Baseball & Track co-existing in HS?

This is a tough one. My son worked with a track coach who at one point in time was an Olympic sprinter. He worked with him just to get some help in technique and my son got to know some of the kids who were sprinters that this coach was training. What struck him (and me) watching them was how much work has to go into being an elite runner. Weight room, field work and technique work, the top kids had very full schedules being sprinters. A couple of the kids he worked out with went on to run in college. 

I guess it boils down to where your son wants to take his gifts. The scheduling issues alone probably would prevent dual participation as HS track meets are typically a long affairs, as are baseball games, forgetting about the training issues. During my son's HS years I am aware of one athlete who participated in basketball and soc cer, who were both in the same season. The coaches worked out the details, but basketball games and soccer games were generally on a different schedule with basketball typically later in the evening during the week. In his case soc cer was his primary sport and he back filled with basketball. He went on to play soc cer in college. 

I guess it comes down to whether your son could compete at the higher levels of sprinting without putting in the same amount of work as his competitors and whether the coaches would work with each other. One sport would have to take a back seat to the other. The other issue, as you pointed out is the sheer amount of time required to do both and continue to keep his grades up.

Good luck to your son. 

Only way to find out is for your son to talk to both coaches and see if it would be possible to work something out.  

Exactly.

We have a family friend & former travel teammate who did exactly as Coach2709 suggested.  He was able to work things out with Spring baseball and Spring track.  He was also a sprinter, and ran winter indoor track too.  The winter indoor track didn't interfere with baseball but did introduce nagging injuries which hung with him for a while.  This young man got a lot of national attention for his speed and leveraged it for a baseball scholarship to a top 10 program.  So, my point is this may be a conversation worth having with the coaches.  Good luck.

My son tried it for a yr but ended up missing too many track meets. 

Chose baseball.

I have seen this done once.  My son's HS teammate was an exceptional athlete, football in the fall, baseball in the spring.  I think it was his junior year, the track coaches, most of whom are football coaches,  talked him into running track.  The baseball coach agreed to let him do both.  The problem that arose was he missed a lot of baseball practice because of track, and vice versa.   Ended up having a very average season in both.  Did not try it again his senior year. 

Golden, let your kid do as many sports as he chooses at this age.  As a coach, it would be hard for me to tell the kid he couldn't do both.  Workouts for individual track events can be done before school or after baseball practice.  We have kids here at our school that do both.  Both coaches should realize the importance of running in both sports and the kids determination to work at both.  My college baseball son ran the hurdles through jr high and through his junior year in high school. His speed increased tremendously and track is the reason.  The flexibility gained from track workouts and the stretching involved were the reasons.  In our state, most track meets are now on thursday evenings after school.  The only schedule problems were early in the season with baseball tournaments that start on thursdays.  Lots of mom time hauling kids back and forth from meets to tournaments,  The biggest factor will be the ego of both coaches to allow the kid to do both.  Good luck. 

^^^^^This^^^^^

2709 has the best answer. As a HS baseball coach I have had this every year and each situation is different depending on the student and the coaches. I have had players the were great track guys and average baseball guys and vise-versa. In those cases the player if there was a game/meet conflict went to the one he could help the most. I have had track coaches that we worked well together scheduling practices and some track coaches who did not. I have had players that switched buses on the side of the road as we were headed to a ballgame and they were coming back from a track meet. Last year I had a player drive to our district game so he could leave as soon as it was over to go run at the regional track meet. To be honest, track coaches have been much easier to work with than most drama teachers, band directors, etc.

First off, many thanks to all that have replied. I think whatever the issues are, this site seemingly can come up with numerous real life answers in short order and thats a remarkable service. As suggested by several of you, 2018 plans to talk to both coaches next week after winter break. Since 6th grade he has had USATF coaches telling him he was a no-brainer for college track, the thing is he looks at track like a "job" and baseball is what he really enjoys. If he was a mid-level player at baseball it would be easy to push him to track, but he's already 6'1 and can obviously run - he should have at least a nice four year run of high school & travel baseball here, and we don't want to be pushing him into something he doesn't want to do anymore. This newfound enthusiasm for track is due to the baseball program running their timed 60's and 200's and him having the top times in the whole program as a frosh. Makes him realize there is a special gift there should he choose to pursue it. I'd love for him to do the multi-sport thing to avoid burnout, just wish they weren't in the same season! Hopefully the program can be like d8's and be open to him doing both, if not he'll keep the focus on baseball. Thanks to all again! 

One thing I just thought of.  Check your high school association rules.  In our area there is a prohibition on a kid playing two high school sports in the same season.  That takes care of the soccer players/kickers -- they have to choose. 

If running for the high school can't be worked out due to conflict, is there a track club he could join and work his own schedule?

There definitely is RJM, he ran for a very competitive track club from 4th-8th grade and gave it up this fall to focus on baseball (his choice). Experienced a ton of success there, and I know they would welcome him back. The issue is that much like with a high level travel baseball team, the track club has a level of expectations that may not be realistic given the baseball schedule. The track coach told him flat out "focus on track, I put it in blood you get a D1 scholarship". Thats a bit heady for a then 8th grader, and I think it put pressure on 2018 that he'd have mega expectations as a sprinter and he'd have to give up playing the game he loved. WIll be adding that club track coach into the discussion mix as well, so next week should be interesting as we have the club track, high school track & high school baseball coaches to discuss this with. When it comes right down to it, he's not going to want to jeopardize his spot in the H.S. baseball program - that's where his long time friends are, and he had nice success playing fall J.V. ball before they formally formed the freshman team in December. Life would be easier if he was mediocre at one or the other, but its a nice problem to have! 

In the Cold Northeast New England area, Golden, we have an indoor track season in the winter. This allowed my son to play soccer in the fall, run track in winter, and play HS baseball in the spring. (Cross country kids have three seasons, Cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in spring)  Track coaches really helped him with running technique; fortunately his high school supports multi-sport athletes.The vast majority of the college coaches we met during his baseball recruiting process liked the multi-sport athlete as well; one indicated he found them more "Competitive" than the year round baseball player. In our state you can't play two sports in one season...or you would see more soccer players as placekickers.

You are doing the right thing in keeping the track option alive if you can. You never know. California state champion in the 100m last year was a baseball player as a freshman and sophomore: http://www.ocvarsity.com/artic...12-track-county.html

With that speed and size (and I'm assuming good hand-eye cordination), has he thought about wide receiver?

Thanks 2019! We are very familiar with Godin, and have followed him closely the past two years as his H.S. is right in our backyard, could be a great example of 2018's future. I've taken the stance that as long as 2018 keeps in shape, if he got frustrated with the typical politics & junk that can happen in H.S. baseball that he could go this Godin route and move track to #1 as he got older - can always flip things and have him just do travel baseball if he still loves to play. 

We discussed him playing WR, but he really wanted to focus on baseball in the fall, and given that our H.S. has been a deep CIF playoff team the past 4-5 years he was a bit intimidated about his lack of football experience. About 50+ kids took part in the summer freshmen baseball camp and he decided his goal was to become one of the 5-6 frosh they allowed into 6th period fall baseball / P.E. He did indeed make that cut, so he got to spend from August-December playing alongside the Varsity and JV players & coaches. If he didn't make it into that group he likely would have then started his football career. I played four years of H.S. football & baseball and three years of basketball, and still feel the effects of the football side of things today so we've never pushed him to play. Sure would be a blast to see him run fly patterns though! 

Ripken Fan - we can play two sports in the same season here, and the school has had a few kids in the past decade who did the baseball / track combo. Unfortunately all of those coaches have moved on, so not sure if the new guys will be as open. I actually think the track guys will be more closed minded than the baseball guys. As long as he doesn't miss any key baseball activities it doesn't affect the baseball team much, if at all. The track guys will be more proprietary, feeling he is taking the "spot" of a full time athlete. I definitely am sympathetic to that, but the beauty of track is that there should be no politics at all - line the kids up and run. Fastest guys in each race are Varsity and on down through JV and Frosh. If the full time kids are faster great, no need to waste anyones time trying to do both - but from what 2018 is saying their top varsity 200M guy is running a 26 sec 200 and 13 sec 100 and 2018 is hitting 24.5 / 12.5. 

Ohio also has baseball and track in the spring.  Our issue isn't kids wanting to play both....it's that football (fall sport here) kids are being convinced to run track by their football coaches....claiming that it will keep them in shape for football.  It's ridiculous, as our track practices are minimal once the season starts...and half the kids are also in basketball so they go straight from basketball to track, meaning they're already in good shape.  I'm not sure how it would work to do both baseball and track, as I'm thinking there would just be too many conflicts to work out....especially for a position player.  Maybe a pitcher could do it...if the baseball coach was willing to schedule him around track meets....but not sure it could work with a CF

Buckeye - our track team has a fair amount of football guys in it as well, but for whatever reason not our better / faster RB or WR's? I like the idea of 2018 doing club track & HS baseball as that seems like it would have the least amount of conflicts. Once track season hits later in spring, HS baseball will no longer have Saturday scrimmages, allowing him to run Club in the weekend USATF meets with no issue. Given the new practice & time limitations placed on HS teams here in California, they really won't be able to get much HS baseball in on weekends, at least not on the non-varsity level. To make HS track & HS baseball work together is going to be a major undertaking that may risk 2018's relationship with his baseball coaches, don't know that its really worth it right now?

A difficult call to make as a parent, especially when the track coaches constantly reinforce that he has a college future in the 200 and long jump. Throw the whole summer travel ball baseball season into the mix, and the reality that he will be competing for a varsity baseball spot as a sophomore so he'll need to stay involved in the schools summer baseball program and it gets that much more convoluted...

We had a short stop a few years ago that to this day the fastest baseball player I have ever seen.  Ran track, played football and baseball as a freshman thru junior year.  Didn't play football his senior year and wasn't going to run track but the track coach ask if he could come to any meet that didn't interfere with baseball.  Won the 100 and 200 at districts but skipped state due to baseball playoffs.  The track coach would have loved to have him all the time but took what he could get.  You never know.

throw'n bb's - the scenario you outlined would be the most likely. Hopefully the track coach would be happy getting any meets that he could!

Using the dreaded words "potential" & "projectability", he will likely outgrow sprinting - especially the 100 - being that he's already 6'1 with more to grow, have to think in a few years a 6'3 CF running a mid 6's 60 is a more rare species than the "37th fastest track kid in California" or some such thing, but we shall see. He talked, lived & breathed baseball non-stop the past 180 days, and now for the last week he won't shut up about track. His dedication to baseball hasn't waned, but all of the sudden track is back on the radar. Again, a good problem to have and we appreciate everyones feedback. 

I thought this topic was decided back over the summer to a great and heated debate - running is bad for baseball players so they couldn't possibly do track...LOL sorry couldn't help it.

No, just long distance running.  

old school - its funny you say that, because dang this HS team runs a ton - and long distance to boot. As lionbaseball says, I always thought distance running was bad for baseball, but seemingly not at 2018's high school as they run like 2 miles a day a few times a week. No idea what purpose it serves when that time could spent running home to first, first to third, etc. - let alone everything else that could be done with that time. 

To bump this & update...before 2018 had a chance to approach the coaches about doing both track & baseball, the track coach and a baseball assistant approached HIM last week and asked if he wanted to "help out the school" by attending meets & doing the sprints as they needed a "speed guy". Track meets on Thurs, baseball games on Weds / Friday, so seemingly no conflict there. Got baseball coaches permission to attend the seasons first track practice tomorrow, just hoping it doesn't negatively impact him w/ the baseball program. Now has legit shot at a varsity letter as a Frosh though, so should be good for him either way. Thanks to all for feedback & ideas here! 

That's great news! Best of luck to him on the track and the baseball field this Spring.

My sons both competed in track and field as well as baseball all four years of high school. As soon as my oldest son finished a track meet with the maximum number of events- a sprint, quarter mile, long jump, triple jump and usually one relay, the athletic director would race him to wherever the high school varsity was playing baseball where he was the top pitcher and centerfielder. He qualified for the state meet in triple jump, long jump and regional in some of the others but of course he went on to play baseball in college.

His freshman year he also went to regional in power lifting which I believe took place in January and February. We decided that didn't mix well with the others. All four years though he also went to school at 6:00 AM to practice for the one act play which also took place in the spring.

One Caveat was that he didn't get to stay at track practice for very long before he rushed to baseball practice . We'll never know how good he could have been in track at the 2A level but he did pretty well on just natural ability.

GS, Thanks for the update, this is great as there is nothing better than competing for your HS, your son will have those memories the rest of his life and he will be telling his grandkids how "back in the day" what he did. Great to see that your son has coaches that can work things out instead of taking the "my sport only" approach that we hear about

Good luck to your son! 

Golden S: That's great news, glad he can do both. I see a lot of similarities in our sons.  I bet my son wishes he were in your state. He's running indoor track now; I believe he could break both the 100m and 200m sprints if he could run during baseball season.My son has been gifted with speed- the track coaches helped teach him techniques which resulted in him achieving a 6.40 60 yd dash and 3.90 (RH hitter) home to first time. One scout clocked him 3.65 H to 1st on a bunt during a game.His speed and grades were his 2 biggest assets to procuring D1 offers. Tell your son, keep on running!

Thanks to all! Ripken - I'd hope that as 2018 gets older he approaches your sons times, he did get a 4.0 home to first (RH as well), and the one "formal" 60 he ran at a college camp only noted that he "broke 7.0" but didn't give him the exact time. Curious to see how his 100M & 200M times are now, as its been 9 months since he ran any real track and he's grown 5 inches since then. Had to dump his size 10 track spikes last night for size 12's. Happy the coaches are working together, just hope that his being away from baseball, even if just for a few hours here & there, don't cost him playing time. With a 20 man frosh baseball roster it becomes real easy for the coach to use his track time as an excuse to play other kids. Good news is that when he runs his next formal 60 come travel ball season in May he'll be in great shape from track, so he can establish a nice benchmark for moving forward. Should be an interesting & busy season for sure!