Your kid goes off to college for his freshman year of college baseball.
There's at least a half dozen possible outcomes to how the experience might go for him and around 85% of them are results that don't align with dreams, hopes or expectations.
True or false?
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Didn't play.
Got cut.
Failed out of school.
Placed on JV or development roster.
Got injured.
Stopped loving the game.
Redshirted.
Partied too much.
Left because homesick.
Played very subpar.
Banged heads with coaching staff.
Too much stress and anxiety.
Hated the campus life.
Got in trouble with the law.
I think I've heard at least one example of each of these from dads of kids who recently went off to play college baseball. Clearly not what people expected when they went off to play college ball.
All false. Played about average for a freshman and got good grades.
"Cannot hit the curve"!!!!
Bob
@Good Knight posted:All false. Played about average for a freshman and got good grades.
That's awesome. But it seems like that's not everyone's experience.
Why would you think of your list instead of practice hard, study hard, be on time to classes, be early and stay late for practice and give your best effort. These are things a student-athlete can control.
@Francis7 posted:Your kid goes off to college for his freshman year of college baseball.
There's at least a half dozen possible outcomes to how the experience might go for him and around 85% of them are results that don't align with dreams, hopes or expectations.
True or false?
Agree with 1st sentence. Disagree with the numbers in the 2nd sentence...definitely more than a half dozen possible outcomes.
Typically college is a huge change in a young person's life. When you put baseball on top of the academics the numbers can change exponentially. First semester freshman year is the rubber hitting the road, and typically that "oh $hit" moment for that student athlete. Making sure there is a support system in place for academics and baseball is absolutely paramount. Maybe my son was the exception but everything about baseball and academics met his dreams, hopes and expectations. He knew it was going to be rough sledding. He didn't know exactly how hard. The only thing left to do was the work. Doing the work is where I see a problem with college programs. Today's college players don't have to buy-in to a program, and can leave after a half-year or year to roll the dice somewhere else. Yes, I realize this is a double-edge sword. I'm a fan of the transfer portal for extreme cases. I wish the NCAA had given the transfer portal more thought.
As always, JMO.
False. Control what you can control. My son is on a great scholarship so he looks at playing baseball as his "job". The amount of money he is getting in scholarships is what he would have to make if he was working an actual job to pay for school. Study hard, keep your head down and do what you are there to do, and get your "job" done and the rest will fall into place.
The first day of every year I walk into my office with hopes, dreams, plans etc and life happens. No different for college baseball or college classes/ grades, girlfriends etc. There is no utility function we can use, too many variables. Just prepare them to work hard, expect challenges and support them through those challenges which will build a good base of experiences for the real world.
@RJM posted:Why would you think of your list instead of practice hard, study hard, be on time to classes, be early and stay late for practice and give your best effort. These are things a student-athlete can control.
For everything on the list, I can assign at least one name of someone I know where it's their story.
I'm sure none of them went into school thinking it could happen to them and they all went into school thinking "I'm into this 100% and I'm going to do what it takes, etc."
That being said, it might be important for parents to realize that there's a high probability that everything your kid has worked for, up to this point, might not turn out the way everyone expects.
And, there is a long list of possibilities as to why.
In my experience the kids who have left the programs seldom had "off the field issues" a couple did but the minority. Most of them that left were because they
- weren't good enough
- didn't want to make the time investment
- or didn't find the team / school / campus life what they wanted or were looking for.
There was very little drama involved in most moves away from the team.
My son just finished his freshman year. His experience:
Loved his team and liked his coaches. Played pretty well when he got the chance. Has been told he will get more playing time in the future. Got good grades and found a girlfriend. All-in-all a successful first year. Not without its ups and downs, but not a bad first year.
@Francis7 posted:For everything on the list, I can assign at least one name of someone I know where it's their story.
I'm sure none of them went into school thinking it could happen to them and they all went into school thinking "I'm into this 100% and I'm going to do what it takes, etc."
That being said, it might be important for parents to realize that there's a high probability that everything your kid has worked for, up to this point, might not turn out the way everyone expects.
And, there is a long list of possibilities as to why.
I have two kids. In addition to my son my daughter (oldest) played college softball. She was motivated by fear. She was so afraid of becoming ineligible she got a 4.0 her first year. She’s the scrapper of my two kids. Holding the best straight face I could I told her, “The bar is set. I expect 4.0 every year.” She graduated with a 3.94 and went on to a top rated law school.
Mr Smooth (has all the answers, falls out of trees landing on his feet scoring a perfect ten) tried having too much fun his first semester. He discovered frat row. He was busted for drinking at a football tailgate party. Fortunately it didn’t get back to the athletic department. When he asked for $500 for the alcohol awareness class (to erase the charge) I told him no. It left him a bit short of cash the rest of the year. He learned actions have consequences. He got a 2.7 his first semester. I told him if he didn’t get a 3.3 the second semester he would lose his 50% academic ride. He would have to come home. I wouldn’t have done it. The warning scared him straight. He got a 3.5 the second semester. I told him that’s the bar. He was focused from that point forward. He graduated with a 3.6.
Half of his travel teammates transferred. Only one flunked out. He majored in partying. Those who transferred reached too high. They took the dream option rather than the thought through option. That sad thing is the kid who flunked out started from day one at a ranked program. He was the top pro prospect from my son’s travel team class.
Ironically, my son followed in my footsteps. I had too much fun fall of freshman year. I got a 2.7. I didn’t get any threats from parents. But, I knew I was better than my gpa. I got more serious about school. From my experience I sensed my son was BSing me all fall. I wasn’t shocked when he showed his grades.
Francis7, how many parents of players do you know who stayed on the team? Because sure, there might be 12 bad outcomes, but it's very different if you are comparing it to 50 good outcomes or 10 good outcomes.
I decided to follow 35 kids (HS '19) my son played with, who went to all levels from P5 to juco. Three years on, 9 or 10 so far are out of baseball, for one reason or another - some injury, some their choice, most I don't know. The rest, last I looked, are still playing - some at their original schools, some not, and some are in the portal now. Some have gotten playing time, and some haven't. For sure the ones who originally were P5 commits have had it the toughest.
So, is 9 out of 35 good, or bad? Keeping in mind that these kids were all hit by covid, too.
For sure, there are kids who make it all 4 years. You see it on every roster. I think people see them and think it's easy to get through the 4 years. Yet, I have heard about many who don't make it past freshman.
I follow my '17 and '19 kids' HS teammates and they've been pretty fortunate: none of them have been cut or quit before the clock ran out, although Covid and lily-livered college admin decisions cut two years from four kids' playing careers. Thank you, Vassar, Bowdoin, Bates and Amherst.
A few started every year they could play, the rest hung in there as subs and backups, and a couple played club ball for UCSB and UCSD. The UCSD kid has the distinction of both being the starting pitcher in the HS state championship game, which his team won AND pitching a perfect game for the UCSC club team.
@smokeminside posted:I follow my '17 and '19 kids' HS teammates and they've been pretty fortunate: none of them have been cut or quit before the clock ran out, although Covid and lily-livered college admin decisions cut two years from four kids' playing careers. Thank you, Vassar, Bowdoin, Bates and Amherst.
A few started every year they could play, the rest hung in there as subs and backups, and a couple played club ball for UCSB and UCSD. The UCSD kid has the distinction of both being the starting pitcher in the HS state championship game, which his team won AND pitching a perfect game for the UCSC club team.
cut them a break smoke those schools were busy saving the lives of all of those kids....for 2 years
Add in "Didn't really want to play or love the game, but was doing so to appease his parent(s)" - remember it's not your expectations/hopes/dreams - it's your child's. At times it's very hard to discern the difference between the two. I've been around some dads in the stands who were attempting to relive their youth through their child.
@smokeminside posted:I follow my '17 and '19 kids' HS teammates and they've been pretty fortunate: none of them have been cut or quit before the clock ran out, although Covid and lily-livered college admin decisions cut two years from four kids' playing careers. Thank you, Vassar, Bowdoin, Bates and Amherst.
A few started every year they could play, the rest hung in there as subs and backups, and a couple played club ball for UCSB and UCSD. The UCSD kid has the distinction of both being the starting pitcher in the HS state championship game, which his team won AND pitching a perfect game for the UCSC club team.
Smoke, how some schools and conferences responded (no... reacted) to COVID completely changed the way my son looked at them. This board was a wealth of information in learning where 2023 fit. Thanks to all; especially adbono and tbpt.
A college playing career rarely goes as planned. My son's didn't either, but he stuck it out for four years, had highs and lows, and graduated with a 3.75 GPA. He was on a 40 year plan, not a 4 year plan. He had the option to come back for a 5th year (covid) and most likely be big contributor, but chose to hang up the spikes. It was time to move on with life.
You have to remember, as a Freshman, you're the young buck. You're competing with guys that have been there done that, they have experience. They also have "money in the bank" with coaches, their trust. You have none of that, you have to prove it. It's a tough thing for a Freshman to deal with and realize. But if you stick it out for a year or two (again, the big picture, using baseball to get a quality education, 40 year plan), you're now the guy that has been there done that and has money in the bank, you're the guy that the coach turns to when it's on the line.
Two words of advice for a college Freshman...patience grasshopper.
