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Guys & Gals - I have been a lurker on this site for years, have posted a few times, but mostly have been the recipient of some great posts.

Tomorrow is the last day of tryouts and my 2012 son is not very confident he will make the cut. He is telling me this is the worst tryout he has ever had and I am quite honestly nearly heartbroken for him.

He has been practicing with his 16u travel team all winter, has done extremely well working on his game, been in the cages 3 times a week and working with his hitting coach the past 2 months.

Cuts are tomorrow, unfortunately he tells me he is not hitting well at tryouts and is not very happy about things at the moment. He is usually hitting hard grounders or line drives, but cannot get into a groove in these tryouts.

I am trying very hard to stay positive and tell him it does not matter to me one bit if he gets cut - as long as he gave his best effort that is all he can do - but it is still killing me to think of the possibility he will be done with HS baseball.

Anyways, just wanted to vent. Maybe tomorrow I can come back and post a positive message saying all the angst was for naught and he made it! I really hope so...

Good luck to everyone.
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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!
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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! Big Grin

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.
Last edited by ClevelandDad
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.
Last edited by zombywoof

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