Aussie kid wants to complete high school in the USA

Hello and welcome to the forum.

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not sure what type of information you are looking for. Region of the country, type of school to attend(public/private/parochial), best for baseball vs. academics, etc.?
What is he/you looking to get out of it, playing for fun one year then returning to Oz? Or staying over here looking to go on to college and maybe playing at the next level?

Being 17 I am assuming he would be going into the 12th grade as a senior.

Once we have a better idea what your goals are, we can certainly help you with advice.

Bob Williams is a poster here, and I believe he is associated with The Goodwill Series. That may be a good place to begin.

One thing, schools here begin in about a month.

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Don't try the 'The Big Sky' (Montana) or the 'Cowboy State' (Wyoming)...no high school baseball in those two states.

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How good is he?
I know a couple of high school coaches who would adopt him if he is good enough?

Sorry for the sarcasm, even though it probably is true and if he is good enough I do know a few high school coaches or parents he could live with.

More info needed.

Mr. Lewis;

We have visited Perth, a most beautiful city, with our American teams for 7 years.

We will again visit Perth with 4 teams in December.

One of your teams from the Perth Heat visited California and Oregon in June.

What Baseball Club does your son play for?
Has he played with the State team?

If you send me a e-mail, maybe I can direct you to high school coaches in California.

Bob
<rwilliams@goodwillseries.org>

This website would be one place to start. Then you would have to determine which ones have viable baseball programs.

boarding schools

Mr Lewis -- Welcome. I just sent you a private message. Feel free to reach out if I can be of assistance.

quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
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Don't try the 'The Big Sky' (Montana) or the 'Cowboy State' (Wyoming)...no high school baseball in those two states.

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Is this true? Didn't a recent high draft pick come out of a Wyoming HS?

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That may very well be true. He probably played Legion/travel ball, but not HS baseball.

Is this the player you were referring to?

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quote:

Originally posted by biggerpapi:

quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
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Don't try the 'The Big Sky' (Montana) or the 'Cowboy State' (Wyoming)...no high school baseball in those two states.

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Is this true? Didn't a recent high draft pick come out of a Wyoming HS?

Montana plays a full season of American Legion ball, beginning in April and ending in July. Not sure what they do in Wyoming.

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Hey there FNL...welcome to the HSBBW! And thanks for the info.

Now here's a tough question. It being Olympic season and all, do you have any update on Eddie the Eagle? Whatever happened to that guy? Did he open up a restaurant in Calgary? A Lenscrafters® maybe? Or did he fly the coop?



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quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
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That may very well be true. He probably played Legion/travel ball, but not HS baseball.

Is this the player you were referring to?

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That's him. Sorry, I had never heard about Legion being his only option. But he could have moved to Australia to play!

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Here's a somewhat recent update on the fabulous Eddie.



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Mr Lewis,
Welcome to the site. You didn't offer a whole lot of info, but I will throw out this general statement... we have had quite a few exchange students come thru our HS and our area and participate in sports and other school activities. Most have very rewarding and enjoyable experiences and are welcomed by the student body and host families.
Best wishes.

quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
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Here's a somewhat recent update on the fabulous Eddie.



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I PM'd you with a few notes on Eddie, and some other items. In short, my 15 year old son is considering a similar move to Utah to play HS ball, so I'm also very interested in this thread. I would also be going (well, more that I'm going for work and he's coming with me).

Hello,
yes my information was very basic as this is a new process for us, so a few more details would be:,
we would like for him to do 12th grade, we would like for him to go onto college and play at that level.
I am open on region, although he has some distant relations in California , not sure that is a major factor.

for me , its preferable to complete his education and gain entry to a college, of course he would like Baseball to help drive his ambition to college.
I am asking on this forum as its difficult to know where to start for us living here in Australia.

I would prefer to see if a host family would be able to help and have students of simular ages or sporting ambitions.

its all just alot of information gathering and trying to work out our best options,

Thanks you so much for your help

quote:

Originally posted by Vector:
Hello and welcome to the forum.

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not sure what type of information you are looking for. Region of the country, type of school to attend(public/private/parochial), best for baseball vs. academics, etc.?
What is he/you looking to get out of it, playing for fun one year then returning to Oz? Or staying over here looking to go on to college and maybe playing at the next level?

Being 17 I am assuming he would be going into the 12th grade as a senior.

Once we have a better idea what your goals are, we can certainly help you with advice.

My older son has played in the goodwill series a few years ago when they came to Perth Australia.
I will contact Bob, thanks

also as i know school starts this month, i was thinking in advance for next August, but am open to a january start for him if its better. But would like hm to graduate well so maybe a full year is more appropriate....
open to suggestions.

quote:

Originally posted by 55mom:
Bob Williams is a poster here, and I believe he is associated with The Goodwill Series. That may be a good place to begin.

One thing, schools here begin in about a month.

I think that a parents opinion is maybe bias but here goes.
My son has played above his age group most of his teenage years, he played u21's this past season as a 16yr old. and was taken up to the next level AAA for the 2nd half of the season. We only play like 25 game seasons here.
Our competition probably isnt very strong as babseball is a Minor sport here. my son is 6ft tall skinny and could use a few pounds, and have him in the gym trying to get some meat on them bones.
he plays middle infield, leads of the batting in most games. I would say he is a solid defensive player, could improve his hitting, and is very fast around the bases with a great stolen base record this past season.
But we are from australia so i would expect that he would learn and develop his skills if given the opportunity.
I guess i will get a scouts opinion of him and see where we go from there.
Our club has had 2 or 3 young guys singn pro contracts in the last couple of years, so there is some potential down under....

thanks for your reply, any advice is greatly appreciated.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Connell:
How good is he?
I know a couple of high school coaches who would adopt him if he is good enough?

Sorry for the sarcasm, even though it probably is true and if he is good enough I do know a few high school coaches or parents he could live with.

More info needed.

Thanks for your reply, we will take all advice on board and see what is the best choice ...

we are not sure on the whole process , hence my questins.

thanks for your reply, any advice is appreciated

quote:

Originally posted by cabbagedad:
Mr Lewis,
Welcome to the site. You didn't offer a whole lot of info, but I will throw out this general statement... we have had quite a few exchange students come thru our HS and our area and participate in sports and other school activities. Most have very rewarding and enjoyable experiences and are welcomed by the student body and host families.
Best wishes.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Lewis:
Hello,
yes my information was very basic as this is a new process for us, so a few more details would be:,
we would like for him to do 12th grade, we would like for him to go onto college and play at that level.
I am open on region, although he has some distant relations in California , not sure that is a major factor.

for me , its preferable to complete his education and gain entry to a college, of course he would like Baseball to help drive his ambition to college.
I am asking on this forum as its difficult to know where to start for us living here in Australia.

I would prefer to see if a host family would be able to help and have students of simular ages or sporting ambitions.

its all just alot of information gathering and trying to work out our best options,

Thanks you so much for your help

The first thing you will need to decide is what the major goal with him going to college will be. Is it academics first, baseball second(the smartest choice for most), or the other way around?
Of course much of that will be based on his grades and athletic abilities.

The second thing is(excluding the host family issue for now)cost. Depending on the part of the country he goes to, public school can be bad to pretty good education wise. Also with public school it is based on where he would be living, so the local team could be great or horrible. Some parents choose to send their kids to private school which typically gives the kids a better education, and an easier stepping stone into the better colleges. Naturally that gives you a choice as to which school he goes to, and you can make sure they have a good baseball team. In south Florida, private schools cost anywhere from $10k-$20k per year. The in between choice is parochial schools which do cost some money, but are typically less expensive than the top private schools.
On the subject of costs for schools, I'm not sure how it would work for an exchange student, but colleges are also public & private. So if he resides in the state, public colleges will be much less expensive. For instance state tuition in Florida is about $6k per year, where as private colleges run anywhere between $20k-$60k. Now if he is smart and gets good grades he is eligible for academic scholarship money. If he is very good in baseball he can get an athletic scholarship, but it is typically limited unless he is a stud. Unlike Oz, baseball is huge over here(probably akin to Aussie Rules Football) so scholarships and roster spots are very competitive. We have different levels of athletic competition where colleges have the following designations [Division I, II, III, NAIA, and JUCO's (which are two year colleges)]. The level of competition varies from division, and if he only wants to play for fun, many colleges have club teams that play other college club teams.

As you may know, certain parts of America have great weather year round, others not so much. So in states like Florida, California, Texas etc. he can play ball year round.
I am of course biased toward Florida and can tell you that if my son were not already a freshman in college, I'd have strongly considered hosting your son. I suspect there are organizations that specialize in such things, and we here on the forum can help guide you to decide between different choices.

Feel free to continue to ask different questions as most here are generous with their time and knowledge.



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Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to quickly update you on our adventure to get my son into high school in the USA.

We have been very lucky to have arranged a host family for him in Texas, and he will be off in the new year to start his adventure.

thank you to all who offered valuable advice and expertise.

cheers

Welcome to Texas! I hope that your son enjoys his time down here. There may be some similarities to Australia depending on which part of Australia yall are from and which part of Texas he will live in. There is a lot of good baseball much of the year also. We live in the southern coastal plains section 95 miles west of Houston, 100 miles east of San Antonio and 90 miles north of Corpus Christi. I think that Texans and Australians both speak a version of the language that's a little different from the King's English!

Good Luck and keep us posted.

Welcome to Texas. What area of Texas is he going to?
Also at 17yrs old is he comming in as a 2013 or 2014? Baseball is a small world and a bet some of us Texan's will run into him.

thanks for your kind wishes,
My son Jackson will be moving from Perth Australia to Austin Texas...
he will start the 2nd semester as a Junior, and then move to senior in august 2013... i think thats how it will work.
Baseball is a great community so i am sure he might stick out a little and if you see him be sure to say hi (G'DAY) he will get a kick out of that.

I look forward to our trip over to drop him there in early Jan and see the sights.

Seems like such a big step, but we are all very excited,
cheers everyone.

I love the Austin area, nice hilly and scenic to the north and west. I spent a lot of time there about 20 years ago and now live about 125 miles south of Austin. Right in the center of Texas with a lot of baseball activity and a lot of great things to do in that area. You really couldn't have picked a better area in Texas for him to live and the weather is nice too most of the year.

Thanks Three Bagger,

I had visited Austin a couple of times in about 1995 1996, but havent been back to the USA since then. I also think its a very nice place, and we think that my son is very lucky to have this opportunity, so we are greatfull.
I am sure he will gain a lifetime of experiences by being able to live in this area , i love the people they have always been friendly when we were there.
So we look forward to getting on that plane in around 7-8 weeks time.