Some general HS BB questions

Our public HS does not have any "feeder" teams. However, I will say that everyone that made the team participated on a club/travel team at some point. No player made the team just by playing in the local PONY/Little League programs.

Players do a variety in the summer here. Some do not play. Some play Legion. Some play for a club/travel program. In the fall, some players are participating in a fall sport. Some play for a club/travel program. Some play for a local recreational league. Some do nothing and some just focus on speed/weight/agility training. Some also just do showcases/camps.

I can't provide any insight into the private school situation.

My sons' HS does not have any kind of feeder program, but a neighboring HS has an "unofficial" feeder program. It's not named as such, but the varsity HC is involved with their winter training & assistant coaches the team of 14u incoming freshmen, and they do all their training at the HS. Those players have all been automatic roster adds at freshman tryouts, and there was even a controversy over those kids getting to practice with the returning HS players all summer & early school year, while other freshmen weren't allowed to participate until after tryouts. I think that's an extreme case, but if your school has a feeder program, probably a good idea to consider it.

In my area,  close to 100% of players play summer travel ball after the HS season. It'd be hard to compete at the varsity level if you're not training in the offseason with a team.

We did have a 22' grad who only played the HS season & skipped travel ball after Jr & Sr year, and he was a successful starter. But he didn't have any college baseball options. I've known of a couple others who did the same, but they weren't really contributors on the HS team.

One of my good friends is a varsity coach as a big class local high school.  I'll never for get him saying, "I can cut half the freshman just watching them play catch the first 5 minutes of the first day."

In my area travel/club teams are pretty important in high school, but not a must.  A few freshman kids only played LL/Pony and made the frosh team, but weren't starters.  The hs coaches all knew prior to school starting who the better players are.  Is there an advantage?  Definitely YES.  Some can even argue slight preferential treatment were given to those kids.  If your son is fortunate enough to make the high school team things will start to get a little crazy and intense.  Our path was basically to let our son decide how much baseball he wanted to play (pre high school) as long as grades didn't suffer.  We encouraged multiple sports (he participated in basketball, football, soccer and golf and when his baseball started to increase we gradually eliminated the other sports.  It is during this time my son (and us) got an idea of his drive, discipline, and motivation to play baseball.  You still can't predict how he will compare to others or even if he is college material.  This is the time for him to him to enjoy baseball for what it is, friendship, competition, self discipline, and most importantly just being a fun game.

We've all seen parents who want their kids to play in high school, college, or above yet so many things have to happen.  The kid must have that innate drive to progress to the next level, it isn't something you can learn or be taught.  You can be told what must be done but if the deep motivation isn't there it will only get him so far.

In our area middle school kids are being offered scholarships to attend private high school to play sports, and/or academic.  It stands to reason that if given a baseball scholarship you are an important part of the high school baseball plans.

Good luck in your journey.  It is an enjoyable time to sit back, relax, have fun with your family.  The time flies by so fast!

How big is the roster of the private school? How competitive are they? In FL most of the competitive private schools recruit well. My son's HS will potentially have 6 D1 committed OF's this spring. One can DH and maybe one can play 1b, but that leaves at least one really good player unhappy.

I’d recommend finding the best program to develop your player with the most growth opportunities.   If the feeder program provides that, then it would be an easy decision for me.  One caveat being if the feeder has multiple teams, you don’t want to get pigeon holed on the B or C team that could negatively impact his chances.  In my area, there are often several teams per age group in the feeder program.

I don’t have more to offer than what 947 and Trust already stated on the other items.  ++ on enjoy it part

Trust in him.  I totally read that at first...  "Good luck in your MONEY." Instead of journey

@CL6120 posted:

Hello, we’re still couple of years from HS, but looking for some information ahead of time.

• some of the Public HS have “feeder” travel/club teams for their BB teams. For those who have gone through or familiar with feeder programs, how critical is it in terms of making the HS team? How disadvantaged if you are not.
• HS BB season is Spring; then what do players do in Summer and Fall?
• If you decide to attend a private school (for both academic and BB reasons), do you have some idea ahead of time that you will be on the team (before making big commitment in terms of higher cost/driving time compared to the near-by public HS). Or do you not know for sure until the tryout?

Thank you.

1)  I don't think its important if your kid can really play. We felt a little pressure to do so but it turned out to not matter. 

2)  train but play another sport.  Gotta prevent burnout and develop more motor skills.  Around 15, start really lifting.

3) Ive heard about some bigger private HS recruiting players in middle school.  If your kid is locally known, you could probably directly ask the coach for input on the program and fit.  Honestly a parent should kinda have an idea what's what about their kids ability.  With my two, I was reasonably confident theyd be playing varsity at some point at any HS.  If you have to wonder by next year, he might be a bubble kid and private school BB might be a crap shoot?  Jmo

Pre-high school the focus should be on development. I live near Atlanta, so this won't apply in most places.  There are big name travel teams, there are developmental travel teams and there are the rest.  Focus on development.

If your son is good enough to play on a serious travel team, the feeder team won't matter.

If you don't have many options, the feeder team is the path of least resistance.

Virtually all high level BB players play travel in the summer.  Some play fall ball but it depends on the interest of the kid.  Fall is for football or whatever else they enjoy to avoid burnout.  Some want more BB.

Competitiveness varies by school - some HSs are starving for players each year while others cut dozens every year. Check MaxPreps to get a sense of the historical W-L record and league standing for the schools you are considering.

Can't hurt to play on the feeder teams, but the level of 'required-ness' is up to the coaches. Ask around. People love to chat.

If your son wants to play in college, he'll need to keep his skills up during summer and fall. Summer is also when colleges come out to see potential recruits play.

But, one step at a time. No one is recruiting 2028 grads quite yet. Good luck.

1) Son`s high school didn't have a feeder.  It`s a large classification school in a large state. They did have a fall ball team. My son played one fall to establish as a younger player he should be the shortstop in the spring. The fall season made spring preseason a formality. He was the shortstop from the first practice. He didn't play for the fall team once he was a starter.

The coach said he didn't care where anyone played the previous summer. Everyone who made varsity played travel. Chicken or egg? The best players played travel.

2) Son played travel ball in the summer and fall. He also played soccer and punted for the football team. In the summer he also attended a goalie day camp during the week.

3) Son was recruited by two powerhouse privates and another quality private.. The decision was the gifted program at the high school was equal or better than the two quality academics. Plus, at two better of the three few players got in the lineup before junior year. At these schools baseball was one of their loaded, heavily recruited sports.

Baseball wise, the gamble was the new high school coach (rising star assistant at a  perennial powerhouse) would turn a doormat into a contender in his second season. They went from doormat to second, first, first in my son`s three years on varsity.

Small town, no private schools with baseball, closest travel organizations an hour or more away.  And yet all varsity starters played some sort of summer travel, except for the D1 football recruit  who hit the ball a mile.  Not all the same travel team, though; it ranged from high-level organization travel to dad-ball teams and all in between.  Kids who only played rec were way behind as freshmen.

Before HS, most played in dad-coached travel, fairly locally.  In fact, our team was sold to us as the way to prepare for HS ball.  HS coach had summer workouts that middle schoolers could attend, and fall and winter workouts - all optional but really not unless you played a fall or winter sport.  

Coach did not cut many players, but there were Freshman, JV and V teams and by no mean everyone made it to varsity - he put the best 9 on the varsity team no matter their year.

I agree make it developmental and fun- but do keep an ear to the ground, if there's a feede team and it's good, why not?