Football and Baseball do they mix?

My 15 yr old does, but I think it might be his last year. He has played football since he was 5 but baseball is his favorite sport too. In our area, starting the summer before soph year they have Football workouts most of the summer. It is this time where I have noticed a lot of kids choose. There are still many that do both though. There are some kids that can do both and excell, some can't.

You are lucky your son's HS coaches evidently don't have a problem with sharing you son's talent.

The opportunity to play HS football only comes around once in his life and if your son enjoys playing, let him play. You never know what will happen. Playing other sports will broaden you're son's HS/life experience.

Our High School coaches encourage more than one sport but only one sport per season. Unless of course you have a great foot - last year the s****r coach shared a player with the football team as a kicker only.

However my 15yr old has decided that baseball is his first love and being a strong left handed pitcher is a major roll in that. He decided last year this time when he recieved what could have been a serious injury (Thank G it was not) that football was not as important to him as baseball. He now plays fallball with no confilcts(1st time ever) then he will play basketball for school and baseball.

We are so proud that at a young age he has decided what means the most to him now.

I live in a state where high school football is king. Southlake Carrol and Euless Trinity had around 40,000 fans at Texas Stadium for a playoff game.
Kids should play sports they enjoy.
If they still enjoy playing football then why not let them? If he is talented enough to play football, basketball, etc.. AND baseball what is so wrong with that?
I know of a kid who was drafted this year by the Braves. Was a great point guard AND shortstop during his HS career. He enjoyed playing both.

My son is going to play both as a freshman this year. The varsity coach told us that he likes his players playing football. However, his reputation is that he doesn't like his baseball players doing football, so we'll see if he continues to encourage the two sports after the frehsman year. My son is also a quarterback.

I also understand that many scouts and coaches at the next level, pro and college, often look favorably at multi sport athletes.

WingKing

I feel very strongly about this.

As I write this, my son is at a teammate's house, the Friday night after first week of daily doubles, where the seniors on the team have a tradition of shaving each other's heads (and shaving all sorts of designs into their scalps) as a show of team unity and commitment to the season.

My son has played football and baseball for all four years of high school. All the way, we knew that baseball was his #1 love and the sport in which he had a chance to play beyond high school.

He loves football, and he's good at it - but he's a HS footbal player. Not a D1 college football guy.

But he would not give up the experience of playing football in high school. The memories have no substitute. The comraderie of a good high school football team is a completely different animal than a baseball team. The reliance on each other knits a team more closely than any other sport that he's been involved in.

Is there an injury risk that might impact his baseball future? Sure. Is there a chance that not playing fall ball and taking four months away from baseball every year slows his development in baseball? Yes.

But he is a high school kid, not a professional athlete. He loves to play and he is good at it - he will play. To not play because baseball is the sport where he can play beyond HS would be, in my view, robbing him of experiences that will stay with him forever.

When in high school, be a high schooler. Play both sports as long as it is fun!

Can't wait to have him come home tonight and see his haircut!

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Kremer:
As I write this, my son is at a teammate's house, the Friday night after first week of daily doubles, where the seniors on the team have a tradition of shaving each other's heads (and shaving all sorts of designs into their scalps) as a show of team unity and commitment to the season.

That does not happen

I'm with Rob Kremer here! Go Rob! My son played and loved HS football. HS football is without doubt the #1 "event" at our high school. About the only thing HS baseball and HS football have in common is they are both sports. While my son did go on to play D-1 baseball and professional baseball, he has more football awards hanging on the wall than baseball awards. His HS letterman's jacket is a "football" jacket. Baseball doesn't give out letters or jackets. I personally had to order the baseball and have it sew onto the jacket.
Fungo

Ditto Kremer!

My Freshman didn't get to play Pop Warner the last couple of years because of weight restrictions and was indicating that he might not want to play football this year so he could play fall ball. I kept nudging and even shoving to no avail. I think it will be good for him and I know once they started playing he would miss it tremendously.

The head baseball coach watched him play this summer and indicated to the JV coach that my kid might need a little football to increase his agility and drop a few pounds. With regrets, the JV coach told us this.

He has been to six days of practices and if the baseball coach came and said he needed him he would respectfully tell him to suffer.

quote:

I was was wondering how many of your sons play football and baseball for their high school teams?

Mine did.
Had a stinkin' blast for 4 years, too!

quote:

When in high school, be a high schooler. Play both sports as long as it is fun!

I couldnt agree more.

I also have very strong feelings about this.
The KID should decide what sports and activities he or she participates in WITHOUT undue influence from a coach whose stake in it is selfish.

That being said I realize there are rare cases... Ken Griffey sr. would not let Jr. play HS football and it really angered his son. I understand his reasons... but for most people I'd say if the kid wants to play let em... You are a long time getting old. Play games while you can. (that could be my signature line couldn't it?)

My son played both sports for four years. Was an All-State LB/Punter and Outfielder in Baseball. Signed to play D-1 baseball and will also punt for the football team. Never pushed him to play both or to pick just one. I would not give up the memories of watching him play in High School for anything. For those of you worried that your son might get hurt, he might get hurt walking to school. Let you kids enjoy the High School experience. They will do fine,make sure it's their dream not yours. I say this as I sit at home just returning from dropping my son off at College 9 hours from home. I feel like my best friend just moved away. Parents enjoy your kids everyday. The HS years go fast.

It think its great to play multi-sports.

But never at the price of schoolwork.

A kid hoping for college and struggling/scuffling along with a 2.0, clearly needs more reps with homework.

Only parents can intervene there.

Favorite current example of multi-sport athlete:

Mark DeRosa.

Mine played football all 4 years as well. We got a lot of stares especially after son signed early to play college baseball - like how could we chance letting him get hurt his senior year? He wouldn't hear any of it, and .....his dad was the football coach - he wouldn't hear of it either. HAHAHA

I played 3 sports in high school: Football, Basketball, and Baseball. There's not a single thing I would change about having played all 3. Sure, there were times where there were conflicts, but the coaches at my high school worked extremely well together to "share" athletes. Our basketball coach wanted us playing football or s****r in the fall, our baseball coach wanted us playing basketball in the winter, and our football coach wanted us either playing baseball or running track in the spring. Those who didn't play an in-season sport spent that season in the weight room. Many athletes (not just football players) lift with the football coach yearround.

One downside to playing 3 sports in high school was there was no such thing as an "offseason." I was playing one of the 3 sports 50 of 52 weeks a year for 4 years. That affected the sheer amount of weight lifting I could do, but there were benefits of playing the 3 sports instead of gaining that extra bit of weight lifting.

I played football for 6 years; played basketball for 4 years (competitively), and played baseball my whole life. Since 7th grade when I started football, I have suffered more injuries playing baseball than I have suffered playing football. And I have suffered more severe injuries while playing baseball as well...

I have run into the same spot your in my son now entering his senior, played varsity football as a kicker and punter, started QB for jv his freshman and soph year, started QB for varsity his junior year, for baseball started varsity since his freshman year as a pitcher catcher 3rd and 1st base, needless to say, he told us the beginning of summer he is done with football since he got a really good scholarship at a great university, has been getting calls from some pro teams for workouts and was seen by a cross checker, well he thru in one big surprise last week, he decided to play football his last year...he did get on the phone with his college coach, i give him credit for that much, everything seems fine for him to play, as parent i did try to discourage him, which kinda left an empty spot in my stomach, cause i always encourage my kids to play, me and my better half left it up to him knowly he could blow it all for ten games, but we also fell years from know we dont want to hear should've could've but didnt..at the end of the football season i will let you know if my son made the right choice...good luck in you son's future

whbseball -
welcome to the HSBBW! Glad to have you here. Congratulations on your son's success - sounds as if he has a lot on the ball. I look forward to hearing about his senior year.

Again, welcome, I am sure you will find this site to be a very valuable resource.

If he is gifted enough to play both, I would encourage it.
Didn't Tim Tebow make the Florida Sports Writer's first team in baseball, as well as football?

I think the push/pull between football and baseball has been there for a long time and there are numerous examples of athletes that are able to manage both.

I agree that it is important for the kid to decide if he wants to play both sports, but there should be an understanding that their are risks (some times serious) involved in playing both sports.

For 90% of the kids who will never go on to play college ball (baseball or football) go for it and have a great time, there are limited consequences for an injury.

For those who have the ability and are clear D1 college material and have scholarships locked up in their Jr season, there is some risk for long term injuries but even if they miss their Sr season in baseball due to a football injury the risk is minimal if they have a deal locked up.

For those who are borderline college athletes and they really want to play college baseball they better think it through before they walk out on the football field, as it is very easy to get injury that will affect their critical Sr. season.

There are also training issues as football players are trained to build significant body mass (slow twitch) and to build up in areas that are a detriment to a baseball player. There is overlap but a good baseball specific program is different than a football program. (obviously somewhat position dependent)

My son is a Soph two sport athlete (basketball/pitcher) and he is running into the training differences right now. His is having to train more aerobically than he would for pure baseball and is also has less time to train on baseball specific exercises. He is aware and the tradeoffs he is taking right now and is making the second sport decision a year-to-year decision. This year he is playing both, he will make the decision again next year.

The best advice we have received has come from this web site: “play both sports until the competition tells you otherwise” and this is still true, except with football there is an inherent injury risk. We all hear about the kids that are studs that can do both, but we never hear about all of the kids that lose their ability to play college ball because they were injured. They are out there and I know several of them, so think it through and understand the risks.

quote:

football players are trained to build significant body mass (slow twitch)

Last I checked, football was about speed, quickness.. what's different there than baseball? Still about speed, quickness. Slow twitch muscle fibers are long distance runners.

quote:

except with football there is an inherent injury risk.

In the six year period that I played football, I got hurt more in baseball during that time than I did in football. Knowing what I know now, I likely suffered two, maybe three concussions playing baseball. It's definitely possible I suffered one or two playing football. I just remember I had worse headaches after a few baseball games than I ever did after a football game.

Also, I had a teammate break his hand playing baseball. He is on an NAIA football scholarship. You don't think him playing baseball affected his football ability?

Sure there is a good chance of injury in football (I am currently assigned to the NCAA FCS football team at my university as a part of my athletic training program). I realize what kind of injury rates exist. There is risk of injury doing ANYTHING.

My sophomore son is a QB and a catcher. He had to find a new travel team for next summer due to his old team disbanding. It was tough to find the right team due to football. The dates overlap between summer baseball tournaments and the start of football practice. We were honest with coaches about him needing to finish the summer baseball season by a certain date in July. Some coaches wanted him for their team but couldn't take him due to that. Luckily we found a team where it will work.

There are other compromises though. He misses fall baseball and fall workouts with his school team. In the summer he misses some summer conditioning for football due to baseball tournaments.

We don't even worry about injuries. If you play any sports you can get injured so dwelling on the "what if's" seems pointless. Heck, I know a kid who tore his ACL in gym class!

We figure if he's good enough to play either sport in college, it will work out. But we'll let him work it out instead of letting other people tell him what he can and cannot do during high school.

quote:

There is risk of injury doing ANYTHING

Yep,...like tripping over a crack in the sidewalk and breaking an ankle.

Life is short.
Make the most of it and dont forget to have fun!!

My son plays HS baseball, basketball, & football. He loves all equally, so I've encouraged him to keep playing if he wants to. Here, multi-sport playing is tolerated, but that's all. Many kids do play more than one sport, but if you play football, the baseball coaches won't let you play school fall ball. Which, of course, puts you at a disadvantage for making the baseball team.

I've been trying to help him with getting in long toss and I found a local nonschool weekend fall ball league for him to play in. But it can be pretty tough.