HS baseball Tryouts--- From a coaches Perspective

Thank you very much, coach, I believe that's a lot of pre-HS parents like to know. How do you try out? How do you cut? Who's the trouble parents? etc.

I have one question, if a new comer come to your school, he is a very good player but not at the Varsity level yet, do you

1. put him in the JV to compete with Soph/Juniors for a starting spot? or

2. move some players up to JV and guarantee a best starting position for him at freshman team, let him develope the camaraderie with those freshmen and fine tune on his game?

Just curious from your perspective.

It is an individual basis. We have new comers that come in every year. We typically look at the kids grades, team chemistry (How does he fit in with the team we have), and then conditioning.

We try to keep the majority of our freshman together on Freshman. We will more than likely have 1 freshman on JV this year. In my 10 years of being involved with our program. I have only seen one Freshman start Varsity. We feel like freshman and or newcomers have a lot going on in their lives without baseball. They have made a new adjustment to just being in high school, some are going through puberty and most are just trying to figure out where they fit in socially. So freshman team, allows them to have some comfortability and less pressures within baseball. Success breeds success. So we try to make sure that no matter what we have 3 teams that are winning. If that means freshman come up and play JV then that is what they do. We just do not want to have any of our kids losing. We want them to expect to win when they get up on Varsity.

I will get into more detail about how we think and what determines who ends up where as tryouts begin for us.

Please remember we are only one school and there is no right way to do this. I just want to enlighten some people on how we see the process.

Coach - thanks for the informative post...it will be nice to hear how things go. I am from central eastern Illinois originally, so I sympathize with you on the weather. As you are having a lot of trouble with getting the physicals in, I thought I'd share with you what our coach does and see if it may help:

He has a parent and prospective players meeting around the third week of January every year, covering a lot of different topics. He hands out the physical forms and states clearly that there is a deadline to get them in...this year it was Feb. 13, I believe, which is well in advance of when practice began (3/06). He then states that no one will be able to begin practice without a completed physical form on file (some players already have them on file from other sports). Once the 2/13 deadline comes up, the school health office gives him a list of all players without physicals completed and he follows up by email. This gives him a couple of weeks to get these kids moving on this before practice starts. He follows up again the week prior to practice starting for any still missing. First day of practice, if you don't have your forms in, you don't practice. It is a pretty good incentive. Best of luck with your season!

I hope you continue this diary coach. I think it will be very useful for all levels of HS players/parents. I hope many will read it.

I like this comment...

quote:

We typically look at the kids grades, team chemistry...

Especially for a freshman. I think its one of the things HS sports offers above-and-beyond outside sports...that is, the feedback loop between athletics and the rest of a kid's life.

Pasttime Trnments-sounds like you do a great job. I have a freshman player this year and so far so good. I hope his coach is as insiteful as you. Best of luck to you and your school.

We have the same meeting with our parents the first week in January. We have never put a deadline on the due date for this other than the first day of tryouts. Maybe that is a good idea!!!

One thing I forgot to mention that has been covered in this board quite a bit recently, is the transfer options. 10 years ago, we did not worry about kida leaving to transfer. This is the first year, that it has ever come up in our talks about keeping kids on Varsity for the fear of them transferring. We had a very heated debate on it. We have two kids that have shown up very infrequently. One has good grades one does not. Both are very talented and could be Division 1 players. Both are sophmores. We have to make a decision. We feel like both would or could transfer if they did not play varsity.

This is the first year it has ever come up and or will influence our decisions. It was fun to hear our perspective. We came to the conclusion both are going to have to put on quite a show to start on Varsity. We will see how they respond and more importantly, we will pull out the captains and ask for their thoughts. it is their team after all.

Coach,
I do not think any thought of whether a kid will transfer because he doesn't play varsity should even be a consideration for any coach. It should not even come up. The best kids should play.
My son did transfer schools but it was never about playing time, he played almost every inning of every game. Though we will never know I believe he would have played varsity this year at that school. It was more about trust, about pitch counts (148 one game) It was about a coach saying to me "If he ever plays for me I will throw him as much and as often as I want". He obviously didn't care about the kids or who got hurt of which there were many.
There was much more but it's over and he's better off all around academically and baseball wise too.

We do not have to worry about that. The most innings any of my kids threw last year was 43. We had one kid have a pitch count over 100. that was in our sectionals. So we do not lose kids over trust of our decisions.

If I put the best kids on the field these two would start for us. So our transfer debate has nothing to do with baseball talent in our eyes. It is about character and helping kids mature. I just wanted to bring that up as how we saw it. And that for the first time in 10 years it is actually a part of our conversation.

So I respectfully disagree. The best players do not always play on Varsity. We believe sophmores and freshman have to mature and show good character to play on Varsity. They have to fit into our team chemistry model.

Pasttime,
I don't agree with your entire philosphy, but I have seen it work very well. There is a team in Phoenix that starts mainly Seniors every year with a couple of Juniors. Sometimes all seniors. They are VERY competitive. But they also lose a few transfers of younger players. It doesn't seem to hurt them at all. What they may lose in talent is made up with by chemistry.

On a side note, my HS baseball and basketball coach had a no Freshman on varsity rule. That changed my Junior year when we had an incredible freshman start SS and small forward. Trust me, nobody complained. He was that good.

Right now my son is a freshman on varsity as a starting pitcher. To my eye there have been no problems with team chemistry or problems with upperclassmen. Parents have all been very supportive and glad to see him there.

On the other hand, I would not expect him to take a senior players spot on the field. Seniors have earned that even with someone with equal talent.

Our situation may be a little different in that our school has struggled for quality starting pitching. His first game without an inning resrtiction, he pitched a complete game and won against the #3 team in the state. Everyone was very excited.

Seems on our team, it is more important for the varsity to win than freshman or JV. Seems like the best players will play varsity. A number of underclassmen (2 freshmen, 5 soph) are on the varsity roster. Two of the sophmores are position starters. However, some of the underclassmen don't get much varsity play time and will play on JV when they are not needed on varsity. My son will play on the JV team at SS and get his at-bats in when he is not pitching for varsity. Seems like JV and freshman are being used as developmental and getting guys ready to play when it is their turn to start varsity. But, varsity winning is the priority.

My philosphy is not to start all seniors. We look to put the best "team" maybe not alwayd the most talent.

This year we will start 2 seniors, 4-6 Juniors, 1-3 Sophmores. We do not have a senior arm. Our philoshpy is determined by the talent on the field. Our SS is a junior and a 3 year starter. If a kid fits the team chemistry and has the ability to play varsity. We will move them up.

The main reason for me to write this post. Is to show people what decisions we make and why.

Pastime, sounds like a well thought out plan. It should let people know that coaches do not make decisions in a vacuum or for no reason at all.

I am not a HS coach, but was the pitching coach and an integral part of the coaching team for my sons travel team for 5 years. The head coach and I spent many, many hours on the phone and talking over lunch and dinners about not only picking our team, but how we would approach the various tournaments we were entering.

We would discuss our starting pitchers, who would fill in their positions when they were pitching (if they were position players), who we would use in relief, batting order, how we would use our reserve players. Whatever parents might complain about, our decisions were based on what was best for the team in any particular circumstance. Decisions were never made just for the heck of it.

Sounds like that is what you are saying and it should shed some light on all the variables that go into picking a team, fielding a team and making the most of a season.

Thanks for your insights.

Pastime - this is a great topic and I really look forward to reading your updates. I'd like to hear how coaches handle various players' mental make up and character issues (good and bad).

Coach,
And you just hit on another reason my son is no longer at that school. They did not care about character. One kid was always in trouble, some very serious trouble. My friends son got into some trouble in the lunch room and after that they loved the kid. Guess what? The father recognized it for what it was and that kid also transferred to a different school. So the fact that you take into account all the factors is in my opinion great.
Character, grades, attitude, etc. should all enter into the equation.

Day 1 Tryouts

Today was our first day of tryouts. it was an easy day per say. We had approximetly 15 kids less than we anticipated. We had a total of 59. Which means we will be making about 15 cuts give or take a kid. We had a kid that tore his ACL show up for the first time since last year. We had a freshman decide to go play golf as opposed to baseball. These two kids will impact some things but not too much.

Do to our gym being remodeled we had to have our first day of tryouts off site at an all pupose indorr facility. We split all kids into 4 groups. We started with our annual essentials of hitting talk and expectations for the week. We had 4 stations of 20 minutes each.
One station was hitting. 8-10 live swings, 3 tees, and wiffleballs. All in all everyone got approx. 50 cuts.
The second station a defensive group. We go over very basic ground ball fundamentals and then take groundballs. (Very routine)
Third Station is conditioning. We do push ups, form ab workout, form running, and a timed 30 yd dash.
The fourth group is throwing. We cover the basics of throwing. Then we watch them throw from about 100 ft.

Now after reading this I know you would say wow. What are they evaluating? We simply evaulate saftey hazards. How well kids hustle, get to know names, and give the kids some comfortability. Some kids have not swung or thrown in weeks, months, or a year. We give them every oppurtunity to atleast get a day to get comfortable.
This was the end of our day. It was approximetly a 2 hour day. Quick and painless.
The coaches then stayed after for approximetly 2 hours after, talking about kids. We go through each kid and talk about his strengths, weaknesses, speed, and attitude. We use very general terms and talk about what we want to see in each kid over the next 2 days. Now, we have generally evaluated each kid and pointed out a skill that he does well. SO if a kid runs well and throws well. I am specifically watching him hit for the next two days. Allowing me to pay more attention to specific kids throw or play defensively.
We have a list of kids seperated by each class and go down each kid one by one. We scratch out any kids that are safety hazards to themselves. (Can't catch trip over there feet) We have one this year. (This number is very low) We also circle kids that are definetly on the team based on what we know about them. On this list we have 4 out of 5 seniors, 10 out of 14 juniors, 13 out of 20 sophmores, 10 out of 30 freshman. So now we have our watch list. We have 20 kids competing for 14 spots on Varsity. We have 21 competing for 15/16 JV roster spots, and 29 freshman competing for 15 freshman spots.
At the end of the day, I leave with a packet of notes from each coach. We also have a list of "what to watch for" Today I was in charge of fielding. Tomorrow I have throwing. I will watch each kid that is on my watch list play catch at some point. I will also be in charge of seeing every kid throw that is on a watch list for pitchers. So after tomorrow we will have two opinions on a certain skill.
Tomorrow we will have intrasquads outside. The 20 kids for varsity will be on the varsity field. The sophmores/freshman will be on the freshman field. We will then go through a detailed defensive evaluation.

Interesting notes from day 1

We had one parent show up for tryouts. He watched the whole thing. Did not say a word, left his kid alone. I do not think he hurt anything by being there.

We had two kids miss do to a choir performance in Flordia. We have known about it since September. It will not hurt either kid in way shape or form. One is a returning Varsity kid. The other was a freshman that will be a pitcher only on JV.

We had a freshman miss do to the flu. We will not hold this against him. he showed up to school inspite of him throwing up in fear of being cut. The school nurse sent him home an hour into school. We had an email from his mom within 30 minutes and the kid came and found a teacher/coach before leaving.

Tomorrow night we, the coaching staff, will have our watch list down to about 6 kids for each team. We have to have our teams set by Wednesday night. Our scrimage is next Wednesday. So, I will agre with everyone when I say 3 days is not enough time. We will miss 1-3 kids. They will be kid 15 on a roster. Next year, this kid will work hard and make the team. It is unfortunate but it is not a science.Before IHSAA changed our tryout date, we use to have a 6 day tryout. Time does not allow us to do this anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by bballman:
Seems like JV and freshman are being used as developmental and getting guys ready to play when it is their turn to start varsity. But, varsity winning is the priority.

That's typical for all HS programs. I don't think there's a program out there that would weaken a varsity team to put a better player on jv or freshman. If the underclassmen are ready for the top level of play, that's where they go.

When my son played, the freshman team was and still is is disconnected from the jv and varsity teams, have seperate schedules and diffferent unifoms and there's no player movement so it's easier for the freshman to stay together and win together.

The jv travels with varsity, wears the same uniforms and there tends to be more player movement between jv during games depending how good the jv players get. The jv is like a taxi squad where a couple of the best jvs or bench varsity underclassmen shuffle back and forth.

The jv's play to win but the priority is always the varsity team.

Thanks for taking the time to explain all this PT. My Fr. son just went through a week long tryout, and I'm happy to say he will be a starter on the JV team! He's now officially a HS Baseball player.
I'm really looking forward to this upcoming season, and watching my son play. I love baseball!

Great job PT, I am looking forward to the rest of your posts.

My son, a freshman, starts his tryouts next monday and it is good to see coaches that take the time to evaluate and converse with each other over placement of players. I can only hope his are this way, from what I can tell by their correspondence they seem to be.

Interesting note on the one parent watching, I know this was discussed in another post. How do you and your staff take that and was it brought up in your post tryout meeting? I do not plan on watching, just to stay away, but would love to only because I love the game and have been stuck inside away from it for so long. Maybe I'll go across town and watch the other HS tryouts and drive those coaches nuts

Hoping to be the parent of a HS player in a week, can't stand the wait.

PT - nice posts, again. That's a tough job with the three day tryouts...sounds like you're doing a great job getting all the coaches perspectives to compensate for that. Keep us informed...it is interesting reading. Good luck with your scrimmages. My son's team starts their's today, so we are psyched around here.

quote:

Originally posted by Techniquedad:
My son, a freshman, starts his tryouts next monday

Hoping to be the parent of a HS player in a week, can't stand the wait.

What's odds of him making the team? Good or Very good? I know when over 80 kids try out for a 12-15 kid freshman team spots, there's going to be some breaking hearts after. I've been talking to a parent last year when he couldn't sleep at night before the result came out. The next day his son was cut. So, I believe when kids coming to the try-out, they'd better give their best, don't be the kids on the bubble.

BTW, try out for which position is very important. I found it interesting that coaches only take certain number of kids for each position. For example, if you are a catcher, and there are 2-3 kids try out for catcher and they are better than you, you'd better try some other positions.

Good pitchers can all always make the team, it seems it doesn't matter if they couldn't hit or field.

They usually take 5-6 Infielders and 5-6 outfielders, so if you see it's crowded at the infield, and you son can play outfield, you'd better let your son try outfield too.

Just some of my observation.

bb

What do you base your observations on ???

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
bb

What do you base your observations on ???

I've been watching our HS try-outs for 3 years in a roll, next year will be my son's turn. No body even bother to ask who I am during the try-out.

I will ask---three years before your sons time you are watching tryouts--- WHY?

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
I will ask---three years before your sons time you are watching tryouts--- WHY?

Just observing. I started to take my son to watch 11U travel kids play tournament while my son was 7 and just started to play baseball. When my son joined the travel team at 11, I started take him to watch the 14U big kids play. And I start to watch the try-out while my son was a 12 yr-old. I want to know how far behind he is to the HS freshman's ability. Now I got a pretty good idea about it. I will tell you in advance. He will make the HS freshman team easily. This is all based on my "Observation" over the years.
Thanks.

quote:

What's odds of him making the team? Good or Very good?

Only the coaches will know that answer. The kid works hard in the "off season" to always improve his game and hard throughout the season. He knows to be available for many a position but as a LH Player, he is limited. Came up at 1b, transitioned to LHP at 12 and at 13 began learning more outfield. Being a LHP helps in this whole thing and he hits with the best of them.

"talking to a parent last year when he couldn't sleep at night before the result"

I will sleep just fine, I know my sons ability and work ethic will get him on the team and if it doesn't he will go work harder and come back next year. There is always his travel team. I have also seen many of the boys that will be trying out and know there level of play, and work ethic, it's not even close to my sons.

quote:

I will ask---three years before your sons time you are watching tryouts--- WHY?

TRhit

____________________________________________________
TR,

I was thinking the same.
____________________________________________________

I just watched my son play with the FR and Sps last year when he was 13 and knew he would be fine.
But you still have to worry for their sake when they go to a tryout, it's the parent in me.

That's great T-Dad, being a LHP is almost guaranteed 50% chance, he will make the team. If he can pitch over 75 mph now, I will say 100% chance he will be in. Forget about his batting or fielding, that's all extra plus factors. Picthing alone can get him in. Mark my word here.

quote:

They usually take 5-6 Infielders and 5-6 outfielders, so if you see it's crowded at the infield, and you son can play outfield, you'd better let your son try outfield too.

The more positions they can play, the better shot they have on making the team. Especially for the freshman who the coaches might not know yet.

Another key thing that can seperate players from the pack is hitting. If a kid can hit and shows potential to eventually hit at the varsity level, that's a big advantage. The coach will find a position for a kid that has a good stick.

A good pitcher will always have the inside track over anybody, even moreso if its a LHP, but not every kid who has a strong arm will be a successful pitcher. Position-only players have to find that edge.

Once they make the team, where they wind up playing will get sorted out.

quote:

If he can pitch over 75 mph now, I will say 100% chance he will be in

BB,
I don't think it's about MPH, knowing how to pitch and not just "throw" is the important part. I have seen too many throwers on the mound and they just don't last. Son never has been gunned, I see no need, he's 14, who cares what his speed is if he can hit his spots and change his speed when needed to get the outs is what will get him on the team with close to that 100% chance.

I am sorry this has gone off topic

Your job as a coach is to put the players on the field that give your team the best chance to win that game that day. Why should a kid play in front of another player just because he has been there longer? What are you telling your team when you keep better options on the bench? Players want to win. When they know someone is not in the line up that can help them win just because someone else is older what does that do to the team? Where is the incentive for busting it to be the best you can be when you know you are not going to play unless you have graduated into a starting spot?

The bottom line is you put them out there and you let them compete for spots based on ability and the ability to help your team and their team win. If you play kids based on any other reason your going to have some serious issues imo. Your job is to put the best options on the field. If your worried about anything else then your in the wrong place doing the wrong thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Techniquedad:

quote:

If he can pitch over 75 mph now, I will say 100% chance he will be in

BB,
I don't think it's about MPH, knowing how to pitch and not just "throw" is the important part. I have seen too many throwers on the mound and they just don't last. Son never has been gunned, I see no need, he's 14, who cares what his speed is if he can hit his spots and change his speed when needed to get the outs is what will get him on the team with close to that 100% chance.

I am sorry this has gone off topic

T-Dad, this is not off topic at all. I would like PT give us some thoughts about it. I don't think I will give your son 100% odds if your son only throws in the middle 60s. A lot of "lolipopers" can throw strike and change speed, they ended up been cut at the try-out. I know most coaches care about the Velocity very much. I believe PT will give us more insight about those pitchers they select.

BB,
I don't consider lolipopers pitchers, and in good quality programs you won't find them they don't make the team as a pitcher, like you said they get cut or play a pos, but you also don't have to throw 96 MPH to be efective. Everyone can hit the fastball when your cruising along "Throwing" strikes like BP.

I agree that PT should have more insight on this, he is in the position to make that call not you or me. He is a HS coach, I am just a dad.

I think it has been said before sometimes too much weight is placed on MPH of the gun rather than mechanics and the ability to control the game or projected potential as some state

In response to a couple of posts above. We really do not look at positions. We look for the best 16 guys that try out. Generally, these kids have played together in summer ball, middle school, or have played on teams with talent and have been moved to a position that best suits them. So we worry about positions later. i want the best players and or athletes. We will keep more players on freshman. Just to give them a fair shake in a season and not to run off a kid that has not hit puberty yet. A good story, we kept a 17th player that was a good kid. He was short and overweight. He might of played 25 innings all year. His junior year he was pitching JV. Still struggling to get on the field. Still overweight and short. Senior year he gros 6 inches and loses all of his body fat. The kid goes on to be our #1 on the mound. He pitches in the Semi State game and moves on to college. He threw 4 years at a D3.

Also, on freshman we may have one kid over 80. If we are lucky 2. The majority of our kids will be 74-76. With several kids being 71-72 that just throw strikes. We generally have 8 arms on freshman. So if programs are really cutting kids that are 77-78 as freshman. I find that very hard to believe. So in most years. We do not keep kids throwing in the low to mid 60s. They have to show very good armstrength in the field or I have to feel with work I can make this kid a good pitcher. We usually have good depth on the mound though. So most of the time these kids never get the time on the mound to develop. So if we keep one it will be another position and he just kind of throws his way into more mound time.

Also, we never gun in tryouts.(Freshman) Found kids really do things that are unatural for them when I hold up a gun. I have to use my eyes to determine arm strength. Velo is important. Pitchability better have some Velo to go with it.

Day 2 Tryouts----Intrasquads

Today was a GREAT day. It was 70 with a slight wind blowing out. Perfect baseball weather. We split the four teams between two fields. Freshman/Sophomores on JV field. Juniors/ Seniors and select sophomores on the Varsity field. We threw for about 20 minutes and were able to see everyone throw. Spent the majority time down on the JV field. We learned two kids could not throw to a level that we feel is needed on Freshman. Most everyone else was as expected. Next, we began our games. Coaches calling balls and strikes. Every kid has to run within the first three pitches of an AB. (Including stealing third) This helps us see if we can keep a kid on Varsity that can help us out on the bases. (Courtesy runner) The JV/Frosh game was slow as expected. Every kid got at least 2 At bats. So at least two coaches got to see every kid swing against live pitching. The freshman were very disappointing. A couple of kids we thought would be better were not. (They are not in jeopardy to be cut just disappointed) After the freshman game we had defensive evals. Outfielders Right Center/infielders deep short. We ran them through basic "showcase drills" This is probably one of the most important things for our tryout. We get to see them read fly balls and field ground balls. You would be surprised how many kids really hurt themselves in these drills. It is tough for us to keep a kid that just looks lost catching a fly ball or fielding a groundball, even if he makes every play. We had several that caught fly balls but made me extremely nervous doing it. (Afraid they would take it off the head)

The Varsity tryout was an exciting day for me. I knew we had a ton of talent on the mound, but it was better than expected. Our JR #1 from last year was much better and learned to throw the ball in. Other two juniors were good. Threw strikes. Showed an ability to get people out. They were as expected. 3 Sophomores were better than expected. 1 is a horse and ranked in the top 15 by PG. He struggled to throw strikes last year. Today he was 88-91 and threw 6 balls out of 20 pitches. The other was a sophomore that has worked extremely hard. He was 78-79 last year. Today he was 83-85. Last year, he knew how to pitch and threw three pitches for a strike. So it was just a matter of gaining some velocity for him to be a very good pitcher. The third sophomore we were hoping for him to be an innings eater. he effectively threw strikes. (He will be our second baseman) So hitters had a rough day. I do not know too many kids that would of handled the kids throwing today well with it being their first live at bats. So it is tough to judge them. But in all honesty, there is very little judgment done on results. We look much more at the swing. I could care less if you have 3 great swings and strike out. I prefer this kid versus the kid that runs into one and hits a double off the wall.
This in my opinion, is where parents differentiate from my opinions. I have been taught to analyze the swing not the results of the swing. Generally, when a parent has a problem with "Johnny being cut" they immediately tell me "Johnny was 2-2 with a double and caught three fly balls." Unfortunately, my response has to be Johnny inside/outed a pitch to right. The pitch was 66 and the fly ball was routine. Little Sam in right was cut from the team because he is not capable of catching that fly ball. Also, the three fly balls your son caught, he caught like a basket. Then proceeded to throw the ball into the sky. This is why Johnny was cut. I am happy he had good results, but I am taught to look why did he have those results and then make a judgment. So the last thing I look at is results of the swing or play.

After the tryout, the coaches and I sat down and talked. We went over our watch list. This list became smaller. Some people joined the list some became keepers. This list also, became a bubble list. We went through every player again and talked through each kid. We came to the conclusion that out of our 14 JR/SR we were cutting one. 2 of our juniors will start on JV. One kid did not make the team last year. The other was a big bubble kid, but played well enough to warrant sticking around. He is fast and good on the bases. This definitely helped his cause. He may be a kid that comes up and runs for us in county and sectionals. This puts our current JV roster with 20 kids. We will try to get it down to 17 kids. (This will be the biggest roster we have ever had on JV tough year for us to make cuts. Sophomores have a very strong group of good kids. A lot of kids that are the same and need to play their way into playing time or play their way into the bench. Now the fun began. Our freshman. After a very disappointing day, we are left trying to figure out who to keep. We are up to 11 for sure keepers. We do our initial run through of the kids and realize we only have 12 kids we think can play freshman. This is a problem. We like to keep 16 kids. So now we run through the other 10 kids we are still considering. We are looking for one skill. We look at each kid and write down his best skill and try to figure out if we can develop that skill. Some kids are okay hitters. Some have okay arm strength, and some can play defense. Now we are splitting hairs. This is where mistakes will occur. We will probably keep a kid we should not of. What do you do. So we get our list down to 17 kids. We will then decide on three kids tomorrow. We want our team at 14. Tomorrow will be hard day. We tell each kid individually whether they made it or what team they are on. We also tell every kid what he needs to improve on our how we see him fitting him in.

See you tomorrow night!!!!

This is a great thread. Kinda get a feel on what it's like to have to go thru the process on putting together three teams.

This has to be much more difficult than in other sports like football where schools don't cut (at least in our area, football players don't get cut I assume as long as they make their off-season workouts and keep up their grades) players and size and speed and skill can determine football positions.

In baseball, you only got 9 spots on each team and most baseball programs make cuts depending on the size of the school. It probably is difficultto get to those bubble players who have some strengths in one area and are weak in others and it comes down to what fits for the type of teams being built.

This may sound harsh and oldschoolish but why does a HS coach have to explain why and what he does to select his roster.

Is this a new thing ?

TR, I don't think he has to. Pasttime has never said that he has explained all this to his team. He is doing it for us on this board so we have a better idea about the process and I appreciate it. May help some newer coaches, or give some new ideas to more seasoned coaches. Certainly give a good idea to parents that there is a lot of thought that goes into picking a team. May help them with the disappointment of getting cut.

Keep it up Pasttime. Enjoying your stories.

bballman

I never had a coach explain it to me as a player nor as parent. I do not think I missed anything

Why do parents have to know what the coaches reasons are?

Our answer to such questions is a simple one "We like his ability and he fits what we want to do with our team"