HIGH SCHOOL BALL

8th graders are eligible for JV baseball. It's a good way to get in the program. Don't expect a lot from high school programs. If you want to play at the next level find a strong travel team and spend the money.

www.richmondbraves.net

He is already playing travel ball, just recently picked up on a team in Hampton in which one of the coaches is the Head Coach at the community college. It is a brand new 13U team but should be very competitive once summer ball rolls around, not sure how well they will do this fall.

Frankly I would consider a strong travel team to be a better development opportunity than a middle school team. I say that as someone who is from an area without any middle school baseball available. The travel teams end up having maybe 12 guys, 5 feeding into each of 2 local high schools and maybe 2 future private school players. You get only the future varsity guys instead of everyone. It's a tighter mix and it allows for higher level instruction.

What I've seen of middle school ball, in comparison, was that it was horribly sloppy. I didn't feel like we missed anything worth losing sleep over.

I do think your son should try out for his HS JV team in 8th grade. Whether he makes it can often have more to do with the program's strength at that time than with his future there, so don't get too upset if he gets cut. Being accepted can be a nice boost, but getting cut can also prove to be a great motivator to get him ready for the 9th grade tryouts.

The year my son was in 8th grade, the varsity had almost no juniors or seniors, so a lot of sophs and some frosh made the varsity, which opened up the JV. FIVE 8th graders made it and 3 of them started most of the games in a winning season. Two years later, when the talent pipeline was a bit more full and backed up, I think only 1 8th grader made the JV team. Some things are beyond your control, but go for it and hope for the best.

All that being said, if your son is entering 8th grade he should be playing 14u to play "on grade". With the move a few years back to change the aging date from Aug. 1 to May 1, more and more 8th graders are age eligible for 13u play, but IMHO it does you no good to take advantage of that. Basically he'll be "playing down". If he wants to be ready to compete for a JV spot in February, he should spend the fall playing 14u. If he plays 13u, he could stand out, but all he'll get is a false sense of where he'll stand in the eyes of the coaches come February.

First welcome aboard. Absolutely have your son try out for JV and also play on a travel team. Depending on the high school’s program (good/sloppy) in Chesapeake, really doesn’t matter, they will be playing ball. That is the ticket, play, play,- play as much as he can or you can support (money ). My son played JV ball when he was a 8th graded and started every game. The HS team he was on was pretty bad. But, he was on one of the top travel programs in the country (Richmond Braves). We did put him in Greenbrier Christian when he went into the 9th grade though. There are some awesome programs in the Chesapeake area; hopefully you live by the right school.
Playing up or down didn’t hurt my son at all. It’s all about the other talent on the team.

MLB Dad,

Baseball is great and everything said here is true, but make sure your son gets the best academic preparation he can in high school. There is a lot of academic money out there for good students.

You're looking further down the road than he is, I think! He's just talking about a HS future, you're talking college.

Don't think so. It is more important to worry about an 8th grader's academic preparation for high school than JV versus travel team baseball. Too many parents think their kid is the next Pujols and don't give the academics their due.

Play the percentages and focus on the classroom first and the ballfield second. If he is good and he has the grades, the colleges will find him. If he is good and doesn't have the grades - being good won't matter too much.

Thanks for all the comments, my son will be entering the 7th grade this year, so he still has a year to get better but I was just getting some other prospectives. As far as a education is concerned, not to worried about that, he is in all honors classes, carries a 3.9 GPA and will be taking some classes at the high school. I would love to place him at a private school like Greenbrier Christian, but we live by IR and the baseball program there is great. Another question, does anybody know if they allow 7th graders to play fall ball with a high school team.

Yes I was speaking about college; the foundation for which kids establish in HS. The extra-curriculars are critically important to rounding out the HS experience, but I think we all need to realize that most of us make a living using what we take from the classroom first and the practice fields second.

Without seeing your son...I haven't seen a 7th grader who could play with the varisty kids. Check with your HS coach but I would guess he will have the same reaction.

He may be better suited to play with the JV kids.

I totally agree, he is definitely not ready to play with the likes of Dean, Josh and others. Was really interested if the high schools actually allowed the younger guys to work out with them. I know he would not get a lot of playing time, but I think it would definitely help and get his feet wet and see what it takes to play HS ball especially at IR. This fall he will get his first introduction to playing on the big field. Just trying to get any additional help for him that I can.

redbird,
kinda off-topic but did you ever see Brandon Snyder play? He was ready for college ball when he was in middle school, and I am not exaggerating one bit.

Future,

PM IRBaseball24 on here. He coaches at IR.

mustangp,

Nope but, if you are accurate, he is 1 in a million. I like my odds

future,
redbird is right IR 24 knows more but im thinking he could play j.v. as a 7th. grader.if im right he can't play high school yet even if it's fallball.

I am pretty sure that fall ball does not impact one's eligibility for varsity unless it is sanctioned by VHSL.