Fall Ball Advice

Your coach sounds like a jerk
He should be encourAging you to play at the highest level possible. You get better it helps the HS team in Spring. Others r absent because they r not putting baseball first.  Good luck

As a Junior, you should go to the PG... 10 fall games = No big deal.

 

Good luck.

Yes, the coach sounds like a jerk - but try to keep things in perspective.

 

Putting baseball before an academic program (debate) is not necessarily a good move.  In the grand scheme of things except for the blessed few who have the talents to play professionally, debate will provide better tools both for college and the workforce.

 

Consider this: My son's varsity coach was an all state player, had a full ride to LSU and played in two college world series, he played professionally, and after retiring coached on the college level, including time as the recruiting coordinator for a highly regarded JUCO. He coaches a successful showcase team, along with a Maccabi world championship team.

 

When my son approached him about missing practices due to conflicts with his debate program he was told that there was no conflict. Academics always come first.

 

The guy who has been about as high as you can get in the game sad this to my son, "Baseball is fantasy - school is reality, don't ever forget that."  

Forgive me but this sounds strange. Most HS coaches encourage their kids to play at a highly competitive level whenever possible. It is possible that the coaches of the travel team have a history with your HS coach?

Obviously, I agree that a PG event is a great opportunity and you should take advantage of that. However, pissing off the HS coach is a tricky siutation.

I guess my advice would be to have a further discussion with your HS coach and expain to him that you look to pursue your baseball career at next level (I assum that is the case) - and this is a great opportunity. Maybe he wants some assurance that you are still committed to the HS team in long run.

Originally Posted by playball2011:

Your coach sounds like a jerk
He should be encourAging you to play at the highest level possible. You get better it helps the HS team in Spring. Others r absent because they r not putting baseball first.  Good luck

 

Why is it that everyone assumes a coach is a jerk whenever they don’t drop all thoughts of the team they’re coaching and encourage their players to play somewhere else?

 

How do you know why others are missing, and why is it you believe it has to be baseball first over everything else in life?

The coach is a jerk imo.
This is not a kid who wants to bail during HS sseason for his own gain. He said fall ball is not treated as important at this school
He has shown up and is getting nothing out of it. Many kids r missing it.  Coach should be not threatening kids wanting to go to PG tourn. If u get on bad side of HS coach he can hold it against kid during season.
My point -if kid is missing for debate then this kid should be allowed to miss for great opportunity.  What if his son played and was asked to go w another team- would he hold him back. Its a few weeks.  Let the kid go and support his decision its fall ball

The coach is a jerk imo.
This is not a kid who wants to bail during HS sseason for his own gain. He said fall ball is not treated as important at this school
He has shown up and is getting nothing out of it. Many kids r missing it.  Coach should be not threatening kids wanting to go to PG tourn. If u get on bad side of HS coach he can hold it against kid during season.
My point -if kid is missing for debate then this kid should be allowed to miss for great opportunity.  What if his son played and was asked to go w another team- would he hold him back. Its a few weeks.  Let the kid go and support his decision its fall ball

Because this is a fall ball situation.  It is not the regular HS season.  The whole team is not participating -- those in other sports are doing their thing.  At best it is practice and development.  The kid has a great opportunity which according to the OP would require missing A FEW weekend games and practices, not the whole "season."  Anything other than "go for it" and "let me know what I can do to help" means he is a jerk.  It puts a young kid in a bad situation.  I only hope there was a miscommunication between the kid and the coach. 

Maybe the coach doesn't understand the value of PG Nationals. In his mind it may not be different than a travel tournament in the next town. The kid should explain to the coach in detail how valuable PG can be to getting to the next level.

 

My son's high school coach played college ball. He knew nothing about showcasing or playing travel ball above the community level. He got a great education with my son's class. I ran into the coach when I dropped in at a local showcase to watch my son and friends for an hour. He was shocked at what colleges were present. Also how it was run like a pro tryout.

Originally Posted by Golfman25:

…I only hope there was a miscommunication between the kid and the coach. 

 

Or the kid and us.

 

Therein lies the story. Nothing against redsoxnation, but over the years I’ve found that players more often than not don’t have a true picture about what’s going on with the management of the team, such as why other players don’t show up.

 

Again, no disrespect intended, but it sure seems to me that there’s something going on we haven’t been told about. If other players are missing both practices and games without being punished or experiencing any other ill effects, it just doesn’t make any sense to my why rsn is the one player on the team who’s been stopped from doing the same thing, unless something been hidden from us. There definitely are coaches who practice favoritism, but that’s not what this sounds like.

Hello redsoxnation9,

 

You don't mention which state you are from, but could your coach's objections have anything to do with your state high school association's rules? In our state you can have no contact with a community or travel team after a certain date and still be eligible for high school competition.

 

Sadly, sometimes adults are jerks, whether they are coaches or not. Try to take the high side and explain why this opportunity is important to you. If he still has a problem, you may have a tough decision to make.

Sorry, something amiss here. Why would he be upset if fall ball is not mandatory?Have we gotten the entire story?

I don't know what state you live in, but for us the state high school athletic association prohibits any participation in a sporting event outside of high school in the sport which you are currently participating in, in high school.  For instance, because we are currently in our fall baseball season, several players could not participate in a baseball showcase event last weekend.  The state association would've barred them from playing for school and in some cases you even have to forfeit the games you've already won.

 

Now, if it was a basketball showcase during baseball season, or vice-versa, the boys can participate, but not the same sport.  I hope my convoluted explanation makes sense. 

 

Where I live, a fall ball season is allowed and many if not most of the players are doing both showcase/TB and fall ball.

Thanks for all of the advice, I talked it over with my coach again and it turns out that it was more of a miscommunication after all. He wasn't aware of the showcase nature of the tournaments, and thought I just preferred to play elsewhere. He's really not a bad guy at all we just weren't on the same page.

Thanks for the reassuring words,

Rsn

Great to hear.  Proper and respectful communication will take care of and/or prevent so many problems in everything you do.