The demise of high school baseball?

Dominik85 posted:

For 80% of the HS players HS ball is the highlight of their career. Parents always want "development" of their kids but a big part of hs players won't make it to college anyway so for them competing in hs games is a big deal.

And even the real prospects are going to remember their hs games more than some travel tournaments.

Travel is important but the travel season already is more than long enough, players can do both. People predict travel ball only for years now but every single guy who gets drafted still plays HS ball. I think they will continue to do both because hs is were your friends are and hs sports are a big social thing.

Dom love be your posts but this one I have to disagree with. A lot of kids now are playing full time travel. 

FWP posted:

Dominik85 posted:

For 80% of the HS players HS ball is the highlight of their career. Parents always want "development" of their kids but a big part of hs players won't make it to college anyway so for them competing in hs games is a big deal.

And even the real prospects are going to remember their hs games more than some travel tournaments.

Travel is important but the travel season already is more than long enough, players can do both. People predict travel ball only for years now but every single guy who gets drafted still plays HS ball. I think they will continue to do both because hs is were your friends are and hs sports are a big social thing.

Dom love be your posts but this one I have to disagree with. A lot of kids now are playing full time travel. 

Not in NoVA. But in general I'd say HS baseball will continue strong and hands-down stay on top of travel for Spring players. Then back to travel baseball.

There is one  thing High School Baseball has over Travel Ball, hands down.   No Sundays when you have to earn your way to a championship appearance the hard way.  You spend all day at the park, make it to the championship from the losers bracket, but your pitching is cooked cause of all the games. 

That just sucks.  Nothing like it in HS Ball.  We always regarded the HS season as something of a relief for that reason.  

Plus it represented a break from traveling all over the darned state and often out of state.  

And it was a lot cheaper.  

Batty67 posted:

FWP posted:

Dominik85 posted:

For 80% of the HS players HS ball is the highlight of their career. Parents always want "development" of their kids but a big part of hs players won't make it to college anyway so for them competing in hs games is a big deal.

And even the real prospects are going to remember their hs games more than some travel tournaments.

Travel is important but the travel season already is more than long enough, players can do both. People predict travel ball only for years now but every single guy who gets drafted still plays HS ball. I think they will continue to do both because hs is were your friends are and hs sports are a big social thing.

Dom love be your posts but this one I have to disagree with. A lot of kids now are playing full time travel. 

Not in NoVA. But in general I'd say HS baseball will continue strong and hands-down stay on top of travel for Spring players. Then back to travel baseball.

Not in California, either. In fact, it's nearly impossible -- all the travel programs shut down during HS season. There is a CIF rule that prohibits kids from playing for both the HS team and an independent team during the season (roughly late February to late May in our Section), so all of the travel programs shut down -- most shut down from the turn of the year until late May.

My 2021 just finished his first HS experience as a JV player.  He didn't get to play much but the Varsity and JV practiced together and the seniors on the team took the 8th graders under their wings and showed them what was expected of them as they progressed in the program.  My usually unemotional son told me the other day that he is really going to miss practices with the seniors that were at his position and I was shocked!

When my 2017 was a freshman, the seniors on that team lead by example and worked hard, stayed late and if a freshman wanted some extra bp, no trouble finding one of the seniors to stick around to give them extra reps.  Flash forward 4 years, son shows up late for dinner and he said he was catching some bullpens for a couple of freshman that didn't have time to throw that day in practice.  I appreciate the guys that took my kid under their wing and I appreciate the fact that my son didn't forget.  Not surprisingly, this program has flourished for quite some time now and when you see guys that graduated over 5 years ago showing up at games, it is easy to understand the impact the program had on them.  HS baseball can be and should be a special time, irrespective of talent level.  If your son is not in a program that does things right, let him be the first to change the culture because the young dudes are paying attention.