Preparing myself.... cuts tomorrow

First, assure your son that you will be proud of him and that you love him no matter what happens with the cuts.

Secondly, if your son has worked hard and done his best to prepare for the tryouts, what more can be said? There is a great lesson is just working hard towards and admirable goal (making the team), if he truly has done all he could. Life is full of examples, however, where hard work and dedication are not necessarily guarantees for success. We have to know that.

As a parent, we want our children to be successful and achieve their goals - especially if they have worked hard to prepare. But, sometimes it just doesn't work out - occasionally, through no fault of theirs.

Finally, coaches tend to know what their players are doing in the off season, so my guess is his hard work (outside the tryouts)is known and will pay off in the way you both want. My guess is that in 24 hours, both you and your son will be in much better spirits.

Good luck to your son! And, let us know how it goes!

I hope your son makes the team.But if he for some reason does not, its not over.He can still work on his game, and try out again next year.best of luck.

My thoughts and prayers even, are with the both of you. We do suffer through these things with our kids in a way our parents never did.

I applaud his hard work and he will be better for this experience however it works out. Let him know that all is not lost if he doesn't make the team this year as there are many College baseball players that played H.S. Varsity only as Juniors and Seniors. He can still play Rec or travel this year to "get his reps in." Moreover, at this stage he needs to be serious about his strength & agility training to get "Bigger, Faster & Stronger." Alot of good stuff can happen to a young boy's development between his Sophmore and Junior years!!

In the Gap - your post is so honest and heartfelt, I just feel like it will turn out ok either way. Given your sincerity, I think you are going to get the good news

Here's a wish that all those players that truly love the game make the team in 2012! Best of luck to you and your son IntheGap12!

Best of Luck to your son IntheGap! Hopefully the coach has a keen eye and can see your son's potential!

Always have a Plan "B." All our sons will stop playing baseball some day. Make sure he knows you love him just as much.

It's not over - just a chance to reevaluate what he needs to keep going. Learning to overcome challenges at this level is much more practical and useful than it is for players who get to the college or pro level and are all of a sudden confronted with failure.

Let us know what happens.

Gap, I hope your son makes the team. It really sounds like he wants to play ball. In the final analysis, I'd take 15 kids like that.

one way or another, these things usually workout in the end..........we just never know when that is.

good luck to your son.

Thanks for all the encouragement for my son! Those of us whose son's are on the bubble can relate... one second you feel there is no way he will get cut, the next second is filled with dread because the numbers may work against him.

I just dropped him off at school for the last session, cuts are at 3:00 pm. So one way or another we will know in about 9 hours.

Told him to keep his head up and a good attitude no matter what transpires today. Wether or not you make the team does not define you as a man.

Once again - Thanks.

once more...good luck.

In the Gap, good luck. I will be rooting for your son.

InTheGap12 -
Im in the same boat right now. We are in the western burbs. My kid has been seeing a hitting coach since October and working out at Bulls-Sox since January. He is a freshman, they have 75 kids going out for the 28 positions. First cut is tonight. I've basically made sure my kid knows that no matter what happens he gave it his best and we still love him.

I feel what your going through, Good Luck to your son.

Joe who does your son hit with?

Best of luck to all the freshman and freshman fathers out there. Can be a stressful week sometimes.

75 kids at some of these big high schools sounds about right. It is nice that they run 2 teams and give them time to develop.

quote:

Joe who does your son hit with?

He does his hitting over at Perfect Swing with Sean Osborn. He seems to have connected with him. Sean's a little new to the whole personal coaching thing but my kid seems to be doing well with him.

Fielding was done through various get ready for HS tryout camps over at Sox's.

Jeez, why do I feel like I'm on pins and needles hoping for the Gapper12 to make the team.....

...and there's 2 more hours 'til the list is posted!

Best of luck to your son. We are all pulling for him!

What school gapper??

Just got back from picking him, the look on his face walking out the door said it all - smiling ear to ear! Thanks for all the encouragement and kind words.

And good luck to the rest of the boys and dads going through the stress of waiting.

I am one proud dad!

quote:

What school gapper??

Fremd High School

Great news. Somehow your story had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Your son's efforts have paid off. Tell him that strangers 1,000 miles away are pulling for him!

InTheGap12, congrats to your son. The "cut" emotion is a brutal emotion to go through.

Have a fabulous time this season watching the kid.

A great contributor to this site has "Hustle never has a bad day" as their signature. He is right... so pass that along to the kid and tell him that even when he has a period of time where he does not feel like he is producing he can always hustle..

Very nice....congratulations!

Enjoy it....and keep on working hard. Keep us posted on how the season goes.

Great News!!

Like eyeontheball said, I've been checking this thread to see what happened. Congratulations to your son. Let the games begin!!

Congrats...I've been peaking at this thread since 3 to see the news! He should be proud of the honor to represent the school. Now his work begins...

Fabulous news!

Congratulations ! I too have been checking the thread to see if he made it. It's good to see a young man who made a committment to be ready for the tryout make the team.

Great news, congratulations to your son.

The Varsity asst at our HS told me that when Junior was a freshman, the coaches had him slated to be cut as a soph and not make the soph team. He had a good fall showing and made the soph starting rotation.

At varsity as a Junior, he couldn't get a varsity start.

As a senior, he set most of the school pitching records.

Now as a junior at college, his pitching coach refers to him as the leader of the staff in front of the team.

From being a late bloomer myself, to a worrying parent later, the one lesson I always pounded into my kids heads...The world is not ordered as you see it today, it will change, you need to work to be part of the positive change.

Tell him to continue to work hard and good things will continue to come.

Yippee!!! I've been watching too. Baseball - where the lows are so low but the highs are so high! Have a great season & enjoy as it goes by soooo fast.

Since 3:30 I've been wondering if they were out buying ice cream sundaes or Lifesavers.

RJM, lol

Congratulations to your son! And here's to a GREAT season!

Great news! I have to admit after your first post I couldn't wait to find out myself. Good luck the rest of the season.

Very emotional thread!

Now, we better not find out this was not some kind of American Idol deek out (looking sad while delivering the good news). For example, we better not hear that junior is now magically batting in the 3-hole and scheduled to be the opening day pitcher!

Seriously, good news! All the best to the young man Every parent on this board knows how much anxiety is involved waiting to find out that kind of news.

Congrats gap dad and dad son!

make the most of the opportunity!

and enjoy the heck out of the season!!!

Wow..That HS has a lot of sub-varsity teams feeding the varsity. Two freshman teams, Soph, JV and varsity. Obviously a 2012 tryout eliminates the freshman team, so did he make soph, jv ot the varsity or that hasn't been sorted out yet?. Guessing from all those teams, there must be a lot of players at tryouts.

I remember that feeling my son's freshman year when he tried out. That was tough. The waiting because there were so many players trying out and the coach is seeing all these players for the very first time.

At the end of his freshman seson, the frosh coach called a parents meeting to talk about the season, expectations for the following year etc. and when it came time to talk about my son, he said the first day he showed up in a polo shirt and jeans and no equipment and everybody was in sweats and working out and had their gear, his first thought was "my first cuts should be easy" but then said once he saw him play, he was pleasantly surprised based on the first day.

He told the coach he couldn't make most of the meetings because he played varsity as a freshman in his winter sport and went to the state tournament that extended the season causing him to miss key after school pre-season baseball meetings for dates, times expectations etc... Since freshman year was the first time the baseball coach ever meet these players, had I knew at the time when he told us that story, I'd have thought he had no shot from day one..LOL.

Just back from taking my 2012 - he drove - out for a giros to celebrate his making the soph team. Congrats and have a good and healthy season.

Most important, enjoy!

Congrats gapper to your son and also to you. Fremd runs a nice program.

Zombywoof, not sure how the rest of the coutry does it but Frem for ex probably has 3500 students os so and most schools around here run 2 fresh teams of 15 or so each, 1 soph team maybe 22 or 23 and a varsity. I have always loked the 2 frosh teams as it allows some late bloomers to have a chance down the road as they develop. Some soph get moved up to varsity at most schools depending on the needs at each position. System works pretty well imo.

Congratulations

Congrats...Enjoy the Season!

Congrats to InTheGap12 and son. Nothing quite like that feeling is there?

Now on to the rigors of the late winter/early spring baseball season in northern Illinois. Best of luck for the upcoming season.

congratulations to your son. enjoy these years, they go by quickly.

Congrats. Glad it all went well for your son.

Congrats to your son - dress warm!

Did he make it ?

Excellent!!! Way up here we won't have tryouts till the 22nd. Glad your son made one of the teams.

InTheGap12:

Congrats to your son. Make sure he enjoys the moment and is prepared to work hard and have fun.

quote:

Originally posted by InTheGap12:
Just got back from picking him, the look on his face walking out the door said it all - smiling ear to ear! Thanks for all the encouragement and kind words.

And good luck to the rest of the boys and dads going through the stress of waiting.

I am one proud dad!

Now sit back and enjoy the ride! Congrats!

Congrats to your son! I know the feeling from my son's soph season last year until he got the good news. It's nerve-wracking for us parents; I can't imagine how it must feel for the boys themselves.

Tell your son, he's earned himself this opportunity through his hard work. Enjoy and celebrate this moment! But now the real hard work begins, in making the most of this opportunity. My son only pitched a few innings and DH'd or pinch hit last year. But he earned a reputation as a clutch player, and that has paid huge dividends. Most importantly, he learned an invaluable lesson about doing whatever the team needed him to do, and that has stayed with him even off the field.

Best of luck for a great season!

PD

Congrats and good luck on his upcoming season !

quote:

Originally posted by CPLZ:
Great news, congratulations to your son.

The Varsity asst at our HS told me that when Junior was a freshman, the coaches had him slated to be cut as a soph and not make the soph team. He had a good fall showing and made the soph starting rotation.

At varsity as a Junior, he couldn't get a varsity start.

As a senior, he set most of the school pitching records.

Now as a junior at college, his pitching coach refers to him as the leader of the staff in front of the team.

From being a late bloomer myself, to a worrying parent later, the one lesson I always pounded into my kids heads...The world is not ordered as you see it today, it will change, you need to work to be part of the positive change.

Tell him to continue to work hard and good things will continue to come.

Thats AWESOME for the young Gapper, have a GREAT time and GREAT season....

CPLZ's story should be told to every HS ballplayer that thinks "why am I doing this, I don't even play in the games." Please kids, show some passion, and be persistent. Good things will come in time.

That is great news for your son...and you. Bet you both feel about 20 lbs lighter.

Tell him he did a great job by working hard and making the team.

He now needs to understand that by making the team he earned an uniform and a spot on the bench; what he does from now on determines if he earns a spot on the field.

Keep up the hard work and keep us posted.

congrats.... enjoy

Inthegap

Wow, does that bring back memories, congratulations to you and your son!

Had a very similar situation, only magnified. Had twin sons (ironically at the same high school that your son is at). One was a very advanced level travel player, it was just a question of which team he would be on and when would he be moved up to a higher team. The other son was a decent park district player, but probably loved the game even more than his twin brother. We really sweated out the tryouts and he was one of the last to make the B team at the school. He really worked hard and persevered and played all four years making varsity over several more talented players that were not nearly as motivated, or cared as much as he did.

Enjoy your time, it goes very quickly!

This is indeed a big program, there were approx 80 at tryouts for freshman ball - they kept 30 and fill an 'A' and 'B' roster. Going into soph year they rostered 17, so 14 were cut from the freshman team (we had one new student, a stud left handed pitcher that came to school as a soph and he is on the team). There are very few players that move up to varsity, they do not need to do it as the talent pool is pretty deep around here.

But of course for every happy story like my son's there are disappointing and sad stories. Some of the cuts that were made were very tough. These kids have known eachother their whole lives, have played with and against eachother since they were in tee-ball. Every one of them played travel ball, and most of them work on their game in the offseason. I have been watching most of these kids play their whole life and it is tough to be on the other end, you know them, you know their families.

I was talking to the dad of a cut player last night - I told him I would never want to be the guy that had to pick 17 out of this group of boys.

So my heart goes out to all the players who love the game, worked over the winter, and did not make the cut. And for the players who did make it - don't slow down and look behind you because some of those cut players are not giving up and will be back next year looking to take your spot.

Not sure who said it in one of the responses, but it was said making the team gives you a uniform and a spot on the bench, so true! Practice started yesterday at 5:45 am, time to earn that spot in the lineup.

InTheGap - good stuff.

I would be interested in hearing more about your school because it sounds similar to ours. Is your school a large public high school or a large all-boys Catholic school for example? What is the enrollment per grade?

Our school was the largest in Ohio with over 1,000 per grade. It was a big deal to make the freshman team with over 100 kids trying out. It was even a bigger deal to find playing time on the freshman team as almost all the kids came out of fine traveling programs. JV's were another big weedout time. It was a really big deal to start varsity as a junior at our school and the majority of kids did not start on varsity until they were seniors. Competition like this creates lots of anxieties. On the other hand, if you can manage to compete your way on to the field, it is a great experience for the next level after high school. Learning how to love competition is the mental key to the whole ball of wax.

Cleveland - it is a large public school in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Not quite as big as your school, enrollment is around 2800 - but other than a lower enrollment it sounds exactly like your school. There are fantastic student-athletes, the basketball team is currently in the state finals after going 24-2. Football team was 11-0 in 2009 and I think 10-1 in 2008. The freshman baseball teams lost 5-7 games between the A and B teams last year.. needless to say the competition for the athletes is very tough.

Now we just need this snow to melt so we can get on with it!

I'm happy for your son, Inthegap12. Just remember.. in the offseason, focus on having him working twice as hard as anyone else in the city to get better. Hard work and talent is hard to deny. Good luck.