It seems that our area is considering cutting freshman (frosh) baseball next season due to a budget crisis. We have about 12 high schools, and some of the smaller schools have never had the numbers to field a freshman team. That leaves 6-8 schools that field a very solid freshman team each year. I fear that we will lose kids to other sports if this happens.
I started thinking about how colleges run club baseball, and how our high schools have clubs for everything from ping-pong and roller hockey to travel. I wonder if you could have a baseball club that runs on a minimum budget and has a minimal time commitment that could replace freshman baseball.
You could simplify the uniform to a tee shirt, hat, and specify a pants color. That would be about a fifty dollar investment for each kid that they could pay for. The fields are there, as the 6-8 schools are currently fielding teams already. You could have two or three practices a week and play Saturday games. This would allow volunteer parents to transport the kids to and from games. You could have the home team hire one umpire per game and play about 12-14 games or less games and have a season ending tournament. Another thought was to have those juniors and seniors that love baseball but can't quite make the varsity squad to be the assistants for this club team (just have one adult manager). They could get EC credits for their help and stay in the game they love. This sounds a little like rec ball, but the kids will get the school pride and will be feeding into the varsity and JV teams.
Does anyone think this is feasible, is it already happening in some places, or am I missing something here?
Original Post