Multi-Sport Athletes

BatDad- go to page 3 of this forum. There's a topic about this-when to quit other sports.

I think most will tell you its probably best to keep playing multiple sports so long as the player is enjoying it, can balance the time committments and keep up their grades and other obligations.

IMO looks like your taking a pretty good approach.

We just went through this situation with our son, he also played football, basketball and baseball (went to high school in P.A.) and started in all three sports his first two years of high school, he finally decided to play the game he loved the most, which is baseball. He will transfer schools for his last two years and get the unique opportunity of playing baseball year around. Me and my wife always beleived that he should of been concentrating on baseball, but seeing that he just entered high school he wanted to experience all that it had to offer; he now sees that his best chance to play at the next level is by playing baseball. It sounds like you are in the same position I was two years, hopefully you will do what is best for your son and give him the advice that I am certain, he will eventually seek from you.

Good luck!!!!!

My son had to make the same type of decision on what to play this past school (freshmen) year. In middle school he was all league in football, loved wrestling and was undefeated (beat a 3X National Champion 17-2 in the state finals), but baseball was his first love and what he wants to do in college. He (yes this was his decision) decided to participate in football and baseball due to the way that the seasons overlap. Football in the South starts on August 1 and goes to about the middle of November. Wrestling starts on November 1 and goes to the last of February and baseball starts practice on January 15. As you can see it would have been very difficult to do all three sports. He decided that if he were going to attend showcases and camps over the XMAS holidays he would have to give up wrestling which he really loved and still does. It's difficult on the kids but we all know that you have to make sacrafices to reach your dreams. So far everything has worked just as he wanted them too and he earned a starting position on a baseball team that made it to the state semifinals. Examine everything and make a list of both the positives and negatives of each sport to aid with your decision. Good Luck!!!

Play them all if he can. The answer to the question depends a great deal upon the size of the school and how cooperative the coaches are. At a large school (over 1,000 coed students) there are fewer opportunities to play multiple sports due to the competition and at schools where coaches protect their "turf" students are screwed unless you're really good and are able to "force" a coach to accomadate him/her.

My son wouldn't trade any of his four years of three sports for more baseball opportunities and as parent I appreciate the different look at life each coach/sport gave him. Plus you never know which sport you're going to be good at until you try. i.e. maybe your son will be a stud college football player....

As an added benefit, Football and basketball games help kids learn to deal with large hostile crowds under intense pressure that you just can't find at a typical HS baseball game. Batting in front of 100 people/friends is not the same as shooting a free throw with 1,500 students/parents yelling for or against you, game after game after game.

My kid plays football, basketball and baseball. He's good at the first two, but best at baseball. He will enter HS next fall. Probably will try to play all three freshman year, and if I was going to guess, would say he will play FB and BB all four years.

I think the other sports help keep him in shape and developed in physical ways that baseball alone has a hard time doing.

So I encourage him to play more than just baseball. But I am certain his future, if he has one beyond HS, is in BB

I think kids should play as many “games” as they can with the understanding that there are other things, like grades and other responsibilities depending on the family, which will always be more important than the “games”. BatDad I’m gonna pick on you a little. You said:

quote:

its hard to assess his potential in those sports.

I think we all tend to look at our son’s sports and immediately attempt to help them make decisions based on their “potential”. I know I was guilty of that at times. I suggest we ask them if they’re having fun first. Teams tend to be made up of many players, most of which lack potential. Let’s not set the bar so high for our sons that we overlook the real reason they are playing sports...for fun. As far as sports are concerned I feel as if our job is to support them in the direction they want to go, not push them in the direction we think they should go.
Fungo

BatDad -

Since Grades/GPA are going to be one of your son's most valuable college recruiting "tools", my opinion would be to let him play the number of sports he can enjoy and still keep up his grades in high school.

I agree it all depends on the kid and what he enjoys doing, and what he is capable of doing while keeping up good grades. Hopefully, you are also lucky enough to have a HS coaching staff and AD that is supportive of multi-sport atheletes. Ours is supportive at our HS, but I've listened to stories from parents at other HS where there isn't as much flexibility, or pressure is put on kids to drop other sports.

Our Varsity Catcher was also the starting QB in football, and one of the top players on the lacrosse team. We've had other multi-sport atheletes in the program.

My son did basketball and baseball for two years, and dropped club s****r when he entered HS ... he eventually chose to focus on baseball mainly from a time management perspective. It was just too hard to get the study time in he needed for classes, plus the pre-season bullpens, weight lifting, and BP, as well as play basketball in the winter months. He also found it hard to put on the weight he wanted to with all the running in basketball.

It didn't help that in his sophomore year the basketball coach made it difficult for him ... even though there had been clear communication of what his priorities were and the whole baseball pre-season situation months before the basketball season. Since the basketball team went home early on game days, my son would go out and throw a pen with the baseball team instead of going home, then if ANYTHING went wrong on the B-Ball court, the coach would call him out in front of the team for being focused on baseball instead of basketball. Son finally just said "If you're going to make this hard on me because I'm working twice as hard as anyone else trying to do two sports at the same time, then it makes my decision easy". He played out his season in the starting JV lineup, but when he was asked to move up to Varsity for the CIF playoffs, he declined and went out to the baseball field instead.

When I first started coaching at the school I am currently at I saw the need right away to get an off season strength and conditioning program started. Also they had no structured summer or fall baseball programs. I got the kids in Legion and the more talented ones into showcase situations. I then started a summer team for the rising JV players and the ones that could not make Legion rosters in the area. In other words we went from a 4 month baseball program to a 12 month program. Because of this we have grown to a program that is a Conference power and in the state playoffs every year. Plus we have more and more players playing at the next level now. I was accused of telling kids to not play other sports. I was accused of hurting the football program and the basketball programs. I was accused of specializing. What I tell every kid is this. If you really want to play other sports then you need to play. You will not get another chance to play football or basketball again in High School. If you really want to play you need to play. But if you are not going to play other sports and you just have no interest to play them you need to be working on getting better at baseball. I gave them opportunities to get better. It is up to them to take advantage of those opportunities. Now I will say this and some of you might disagree and thats ok if you do. If you are going to play three sports or even two sports and you dont take the time to work on your baseball skills. Dont be surprised when the kids that do year round, pass you up in the game. Its a choice you have to make. That does not mean that kids that play multiple sports can not excell at one. How hard do they work? Do they chill between sports? How hard do those sports work? How well do they condition? ETC ETC. My son who is a freshman is a perfect example of one of these kids. He is 6'0 205 and the football coach is all over him to play. He likes football but does not love it. He told me that he does not want to take four months off from working on baseball and miss the fall games. He said it would kill him to see the guys in the cage and long tossing and not be able to do it with them. Its his decision. I would love to see him play if he wanted to play. Leave it up to the kids. That way they have no regrets. Just make sure that you provide opportunities for the ones that do not want to play. And no excuses for the ones that do not play and then do not take advantage of those opportunities. If your goal is to play at the next level and your true love is baseball (How much better will you be if you concentrate on it for 12 months vs 4 months)? Again if kids want to play multiple sports and they really enjoy doing so let them make the decision. But give them the facts so they can make an good decision. Then support their decision.

Thanks for all the good input, advice and personal experiences. I fully agree that education is the most important part of school. Fortunately, my son has always done pretty well. I do know that he’s going to have to devote more time to hitting the books in HS, so it is an area that will need to be monitored closely.

Fungo, no problems with you picking on me. They are just games, and its important for the kids to enjoy themselves. I’m not the type to push my son into something he doesn’t like to do, e.g. he no longer plays the trumpet. Obviously in our society, these games are in the spotlight and big business, and the kids know it. Not all, but many have dreams of progressing to the next level and maybe beyond. For those that do, the parents walk a fine line between not squashing their dreams, while still interjecting a dose of reality. Helping them to realistically assess their current performance and their potential is one way of doing this.

For those kids that just want to play the game and have fun, I say play away.

Competitors compete! We support our kids playing any and every sport that they want. I second Coach May's point that if they aren't playing another sport, then... I would point this out, we seem to be in competition with all other coaches for that child's time. One of my kids lifted this morning with the football team, came and did my baseball camp, did basketball from 2-4 and is playing Legion ball tonight. I asked him today if it is getting too much. He kind of looked stunned. I told him to take tomorrow off from the camp. His response, "Coach this is the one I want to do." Sometimes, we create a monster as parents and the kid plays for the parent and not for themselves. JMHO!

Coach B25 some kids are just internally driven to be the best they can be. They do not have to be motivated by anyone they are just motivated period. These type of kids are special and are a joy to coach and be around. And they are going to be sucessfull in whatever they do in life.