D3 Practice in middle of classes?

According to your profile you’re in a cold weather state. Is your son playing in a cold weather state? The odd time may be the only time the coach has access to an indoor facility.

Does the team have a faculty liaison? This is the time for your son to schedule a sit down with that person and the academic advisor to fix his schedule. Be ready to jump in to bring it up the leadership ladder as you are footing the bill. This is way more than letting your kid figure it out.

cold weather state it is.  and it could very well be an indoor facility issue.  I’m guessing then these are the temporary winter schedule.  they should move outside early since its a turf field.   finding other class times is not possible so coach is just going to have to understand, he has prerequisite courses that must be taken and there is only one time offered.   he already made major concessions on which gen ed required courses he wanted to take to stay before 2pm.  at least he’s not a position player, but access to his pitching coach is my concern

Has he discussed this with the pitching coach?  That should be the first thing.

If the baseball schedule is going to change midway through the semester, then he wouldn't be able to schedule any classes that avoid both sets of times.  The coaches must have experience with this, and should advise him on which time blocks to prioritize.

Asking upperclassmen is another idea, if he feels comfortable with that.

I think there is some confusion. The coach is in control - not your son. The whole - coach is going to have to understand and my son will not make any accommodations - routine is going to get him  his choice of class time because he's going to be cut for being a difficult freshman or he's going to get a lot of FaceTime with the coach because he'll be right next to him on the bench after missing 75% of practices.

The correct way to handle this situation would be to have your son approach the coach and explain the situation. If the coach is a reasonable person he will say yes things changed, talk to this person and let's figure something out.

He can also say practice is at this time, figure it out. Which is wrong, but so is telling the coach; this is how things work, deal with it.

Your kid is a freshman, he has the most mobility he'll ever have in terms of what courses he can take - it's not like he's 110 credits in and specifically needs three more courses. Every other freshman regardless of extracurriculars is able to make their schedule and get courses within their major, it's possible.

I would also imagine if the entire team was told to block after 2 pm off they would all be running into this problem no?

Have him talk to the team captain, talk to the coach. Do not escalate this yourself, everything related to his college experience is on him. If you are footing the bill, you and your son work out an arrangement between you two, everything else related to school and baseball is for him to take care of. This should be a fixable situation, talk to an advisor in the athletic dept

I am with @HSDad22 on this one that it is wrong to switch practices from after 2 pm to earlier in the day after registration is complete.  There must be a reason.  I disagree with @PABaseball that freshmen have the most flexibility schedule-wise. They have defined core classes to take, and trying to switch class times after registration is over will be a disaster.  There has to be a misunderstanding here regarding the scheduling, as this makes very little sense.   I would advise him to speak to the coach, but if this new practice schedule is really the case, he will have to try to adjust his schedule.  As a parent paying for college, I would not be happy. 

@Gunner Mack Jr. posted:

I am with @HSDad22 on this one that it is wrong to switch practices from after 2 pm to earlier in the day after registration is complete.  There must be a reason.  I disagree with @PABaseball that freshmen have the most flexibility schedule-wise. They have defined core classes to take, and trying to switch class times after registration is over will be a disaster.  There has to be a misunderstanding here regarding the scheduling, as this makes very little sense.   I would advise him to speak to the coach, but if this new practice schedule is really the case, he will have to try to adjust his schedule.  As a parent paying for college, I would not be happy.

Exactly.  Coach's new schedule came out after the single day he had to sign up for classes, The only instruction from coach prior to that was to not schedule anything after 2:00pm (assuming based on game schedule)  The school gives each class a time that the portal opens to sign up, starting with grad and seniors, freshman last.  He was at his computer trying to log in 30 minutes earlier than start time for freshman, having to miss class to do so.    He has specific class prerequisites he has to take and it's a D3 university, they only offer each class at one time.   It's these pre-req classes that are causing the conflict.  He is going to have to take a math class this summer which is a pre-req for his major because it was only offered at 5pm.  There is so little flexibility in the class schedules. School does not have 7am classes, earliest is 9, so everything is packed right in the mid morning to early afternoon and then late.   I think there are more adjunct professors than normal due to covid so many professors work during the day, so a lot of classes are later and there are less offered.

He will communicate with the coach himself.  I will  help prep him but I will not get involved. He's an adult.

I know this has got to be affecting more than a few players on the team, almost all are declared majors and vast majority are stem. And like I said, the school class schedule is not that flexible for anyone.

I'm sure we'll work something out, it's just extremely frustrating because everything to this point was going so well.  Great grades, excellent outings, each one better than the last, distinguished himself with coach and team, exceptional exit interview after fall practice with high future expectations.  And then you find out he can't make 3/4 of the practice times because they are in the middle of the morning, not early morning or late afternoon.  It's not one class that is the conflict.  You have to understand the absolute pain that scheduling his classes was, the horrible portal to do it, you select a class, hit save and see it full, etc.  It was painful.  And then we think we have it settled and then this.

Even just before 2 pm every weekday makes it difficult to schedule a full load of classes.  I guess maybe they play a very condensed schedule after spring break?  There is literally almost no way that you could have a full load only from 9-10 and 12:30-2, so all the players must be dealing with this.

My advice is to take a deep breath.  At most schools, schedules can shift quite a bit even in the first week of classes.  So classes that are full may open up again - he needs to find out how this works at his school, by talking to upperclassmen.  I realize it's difficult now that they are on break, but surely they are snapchatting or group texting.  Does he have a residential advisor who is not a baseball player that he could ask?

I know from my son's school's parent Facebook page, a lot of parents worry about this, when the answer is that the student has to learn from other students how things work.

First week at the new school.

Kid took all morning classes to make sure he would be free in the afternoons for baseball. Basically one class per day, 3 hours each day, in the morning, Monday to Friday. (12 credits.)

New to the team. Spoke to coach on the phone a few times. Has yet to attend anything team related as school just started this week.

Found out that there's a mandatory team meeting this Friday morning the same time as his class...which would also be the first time ever attending this class.

What would you do?

(He's going to the class. Even if it's going to jeopardize his baseball situation.)

@HSDad22 posted:

He will communicate with the coach himself.  I will  help prep him but I will not get involved. He's an adult.

I know this has got to be affecting more than a few players on the team, almost all are declared majors and vast majority are stem. And like I said, the school class schedule is not that flexible for anyone.

I'm sure we'll work something out, it's just extremely frustrating because everything to this point was going so well.  Great grades, excellent outings, each one better than the last, distinguished himself with coach and team, exceptional exit interview after fall practice with high future expectations.  And then you find out he can't make 3/4 of the practice times because they are in the middle of the morning, not early morning or late afternoon.  It's not one class that is the conflict.  You have to understand the absolute pain that scheduling his classes was, the horrible portal to do it, you select a class, hit save and see it full, etc.  It was painful.  And then we think we have it settled and then this.

Red flags here. He is in college why even get involved - other than listen. This happens across college baseball and coaches and players work it out. My son was a STEM major in college and I just asked him how his scheduling was going his freshman year and he just said "I work it out with the coach(s) and all they care about is that I get the work in" I don't think I ever had another conversation on it after this.

Relax he'll figure it out.

Tough situation since he is new to the school and doesn't know other players yet, or the coaches.

It's a 3-hour class; how much overlap is there with the baseball meeting?  Can he split the time?  But, he needs to find out if these meetings are routine, in which case he can't take the class.  Can he change his schedule and take a multi-day 1-2 pm class on the other days?

It's good you posted in this thread, because I had no idea that scheduling around baseball was so difficult at some schools.

@Francis7 posted:

First week at the new school.

Kid took all morning classes to make sure he would be free in the afternoons for baseball. Basically one class per day, 3 hours each day, in the morning, Monday to Friday. (12 credits.)

New to the team. Spoke to coach on the phone a few times. Has yet to attend anything team related as school just started this week.

Found out that there's a mandatory team meeting this Friday morning the same time as his class...which would also be the first time ever attending this class.

What would you do?

(He's going to the class. Even if it's going to jeopardize his baseball situation.)

1 - I think your life would provide enough content for a Netflix Dramacumentary.

2 - Coaches should have helped him set his schedule so as not to have conflicts.

@Francis7 posted:

First week at the new school.

Kid took all morning classes to make sure he would be free in the afternoons for baseball. Basically one class per day, 3 hours each day, in the morning, Monday to Friday. (12 credits.)

New to the team. Spoke to coach on the phone a few times. Has yet to attend anything team related as school just started this week.

Did the coach tell him the practice schedule when he spoke to him on the phone? If he told him an afternoon time, I'd imagine other kids on the team would have the issue as well.

Is your son officially on the roster? If yes, I'd go to practice and likely drop and change classes.

Son will miss part of 2 practices a week for last class he needs to graduate but this is the first time in 4 years.  Good part for him is he does not have to schedule his classes.  He has a counselor who does it for him before any others get to register for classes.  Some schools make being an athlete really hard and others make it very easy.

It's a required class and it's the only time it's offered. So, drops are not an option. He did make sure it was not after 2 pm, as instructed, to make sure it didn't conflict with practices and games.

Francis;

define the word "mandatory"? Have a teammate take notes or ask the Coach for a summary. The Coach is searching for "team leaders".  Waiting for your son's reaction.

Bob

Your son needs to talk with the coach and explain the overlap. He can’t just pull an unexplained no show.

@Francis7 posted:

First week at the new school.

Kid took all morning classes to make sure he would be free in the afternoons for baseball. Basically one class per day, 3 hours each day, in the morning, Monday to Friday. (12 credits.)

New to the team. Spoke to coach on the phone a few times. Has yet to attend anything team related as school just started this week.

Found out that there's a mandatory team meeting this Friday morning the same time as his class...which would also be the first time ever attending this class.

What would you do?

(He's going to the class. Even if it's going to jeopardize his baseball situation.)

Skip class and go to the mandatory meeting!  That’s what I would do if I was the player

As a Dad, I would be shocked if my kid involved me in such day to day decision making, and would quickly remind him that he’s an adult and should figure it out himself

He should, of course, also talk to the professor if he's going to miss the class, and explain why.  Not say "will I miss anything?" but "how can I make up what I miss?"  Or, the same would go for the coach.