HS Injury-Dilemma

I think I should clarify after reading other posts. Our school has a sophmore, jv and varsity team. The sophmore team is for freshmen, the jv for sophmores and juniors who did not make the varsity, and varisty which has seniors, juniors and 1-2 really good sophmores.Sophmores have never been on the sophmore team.

Twe, my son had a life threatening injury his freshman year and was not able to play. If your son is as good as described, he will make either JV or Varsity next year. Don't worry about it being Varsity, it really doesn't matter. Let him get truly healthy so there are no more set backs and have him ready to play on a good club team this summer. High School baseball really doesn't effect his college aspirations.
By the way, the road to joining the high school team was not easy and nothing went as we had hoped primarily due to other players/parents feeling threatened etc but my son is going off to play D1 ball next year. Not because of his high school experience, in spite of it.

Also, there are lots and lots of threads on this subject, search them out and you will find most will offer you same advice, don't sweat it now, just get him healthy.

twe

First I hope your sons health improves to 100%. In the end not playing freshman year might be the best thing for your sons long term and short term health. As Cali said, get healthy and enjoy summer ball this year. Summer ball will lead your son to college ball. But I do understand your son wanting to play for his HS. If your son is as good as you expect him to be when healthy, he should make the HS team next season. While there are good and bad HS coaches, they usually doen't turn a blind eye to a player who could truly help the team.

Calisportsfan, thank you so much for the info!This happened back in Jan. and I'm still in tears as of now.The back up of sophmore/juniors for 2 teams with the additional current freshman coming up for next years 2 teams really concerns us.We know there is club ball but I believe my son would just give up and not want to go that route during the school year. Our hs is very competitive academically and his homework load is off the charts.More than anything,being in a sport at school also drives who his friends are and what he does after school/weekends.

Glad to hear there is still hope! Congrats on your sons D1 spot!

Now is the time to throw the kitchen sink at the back issue. I know at least 6 kids with that same injury and only one has come out of it at full strength. The rest have been kind of off-and-on with back pain over the years. It seems to have affected the kids who could really generate some torque compared to their size at a young age.

My suggestion: find a chiropractor who specializes in rehabilitating back injuries. He will help deal with the associated leg and hip issues. If you are uncomfortable with a chiropractor, find a physical therapist, but one who specializes in back injuries. Find a respected trainer who specializes in dealing with back injuries. I can't stress this enough - do not bring him to a generalist.

If he already has the swing, it will not go away. Whether or not he can play ath the next level really depends on that back. As for ever playing high school ball, that depends on the coach and attrition of the kids his age playing now.

I will reinforce the point that the most important part of your post is getting proper evaluation and treatment for back issue. My son had stress fracture of L5 in his lower back in hs and it can be very debilitating.

Get it properly evaluated by a specialist and follow the program. My son is in college now and still has to do his share of stretching exercises each day.

Good luck to your son.

Let's get this straight, you gave your 9th grader, prescription strength pain relievers to get through try outs just to make the JV team?

I just can't believe this, honestly, shame on you!

What's more important than anything? Shouldn't it be the health of your player? You need to get your priorities in order.

JMO.

I will reinforce what others are saying but in a different way...

It is VERY easy to get caught up in the "now" and think that he can't afford to miss this crucial time, this crucial age, this crucial year. Can't afford to lose ground to the guys in front, can't let the guys behind catch up, etc., etc. This game is crucial. this tryout, this showcase, and on and on. We've all been there. Learn from our mistakes. In the long run, you'll laugh at how concerned you were about these events at this point in his life.

If he's everything you say he is, he will have plenty of opportunity to earn his spot... IF he is healthy. Most injuries, certainly including backs, will continue to be issues down the road if you don't take proper care to resolve the problem.

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"He was also the only freshman to get a hit off the JV pitcher."

These things really don't matter. Let it go. Coaches look for consistent quality AB's against decent pitching. We look for a lot of other things as well. One good AB means nothing. We expect even the lowest level frosh hitter to occasionally get a hit off of even the best V pitcher.

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"But do coaches decided the next 4 years based on the current freshman team or will they drop a player(s)? We have only 10 seniors leaving next year so that means only 10 jv players can move up which leaves only 10 freshman to move to jv. I know anything is possible but is it unusual for a current player to be cut for the next season - either jv or freshman?"

No. Things change every year. Players come and go. Some get much better, some don't. Some get great instruction, some don't. Some physically mature more than others. Some get burned out by parents pushing them too hard. Your son should be focused on being the best he can be, not on the other players. You are getting WAY ahead of yourself. Relax. Enjoy your kid being your kid and not a ballplayer for whom you have invested a ton of lesson money.

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"The back up of sophmore/juniors for 2 teams with the additional current freshman coming up for next years 2 teams really concerns us."

..concerns US? Please plan on spending more time with us here at HSBBW. We can help

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"We know there is club ball but I believe my son would just give up and not want to go that route ..."

If this is enough to make him give up, you can definitely plan on his baseball days being over by end of HS if not much sooner. A big part of the equation for a player to have success in a competitive HS program and definitely a college program is that HE must have the love and desire to play and willingness to overcome lot's of obstacles along the way. The desire of the parents will not do it.
Best wishes.

TWE - First and foremost, have you dealt with his back injury? Deal with this first before worrying about anything to do with baseball. Before my son's sophomore year he had an issue with a repetitive motion injury called spondylolysis, which is a defect in the pars interarticularis (L5).

This can be plenty debilitating and will not go away unless properly treated. Typically you need to see an orthopedic doctor who deals with children (pediatric orthopedics). X-rays or an MRI will not typically show the injury, a CT scan almost always will. After healing, PT must follow to prevent a return of symptoms. Please rule this out.

Thanks for all the replies; it has really helped! Yes, my son is getting treatment. He originally saw an orthopedic dr. who told him to rest it which we did from June-Jan but played a few games in November. We also saw a chiropractor who did electric stem therapy and other treatments in addition to a physical/massage therapist.

Everything seemed good until the day of tryouts.We gave him the prescription strength medicine, not for tryouts, but because he was in excrutiating pain and couldn't sit or stand comfortably. About 4 hours later he said he felt good and wanted to finish tryouts. I expected the pain to come back after the medicine wore off but thank goodness it didn't.If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same. It relieved his unbearable pain.

We have since found a wonderful chiropractor who does rehab. He is the best doctor we've been to! He goes to weekly hour long therapy sessions and is improving greatly. He also does back exercises every night which are changed weekly.This doctor is known as the "back whisperer" and he is awesome. Don't know where we would be without him.

Thank you birdman14 for the information about the CT scan.He hurt his back after fielding a bucket of balls from 3rd to 1st. After that practice he was laying on the ground and could barely walk to the car.He had been having spasms off and on before that but had never said anything about it.We had x-rays done with the orthopedic dr. and he ruled it a stress fracture. Our chiro looked at them this week but needs to enlarge to see if it's a pars or stress fracture L4-L5.

Again, thanks everyone! This message board is great; I'm glad I found it.

quote:

Originally posted by twe:
Everything seemed good until the day of tryouts.We gave him the prescription strength medicine, not for tryouts, but because he was in excrutiating pain and couldn't sit or stand comfortably. About 4 hours later he said he felt good and wanted to finish tryouts.

He was in excruciating pain, you gave him prescription drugs still allowed him to try out? What lesson do you suppose he learned from that?

Maybe I am being a bit hard a**ed about this because over the past few years an adult pitcher that I know well has been struggling with injury after injury. He's a professional who gets paid to play, but is smart enough to know when something hurts enough you have to stop. Your son is just a young child, he doesn't know enough when to stop.

You got advice to stop playing but you still allowed him to play?

Once again, I have to say as parents you need to get your priorities in order and grow up.

JMO.

TPM, I'm not sure where you got the idea we got "advice" to stop playing and that we're some sort of crazed, wacked out parents who forced our son to play anyway. We did not get "advice" to stop playing. The doctor told him to just rest his back and when he felt better, which should be a couple of months, he could play. He rested for 6 months and had no pain. Went to the 1st day of tryouts and experienced pain halfway through the tryout.It was a 2 day tryout.

The original post was really about if he had a true shot at the team next year or if he had missed the train. Had I known I would get hammered about being such a "bad parent' for letting him tryout, I would have mentioned that the ortho had told my husband that he did not think it was a stress fracture and the x-ray was inconclusive. He said it was most likely a tissue issue and should rest his back and play when he felt better. The stress fracture issue only came aboutafterthe rehab chiropractor asked for the x-rays and report and we read on the report that the ortho's probable diagnosis was a stress fracture.My husband was taken off guard when he read this and the chiro said he saw what looked like a pars fracture but needed to use another computer to blow it up. He said it didn't matter at this point because it had healed and his back was just locked up.The rehab is going well and he has movement and range in his lower back now.

NEVER did we go against any doctors orders. He did as he was instructed from the ortho but after the incident at tryouts, it seems there was more to it than we had been told.

quote:

Once again, I have to say as parents you need to get your priorities in order and grow up.

Did you really need to go there TPM? Did you really need to start the finger wagging?

A chiropractor and an MD may treat this injury different. Not to say which one is right or wrong, but my son went through a long, frustrating period of time with this injury. He was unable to throw from a mound from the fall of his sophomore year until spring of his junior year. He could hit and play the outfield within a 6 month period of time. There was a time when we thought he might have to give up pitching. Throwing from a mound was just unbearable with pain. It took us 4 doctors until, IMO, we found the help and treatment he needed. I thought you might find this link interesting: http://asmiforum.proboards.com...=display&thread=1100

Best of luck and please feel free to PM me if I can help. And welcome to HSBBWeb!

twe,

I recognize it is difficult to keep a young competitive player from competing when they are suffering through a painful injury. Nothing good comes from letting them continue even though they claim they can do it. Take the advice of the medical professionals and give him time to fully heal and this could take some time. Injuring a previous injury and not giving it time to properly heal can led to the dreaded 'nagging injury' that never seems to go away and since they may be compensating with other parts of their bodies it can lead to other related injuries.

Nothing takes the place of time and proper rehabilitation under the guidance of a medical professional. I know it's not easy, but you have to put your foot down on this one.

Good luck to you and your son. Hang in there and use this next year wisely to heal and grow stronger.

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Originally posted by shortnquick:

quote:

Once again, I have to say as parents you need to get your priorities in order and grow up.

Did you really need to go there TPM? Did you really need to start the finger wagging?

If you don't like it use thet ignore feature.

quote:

Originally posted by twe:
TPM, I'm not sure where you got the idea we got "advice" to stop playing but we're some sort of crazed, whacked out parents who forced our son to play anyway. We did not get "advice" to stop playing. The doctor told him to just rest his back and when he felt better, which should be a couple of months, he could play. He rested for 6 months and had no pain. Went to the 1st day of tryouts and experienced pain halfway through the tryout.It was a 2 day tryout.

You stated that the doctor told you to rest your son, BUT he played in NOV. You also stated that you didn't give your son pain killers because of tryouts but because he was in pain come that day but he still tried out? If he was in pain why would you have taken him? Is this not what was stated or did I misunderstand you?

I just don't see your actions as being responsible, was that perscription given to him or you took upon it yourself to give it to him becauseit works for adults? If your son had the flu would you keep him home, or send him to school? If your son was hurt or not feeling well, why would he continue his tryout or even go? Sometimes we have to draw a line as to what is important and make adult decisions for our children.

The most disturbing part of this whole story (to me anyway) is not how heartbroken you are about your son having a serious condition but because as a FRESHMAN, (and most likely in your opinion better than all of the others) might not make the JV team and not playing this year as a freshman might affect the next 4 years of his HS life, his friends, his interests, etc. Not anything about how his injury might affect the next 4 years or more of his life. I didn't see that posted, did I miss something.

You've gotten some good advice here on how to proceed medically, I think that at this point in time this should be your main focus. Dry your tears and be patient, and most of all stop pushing your son beyond his limits.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that most likely your son has been a year round player, since 7, playing consistantly (as you say to get better) probably with limited time off during his middle school years?

I hope that new parents lurking read this post, understand how the travel ball age most likely has put players at risk, possibly, for injury earlier than they should occur.

"I am going to go out on a limb and say that most likely your son has been a year round player, since 7, playing consistantly (as you say to get better) probably with limited time off during his middle school years? "[QUOTE]

TPM- You do not really know all you think you do. He did NOT play year round and as a matter of fact, took an entire year off, played summer, skipped fall (to do other things) and played the spring before gold gloves.Except for the couple of games he played in the fall, AFTER the doctor said it was ok, he hasn't played in almost a year.

twe

When reading TPM remember what Confucius said about ignorance:

"Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star"

Your questions were ones that were baseball related and you received some great advice on what to expect baseball related in your sons future and also health (without trying to make you feel like an irresponsible scum of a parent). Unfortunatley at times posters will jump on an issue they think exists, but doesn't, just to see themselves talk on a board. I trust you love your son and are concerned with all aspects of his life baseball and non baseball.

Welcome to the board and I hope you stick around and let us know how his health and baseball progresses.

shortnquick, Thank you for the support.Everyone has been very helpful and there is always the exception.

Birdman, thanks for the link.I checked it out and it was very helpful.

Coach Waltrip, what you said is similar to what the chiro said. He said while his back issue had probably healed his lower back had tightened up which caused other parts of his body to be used in ways it shouldn't.That's what he thinks happened at tryouts. When he had to throw 250 ft at tryouts, that's when the tissue (not lower back) started hurting.

I'm glad I found this board, it has a lot of useful information/discussion.Thanks again everyone.

For what its worth on the whole tryout and return issue, my son's Varsity team took all 12 seniors who tried out this year. And not out of kindness. It was a well run try-out and these guys earned it.

And now the part that applies to your situation: 3 of the 12 were not on the team last year. One had not made the team in the last cut. One focused on basketball. One had academic issues.

All 3 refocused on baseball and made the team. And the local paper has this team as being the team to beat in their division this year.

Sounds like you are absolutely well focused on his health issues. Don't sweat the HS team issues. It will all work out.

From the father of a 2012

quote:

Originally posted by shortnquick:

When reading TPM remember what Confucius said about ignorance:

"Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star"

And don't forget that old saying, "Ignorance is Bliss".

I just know that as parents, we were the ones who had to look ourselves in the mirror and ask if we did everything that we could do to help our athlete achieve his goals.

And that sometimes meant that we had to put our emotions aside and act responsibly.

I do hope that the OP and many new other websters of young players take lots of time and read over the information here. Many may come away with a better sense of what is and what is not important.

JMO.

That dead horse has been beaten.

twe:

Best of luck to your son. I highly doubt anything that happens this year has an impact on next year. Help him to work hard, stay healthy and be confident. It will all work out the way it ought to work out. If that includes baseball, it can be terrific. If it does not include baseball or not to the level you hope, that can be terrific, too. Just help him stay positive and happy.

quote:

We have only 10 seniors leaving next year so that means only 10 jv players can move up which leaves only 10 freshman to move to jv. I know anything is possible but is it unusual for a current player to be cut for the next season - either jv or freshman?

Not at all. Current JV or freshman are the most vulnerable for cuts. Until they make varsity, they are always in "tryout mode". Making the frshman or JV teams is just getting a foot in the door. That's all. In most instances, once they make varsity, the only way they get cut is by grades or they flat out tank it, but until then, they really haven't made it yet and there's no guaentee from year-to-year what happens to those players on the bubble. Those freshman or JVs must show they're capable of making the varsity roster by their tryout season in their junior year because it makes little sense to keep a player around if he has made little to no progrsss his freshman and sophomore years. Then at that point, the top end younger players will get looks to see what they can do.

As for continuing to cry over it, you may as well get over it and just let the kid get healthy, play on a strong summer ball team then try out next year. If he's that good a player, no coach in is right mind bypasses top players or players with potential to make an impact regardless of his baseball smarts or lackthereof. Therefore, there's little to worry about. And besides, you have no control over this stuff anyway.

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Originally posted by zombywoof:

quote:

We have only 10 seniors leaving next year so that means only 10 jv players can move up which leaves only 10 freshman to move to jv. I know anything is possible but is it unusual for a current player to be cut for the next season - either jv or freshman?

Not at all. Current JV or freshman are the most vulnerable for cuts. Until they make varsity, they are always in "tryout mode". Making the freshman or JV teams is just getting a foot in the door. That's all. In most instances, once they make varsity, the only way they get cut is by grades or they flat out tank it, but until then, they really haven't made it yet and there's no guaentee from year-to-year what happens to those players on the bubble. Those freshman or JVs must show they're capable of making the varsity roster by their tryout season in their junior year because it makes little sense to keep a player around if he has made little to no progrsss his freshman and sophomore years. Then at that point, the top end younger players will get looks to see what they can do.

As for continuing to cry over it, you may as well get over it and just let the kid get healthy, play on a strong summer ball team then try out next year. If he's that good a player, no coach in is right mind bypasses top players or players with potential to make an impact regardless of his baseball smarts or lackthereof. Therefore, there's little to worry about. And besides, you have no control over this stuff anyway.

Agree with the above.

If your son doesn't get the chance to play HS ball due to injuries (much like me, I hurt my shoulder a week before tryouts) there are other ways to "get noticed". Summer leagues are always great (AAU, Legion) for getting noticed.

Best of luck to your son, hopefully he'll make it.

quote:

:
So TPM is the ONLY person who was alarmed to read that a ninth grader was in such pain that he couldn't sit or stand and mom's response was to give him a "prescription strength pain reliever" (BTW, whose prescription?) so the boy could gut it out through a tryout?

Nobody else has even a little bit of a problem with that scenario?

That was a red flag for me. The meds was not named, but that obviously was a mistake.

W ho takes pain killers to a try out?

TPM's point is a good one and the same thought did cross my mind. Maybe correctly, maybe not, I decided to leave this topic alone and point out what I thought his son might be dealing with, in order that it might give him a direction to look into getting his son the help he needs to get healthy. If the OP was not aware that giving prescription pain killers was not a good idea, I'm sure he is now.

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Originally posted by birdman14:

If the OP was not aware that giving prescription pain killers was not a good idea, I'm sure he is now.

Not only is it not a good idea, but if the prescription was not written for the OP's son, it is illegal as well. If this is true, I would HIGHLY suggest not writing this on the Internet for all the public to see, and to probably reevaluate your parenting morals.