This is an important issue and to protect those directly involved, other then myself, I will not name names.
A HS Coach in Southern California had a meeting with his players and told them that they can no longer play travel baseball. This has created a huge issue and needs to be dealt with. I am hoping others out there have been in this situation and can share their experiences. Ultimately I want to get this situation resolved for the benefit of the players. That is the most important thing, right?
There are a few players from this HS that play for my baseball academy and they have had a very successful past 5 months winning 2 National Championships (USA Baseball 17U Championships and PG/EvoShield National Championship). The experiences that these guys have had is unbelievable and they have memories and friendships to last their entire lives. In addition, they have been key contributors to our success which ultimately has helped them generate the much needed “exposure” to college coaches. Now the players and their parents have been put in a bad situation with the HS Coach telling them that they can no longer play travel baseball at any point during the year.
I have a huge problem with this because I do not feel that a HS Baseball Coach has the right to tell players where they can and can’t play during the “OFFSEASON”! HS Baseball in California is February through May (sometimes the 1st week of June for the CIF Championships) and it is none of the coaches business who guys play with between June and January.
There are other specific things I could mention, but I don’t want to be too specific and put any of these players in an even worse situation. I have reached out to the coach a few times and through our brief contact it is clear that he isn’t willing to compromise.
Please share your thoughts and similar experiences. I really appreciate it!
Original Post