Freshman tryout methods

"My son reports the coaching staff will hold twice weekly practices for 5 weeks and make cuts following. Is this common?"

Thats not common in Pa. state regulates when spring sports can start. So our school has typically has a three day tryout with cuts coming the 4th day and actual practice starting within a day or so.

The school has unofficial workouts throughout the winter. Usually organized and advertised by the boosters club. When notifying anyone the word practice is never mentioned we always had to say it was an open gym.

At least your son has 10 chances to impress.

My son reports they have three cuts according to their coaches. One after first week and two more the following two weeks.

I would think the longer the better if I am one trying out. Eliminates the chance a bad couple of days gets someone cut who shouldn't be.

quote:

Originally posted by 2016Dad:
My son reports the coaching staff will hold twice weekly practices for 5 weeks and make cuts following. Is this common? I thought it would be a quick hit, run and field tryout day. This is after the same kids played 8 games together over the summer. I'm thinking maybe they'll have progressively tougher workouts and the cuts will happen naturally?

My son has graduated but the HS tryouts were usually 1 week (5 days) with the first cut on Wednesday and the final roster posted after Friday's final tryout. Depending on how tryouts were going he might post a partial list of who had made the team the same day of the first cuts. He would then continue to evaluate those on the bubble. All depended on how many tryout - usually 25-35 for varsity and 40-50 for JV.

This year will be slightly different as for the first time there will be a middle school team. So 8th graders will not be allowed to tryout for JV.

As mentioned there is a date set by the state (VHSL for us) as to when tryouts or practices can start. Until then any "practice" is labeled as "conditioning" and is open to anyone. At our HS tryouts start in late February (around the 20th) with the first scrimmage in early March. Season starts a week after the first scrimmage. Uusally by mid-March.

A related question. I have seen two types of tryouts. One where each player gets 10 grounders, 10 flys, 10 cuts, etc. and is rated on each one by a coach. And one where they just go out an run drills, etc. and only when something catches a coache's eye do they "take notes."

To me it alwasys seemed like the first method was more "fair" as each kid got the same opportunity. The second method alwasys seemed like a "setup" in which only certain kids received an opportunity. Which one is prefered?

States typically have specific rules on tryout dates. PA's is so specific they provide the tryout dates. They are required to be three to five days. My son said the tryouts looked like a practice and culminate with a scrimmage. However, fall ball and off season workouts may have a bearing on whether a player makes the team. Soph year my son was told after fall ball his position was his to keep or lose in the spring.

Our state begins tryouts the first Friday in March and the season opens April 1. So throughout the month of March, they had practices and scrimmages and cuts were done a few times up until the last week before the season opened. Where they played in the summer was irrelevant and had nothing to do with making the team. Spots were won and lost during tryouts.

unoffical w/outs have been going on since late Oct. with typical Christmas Break. On going right now with a manditory 1 week dead period for spring sports right before tryouts. Tryouts start late Feb and last 5 days, coaches don't care whom or where you played club at as it should be.......

In AZ, the rules are pretty strict for tryouts. The school district has their own rules on top of the state rules. Tryouts start February 4th and run for 1-4 days. Cuts are usually announced on the 7th or 8th. All players must attend at least one day of tryouts (this came into play my son's junior year when he had a serious case of the flu). A player from a winter sport can be tried out for at least one day after the winter sport ends.

Baseball runs camps in November and January, I believe a total of ten each month. There is also a concept called, "open fields" where the team can show up and play without a coach telling them what to do, but all coaches at all levels watching and some seniors running it. Softball uses the open field concept. Baseball sticks with camps since they can make a few bucks since there are more players trying to impress. In softball we typically have just enough players to field a freshman team of 9-12, a JV team of 12-15 and a varsity team of 13-14. In baseball, they've had as many as 200 try out taking as many as 25 at freshmen, 20 at JV and 23 at varsity

By the time we get to the official tryout, I don't think there are too many decisions left to be made as the coaches have already seen everyone.

In my son's freshman year I was approached by the head coach before Christmas about adjusting his schedule to support early dismissals for road games. He had an honors class last period they wanted to swap with baseball, which occupies last period and is the start of practice every afternoon. We had a pretty good clue at that point he was going to be playing at least JV.

Our seasons start in late February and regular season ends in late April.