Playing other sports...

Daron-
You pose a great question....and unfortunately, I think there is no "right" answer.

My son (08) started off playing 3 sports in HS (football, basketball and baseball).
After his freshman year he decided to stop playing basketball (multiple reasons).

He is now in his JR year and continues to play football and baseball. His football coach wished he just played football, his HS baseball coach is OK with football and his summer coach (who was a pitcher at a major DI and played 6 yrs in the minor thru AAA) thinks it is great to play multiple sports.

My son loves baseball and, if he has an opportunity to play beyond HS, it will be in baseball. But, he loves the game of football as well (plus he plays for a HS that is one of the top football programs in Northern VA, if not the state).

I always get worried about the injury factor. At the end of the day, he knows the risks. I will say one thing, football and the associated weight training, has made him a much "stronger" baseball player.

When looking at colleges, I think some coaches, will only look at baseball players, others appreciate multi-sport athletes.

Sorry, no magic answer from this foxhole

play basketball if you love to play basketball. Don't play if you are going to spend the whole time wishing you were working on your baseball. That is not fair to the teammates who love basketball. If you would regret no playing then play. If you would regret no working on your baseball then don't play. Remember you don't get those days back. So make sure it is what you want to be doing, whichever you chose.

Do what feels right to you. You cannot always manipulate how people will view/react to your high school record.

Does having knee surgery or any sports related surgery raise red flags with coaches that are recruiting these athletes?

For whatever its worth:

During my son's senior year I did not hear a single parent or kid complain that they should have played just one sport.

However, I did hear a number of parents and kids "wish" they had played more sports during high school, usually football.

You only get one chance at high school sports.

btw in my son's class three kids moved onto D1 college sports and all three played three sports in high school.

My son is in his freshamn year at a D1 program. He took up swimming to get into shape for baseball. In his senior year he made All-American in swimming. We found that most D1 and D2 coaches wanted my son to EITHER swim or play baseball. Only a couple would let him do both. He ended up at an engineering school where he can study computers as he wished. They just switched from D2 to D1 and will let him do both sports. They gave him athletic money for both sports. Both coaches said that if my son was coming to them in a few more years, when the programs were better established, then they also would probably restrict him to one sport. Best advice - ask the coaches involved. See what they are looking for.

Go with your gut feel. You have one chance to play high school sports, and it goes by quickly. Most college coaches that commented expressed that our sons being multi-sport athletes at the high school level was a plus; it also gives you a longer writeup in the spring baseball media guide.

Both my sons love college baseball and loved high school baseball, but they equally enjoyed high school football and wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. Oddly enough,the only injuries they ever experienced in any high school sport that put them out of commission for more than a day or two were high ankle sprains...in basketball.