Advice needed on high school baseball

I'd send him to the school that he can flourish best academically.

It's fun to win but baseball is a whole lot more than the win/loss record of the team. It's about the team. If he's in a quality summer program that's where he's going to get 90% of his looks from college coaches and recruiters.

Baseball ends. Academics don't.

bb-mom, sent you a pm...upper right corner, "Dialogs".

Stanwood,

While I agree that academics should be the deciding factor, I disagree that 90% of looks come from summer programs. It may well be that way in your experience, but its nowhere close to what happened to all but a very few players in this neck of the woods.

Ask your son. Ask him whether or not he prefers one on one attention or if he likes to in the back and figure it out for himself. It all depends on what kind of student your son is.

I think it's generally a mistake for families to go through the disruption of changing schools when the reason is principally baseball. College recruiters limit their recruiting activities during the high school season because they're coaching their own teams; and, because they're intent upon evaluating individual players, they tend not to get too wrapped up in who's competing for the state title (except to the extent that state title contenders tend to have multiple players worthy of recruitment).

They expect to hit the recruiting trail hard as soon as their college seasons conclude; knowing that there's plenty of summer and fall baseball being played to give them the evaluation time they need. For this reason, I think the more important choice from a purely baseball recruiting perspective is the choice of one's summer/fall team.

Best of luck to your son!

Guess we live in different necks!

Where will he have the best teachers and the best coach.  Winning is second to development.  

stanwood,

Baseball for HS aged kids is pretty much the same no matter where you go. I’m sure your area is much like ours where there are about 170 schools within a 50 mile radius, and that’s one heck of a lot of players. Just in our school district there are 9 full blown large High Schools, another 7 alternative schools, and a private schools within the boundaries of the district.

That’s one Hell of a lot of players, even considering we don’t have Fr sports at any of the schools. Assuming there might be 10 players at each school who could eventually play at the college level, that’s still one heck of a lot of bodies to try to fit onto the possibly 3 pretty good tournament teams in the area. Granted there are scads of mediocre teams that play in tournaments, but the only action they get from recruiters happens because they’re gonna get drilled by one of the better teams. IOW, its much the same paradigm as what takes place during the regular spring season.

Stanwood, Prepster and I must all live in different areas than Stats. Like most people on this board we all agree recruiting is about the summer team not the high school team. I never saw anyone but very local college assistants at high school games. Summer travel was loaded with college and pro scouts.

BB Mom we are also in Texas, DFW area.  High school ball is not that important to recruiting.  99% of looks for kids my son's age (17) came from being on good Summer Teams and going to top academic national showcases.  If you are in DFW area have your son tryout for top organizations like the Dallas Tigers, Dallas Patriots, Arlington As, Dallas Mustangs, DBat, FW Cats, etc . . . ,  That will get him the exposure and if he is good enough it will get him offers.  If academics are the most important make sure you send him to Stanford Camp and/or a Headfirst Camp.  Feel free to send me dialogue if you have more questions.  

I agree with the majority here.  The college aspirations are more directly tied to his talent level and make-up and matching that with the right combination of instruction, summer/fall organizations that go to the right events and the right showcases.

We've had a few kids come through our area over the last several years who have drawn a handful of recruiters and scouts to a HS game but that is definitely not the norm.  Those same kids playing in a fall Scout league or at a key showcase will easily draw five times the number of recruiters and scouts.

Since both HS options are outstanding academic schools, I would choose the school where he will have the best overall HS experience.  Baseball may or may not pan out in the long run.  Even if he is totally focused and talented now, things happen.  Injuries, new interests, girls, etc., etc.  He will always remember his HS years, regardless of which life path he ultimately chooses.