Completely agree but in your case don't be "that girl" LOL. I would just add that the school is probably going to have their own gear so I would suggest he wears it unless it's not safe. If he insists on wearing his own gear then he becomes "that kid". By showing up with gear and telling coaches he wasn't sure he looks mature and prepared but insisting he wears his own makes him look selfish and not a team player. If they don't have gear available then he's in good shape.
Not sure I agree with this. Catcher's gear is a very personable item. My kid's is specifically fitted for him and taped so it stays put (so it doesn't adjust). Easy way to get injured is poorly fitted gear. Helmet is full of sweat. In fact the stuff stinks after a few years use. Most kids in my area have their own gear.
Trust me I understand where you're coming from and I'm not against kids having their own gear. I'm not old school enough to say "back in my day we all shared the sweaty equipment and nobody got hurt from loose equipment" because I wasn't a big fan of the community I used when I was playing back in the day. It was gross but it was the time we lived in. I will say this and I say it with respect and not trying to start a fight but if your sons gear doesn't match our school colors or is solid black / grey (neutral colors that can go with anything) then they are not going to catch. I may put them in another position but I will not have a kid out there with different colored gear from our school colors. I think it's tacky and embarrassing. It does not make our school look good and I'm not having that. If you as parents want to go out and buy another set in school colors that's fine.
What I typically do is buy a good set of gear every two years so whoever my two catchers (even if they play another position) have their own set of gear. Yes it's sometimes used but rarely will it be used by someone else for THAT season. We give it a good cleaning at the end and if they are back the next year they get that same set back unless the guy who had the best / newer stuff graduates and the rising kid wants it. But like I said I understand everything you said and I will try everything I can to make it work with kids / parents but end of the day my catcher will have school / neutral colored gear.
I will say that as an Athletic Director schools / coaches need to be careful about letting kids / parents buy their own gear. The questions are - is it age appropriate, does it meet NOCSAE standards and does it have the NOCSAE stamp? Without that we are breaking NFHS / state rules and opening the door to liability if a kid gets hurt using non-certified equipment. Reason I say this is one year in football we had a kid buy his own helmet and wanted to use it. Thankfully he told us and I was able to look at the helmet and keep us out of trouble. Because of this situation our county has a policy that football players are not allowed to buy own helmet. They HAVE to use the helmets provided by the school since they were bought by the school system under a contract that is guaranteed to meet all requirements. Now if something happens all the liability falls onto the distributer although let's be realistic the school system, school and coaches will all be named in the law suit. When the kid brought me the helmet I wasn't sure if he could or not so I made a call to the county office and was waiting on a reply because this was first time it ever came up. While I was waiting on an answer I finally discovered the helmet was built for a youth / pre-high school player. The kid was a senior but he was of smaller stature and it fit him. Once I saw it was not for his age group I did some research and it would not protect him from a hard enough hit that an age appropriate helmet would (there's no guarantees ever but I hope you get what I'm trying to say). Once I saw that I told him to return it and get his money back. About an hour later I got the call from county saying they were banning anyone buying their own helmet.
Coach2709, It sounds like there are some regional differences. At my son's HS in North Texas, any player who wanted to catch showed up with gear. Our school has catchers gear, and our coach has even been known to take athletic players and turn them into catchers, when he wasn't happy with his existing catchers. However, when the freshman showed up for tryouts, he didn't even look at a player for catcher if they didn't have their own gear. Even in little league most catchers have their own gear, certainly in travel ball they do.
I'm assuming that the coach first looks at players with gear to see if he's got potential, future varsity catchers. Why take on a project player, if you have players already in place? I think that he sees it as a very time consuming process to train a catcher, and he assumes that any catcher who doesn't have his own gear will require significant extra training.
I know you have done this for a long time. When you coach, what are your priorities during freshman tryouts? Do you focus more on offense or defense? Other than pitching, is there a position that you focus on? Do you have disqualifiers that you look for. Do your priorities change year to year?
You can address those specifically about catchers to stay in line with the original question, but I'd love to hear what you looked at overall too.
Sounds like their are some regional differences but also the economic situation of the school plays a factor as well. I've coached baseball at four different schools and all but one were poor. I mean probably have enough to pay bills but not be able to get the high end stuff. So our kids getting their own gear is rare. Yes it's happened but most often it doesn't. If I did what your coach does then I will never have a catcher because they aren't bringing their own gear. Having your own gear shows you're serious about the position and I'll give them first shot if that's what they want but I'm not turning a kid away just because they don't have it. I'll provide it for them.
I agree with your coach that if I have players in place at the time and for the future I'm not going to try out a project at catcher or infield. If I get a raw baseball player with potential I'm going to put them in the outfield because (in my opinion) it's the easiest to teach. If they pan out and push a kid out of an outfield spot then cool or if they really pick up the game quickly I'll look at them in the infield if there is a need. I'll take a prospect as a pitcher any day of the week if they have a power arm although pitching is tough to teach. You can never have enough arms.
Overall for my trouts I give them 3 days guaranteed tryout unless they don't show up for the second / third day. After the third day I'll either keep them, cut them or give them a week's extension because I'm just not sure and want to see them longer. First day is a pro style tryout - 60 yard sprint, everyone throws from RF, everyone throws from SS and then we start hitting. Everyone gets the same number of cuts - 2 bunts, 2 hit and runs and 8 cuts. While people are hitting I tell everyone else to go whatever position they want and shag. After BP is over we look at pitchers and catchers. We tell those who want to pitch and catch to head to the bullpen. At this point if there were some arms we saw we liked from RF and SS we tell them to go to even if they have never pitched. We get the pitchers loose and will do some blocking / footwork drills with catchers. Then everyone gets about 15 pitches all fastballs and changes ups. The strong arms we got to see how they react and if it might be worth continuing on as a pitcher. This sounds like a lot but we would only have about 40 or less kids to tryout for about 15 on varsity and 15 on JV. So the first day is a little time consuming but it's not bad overall. Once BP is done and guys are heading to the pen we send everyone else home.
Second day is all defense (maybe some BP if we are good on time) but at this point we teach and we teach to see how receptive they are to teaching. Do they listen, do they blow us off, are they able to take what we teach and apply it and things like that. We will tell them to go the spots they want to go but we try to keep it as generalized as possible - all IF work same IF drills, same with OF and catchers do their own thing. But we will do an extended pre-game IF / OF with some situation type stuff thrown in to see how they react. End of this practice we meet as a staff and start the cutting process. We break them down into - cut (they have shown us nothing or very little - third day hitting better be impressive), keep (they just have it and look like baseball players - if they can't hit we will teach them) and the unknown group (hitting may guarantee them a keep but this group will probably get the week extension).
Third day is all hitting (but we watch them during BP as well). We will break them into two groups with one group on the field (typically older guys we know and younger guys who have already impressed us). We will spend about 40 mins hitting in different rounds - first round (2 bunts, 2 hit and runs, 2 hit behind, 2 squeeze and 8 cuts) second round (2 bunt for base hit, 2 bunts and 6 cuts) third round (5 - 7 cuts depending on how much time we have). We will incorporate some younger pitchers in with this group behind an L screen throwing fast balls and changes. We see how they handle pitching and the better younger hitters get to see them hit live. We don't spend a whole lot of time with this especially if a guy can't throw strikes.
While this is going on the other group (younger / newer guys) will be over at the cages / stations going through our drills. Older guys getting bullpens in - the ones we already know from previous years but a coach is watching them.
After about an hour and half we switch and I try to not go over 3 hours on this day. Also weather may cause us to switch hitting to the second day or have to evaluate in the gym which stinks.
After this practice is over we have the guys clean the field and we meet as a staff to see if any of our choices have changed. Rarely does a keep move down but a week extension may move up to a keep or down to a cut. A cut sometimes moves up to a week extension. Then everyone goes up to the gym where my office is and we call them in one at a time to let them know their fate. If they are a keep we hit it and get it to save time. "Congrats you're on the team and you will play varsity / JV and your role will be ______. Now if you work hard enough you can change your role. Any questions?" I try to keep these at a minute or less to be honest. The ones we give a week extension to will be a little longer but not much. "We really like some things we saw which are _______ but there are some things we still have questions which are ________. So you will get to stay with us another week and you need to impress us with _________. At the end of the week we will let you know if you're on the team or cut. Any questions?" This is a minute and a half or less. Then we have the cut group. "Really appreciate what you've given us these past 3 days but at this point you do not have the skill level we are looking for. Your strengths are ________ and your weaknesses are _______. We strongly encourage you to find someplace to play and work on these and come out next year. Do you have any questions?" This will take as long as is needed depending on the kid. I may have just broke his heart and I'm not going to release him from my office to see all those guys until he has had a chance to compose himself. It may be quick or he may need some time or he may have questions but I'm not kicking a kid out and have a high chance of being embarrassed. I did the cut list on my door the next day my first year and I'll never do it again. I had a kid in my class who I had a good relationship with break down crying in the hallway and it ruined our relationship. He hardly spoke to me again the rest of the year. That made me realize that posting a list is a chickensh*t way to handle kids and 18 years later I'm still embarrassed I did it. Now if the kid is being a jack rear end because he got cut then I'm kicking him out. He go cuss me out somewhere else. I'll call the first kid in and then tell them to send another kid in when they leave so it's random on how we tell them.
So what do we look for? We look for athleticism and if they are baseball players. We look for guys who are teachable, hustle and great attitudes. Once we get into practice then we tell them "hey we have a shortage at such and such - why don't some of you at ________ look to move". Now it's their choice to move but I'm constantly stressing "do you want to be the starter at a second position or the back up on the bench at your primary position?" If nobody moves then I'll move someone and tell them that's the final decision because it's best for the team.
That's a really long winded answer and if you didn't make it this far I will totally understand. I'm sure others have better ways of doing things and sometimes we will modify how we do it based on our numbers but overall this works for us.
That being said I want to stress I actually haven't coached baseball in 4 years and it's been 8 years since I was a head coach. But this is how we did it back then and it worked. I know it sounds like I'm still coaching above but I'm not and I don't want to go back and edit all that so here's the disclaimer. I'm looking for a head coaching job now and when I get it I'm going to do this again just modified for the set up we have at that school.
