Article written by my son's former coach

This assumes the high school coaches are willing to put in this much effort for their players.  I know there are many that do, but I can't see it being a universally normal and average thing to do.

Wouldn't a summer coach be more likely to make the contact on behalf of the player?

Why does he bring being Jewish into the equation? Growing up I didn't see Koufax as a Jewish baseball player except when he wouldn't pitch on Yom Kippur. I saw him as a exceptional baseball player.

However, I am in the world smallest book. It's titled List of Jewish High School Football Co-Captains. What are the odds a large classification dominant high school football program would have two Jewish Co-captains?

We live in an era where there are too many labels. People now are almost professionals at being offended. Just see people as people.

i joke about the football situation because I never took offense to the stereotypes. If I wasn't ignoring them I used them as motivation to prove someone was a jerk. 

When I was told I lived in Jewville (a predominantly Jewish part of town) and my father drove a Jew Canoe (a Cadillac) I thought, "Yes, life is good."

Around the holidays our family celebrates Chris-mukkah, which some years translates to 8 days of presents followed by the mother-lode of presents. 

presont posted:

Around the holidays our family celebrates Chris-mukkah, which some years translates to 8 days of presents followed by the mother-lode of presents. 

Same here. My father is Christian. I married a Christian. All three cousins married Christians. That grinding sound you hear is our Jewish grandmother churning on a spit in angst in her grave.

He wrote the article for The Jewish Community Day School Network, hence the Jewish connection.

I assume he was trying to relay the success of Jewish players in college in a publication read by mostly Jewish people.

Jewish kids are less likely to be successful in high school and college sports. The emphasis at home is placed on academics. My grandmother was not the least bit impressed I was recruited to play baseball or my cousin was recruited to run track. It wasn't until Legion ball after senior year my mother came to one of my sporting events.

While Jews are 2% of the population they are 40% of college graduates. They are 60%'of grad school graduates. Also, as a kid Hebrew school gets in the way.

A lot of the Jewish kids in my neighborhood were athletically talented. They performed well in pickup games. But they didn't have what it takes to follow through with the demands of a coaching staff in an organized team environment. I often heard from friends, "I could be on that team if I wanted to."

RJM posted:

Jewish kids are less likely to be successful in high school and college sports. The emphasis at home is placed on academics. My grandmother was not the least bit impressed I was recruited to play baseball or my cousin was recruited to run track. It wasn't until Legion ball after senior year my mother came to one of my sporting events.

While Jews are 2% of the population they are 40% of college graduates. They are 60%'of grad school graduates. Also, as a kid Hebrew school gets in the way.

A lot of the Jewish kids in my neighborhood were athletically talented. They performed well in pickup games. But they didn't have what it takes to follow through with the demands of a coaching staff in an organized team environment. I often heard from friends, "I could be on that team if I wanted to."

Not disputing the emphasis on academics in the Jewish community, or its overall academic success, but your math is off. Per the census bureau, almost 32% of Americans aged 25 and older have bachelor's degrees. If Jews were actually 40% of college graduates, Jewish college graduates would constitute almost 13% of the total population 25 and older, which is off by about a factor of 6. And over 10% of Americans 25 and older have graduate degrees, so the math doesn't work there either.

Are we really going to discuss this further? Let's stick to baseball!

CaCO3Girl posted:

Wouldn't a summer coach be more likely to make the contact on behalf of the player?

Why?

ironhorse posted:

CaCO3Girl posted:

Wouldn't a summer coach be more likely to make the contact on behalf of the player?

Why?

Well, as we all know, I have very limited experience in this arena since my kid is 14u.  However, in my neck of the woods it would appear that the summer teams have more contacts, more resources, and more "ins" than the high school baseball coach.

I admit, my view may be skewed by living in the middle of several national power house summer teams.

CaCO3Girl posted:

ironhorse posted:

CaCO3Girl posted:

Wouldn't a summer coach be more likely to make the contact on behalf of the player?

Why?

Well, as we all know, I have very limited experience in this arena since my kid is 14u.  However, in my neck of the woods it would appear that the summer teams have more contacts, more resources, and more "ins" than the high school baseball coach.

I admit, my view may be skewed by living in the middle of several national power house summer teams.

this conversation is pretty standard.