I'm officially here.

Congrats LAball.  As a freshmen, he's got a lot of baseball ahead of him.  Enjoy!

Welcome to the HSBBWeb,

In general, HS programs generally don't help the feeder programs (LL, travel ball, etc).  It's the responsibility of the student-athlete trying out (for any sport) to have acquired the basic skills to play the game.

In our region, there are only JV and V teams - no freshman teams.  I can only speak for our HS program, but my son's HS coach looks for players that have the minimum basic skills.  If you don't have them, then you'll not survive the first cut.  The coach has been there 4 years now and he only takes sophomores, juniors and seniors for Varsity - doesn't even look at freshman.

Our LL is similar.  Last year I think there were 8 major (12U) and only 2 junior and no senior teams.  Softball was worse.  Only 6 major, no juniors, and 2 senior (that eventually combined into one team) teams.

Recently the school system has started MS teams (softball, baseball, volleyball football) - too early to say how this has impacted the programs.

Same experience at our little slice of heaven (er, HS baseball). We have a small baseball program but in the same county (Fairfax) are some really established programs. In fact, my son has played on some feeder travel teams for 2 top programs. His tryouts start in two weeks. He'll be ready, but most kids won't. And HS coaches won't make them better in terms of basic skill set, they work with what they have and position and set the BO the best they can. That's how it is around here anyway...

Our program tries to give as many opportunities to kids as possible. Starting in 7th grade you try out for the travel team, if you make that team you start playing in April and you cannot play for the middle school team. If you do not make the travel team or you are not interested in travel, then you try out for the middle school team. 

Kids are also encouraged to try out for local travel teams that start early. This gives as many kids as possible an chance to play spring ball. This is a recent development and many parents have complained. As long as parents can keep from bragging, that my Johnny is on the travel team,and clearly has a better shot than Jimmy, who is on the school team, of playing in hs. Then things should go fine. What these parents do not understand is, that the hs head coach doesn't care who plays were, and doesn't want to know.He will hold judgement til they get to hs.

In fact he cut my youngest during try outs for the first summer team, he put together. My son still made the freshmen team an got a fair shot.

Some of the best teams in our area do not have middle school teams. They have no idea who the freshmen are until they show up for try outs. Thames programs do not run younger programs. It has come to be expected that if you want to make the us team, it is up to the kid and his parents to get them prepared.

LAball, enjoy the ride. Lots of ups and downs but it's one heck of a good time. Best of luck to your son and your family!

My son also just made the JV HS team.  The coach had never seen him or most of the other kids play before try outs.   They have a very weak ms team, but it only has 19 kids on the team for all of 7th and 8th grades.   Most of the stronger kids play travel.  

LAball,

Welcome to high school baseball. I guess every school is different. I have a buddy who lives in Orange County. His kids go to a huge public school where most LL kids have no shot at making the high school team (only the seasoned travel boys). Youth sports is getting so specialized these days. Does your son's school have good athletes who only play football, soccer, basketball, etc? Losing kids to lacrosse? Those seem to be the trends in many area.

You guys are a month ahead of us here in the northeast. Good luck to your son. I hope he has a great freshman year.

The softball and baseball teams were brutally bad before new coaches and my kids got there. The softball coach went down to the 9/10 level and convinced most of the best players to be part of a new 12u ASA travel team he created and put a coach in place. The coach also had input on who coached at the middle school and sub varsity high school teams.

The baseball coach started watching kids at the LL and Ripken level. He followed middle school aged travel teams and Jr Legion. He had input on who coaches at the middle school and sub varsity high school reams. 

Both these programs are perpetual winners now. The previous coaches didn't have any off season development. The parents owned the previous coaches. There were some contentious moments between the new coaches and parents who had older kids go through the program in the past. They were accustomed to paying their kid's way into the starting lineup via booster club donations.

Glad to here that your son made it..funny though we do not allow parents at try outs

Thank you,  Im happy to be here. Hopefully I will be posting in the recruitment forums soon.