Finally Signed On

Two comments:

quote:

Do college coaches take into acct. how a kid could progress,if he concentrated just on baseball?

I think there are two types of players on coaches lists. The highly recruited kid who can NOW back up his talent, and second is the kid with some raw potential. Guess which one will get the most looks?

quote:

At our school one sport is not an option

Says who? If the kid is going to sit on his asss and not be working out full time, then I see a reason for controversy. If a kid is working out, playing fall ball, or whatever it takes to get him to the next level of ability I see no reason why that cannot be considered a second sport. My son did exactly that in HS and was chastized by some players and parents. Today almost every one of them have either apologized or commented that wished their kid had the nuts to challenge the system and follow his dream.

"Not an option" was wrong wording. With him its optional. Loves football. Likes basketball. But has already started to realize he 's missing weight room time. He will grad. in 09. Has played travel ball since 11yo. Thanks.

New at this. Meant to say "with him NOT optional" Sorry.

Thatakid, Welcome to the HSBBW.

I hear ya, Small school everybody is needed to play.
If your son still enjoy's it, than do it.
You can still fit game's and such in there

Thanks for the welcome. Just finished with summer ball, had a great time ay AAU at Disney. Hard to get in any baseball during fall.Not much of that going on here in "the other GA". {4 hrs soth of Atl.}

Playing multiple sports is a wonderful thing. With regards to College recruiting it all comes down to whether a kid shows the ability to play at the next level. We had a senior this year that hadn't played baseball since his freshman year (he played lacrosse and football instead) ... he came back to play OF and led league in HRs, including hitting a walkoff solo jack in the CIF championship game. He got some late looks by some colleges, but ended up headed to a JC because he hadn't planned on a 4-year so didn't take the SAT or finish with the required class work.

If the kid can pull it off skill-wise, and the coaches and AD will work with the kid on prioritization of any conflicts, multiple sports is a great experience.

My son played basketball his Frosh & Soph year in addition to baseball. The problem he had was exacerbated by two issues: he's a legit two-way player; and, an uncooperative basketball coach. My son clearly communicated his priority with baseball to the basketball coach six months prior to the season start, and just said that he needed to throw a couple bullpens each week and possible weekend pre-season baseball tournament could occasionally conflict with a Saturday basketball practice. My son even said that he was fully willing to simply play off the bench if the coach was concerned about fairness issues related to missing an occasional practice. So, on game days when the basketball team would go home during 6th period, my son would go throw a pen before going to his basketball game.

He worked hard at both sports, putting in extra time on his own, going to the cages at night, shooting baskets on his own, etc. He missed a total of one Saturday practice and had to leave one other early in three months, often going from an 8-11 AM Saturday basketball practice straight to a club baseball tournament. He was an impact player at basketball ... a 6'4" small forward with range out to the 3pt line that could dribble through traffic with either hand and pass over the defense. He created a ton of offense for our center and shooting guards by drawing double and triple teams on his drives and dishing off.

And then the basketball coach benched him for two weeks because he felt throwing a bullpen on a game day instead of going home early showed a lack of commitment. That's when my son hung up his basketball shoes. He had communicated his priorites clearly. He had worked extra hard to avoid conflicts. He communicated conflicts well in advance. He invested tons of his own time to stay sharp in both sports. He was working twice as hard as anyone else and was happy to just come in and contribute ... he didn't care if he started or came off the bench. And the coach felt he needed to punish him because he threw a pen on a game day.

He stuck it out through the end of the season simply to play out his commitment. When the varsity coach invited him up to varsity for the CIF playoffs, he returned to the baseball field instead.

My question is how do you know? How do you know if you give up other sports you will definitely play at the next level.

I don't think you can know in a black & white, quantitative way. Too much depends upon the player's abilities, the flexibility of a particular HS program, coaches support, who else he's competing with for that starting position, etc. ... and ultimately what the kid has a passion for.

HS sports is a wonderful experience that you only do once in your life, so a kid should try to participate in all those sports that he enjoys playing, provided that he/she can keep up the academics and can balance the time demands if there's one particular sport that they love most and have a realistic projection in.

Ultimately, it comes down to available time and what goals a kid wants to set for himself. My son decided by his Frosh year that he wanted be a two-way player at the D1 level. That was his passion and vision. He then allocated his time around those goals, and it was just a matter of what time was left over after the mandatory time for academics. I think being a good pitcher made him a better hitter and vice versa from a mental approach perspective, but it significantly increased the time investment on his part with respect to players that focus just on pitching or just on hitting. We're not just talking some extra ABs in the cage or a couple bullpens from the regular HS workouts ... but extra hitting wiffles in the back yard, 9PM sessions with his hitting coach, rigorous weight lifting regiment, yoga & balance work, core strength training, towel drills, occasional pens with his club coach ... on top of the HS summer/fall preseason, club, scoutball, etc.

And yes, it was all him. He's just driven. I never said a word other than "yes, I can drive you" ... before he got his license. If anything, it hurt a little when he gave up basketball because that's my own personal best sport, but I've always supported and encouraged him to follow his personal vision.

Basketball and s****r were just something fun to do ... and with his athletic ability he was able to excel at them, but he had a realistic perspective, and knew that being a 6'4" D1 point guard was not in the cards. He didn't love that sport enough to invest the time necessary to take his game to that level. It would have been worth doing it just for the sake of the fun HS experience if the basketball coach had been willing to take 80% of an impact player ... instead he made it an either/or proposition and got 0%.

The baseball coach was always very supportive of multi-sport players, though I know he wasn't disappointed with the way things worked out ...

I can still get my basketball fix in the off-season, when he comes out to play pick-up with me and schools all of us dads.