We won't have tryouts until mid March. Winter workouts are just starting here. Son's currently trying to juggle the overlap between a winter school sport and off season baseball training for school and travel for the first time ever as a sophomore. I hope the overlap of the two sports did not put him behind as far skills development. He been lifting and doing sprint training so I think he's good there. But I'd be interested to hear other parents experiences with whether or not they felt playing another sport and doing very little off season baseball training helped or hurt.
Unsure if he will remain on JV or get moved up to Varsity. He will likely sit on the bench on varsity so perhaps JV is a better option for playing time
I do wonder since the competition is so weak in JV if it hurts more than it helps as far as seeing good pitching. He would start there at his primary position like he did last year. He's gained about 20 lbs of muscle since last spring and most likely will remain average in height and statue.
I am definitely proud of the young man he is becoming. Doing very well in school too.
I just started reading this thread. Freshman year son played varsity soccer, JV basketball and JV baseball. He knew he would be playing varsity baseball soph year. As basketball season came around people were asking if I thought my son would be the starting varsity point guard.
I came home from work after trying to a kid slouched on the sofa looking like someone shot the dog. He not only didn’t make varsity he was cut from the program. He said he would talk to the coach the next day.
A half hour later I ran into the varsity basketball coach in the grocery store. The look on his face was I was the last person he wanted to see. He was also a friend. So he was honest about something he normally couldn’t say. It was against the rules even though everyone knew it was true.
The coach didn’t like multi sport athletes. He wanted kids committed to basketball. During my son’s high school days the only two sport athlete on his roster was 6’7” 220 and all state in two sports. He’s now a veteran NFL edge rusher.
The coach cut my son for never attending off season “optional” workouts and not playing on his summer team. My son was busy playing travel baseball in the summer and other sports in the basketball offseason.
I’m finally getting to what getting cut did for him. Once my son got over the shock he was happy he didn’t have to get up at 5am anymore for the 5:45 before school off season baseball workouts for athletes playing other sports. Baseball and basketball made for a long day.
Rather than running off pounds playing basketball he bulked up doing more weight lifting after school than he had time for in the morning. He also did baseball skills and agility training. He lived in the gym after school. He got himself from 135 to 160 over four months. He was eating a lot too. He had just grown seven inches. I believe the weight and strength had him driving the ball harder. He knew he was going to start varsity. He made all conference soph year. I believe the vast improvement was the focus on the off-season preparation for baseball. Heading into junior year his off-season workouts with a top hitting instructor turned him into a D1 prospect. I paid to have an instructor tell my son what I had been telling him for two years. But he was tuning me out.
He also played in the town rec basketball league. It was a very competitive league. An all star team would have been good enough to win a 2A or 3A conference. Our high school was 6A. A lot of talent got cut from the basketball program. The high school coach allowed JV and varsity non rotation players to play. My son enjoyed outplaying them.
