A reminder to you and your sons

KD:
Thanks for sharing.

Good stuff KD

My son is on the baseball team at Arkansas and I can tell you athletes have a very difficult schedule. Early morning conditioning, classes afterwards, then afternoon/evening workouts. Doesn't leave much time for studying let alone a social life. They have to be very disciplined to get it all done. At Arkansas they have mandatory study hall 6 hours a week and they are tracked very carefully to make sure they are attending class. But this is solely for the purpose of what happened to KD's friends son. If you don't maintain a certain GPA you lose both your athletic scholarship and academic scholarship if you have one. The college life of an athlete is very different and much more demanding than a regular student. They are held to high standards. But it's all worthwhile to be able to play college ball!

quote:

Originally posted by KellerDad:
this young man is 18 years old, old enough to be in Iraq right now

But not without supervision. You all know that there is a chain of command in the military, and part of command responsibility is welfare of the troops. I believe that part of the baseball coach's responsibility is welfare of his players.

Ultimately the student is primarily responsible for his class work; but IMO the coach bears some responsibility for not staying close enough to his players and knowing that this student was at risk.

I have a friend at Arkansas Little Rock.

Can you imagine the stress of not doing well and worrying about not being eligible to play and or lose the scholarship ?
In the ball season they miss tons of classes and have to study on the road. You have to admire the student athlete who can hold it all together with a schedule like Eastlefty describes. I don't know how they do it.

KellerDad,
That is extremely important information you have provided. This, unfortunately, occurs with more frequency than we might think, and with very good students in good situations.
From what I have seen, the coaches do stay on top of this. They meet with the student, they tell them the consequences, they even keep them out of practice. However, the student has to get to class. The coach cannot take them and the student has to do the work, the coach cannot do it for him. Usually, the student does keep the coach in the "dark" about the things going on.
Some reasons to know about:
1. Joining a fraternity. Nothing is more incompatible for a freshman baseball player than rush and all that this entails.
2. Gambling. ESPN isn't doing anyone a service. There are folks staying up all night, most nights, gambling. They then end up with multiple issues include lack of sleep, not attending class, failing grades,and a pile of debt.
3. Video games/the internet played or used to the exclusion of anything and everything besides baseball.
I am not suggesting these are the reasons here. They are reasons some very talented players ended up in situations similar to the one described here.

I would add a #4 and 5, the two reasons why my college didn't go as well as it should have.

4. Girls.....enough said.

5. Alcohol and other items on the same list.

quote:

but IMO the coach bears some responsibility for not staying close enough to his players and knowing that this student was at risk.

Unfortunately College Baseball is a business like every other college sport and the players are the assets. In my business, if the asset under performs...human or otherwise, it is eliminated. From what I have experiened and witnessed coach's with few exceptions "stay close". They (the coaches) have some systems in place but each school, program operate differently. As a parent you better get involved and also understand the expectations and the consequences. Hopefully the kid has it in him/her to do the right thing, have their priorites straight and have parents to check on them to assure the asset is performing. After all they are there to get an education and hopefully their skills improve enough to get a look beyond.

To assume that a kid who "coasts" through high school, will translate into a comfortable little ride through college is the biggest mistake made--by the parents. Sorry, folks, this is our job.

Parents need to be able to evaluate their kid as to each one's ability to handle the acdademic rigors and the athletic commitments. If you think he/she can't handle both--again, not using HS as a barometer--he/she has no business playing baseball (unless, of course, that's their meal ticket).

If we spent half as much time aligning our kids with the right school academically as we do aligning them with the right baseball/softball program, maybe these "surprises" wouldn't be as frequent.

Good topic, Doug.

quote:

Originally posted by justabitoutside:
To assume that a kid who "coasts" through high school, will translate into a comfortable little ride through college is the biggest mistake made--by the parents. Sorry, folks, this is our job.

Parents need to be able to evaluate their kid as to each one's ability to handle the acdademic rigors and the athletic commitments. If you think he/she can't handle both--again, not using HS as a barometer--he/she has no business playing baseball (unless, of course, that's their meal ticket).

If we spent half as much time aligning our kids with the right school academically as we do aligning them with the right baseball/softball program, maybe these "surprises" wouldn't be as frequent.

Good topic, Doug.

Thanks for posting this topic, I had my son read it and it really opened his eyes to what can happen.

I too think this discussion is valuable, but a kid that stops going to class will fail most everywhere....true? It is certainly important to find a good academic fit, but it usually comes back to motivation, foundation, and appropriate priorities. College kids get askew on occasion....kids serving in Iraq do as well. The differences in supervision are obvious. You won't find many military-like situations in college baseball programs ---- so do a good job before they get there!

Being a college baseball player this is tough to hear...I go to one of the toughest engineering schools in the country and I couldn't imagine not going to class. In order to pass at Mines I had to study almost 30 hours a week last semester and go to class and baseball workouts everyday. You must be dedicated to play college athletics I hope the young man talked about above is dedicated enough to fight back and regain his eligibility in the future.


Our coach doesn't stand over our shoulder and make sure we go to class his only concern is that we are enrolled in the minimum 12 hours to remain eligible other than that the classroom is our responsibility.

quote:

Originally posted by minescatcher18:
Our coach doesn't stand over our shoulder and make sure we go to class his only concern is that we are enrolled in the minimum 12 hours to remain eligible other than that the classroom is our responsibility.

Wow! Accountability and responsibility! The way it should be. Congrats and good luck mines!

Mine is a college freshman and I check his grades online and frequently check on how classes are going, offering advice on how to stay in teachers' good graces, etc. In our situation, we HAVE to have that scholarship to pay for his college, so it's in my best interest to make sure he's doing what needs to be done. This is new territory for them - college life - and throw in the demands of baseball too - I think it's necessary to keep up and make sure they learn to handle it. Just because I check on him doesn't mean he isn't learning a few hard lessons on his own. Last semester, he overslept for a final exam (one he HAD to pass to pass the class) and he got a good taste of responsibility - mom and dad couldn't bail him out.

I'm bumping this topic up after a year and a half, as I heard some stories that mimick this post within the last few weeks.

Baseball players that excelled on the field but didn't bother to go to class or show up for finals. It's an important conversation to have with your son before he heads off to school in the fall.

I've lost track of the original young man, and have sent an email off to his dad checking on him. I hope he was able to get his life straight and back in baseball, but I have a gut feeling he is one of the few, the proud, the Marines....

Great post

Nothing wrong with the USMC