Long time lurker, glad to be posting for the first time.
I am looking for advice I can pass along to my son (and frankly, assuage my own nerves) for his 9th grade tryouts.
Summer of ‘18, he started swimming for our community swim team to continue to build endurance and strength. He enjoyed it, and in the fall as a freshman, we urged him very strongly to join the high school swim team. He protested, saying that he only wanted to focus on making the baseball team. We said that he could still work toward that while he swam. Plus, few other sports could provide him the conditioning that swimming would. And if he has the misfortune of injuring himself to the point he couldn’t play baseball anymore, then he’d have another sport to engage in (he is very competitive and loves the idea of playing for his school).
All goes well. He plays fall ball for his travel team, also plays for a rec team (long story), and his baseball season ends just as swim starts. Coincidentally, his growth spurt really starts kicking in this year and he’s a long and lean 6 feet, 155, with size 15 feet by Dec 31, a 5 inches and 34lb jump in 12 months (and he’s still growing). Swim kicks off, and he has done really well in it. He has throughly enjoyed it and has thanked us for pushing him to join.
During this entire time, he’s also doing weight training with the high school baseball coach in school (he took health & PE during the summer so he could get in there as a 9th grader). He’s also doing focused workouts once or twice a week in the evening to hit on some areas that swim/weight class doesn’t hit. Plus, since Dec 1, he practiced 2-3 days a week in hitting & fielding for 2.5 hrs. On top of 90 minutes of swim practice each weekday, while maintaining a 4.0. Forgive my pride in the young man. All this to say, he ramped up to be ready for tryouts this month.
The issue is: we found out in late Dec that he can’t participate in any of the 2 weeks of “voluntary” workouts that the rest of the 9th grade prospects are participating in until he completes his swim season (which should end 2 days prior to officially tryouts). He and I are both concerned that he’s going to step in at the end after all the decisions have been made (mainly regarding his primary position).
He is incredibly enthusiastic player, a hard worker, a team player (never sits on the bench always cheering his teammates), and, knowing nearly everyone else trying out, has a stronger work ethic than all but 2-3 of the other potential players. But how does he ensure that this all comes through in the 2-3 days of tryouts, after the rest have had 10-12 days of facetime with the coaches?
Is it just as simple as doing his best, be the young man that he is, and let it all fall in as it may? He read the “making the team” threads years ago and knows them (and lives them). Any other ideas?
Thanks for reading this far, and for any advice.
). Once he gets to the tryout date, yes, it is in many ways "as simple as 
