.  Other things to keep in mind are these:

- will there be players who are better than your son on the team?  Is he the kind of player who likes to play with better players, to push himself?  Even if it means less playing time?

- There is a huge range of 15U baseball teams and tournaments; if the team is playing in marshmallow tournaments so they can win, that can be fun, but not very challenging; if they are playing in high-level tournaments where they are completely overmatched, that can be discouraging, but also good for players to see good opponents.  Try to get a sense of what these levels are before you go to the tryout, then ask where the team will play.

- does the coach communicate well, both with the boys about baseball, and with parents about how the team will be run?