Freshman Baseball Team

I know our high school is looking into killing freshman baseball and softball. Their research shows the almost all of the freshmen who ultimately have an impact on varsity play JV ball as freshmen. Not having a freshman team might hurt a late bloomer. But these kids have summer ball.

Wow that is sad to hear. We have over 65 kids coming out for three teams, I think over 25 are coming out for Freshman ball. Our Varsity and JV teams will have about 16 kids each and the freshman team usually keeps anywhere from 14-18 (depending on each year's turnout). So there will still be about 20-25 kids cut from the program. It would be a heck of a lot more if there were only two teams.

I understand that there is summer ball but I do not think this is good idea. However I do understand the "economics" of these times.

My son's school does not have a freshman baseball (or softball) team and haven't for at least 6 years. I don't know if they ever had a freshman baseball team. The school does have a freshman football team.

our program removed the Freshman squad last year...mainly due to budget cuts by not have enough coaches to manage all 3 teams...IMO...this hurts in a couple of ways...1. a late development of a player, 2. Playtime by having too many players on the JV& Varsity...and the biggest is losing player headcount to maximize fundrasing...JMHO.

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Originally posted by Good-eye:
and the biggest is losing player headcount to maximize fundrasing...JMHO.

Very good point.

Here we have freshman A & B squads with 24 players each and between 80-100 at tryouts in a school of 2400.

I live in the St Louis metro area at with a high school with 1700 kids. At the freshmen level this year, my son had 87 teammates on his freshmen football team(none quit, which was amazing). About 60 kids tried out for basketball, and my son says about 70 will try out for baseball, which is his main sport. I dont know of any schools here that are cutting sports teams at the high school level, but I do know the St Louis Community College system, which has three branches, has cut baseball programs at two of them and other sports as well.

CPLZ...thought that comment I made may have been viewed a money crazed fan...but as we all know baseball doesnt get hardly any money from their ISD's..so it's left up to supportive parents to help the coaches achieve their needs..we get about $2500 from our ISD...then its up to us...with a budeget of $15K...that's a big delta to swim...

Like cplz 2 fresh teams 20 or so each with 60-80 at tryouts. soph 20-25 with just 1 team and 45 or so tryout.

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Originally posted by dad43:
I understand that there is summer ball but I do not think this is good idea. However I do understand the "economics" of these times.

I don't think economics has anything to do with the considerations in our district. I've never heard of any budget issues. We're in a big lacrosse and s0ccer area. There's a significant drop off in baseball talent after the JV team.

Lacrosse and s****r also big in our area but this current class from Freshman thru Senior seems to have baseball interest and talent. I feel for the coach in having to make the cuts and if he had to get down to just a jv and varsity team that would make it even tougher.

RJM you mentioned "The research shows the almost all of the freshmen who ultimately have an impact on varsity play JV ball as freshmen.", that would not hold true for our high school.

Many of the kids that played Freshman ball ended up contributing to the varsity team, it might not be until they are Seniors that their Contribution is significant.

I think that at smaller schools 1200 students or less that your impact freshman would indeed start at JV and possibly varsity. At a larger school like my son's (approx 2000 students) it is rare for a freshman to play varsity at all while a select few may "swing" between freshman and JV. Baseball coach also rarely leaves juniors on JV. He figures if you aren't good enough to make the varsity roster as a junior then he'd rather develop a younger player on JV. There may be a couple of juniors that are the 14th - 16th players on varsity that will see some playing time on JV but they are considered varsity players.

In my town there is a whole in the school budget (carried over from the former superintendent) to the tune of 6 million. Freshman sports are in real danger of being eliminated as are the middle school programs. On a selfish note I am glad my son is a freshman now and that these potential cuts won't affect him personally!

Our school will have a freshman team. Last year, there were about 15 freshman. All but one played freshman. The one played JV and pitched varsity (my son). Two others played JV and Freshman (and one varsity as well). Quite frankly, most of the freshmen will not play up to varsity, but there were probably 4 or 5 that will wind up on varsity by their Jr. or Sr. year. It was worth it for them to play freshman just for the playtime aspect. They may not have played much JV, but they did get play time and development time.

Coach was going to discontinue the freshman team this year, but there are about 30 freshmen interested in playing ball this year, so he kept it. A nearby school does not have a freshman team and I heard that there were around 60 freshmen coming to try out. That will be tough on a lot of kids. They really should have a team to keep some of these kids involved or they will lose them to s****r and lacross.

BTW, we get no help from the county or state with any athletic programs. All money is gotten from the booster club, fundraisers and fees to play. We have close to 2000 kids at the school.

Actually I think there may be an advantage to eliminating freshman teams. Too many kids get cut at the freshman level and end up out of baseball. It isn't anybody's fault. It is just a numbers game and having to make decisions when most kids are not too developed. Isn't it incredible how small those freshmen look to you parents of seniors? Not having a freshman team will keep some of the kids in the game a bit longer and may give one or two a chance to stick with the game who wouldn't have otherwise.

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Originally posted by dad43:
RJM you mentioned "The research shows the almost all of the freshmen who ultimately have an impact on varsity play JV ball as freshmen.", that would not hold true for our high school.

Our high school either. What research says that btw - the small school research foundation study?

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Originally posted by ClevelandDad:

quote:

Originally posted by dad43:
RJM you mentioned "The research shows the almost all of the freshmen who ultimately have an impact on varsity play JV ball as freshmen.", that would not hold true for our high school.

Our high school either. What research says that btw - the small school research foundation study?

Thanks for the sarcasm. Why couldn't you just ask for clarification? If you're a moderator you shouldn't be with this attitude.

My post was discussing the situation at my son's high school. It's not a small high school. It's in the largest school classification. The research was done by the athletic department. Through contacts the word filtered down to me.

The norm is most players start junior and senior year. These players make JV freshman year and sometimes get called up by the end of soph year. Last year had the first opening day soph starter in six years. Last year also had the first opening day freshman starter ever.

I don't recollect there being a senior first year varsity player in the eight years I've been paying attention other than players who have stuck it out through freshman and two years of JV and been handed uniforms and a seat on the end of the bench. There were two last year. They were nice kids who understood the situation. One player declined the offer and quit.

Any senior first year starter was on varsity as a sub junior year. There will be a senior first time starter this coming year. He was on varsity last year. There have been senior first time starting pitchers who were in the pen junior year.

Most High Schools in our area are cutting out freshman ball because of cost. But alot of schools still have to 2 JV teams.

My son attended a small CA public high school with probably 750 total students. Despite the small numbers, the school has run three teams - Freshman, JV, and V for many years and I have not heard of any plans to drop back to two. There are normally 70-80 boys out for the teams each spring (roughly 20% of the male population).

I would describe it as an extremely successful program - tied the record for most sectional titles in the section (CA does not have a state baseball championship, instead dividing the state into 8 sections). They have also won their league on the order of 14 of the last 15 years.

It is extremely unusual for a freshman to do anything other than play on the Freshman team - and somewhat unusual for a sophomore to make Varsity - perhaps 1 or 2 a year, normally to fill a gap (e.g. backup catcher).

There are cuts at all three levels every year. Juniors and Freshman making up most of the cuts. Seniors who have been in the program all three years are generally given a clear understanding of their potential playing time and given a choice of getting a uniform on varsity and perhaps having only a minor role or quitting.

I personally think that the Freshman team are a key reason for the success of the program. Giving these guys a place to get ABs and Innings rather than watching others play helps them to continue their development. Since many of the other local schools do not have a freshman team, they play against a wide array of competition.

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The freshman program has improved over the years at our school. There were some real horror stories before my son was a freshman and some real horror stories when he was a freshman. They've improved the number and quality of the freshman coaches since then and I'm quite impressed with who they've got lined up to coach the freshmen this coming season.

The summer after their freshman season we had to work hard to overcome the damage done by the freshman coach. They went from being a very divisive group as freshmen to well knit unit as seniors. The credit for that goes to the kids.

We just have JV and Varsity. Softball is only varsity. When I was a Freshman we had 4 extra games on our schedule that were just for freshman, but that was the only time that we did that.

We don't have a freshman team but based on the number of freshman that tryout and don't make the JV team I feel there should be one. My son almost didn't make the JV team (late bloomer) and is now the team's top relief pitcher on varsity. Makes you wonder how many other late bloomers didn't make the cut.

Our high school coach also doesn't let juniors play on the JV team.

The high school my son goes to has always had a Varsity, JV and Freshman team.

The rumor this year is that due to budget cuts, the Freshman team schedule could be as short as 6 games.

He has a solid chance of making JV so maybe it's a mute point for us, but some of his friends will be left high and dry.

I'd be willing to pay more for a full schedule.

Our school's philosophy is to maintain a very significant Freshman program. They'll keep up to 25, with the theory being some have hit their growth spurt and others haven't. You simply can't predict what the 14U player will look like at 18U. Also, you really can't predict how many you'll lose to grades, girls, cars, etc.

Keep the program full and see what happens. As previously mentioned, fund raising isn't hurt either... How many pro prospects kill themselves to sell those stupid cards? Not many. How many freshmen kill themselves? Well, most of them...

Our school with enrollment of about 1500 has a freshman, JV and Varsity. We have about 60 - 80 players who come out and don't cut players. Varsity and JV carry 24 players each and the freshman team is usually in that range as well. We will always let a player know what role they are expected to play on the team and some clearly decide not to continue basis that information. Usually wind up with about 60 or so players remaing by the start of the season. There is always some overlap, more talented freshman also playing JV. Also have some none senior varsity players, who may be seeing limited time on varsity, that will get some work with JV at their games.

Seems like it takes 4 or 5 really good players in each class to keep a solid program at the varsity level. With that in mind I could see the other's points on not having a freshman team as the most talented freshman would play on JV. We have preferred to have a freshman team for those later developers that if nothing else may play key supporting roles in varsity later. These players have come in to help from back-up roles and as relief pitchers.

Concerning the budget situation there are no budget problems for us as the kids and parents typically fundraise to cover their cost plus some. Other funding for coaches salaries, travel, comes from the school system. Our school system is fairly well funded from business/industry taxes in our area.

One thing I notice is there is a huge disparity in the philosophy of different programs. At my son's school, there were about 80 players trying out for freshman ball. They kept about 30 and had 2 teams. None of those players played jv or varsity with the exception of one or two pitchers at the end of the season to eat up some innings.

These 30 kids plus probably 10-15 more will try out for 1 sophomore team, which will probably roster 20-22. Again sophomores last year stayed on the soph team. Seems our school does not have to worry about bringing up freshman / sophomores to play varsity, the varsity roster is pretty darn good.

Personally my son is one of the late bloomers and now as a young sophomore - turns 16 about a week before junior year starts - losing freshman ball would have hurt him. When he tried out for freshman ball he was very behind a lot of guys in physical maturity, but he made the team and had a good year. Now that he is catching up to these guys physically things even out a bit.

I do not agree with RJM that "The research shows the almost all of the freshmen who ultimately have an impact on varsity play JV ball as freshmen" - I would like to see that research - at least in our area this has not proven to be the case at all.

Players should NEVER give in to the pre-concieved notions that they are too small or not good enough at freshman level, the fact is some players have physically matured by freshman year and some still look like they are 12.

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I do not agree with RJM that "The research shows the almost all of the freshmen who ultimately have an impact on varsity play JV ball as freshmen" - I would like to see that research - at least in our area this has not proven to be the case at all.

Read the post again. You're the second one to debate what I said. IT WAS THE RESEARCH OUR HIGH SCHOOL DID ON THEIR BASEBALL PROGRAM! How would you have any idea what has occurred at our high school?

Cut back on the coffee, dude.