How do HS tryouts work?

Every school as thier own tryout rules.

Like rz1 said, every school is different. Son's school has all coaches working together. They hold tryouts for varsity first (must have been on JV or invited to tryout), then tryouts for JV, then tryouts for Freshman team. Non-seniors who do not make Varsity are eligible for JV. Freshman who do not make JV are eligible for the Freshman team. I suggest you talk with an upper classmate (they usually don't bite ) or a coach and ask your questions. Good luck with tryouts. You might want to also check out these articles on the homepage about Making the Team.

As has been said already, every coach does it his own way.
In my program, I have JR's and SR's try out together (with the occasional SO that I think might play varsity) and the SO and FR try out together. We have to hold tryouts indoors in Michigan and we don't have unlimited gym time, so it is a challenge.
I don't let kids try out for a team...they try out for the PROGRAM, and if they are going to be a positive addition to the program, I put them on the team they should be on. ONly exception is a sophomore coming to varsity...I think the coach should usually sit down with the parents and discuss the positives/negatives of such a move before FORCING a kid to make the jump.
I personally don't like to put juniors on the JV - my thinking is that it takes up playing time from younger kids who are developing and need playing time AND I very rarely see a junior who can't contribute to the varsity ever make a MAJOR contribution as a senior. I can certainly see exceptions (developing pitcher, should start as a senior but current senior class is too deep that season, etc.).

I don't think the pitcher exception is that rare. As a young 16yo senior I was on the varsity only because I was a senior. If I hadn't skipped a grade I would have been the #1 pitcher on the JV as a junior and the #2 pitcher on the varsity as a senior. #1 was a fourth round pick. There was a pitcher who pitched for the JV as a junior who did end up being the #2 pitcher as a senior.

We also had a senior position player who since he had played on JV as a junior had to work his way into being the starting CF, beating out a 19yo senior.

Sounds like you are going into your tryouts with a bias rather than rewarding the best players for their performance going into and during tryouts.

In our program, all sophs, jr, sr, tryout together. They get 3 days before the 1st cut. We will typically have about 50-70 tryout. Baseball is popular at our school. We time them in sprints, run side by side sprints, have the throw from 3rd (on fouline deep)to 1st and then from centerfield to home approx. 220 feet. We have them hit. We have them all field. All of the coaches in our program are given a list of kids trying out on a sheet where they can keep their ratings on the kids. There is enough space for those 3 days. Then, we make our 1st cut and get more detailed. We make another cut and then a "final cut." At times, I think we should eliminate that last cut but we talk to the remaining kids and let them know that they are on the bubble.

Our Freshmen tryout in the same manner but at night after the "varsity" tryouts are made. After the 2nd day of "Varsity" tryouts, any freshman that might be good enought to play varsity or JV is brought into that tryout. By that last cut, we will have a varsity comprised of what we believe to be the best players in the school. We don't care what age they are. We will have a JV comprised of Freshmen and Sophs. No Juniors will be on the JV. If they can't make the varsity then they are done. Then we have a Freshman team as well.

THATS HOW WE DO IT AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT! lol!

CoachB25,
And you've probably cut a few players who could have made major contributions to your program in order to make life easier for yourself. It is unlikely given the overall numbers, but very possible that you have prevented a deserving player from pursuing a professional career due to a rigid policy.

That position player I wrote about was one of the Lane brothers. Although he didn't make it to the big leagues his brother did. There wasn't that much difference in talent between them.

There are large age and maturity differences between HS kids in the same grade and the kids who are young for their grades are the ones who at times can make large jumps in ability if they mature late. Who cares as long as you can follow a policy and not have to do what is right.

CADad, how do you mean rigid? I have re-read my above statment, and I see absolutly nothing that I could change. I/we give them every opportunity to prove that they can play. We eliminate any prejudice from the selection process by having a point's system based upon abilities needed for the game. Every kid is given the same chance and every kid is rated by every coach. HOW COULD YOU ASK THAT I DO MORE? 5 coaches watching every kid that tries out for more than 7 days. Have I cut players that can play? I would guess so.

Some things that some of you don't recognize is that cuts have to be made. I lose a lot of sleep over it. I'm not Attila the Hun. I see kids that thought I walked on water before the tryouts and now, they won't speak to me. No coach I know wants to do it. I was, in fact, cut myself 2 times in high school before making my varsity team. It motivated me to be so good that no one could ever cut me again. Heck, I'm fighting just to keep my current schedule with all of our budget cuts. So far, I've only lost one regular game and one tournament. We get x amount of uniforms. I get x amount of money and it is substantially less than last year. Well, sorry for the soap opera.

Please explain my obvious flaw. Juniors can't play JV in our area. We keep as many Juniors as we can but they must be better than kids below them.

Coach - I think he meant where you said that a junior wasn't eligible for JV.

quote:

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Originally posted by goMO:
Coach - I think he meant where you said that a junior wasn't eligible for JV.

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Perhaps you are right. BTW, I didn't say a Junior had to be a starter to make the Varsity so we have as many as we are allowed to buy uniforms for. Last year, it was 20 varsity Uniforms. However, I've tried to get the same uniform year in and year out so we can keep one or two more.

CoachB25,
If you cut a junior who is not good enough to make varsity but is better than a sophmore on the JV then you are doing that junior wrong. Of course if there is very little difference between the sophmore and the junior then you'd probably want to keep the sophmore. However, I find it hard to believe that the last junior cut is typically not stronger than the weakest sophmore on the JV.

Sounds like you are trying to get as many juniors as possible on the varsity and typically don't cut many so I can't argue with that.

Lets not get into an argument about it. It looks like Blue Dog may be back and we'll have all the arguments we could possibly want.

CADad, I keep as many kids as I can. Naturally, I have a product to produce and if that product doesn't win, I could be gone. I keep as many Juniors as I can but I have to be fair to all. Juniors that are slightly better than sophs make the team if we have enough slots.

I do understand your concern. I have the same. I HATE HAVING TO CUT AT ALL. It is the hardest part of what I do.

CoachB-- do you cut players if they can't make those throws?

Our school wasn't much to write home about, but at least the players weren't products and the coach didn't have to worry about his job if the team didn't win.
As the school board pres stated, our interest is in academics and sports is an activity for the ones interested.

If a Junior can not make a varsity squad why put him on JV and take playing time away from a younger player that could help you in the future. Most conferences have rules that do not allow Juniors to play on JV teams our does.

Because the junior may be a better player as a senior than the sophmore who takes his place on the JV.

Pretty ridiculous to regulate something like this rather than let playing abilities decide the issue. Rules like this are one reason that people hold their kids back. Why should a 16yo junior who is a better player than a 16yo sophmore not be allowed to play ball? This could also be construed as rewarding academic failure.

Perhaps there should be an age range for HS sports from 14 to 17 at any time through the school year with no grade distinction so that kids who graduate at 17 aren't penalized. Let the 14yo middle schoolers play for their local HS so that they don't lose a year of playing time.

Imagine how quickly parents would stop holding their kids back for sports. Imagine how much more incentive sports oriented parents would have to keep their kids from failing a grade.

Why not make it from 14 through 18? Because even if you allowed 18yo who had graduated from HS to play you'd be discouraging them from continuing their educations.

quote:

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Originally posted by BaseballsMyGame:
CoachB-- do you cut players if they can't make those throws?

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In our tryouts, throwing is only one facet of what they do. Therefore, a straight answer is no. However, they have taken a serious hit on making the team. By making the throw, we don't expect a kid to go out on the first day and throw 220 feet without offering opportunities throughout the year for that same kid to get his arm ready. We are not Attila the Hun, however, I get the feeling that many posters percieve that I am. The game is baseball and if you can't throw it... Sophs have a team to play on and we keep 22 total on what we call the JV. Naturally, it will have some freshmen on it as well. Juniors and Seniors can only play on the varsity. However, the BEST 20 PLAYERS IN THE SCHOOL WILL BE ON THE VARSITY REGARDLESS OF YEAR IN SCHOOL. Hey, thats how we do it. Didn't ever claim to be perfect and perhaps, I'm demonstrating that by making these posts. LOL!

CoachB25-
Don't worry...we do basically the same thing. We evaluate the players based on a number of criteria, and use those ratings to make our cuts. Top 18 play varsity, regardless of class...as long as a sophomore or freshmen that is good enough to make the jump can PLAY regularly. I never bring a 9th or 10th grader up unless they are going to be playing all the time...no sense having them up to watch when they could get game experience on JV.

CoachB25,

Don't worry, you are just doing your job. The first conversation I had with my son's high school coach he told me they had better be pretty good by the time they were juniors and I agree with that. If they can't contribute to the varsity team by the time they are juniors, it is time for them to move on. JMO

Coachs,
Hey, don't take these posts of mine too seriously and especially not personally. This is just one thing that happens to push my button. I'm just a typical dad and my worries for the future, many groundless, come out in some of these posts. Better here than saying anything like this to my son's HS coach someday. From everything you guys have posted I'm quite impressed by the way you guys run your programs.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CADad:
CoachB25,
And you've probably cut a few players who could have made major contributions to your program in order to make life easier for yourself. It is unlikely given the overall numbers, but very possible that you have prevented a deserving player from pursuing a professional career due to a rigid policy.


I would comment that a high school coach could in no way prevent a deserving player from pursuing a professional career..........a player can make choices....if he gets cut he can work harder to improve and achieve his golas, or he can just call it the end.....

grateful,
16yo are not as good at making choices as we'd sometimes like to think. Personally, when at the age of just barely 17 after graduating from HS I wasn't given the chance to play on the legion team I had pitched for the previous year (4-0, 0.00 era) I decided I wouldn't get a shot at playing again. That was a major factor in my signing up for military service before I turned 18. A mature decision? No. Did I have the talent to play professionally? No. Did I have the talent to play in college? Probably. After I joined the service, naively thinking I would be able to play ball in the service I ended up taking up tennis as a sport to play and after finishing my time in the service played for a JC working my way up to #1 my sophmore season. As a junior I managed to walk on at a D1 and make the team. This was a bit of a fluke as I was strictly a DII talent player.

The point is that we can spout platitudes about how a player should have the desire to stick with it but that isn't always the case and the player who does stick with it may be the player who happened to get a break at the right time rather than having some innate level of desire.

CAdad....

I understand that teenagers don't always make good choices....hell, neither do adults.....and I didn't mean to imply that kids who decide to hang up their spikes don't have determination or motivation......in truth, the point I was trying to make is that high school coaches are not to blame for preventing a player from pursuing a professional career in baseball.

CADad, I understand your posts! Believe me, I/my staff lose a lot of sleep over "cuts." It is something we have to do. I don't take offense! I believe that most programs have to do the same.

I've always said that the final day of cuts is the only day of the year when I wish I Wasn't the head baseball coach! The day cuts get easy, I'd better retire. No caring coach wants to hurt a young man's dream of playing a game that he loves...unfortunately, it's part of the business.

Grateful,
Point well taken.

coach knight & b25
hey guys i am with you... we have about 75 tryout just for the jv team each year. we have 3 days of tryouts for the younger guys 1st. then we have 2 days for the older guys (usually a lot less trying out at this age). after this we make our first cuts. we then start practicing everyone together (we have only 1 field) we will evaluate for another 3-4 days before final cuts. all coaches have a list and evaluation form.(jv coaches and varsity work together for both groups).
i agree that jusiors do not play on the jv team, for all the previously stated reasons. if a junior develops late, he can tryout again his senior year and make the team then (it has happened before). just like during games you have to play the odds with tryouts (very rare it happens the way cadad has described)
we always tell our younger guys that we are human, we could be cutting the best player in the freshman class (if a good player had a bad tryout etc) and to work hard over the summer, come to our camp and tryout again next year.
agreed i hate tryout time. it is tough. i make about 150 enemies each year.

Deleted

CADad-
I guess if I ever get that kind of talent in my program, where a kid that can't cut it as a junior is good enough a year later to play at an elite D1 school, I'll worry about it then. I WISH I had that kind of depth, but believe me...if you can't help our program in SOME way as a junior at the varsity level, you aren't a D1 talent.

Coach Knight,
Last year's team was pretty good. They won the league with 2003's CIF southern section champion coming in second. The third place team in the league was the 2004 CIF southern section champion. Some nationally ranked teams didn't make it that far.

My understanding is that this kid made a big velocity gain over the last year. Interesting because in talking to some of the pitchers their previous pitching coach, Bill Sizemore (ex-Marlins PC) was pretty strong on mechanics, while the current PC, Rich Rodriguez (ex-mlb pitcher) is stronger on the mental part of pitching.

CADad, I don't know this situation, but cuts aren't always based upon talent. Sometimes, and I know many of you will go off on me for posting this, you have to cut a talented player because that player has other qualities that will destroy what you are trying to achieve. In other words, some kids act as a cancer with anything that they touch.

CoachB25,
Not sure where you're going with that. In this case they had a good deep varsity pitching staff last season even after their best pitcher, now at Fresno State, went down for several weeks with an ankle injury and this pitcher wasn't going to get any innings with the varsity so he was kept on JV. He got innings, he improved. Having a junior on JV helped the player and the team.

May I add my two cents

Juniors do not belong on the JV--the JV is for developing the younger players (Frosh and Soph)--our HS did not have a freshman team--they had a middle school team--the HS coach we had also talked with me when I ran the LL and BR to get a feel of the players coming up in the system. He preetyt much knew what he was getting every year at tryouts

THe juniors who get cut are as a rule, yes their are exceptions, kids who have played out the string as far as their talent goes.

I also do not think ANY coach has to explain his selections to anyone other than the young man who was cut and that should be done one on one. I have known HS coaches who brought all the players who tried out in for a one on one--those who got cut and those who did not. Then the list of those who made the team was posted.

As for how try outs are run every coach does his own thing.

And it is no easier for those of us who run a so called "select" team--there are kids who call and ask about it and we have to tell them that they are not what we need, or the position is already taken -- sinc eour roster is made up of players from our events we have seen them in showcase format as well as in games--many I may have even seen during the HS season in my trips to fields

Coach Knight, you mean you don't cut future D-I guys from your squads at Grand Blanc???.....I'm sure my son once played with a kid who ended up at GB.........word always was that he was going to be a big-time pitcher......my guess is that his actions weren't what your program was looking for......

TR,
You keep making pronouncements in the face of facts. I just showed you an example of a kid who played on the JV as a junior, benefitted from being on the JV as a junior, is expected to be the ace of the varsity staff this year and has the talent to sign with a good D1 before his senior season and your answer is that juniors don't belong on the JV. If there is one exception there are others and blanket policies hurt both players and teams. Blanket policies are just another way of saying that you either don't have the guts or aren't willing to do the work to do the job right.

This may shock you but there are young men who make significant improvements between the ages of 16 and 17, going from a player who would benefit most from playing time on the JV at 16 to a player who can start on the varsity at 17. Sometimes these 16yo players are sophmores and sometimes they are juniors.

The JV is for developing the players who will help the team the most the next season. It doesn't matter if they are freshmen, sophmores or juniors. A good coach does what is best for his team and his players, not what is easiest.

CADAD

Read what I said-- I said as a rule but there are exceptions---MOST JUNIORS WHO GET CUT HAVE RUN THEIR TALENT TO ITS FULLEST--note I said MOST

I made no pronuncement in the face of facts-- you cite one player and it is gospel--- Lord help us all

You want to argue the point argue with others--I can only tell you what I know from my experience and what I have seen-- you rail on CoachB25 and I bet he has seen more than you and I together-- we can only speak from our experiences--good bad or indifferent--I am here to discuss, not have you or anyone else tell me or others what is right or wrong-- I know what I have seen and nothing else

You may not agree with me but that does not make you right and me wrong or vice versa.

I also stated that JV ball is to develop the younger players-- A junior has had three shots to make it already-- let him come back for a 4th shot

What you want is political correctness-- BS---the best kids win the spot and IN MANY StATES JUNIORS CANNOT PLAY JV--does that mean in your mind they should get an undeserving spot on the varsity ??? I sure hope not


Remember "California Dreaming "?

The HS program my son played in was and still is very competitive. His Freshman year there were 92 players that tried out for 8 Varsity slots.

The HS coach carried 26 players on Varsity and 26 on the JV program. If you did not make Varsity as a Junior you were cut from the program. That particular coaches' philosophy was, "if you can not make Varsity after 3 years of trying out, then it is time to move on".

The HS is a "AAA", and the only one in the county, so the HS coach has a ton of talent to pull from. It is tough to make the team and even tougher to stay there once you get there. It is a rough environment for players that are not ready to hang up the spikes yet.

Everything in the program is geared to the Varsity. In my experience you were always looking 2 years ahead. Projection all the time. If the kid was a sophomore on the JV was he going to play regularly by his senior year. who was in front of him wh was behind him. what are your needs . Can you move a kid from one position to another to fulfill a need. a kid transfers in that changes everything. It is a lot of variables leading to one thing and that is putting the best 9 on the varsity in a given year. Juniors playing JV? JV is about developing a player. In my experience I sort of backed off here especially if he was a position player. If he had the tools as a junior he would be contributing as a Junior at the varsity level. Hard decisions about players in your program are made after sophomore year. Pitchers are another story.

Let me give everyone a different side to this story.

At my sons' school everyone that shows up for fall "tryouts" is in the program, all grades, including 8th grade (We don't have middle school ball). This happens in early September. We try and get those parents to the booster meetings, and get them involved in the fundraisers, they condition 2 afternoons a week during the fall (as the new folks are not in 4th period weightlifting/conditioning yet).

By January, only about 3/4 of those actually do commit and get their schedule changed to 4th period baseball, by the time the season starts, another 10 or so have dropped, and by seasons end, we've lost even more.

My 04 son's freshman year, there were 60 freshman at fall tryouts, by January, they fielded 40 Freshman, some of which played on JV because there were only 4 sophomores, his sophomore year, there were 9 remaining, his Junior year, there were 7 remaining, the start of his senior year, there were 7, but by the time the season ended, there were 5 seniors that finished the program.

This pattern has repeated itself year after year. There are similar situations in many of the schools in our area, although there is only one high school that has a harder time keeping players than we do.

I'm hoping things will look up in a few years, because travel ball for the younger ages is gaining popularity in our area, so maybe the high schools will finally have a larger group of better prepared, more committed players to work with. That of course will be a few years down the road because the oldest teams are 13U.

It gets worse for our school. We also have no clue what the future holds, because on the last day of classes in December, the head coach announced it was his last day. Our assistant coaches are all volunteers, and we have heard that it may be next fall before a certified coach may be found.

So schools that have more players than you can use, consider yourselves lucky!!

1st, I agree with TRHit, here. Secondly, most areas of the country that I have been around do not allow Juniors to play on the JV. Certainly, in our area, it is not done. If that kid isn't good enough to start as a Junior, then they can still make our team. They must project to be a starter or battle for a starting job their senior year. If a senior doesn't start, then the chances of them making the team are slim at best. I've only had perhaps 5 in all of the time that I have coached. This year will be no different. I agree that kids can blossom later. I understand the attack on coaches for taking the "easy way out." It comes from a parent's perspective. I'm not saying that is bad. I'm also saying that, as a coach responsible for 65 kids, it isn't practical. When we are in season, the best play regardless of year in school. The best sophs have a team to play on. It is called our JV. The best Freshmen can also play on the JV. The Freshman have a team to play on. THE VARSITY IS THE HARDEST TEAM TO MAKE AND PLAY ON. This is the reality of the situation.