HIGH SCHOOL FALL BALL 2015

Interesting that you get to start play games already. Our area teams can only practice during 6th period (about 40 minutes), and we will start games in mid-October for about 8-9 weeks. All practices cancelled this week due to extreme heat in So. Cal, go figure. 

There are roughly 45 players in the 6th period baseball "class" (couple of frosh, then about 14-15 each from the other classes). They will be split between a JV and a Varsity team and will play one game each on Saturdays. No scores kept. Very mellow. 

Most all of these kids are also involved in travel ball, and will be through December. Always interesting to see how different families prioritize HS over travel or vice-versa. At this age its just fun to see who has grown, and how much. Last year our 2018 grew about four inches between the end of spring ball and entering HS. Became a totally different looking kid between frosh baseball summer camp and the first day of school. 

This sounds so different than our fall ball. Fall ball around here is not associated with the high school in any way. HS coaches can't have any part of a fall baseball program, so it's all club run.

My son will be playing for a new fall ball team. All games are on Sundays at area high schools and JCs. He will be playing on a 16U showcase team with this club next summer, so it will be a good intro to their coaching and philosophy. He has football all week and baseball on Sundays. I'm hoping he stays healthy and just has some fun.

If you ain't keeping score, why play?

Looks like the local fall league my son use to participate in has folded - the website is no longer at any rate.  It usually consisted of teams based on the area schools.  Due to VHSL rules at the time HS coaches were not permitted to coach, but could oversee the program.  That may have changed.  It was a limited schedule - about 10 weeks with 5 inning doubleheaders on Saturdays and then 4 rounds in the playoffs  The league was split into two levels -  A teams (Varsity) and B team (JV).  Then each level had a north division and a south division.  It wasn't near as intense as the normal spring HS season.  Kinda of sad if it did fold.

For our area it was a good way for upcoming player to get a taste of HS ball.

Why play?  Cause it's fun. Cause it's developmental. Cause that's the rules (not sure if it's our section rules or state (CIF) rules, but I think it's the latter. HS coaches are allowed to run an affiliated fallball program on school property. Number of games and practices and timing are restricted. Our team only works on the field 2 days a week; the rest of the time they're in the weight room, doing yoga, etc.  BTW the scores don't count, but from what I've seen the results certainly do in terms of who makes the spring team.  Players can do travel instead if they prefer, but at our school most do not.

Fall ball is sort of an evolving animal in our area.  For a very long time it was exclusively run by the area baseball facilities and consisted of double headers every Sunday for 5 weeks.  It was very relaxed and the competition level for the most part was pitiful.  Rec level at best.  At the high school level each facility had(and still has) an elite fall travel team that travels around to small area colleges and plays games.  The newest option for high school kids are teams put together by the high school coaches.  They cannot be coached by any of the spring coaches and not every high school participates.  But this is our second year in this league and there are more schools this year than last.  We hadn't heard of it before last year but that doesn't mean it wasn't there.  But if it was it was only a year or two prior to that. 

My son's high school has 57 kids playing fall baseball.  And another handful of kids that play a fall sport so were not allowed to play but played spring and summer ball.  Should make for a very interesting spring tryout for the kids who decided to take the fall off.  Fall ball is pretty laid back in the sense that there are no tournaments or championships.  The purpose is development.  Kids playing positions they may not have gotten a lot of time at during the regular seasons.  Giving kids a chance to work on their pitching as no pitchers go more than 2 innings(at least on our team).  And with our school the kids all have to use wood bats.  Which they love.

Our Fall Ball started last week. In our area the better programs have school teams, coached by the  school coaching staff, that play spring summer and fall. Most of the time they play other schools and other fall travel teams. The teams are split into 15U freshman, 16U JV teams , and 17U varsity teams. The best kids also play on showcase teams.They can choose to play another sport if they like but most just play baseball and a few play basketball.

My kid played football last season along with baseball but this year is concentrating on baseball only. 

The school coaches use this time to help evaluate players and predict teams for the spring. In the spring there is very limited time for  tryouts. We work on skills and fundamentals and kick off the spring season quickly.

The Fall Ball season is relatively short compared to the spring and summer seasons.Just tournaments and double headers on weekends and very rarely during the week.The HC will move kids up and down in an attempt to gauge the placement of certain kids. The season for us is very competitive because our program is large and successful, winning the league most years and a good number of kids going on to play in college. Also the kids know they are being watched by the staff as to placement on next years rosters.

A lot of fun for the parents to watch weekend tournaments against good talent and doubleheaders that mean you are at the field most of the  day. I miss a lot of college football games but the season is short lived and my son gets to play with his friends from school while we hang out with parents we have hung out with all year. There is a lot to be said about playing with the same kids year round.