Exposure if Injured

I'm sorry to hear about your son's knee. The good news is the recovery time from ACL/MCL tears is less now than it was a few years back. Has his doctor given him an approximate target date to start playing again? Many schools run Winter Camps on their campus, hopefully your son will be ready by November or December? He may not be able to catch by that time, but hopefully he'll be ready to play another position and hit.

If your son is a stud behind the dish and has a good stick, he'll find a home (even in his senior year)...good catcher's that can hit are always high on the recruiting list, especially if strong academics come with the package! Good luck to your son, I hope his recovery goes well.

He is likely to be ready by November. We will look for the Winter camps. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

Good luck to your son. I would not rush it. Work on the rehab and don't worry about what he is missing. Use this as an opportunity to work on things that he otherwise would not be taking the time to work on. Core work , rice buckets , anything he can do that will not put stress on his knee or prohibit the rehab. Be ready first and foremost for the spring and good luck.

My son is a left handed pitcher and he went through the same thing as yours. The winter before his Junior season he injured his throwing shoulder causing Multi Directional Instability and severe tendonitis on top of it. He lost his entire Junior season and all of the Summer travel program due to this. He was only able to show in one showcase and that was minimal at best. He worked hard during the winter and LISTENED TO HIS PT on what to strengthen, not rushing himself back. Conclusion is: He had the season of his life, was stronger than he ever was, made 1st team All State, was offered three rides to college. He ended up going to a DIII school, but that was a choice he made for his studies. They, the colleges, offer and still scout through your son's senior season. I would suggest you tell your son to take advantage of this shut down time and go look at schools that offer strong backgrounds on what he wants to study, I gaurantee that the list of schools he comes up with have a baseball program. Above all, listen to your PT and Doctor, you too can come back even stronger!! Good Luck!!

Despite his injury, it would still be a good idea to start contacting schools to signal his interest in playing for them in college. Coaches will continue their recruiting efforts on the same schedule regardless of your son's injury, so reaching out to them now will at least get him on their radar screens at the right time.

I worked with a pitcher who had a broken leg in his junior year. The injury prevented him from playing the HS season, and he only got cleared to play travel ball in late summer before his senior year. He reached out to coaches throughout the time he was hurt, and he ended up signing with Indiana.

Do you have any video of your son pre-injury? Coaches may want to look at that as well. Just do what you can while he recovers, and hopefully you hit the ground running once he gets cleared to play.

Thanks to all for the good advice!