I do not have one but love reading it every year. Let's start with your son's grade, what level they play (middle school, 9th grade, jv or varsity), position, school if you would like to share (some of my favorite people on here are ones I've met in person by being at the same tournament or going to watch their kid play or vice versa. During the season, keep us updated, good or bad. This is one of my favorite parts of the message boards every year. GO!
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I’ll start: sophomore (2022) playing first year of varsity. We are a slightly below average team in baseball rich Southern California (CIFSS). Could be a rough year as there are more 2022’s in the starting lineup than seniors.
12th grade, varsity, SS, GA, Class A-Private. 1st scrimmage is 2/6 and 1st game is 2/10. Trying to figure out how to slow down time, while taking 1000s of pictures AND watching every second of every game (and making a living). Good luck to all!
2022 Varsity SS/RHP in SE PA. Had a great freshman year and has worked hard over the winter, even while playing JV basketball. Tough school schedule plus basketball plus baseball has proven to be a wake up call for all of us. Can't wait to see how his sophomore year on the diamond goes.
Son is a senior. School lost in Texas state finals 6A classification last year. Son hit third all season, missed school record for hits by a couple. Was All State first team pitcher by sportswriters, second team by another group of voters. Went 13-2 /1.17 era with 118 strikeouts in 95 innings. Six of his wins were in the playoffs.
Team looks to be just as good as last years team, different but probably just as good. Besides the final game, they only lost one other playoff game. Even so, it takes a lot of breaks to win five consecutive series to make it to the final four. It would be hard to believe if it all happened again.
Practice starts last week of January. Scrimmages start about two weeks after that. Looking forward to it getting started.
- Senior OF
- Tryouts/First day of practice was Monday
- Intersquad World Series 1/31 - 2/1
- First scrimmage against another team 2/8
- First game 2/13
Someone told me that 6-8 opponents ranked in the preseason top 50 (depending on who you ask) so it will be a fun year.
-2024 C/OF going to school in South Jersey (last year of middle school baseball -- thanks for the invite, PitchingFan)
-aspiring (and working his tail off) to make varsity next year at a Philadelphia INTER-AC school (just got his HS acceptance letter today!!!!)
- First day of practice in NJ is March 6, 2020
-MS team was strong (for small private school in SJ) last year, but is very young this year - not much established pitching. I'm wondering what my son will do if asked to pitch. He's not pitched more than an inning (and that very rarely) since he was 10 and had little league elbow.
Son is sophomore catcher in NorCal - Sacramento area. Team won their league last year and 2 rounds in the playoffs. Returning many kids and should be very competitive. Son will either be back up varsity catcher or starting JV catcher. Starting varsity catcher is 2021 and already committed. Probably best player on the team. I have heard our pre-season schedule will be much tougher and we need that.
Son is a sophomore middle infielder/RHP at Perry High School in middle Ga. Team is holding tryouts as best they can - been raining almost every day this week. So don't know what level if any he will be. He swims also - so has been juggling practice and meets this week. They went two deep in the playoffs last year so a pretty good team.
edit to add:
Son made the team. He is in the middle of Varsity and JV. We will see how he does going forward....should be a fun year.
Son is a Senior RHP. First scrimmage is beginning of February. We lost 3 starters from last year, which were very big contributors, but should still be solid. We will have 6 D1 commits, a D2 commit and a Juco commit. We lost in the 6A semi finals last year. We have a weak conference and a very strong playoff field so we will see how it all goes.
Sophomore at 5A (second largest group of schools in Texas). Last year 10-0 on mound 2.00 ERA and never topped 84 (wrote 6-3 so many times in score book...........). Hit 385 batting. Team went 3 rounds deep. Played SS and CF when not on bump.
Preseason top 10 in most polls. Will pitch and play SS, 3rd, 2nd, and CF depending on whoever else is pitching (I guess versatility is good, although he LOVES just playing CF in the summer). Hopefully we'll gel as a team, and our 10 deep will stay healthy.
Hope everyone has a great and healthy season. Enjoy it goes SO FAST (seems like oldest was just at this age, and he just finished 4 years at a D1).
You have no idea how envious I am of everyone who posted already. we live in CT and pitchers and catchers is two MONTHS away. You are all so lucky..... Son is a 2020 LHP/1B, middle of line up hitter. We lost our ace to Duke and word is he may be a weekend starter this year. Our high school is in currently enjoying its best run of baseball (past 4-5 years). This years team will be good, has a chance to continue this run but we really have to see how it all comes together. The conference lost a lot of 2019 talent to D1's and the draft so competition will not be as stiff which is not a good thing for development.
Son was recruited to pitch in D3 but he's hoping they see him as a two way player. He is planning on a big spring, been in the gym 3-4x a week since early September. Don't know how I will fill the next two months.
I get to see both my kids play HS ball together this spring. 2020 is a RHP, and 2022 is a RHP/IF. Our games don't start until April though.
Son is a 2020 RHP...... team consists of 1 D2 , 3 D3 pitchers and a D1 catcher and SS. This isn't too bad for our small Northeast Ohio conference. JV coach moved up to be the V coach after previous coach's contract wasn't renewed. Son commited to a OAC D3 and he is ready to get on with his last season. Team made some noise three years ago in the state tourney, but have struggled to get back. Hopefully this year they can get back on track.
My kid is a just turned 15yo freshman in a very baseball rich environment area of Florida. 4 state ranked, one of which was nationally ranked in the top 10 on max prep in the area and his school was not one of them last year. Very good Soph class with two D1 commits so far. He has been around serious competition on Travel ball and the local babe ruth league has two teams that made final 4 in national tournament. I have kept him out of travel ball and babe ruth all stars for the past two seasons to work on his flexibility and strength on the field. The boy has an 18 year old explosive arm on a maturing body (5 ft 7 and 130 pounds). He hit 87 on the gun at practice the other day and got a proud holy s%34 moment from the boys watching the bullpen session. I have only been keeping his arm loose and doing bullpen and long toss with him myself. Coaches in travel and Babe Ruth tend to burn out young arms and I wanted my kid to go into high school as a freshman strong and very well rested. He has pitched live maybe 20 innings over the past two season with no more than 3 innings in any one outing. Im not blowing an arm like that out so some coach can win a tournament or two. He runs a 6.75 60 and has an exit velo of 88 from the outfield. Its fun to watch him throw out players from CF on a regular basis at first. He can play but i dont want him sitting if he happened to make varsity. I have him finally signed up for some PG and UA showcases to get him seen and he will attend a couple of summer one day camps locally to see how he matches up against competition. Cant wait until he hits 18 to see where he is at.
2023 Catcher/RHP. Will be varsity catcher for a solid prep school in FL. I’d be shocked if he got to pitch this season as the backup catcher really isn’t much of a catcher. I personally think his pitching days are behind him.
There have been 9 kids (8 D1) go on to play college ball the past 2 seasons. This season will be a somewhat of a rebuild. 4 D1 potential 2022’s and 4 D1 potential 2023’s will make the starting lineup. The schedule probably won't have a lot of W's this year, but if all these kids hang around they should compete for a state championship in 2-3 years.
Not really sure if my son will be a D1 prospect or not yet. He’s grown significantly this fall and added a ton of speed and strength. The other kids have offers or will soon.
2023 catcher in a small private single A school. Catcher ahead of him is a senior that is committed to an SEC school. He's either going to be the backup catcher at varsity or starting catching for JV (or both). I think I like the idea of having him do both rather than just be the backup catcher in varsity. He can have the varsity experience and learning from the starting catcher while having playing time at JV. Starting catcher also has a great arm pitching so will probably be one of the pitchers. My son may get to play varsity when he's pitching. Very young team as they graduated a lot of senior last year, mostly pitcher. My son is not a pitcher but he can benefit with the starting catcher being one of the remaining good pitchers.
Tryouts all this week. Varsity and JV roster will be announced either end of today or tomorrow morning. Season starts first week of Feb until mid April. Son played JV last year and learned a lot. Thankful for a small school as (1) he gets more playing time; (2) opportunity to play more positions (he plays infield also); and (3) encourages multi-sports athlete (early morning football workouts starting this week also).
2020 SS Varsity at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville. He ramped up his workouts after committing last summer. Swing is improved and he is faster/quicker due to those workouts.
Good group of seniors on the team and we should be competitive albeit in a modest conference with the exception of one other school (Baylor School). Need pitching - ever heard that?
2020 SS / RHP Jacksonville, FL Last year of high school baseball before son heads either to college(UF) or possibly begins professional baseball career. Trying to soak it all in. Seems like yesterday he was the young freshman and now he's the Sr.
2020FLDad posted:2020 SS / RHP Jacksonville, FL Last year of high school baseball before son heads either to college(UF) or possibly begins professional baseball career. Trying to soak it all in. Seems like yesterday he was the young freshman and now he's the Sr.
CH?
Yep. I thought that was you Herb.
hshuler posted:2020FLDad posted:2020 SS / RHP Jacksonville, FL Last year of high school baseball before son heads either to college(UF) or possibly begins professional baseball career. Trying to soak it all in. Seems like yesterday he was the young freshman and now he's the Sr.
CH?
Chick Hearn? (or ghost of..)
GA 2020 OF JUCO commit, as other 2020 parents have posted, hard to believe the ride is almost over, truly passed in a blink of a eye. As each "last" comes and goes the reality sinks in. Having watched my son work hard to go from the scared freshman playing varsity hitting 8th as an average player/kid, to hitting lead-off since his sophomore year and helping his HS make the finals last year has been a hell of a ride. Upcoming season team doesn't look as strong as last year but never know until its over, just hoping for him to have a successful memorable senior season with his buddies before moving onto the next level.
Go44dad posted:hshuler posted:2020FLDad posted:2020 SS / RHP Jacksonville, FL Last year of high school baseball before son heads either to college(UF) or possibly begins professional baseball career. Trying to soak it all in. Seems like yesterday he was the young freshman and now he's the Sr.
CH?
Chick Hearn? (or ghost of..)
Chick - Is that you?
Best wishes to you guys this spring. Tell Lil Chickie that we said good luck!
2022 will not be even trying out for another two months. Large public HS in(arguably ) the toughest conference in the State. It's a dogfight, here. He hopes to make JV...I would guess only one or two of his class will make V. Unless you are really good, very few SO make V here. The worst thing is if they bring up a fast SO kid to be a pinch runner, and he ends up rotting on the bench for the year. I prefer that my kid gets lots of playing time, wherever he ends up.
Very, very few Freshman ever make V. Maybe 2 or 3 a decade.
Excited about the season, as a new coach is coming in. Very good baseball man. Was a 1st round draft pick, and had an extensive Milb career. Charismatic guy who "gets" kids, and knows what it means to be a top athlete.
We are expecting 9-12 " of snow today and tomorrow.
Son just called to let me know he made varsity. He’s pretty pumped. He’ll mostly sit behind the starting catcher but he will he able to start some game’s when the starting catcher pitches.
2023 with tryouts 3/2. He has been told by a lot of people outside the school that the coach doesn’t move any freshman up. I’m ok with that. I’m going to try and enjoy the moment.
57special posted:2022 will not be even trying out for another two months. Large public HS in(arguably ) the toughest conference in the State. It's a dogfight, here. He hopes to make JV...I would guess only one or two of his class will make V. Unless you are really good, very few SO make V here. The worst thing is if they bring up a fast SO kid to be a pinch runner, and he ends up rotting on the bench for the year. I prefer that my kid gets lots of playing time, wherever he ends up.
Very, very few Freshman ever make V. Maybe 2 or 3 a decade.
Excited about the season, as a new coach is coming in. Very good baseball man. Was a 1st round draft pick, and had an extensive Milb career. Charismatic guy who "gets" kids, and knows what it means to be a top athlete.
We are expecting 9-12 " of snow today and tomorrow.
Being on varsity and sitting most of the time can be better than playing JV or freshman ball. He would be practicing with higher skill level players. It places a little pressure of expectations on your son. He would be around more focused players. He would be more focused. He would be showcasing himself in practice to make getting on the field a given for the following season. If he’s on a quality travel team he will get plenty of playing time in the summer.
Kid's school only has spring season. Tryouts are in March. The JV team from last year has started hitting in the gym. There are many winter sports players like mine from last year's roster so it was not a great showing. I think the coaches understand that.
57special posted:2022 will not be even trying out for another two months. Large public HS in(arguably ) the toughest conference in the State. It's a dogfight, here. He hopes to make JV...I would guess only one or two of his class will make V. Unless you are really good, very few SO make V here. The worst thing is if they bring up a fast SO kid to be a pinch runner, and he ends up rotting on the bench for the year. I prefer that my kid gets lots of playing time, wherever he ends up.
Very, very few Freshman ever make V. Maybe 2 or 3 a decade.
Excited about the season, as a new coach is coming in. Very good baseball man. Was a 1st round draft pick, and had an extensive Milb career. Charismatic guy who "gets" kids, and knows what it means to be a top athlete.
We are expecting 9-12 " of snow today and tomorrow.
Your post <———— Like
9-12” of snow <——-dislike
2022 C/UT in GA, 7A school, perennial contender. Will almost certainly be starting C on JV, with no V time seen unless something happens to (D1 commit, top 10 in nation) starting V catcher. More than happy to see him work JV and keep building strength/skills for summer and beyond.
First V intersquads were last Fri night, son caught some of it. Was a blast to watch the guys shake the cobwebs off.
Son is a sophomore (2022) catcher playing second year of varsity. We're in the (NJ) Shore Conference. Team last year lost more than they won - but many of the losses were by 2 runs or less. Some more offense and a few less key errors in the field and their record would have been much better. Personally, I'm looking forward to this season. Assuming everyone stays healthy and performs up to expectations, they're going to have a very strong starting staff and the offense should be better. A winning record is more than possible. This season and next season may be their best window to make some noise. The pitching pipeline is not promising and all the big arms will graduate before 2022.
Could use some advice here from some of the crafty veterans who have been through the high school ball thing. Yesterday was the first day of practice/tryouts for my son, 2023 C. My son has played travel ball for the HC for 2 years and has a great relationship with him. The coach is very new school with a lot of things he teaches. So yesterday my son meets the new C/P coach and he immediately lets my son know he's an old school guy and starts changing up his stance and receiving back to the old school way my son was taught when he was 10-12 years old. My question is, would my son be out of line for asking the new C/P coach if he can show him the way he was taught by his private catching coach? My son is afraid the coach will think he's trying to show him up or something.
TerribleBPthrower posted:Could use some advice here from some of the crafty veterans who have been through the high school ball thing. Yesterday was the first day of practice/tryouts for my son, 2023 C. My son has played travel ball for the HC for 2 years and has a great relationship with him. The coach is very new school with a lot of things he teaches. So yesterday my son meets the new C/P coach and he immediately lets my son know he's an old school guy and starts changing up his stance and receiving back to the old school way my son was taught when he was 10-12 years old. My question is, would my son be out of line for asking the new C/P coach if he can show him the way he was taught by his private catching coach? My son is afraid the coach will think he's trying to show him up or something.
He could certainly set up a meeting but in my experience, old school coaches don’t change and they aren’t open to new ideas...especially the ones who tell you they are old school. It may be a frustrating few years. The only success my son had was trying the coaches way and then saying that he really liked the other way better and it felt more comfortable. He sat the bench for a year but he doesn’t try to change him anymore.
Your son is probably in the best position to decide how to approach this with his coach. It will be his relationship going forward. He is the only one who has all the info and context from working with the coach. And he has to live with the relationship going forward. Trust him to work through it.
Go44dad posted:Your son is probably in the best position to decide how to approach this with his coach. It will be his relationship going forward. He is the only one who has all the info and context from working with the coach. And he has to live with the relationship going forward. Trust him to work through it.
He's asking for advice on how to handle the situation. He's concerned the coach is going to form a poor opinion of him for letting him know he likes the other way better.
That is a surprising dilemma. Most new school guys would not hire an old school guy to be an AC. If he has such a good relationship with the HC, maybe the avenue is to just have a one on one with the HC that what he has been doing for him for 2 years is not what the new C/P coach is making him do. My son went through it in a different sport but the school paid to send him to Mark Richt QB camp when he was at UGA. I paid half and they paid half. He came home and started practice the next day. When he began to do the drills that they had taught him at the QB Camp, the QB coach told him no we don't do it that way and made him do it his way. My son came home so frustrated. My son and I went to see the HC in private that afternoon and told him what had transpired that morning. We were good friends and I told him if they wanted him to do the coach's way then they owed me my half of the camp because it had been a waste. He said he would handle it and talked to the QB coach and explained that they had sent him and wanted him to do it the way the camp had taught him. He taught all the QB's the drills that day. It was a couple of days of sarcastic comments but everything was good after that. I would have my son talk to the HC for advice. I would not bring private coach into it. That is a no no to almost every coach, especially old school guys. If he says anything to c/p coach, it would be this is the way I have learned to do it but I would have him talk to HC first.
TerribleBPthrower posted:Could use some advice here from some of the crafty veterans who have been through the high school ball thing. Yesterday was the first day of practice/tryouts for my son, 2023 C. My son has played travel ball for the HC for 2 years and has a great relationship with him. The coach is very new school with a lot of things he teaches. So yesterday my son meets the new C/P coach and he immediately lets my son know he's an old school guy and starts changing up his stance and receiving back to the old school way my son was taught when he was 10-12 years old. My question is, would my son be out of line for asking the new C/P coach if he can show him the way he was taught by his private catching coach? My son is afraid the coach will think he's trying to show him up or something.
My two cents your son has three choices - Ignore the coach and keep doing it the way his private coach taught him, listen to the HS P/C coach and do it the coaches way or speak with the coach and find a solution. I would advise against straight up ignoring the coach, and I am sure you would agree. Your son clearly doesn't want to do it the old school way. So that leaves speaking to the coach which you seem to also know is the proper course of action. As noted above you can't be the one to have this conversation. A Freshman vs an old school coach is not an easy convo by any stretch but that's the situation in which you find yourself. Its a tricky convo. IMO, your son needs to explain he's been taught both ways and over the past two years he's gotten very comfortable with his current approach. He needs to explain why that is the case and he should ask the coach if its ok he continue with the stance that he feels gives him the best opportunity to compete. Maybe you can convince your son to approach it this way (if you agree). It takes an incredibly mature freshman though to execute this convo but unfortunately that seems to be where you are right now.....
PitchingFan posted:That is a surprising dilemma. Most new school guys would not hire an old school guy to be an AC. If he has such a good relationship with the HC, maybe the avenue is to just have a one on one with the HC that what he has been doing for him for 2 years is not what the new C/P coach is making him do. My son went through it in a different sport but the school paid to send him to Mark Richt QB camp when he was at UGA. I paid half and they paid half. He came home and started practice the next day. When he began to do the drills that they had taught him at the QB Camp, the QB coach told him no we don't do it that way and made him do it his way. My son came home so frustrated. My son and I went to see the HC in private that afternoon and told him what had transpired that morning. We were good friends and I told him if they wanted him to do the coach's way then they owed me my half of the camp because it had been a waste. He said he would handle it and talked to the QB coach and explained that they had sent him and wanted him to do it the way the camp had taught him. He taught all the QB's the drills that day. It was a couple of days of sarcastic comments but everything was good after that. I would have my son talk to the HC for advice. I would not bring private coach into it. That is a no no to almost every coach, especially old school guys. If he says anything to c/p coach, it would be this is the way I have learned to do it but I would have him talk to HC first.
Thanks PF. This is great advice. My son was very frustrated yesterday. The HC has him teaching his younger travel teams a lot of his drills and mechanics, and then boom, back to the old school stuff. I know the HC and the AC are pretty good friends. I just figured maybe the HC wasn't paying attention to what his new assistant was doing.
TerribleBPthrower posted:PitchingFan posted:That is a surprising dilemma. Most new school guys would not hire an old school guy to be an AC. If he has such a good relationship with the HC, maybe the avenue is to just have a one on one with the HC that what he has been doing for him for 2 years is not what the new C/P coach is making him do. My son went through it in a different sport but the school paid to send him to Mark Richt QB camp when he was at UGA. I paid half and they paid half. He came home and started practice the next day. When he began to do the drills that they had taught him at the QB Camp, the QB coach told him no we don't do it that way and made him do it his way. My son came home so frustrated. My son and I went to see the HC in private that afternoon and told him what had transpired that morning. We were good friends and I told him if they wanted him to do the coach's way then they owed me my half of the camp because it had been a waste. He said he would handle it and talked to the QB coach and explained that they had sent him and wanted him to do it the way the camp had taught him. He taught all the QB's the drills that day. It was a couple of days of sarcastic comments but everything was good after that. I would have my son talk to the HC for advice. I would not bring private coach into it. That is a no no to almost every coach, especially old school guys. If he says anything to c/p coach, it would be this is the way I have learned to do it but I would have him talk to HC first.
Thanks PF. This is great advice. My son was very frustrated yesterday. The HC has him teaching his younger travel teams a lot of his drills and mechanics, and then boom, back to the old school stuff. I know the HC and the AC are pretty good friends. I just figured maybe the HC wasn't paying attention to what his new assistant was doing.
Old school guys just love it when you go over there head...... be careful. Not saying it won't work but its not without risk.
