Washington State HS season underway

My son is a Sophmore, 3A Narrow's League (North Thurston HS).  He is playing JV this year as a Sophmore.

Hard getting some games in so far.  One game has been rained out twice, another barely got in today.  They have played two games so far.  Kid is doing well, has played every inning, hasn't made an error yet (just jinxed him), pitched a couple of hit free innings, seems to be hitting well (.333, 400 OBP, knocked in 3RBIs already) and most importantly is having a good time.  Hope the weather clears soon, I don't want a repeat of last year.

My son is a frosh in 3A Metro in Seattle.  He plays on the JV team.  No Freshman team.  He is a young frosh and this is the first time he playing on the "big" field. They have only had one game.   Yes, the rain is a problem!  Games start in earnest next week.  He will be playing 14U select so we will be traveling east of the mountains to get a game in periodically.  Keeps the rust down!

Hi Guys, thanks for responding.  WK, I live in Burien but my office is very close to NTHS.  Can I get their schedule online, maybe I'll pop over ome of these afternoons and say "HI."

Howto, my son is also young for grade at a Metro school that has a frosh team.  As things shake out for the Varsity roster, I believe there'll be a lot of movement and my boy already pitched once for the JV and showed well. So who knows, maybe they'll play eachother this year?

Funny thing having a kid that is a 14U age-grouper but being a freshman.  Son has a teammate @HS who is also a club teammate so they're in the same boat.  If he floats between Frosh and JV, we won't play anyclub games or Triple Crown until HS season ends. 

Frosh season begins tomorrow; starting in CF.  Monday on the bump!

So, I gather from a few comments that it is allowed in Wash. to play travel/other organized baseball during the HS season?  I'm just curious as that is not the case in many states.

Good luck with getting past the weather.

Yes, if you can find the time!  Also, a student can't miss a scheduled HS practice/game for a non-hs practice or sport. 

The select league scheduler usually will stack the games so the older kids play most of their league games after May to accomidate HSBB.  Travel/select teams prefer to get some early tournament play in to get the rust out.  In this case it's the weekend and no HS activities will be compromised.  Although, pitchers have to "save the arm" for HS!

Playing this weekend will be good for son who is Frsh on larger JV team (18) and has not seen as much playing time due to weather and large team. 

I think that's insane.  Bum, Jr. played on a select team in Washington state (the dry side of the mountains) and all of the games were AFTER the h.s. season.  I just don't understand the concept of doing both commensurately.

It's only a possibility at 14U and the number of 14U high schoolers is very low.  all leagues for 15U+ start play after the end of the HS season.  There is only one Triple Crown Tournament during HS season for 14U so some families choose to play that if there's no conflict with the HS schedule.

Truth be told, the HS coaches want a clear, bright line between HS and Club and want a kid's undivided effort during the very short season.  I agree with this and so does the man that runs our Club program.  He has been dealing with the situation for years and sat down with me to lay things out.

"For a 14 year old freshy, all effort and attention devoted to HS program, coaches, and games from the first day of tryouts through the last day of the season.  If the school provides a "C" or freshman team and the kid is deposited there, enjoy the ride but try to make a few Sunday afternoon practices with the club. If the kid makes V, JV, or looks like he'll float between these and freshman team, then email me to let me know how it's going and I'll see you after HS season ends."

For upperclassmen, it's all HS team, all the time between the first day of tryouts and the last day of the season. No concurrent schedules so no issue of bouncing back and forth.

In my opinion these are superior scenarios to other boys and girls sports where select and HS seasons overlap.  I've heard of all sorts of ultimatums levied by girls Volleyball clubs and soccer teams for both boys and girls.  If you want to play schools, you won't be on our club.  Now that has to suck.

The vast majority of kids don't play on two teams. I am really not even aware of any single kid; certainly no kids in our select program are doing this that I know of.

At any rate, the pitching in the SPSL has not impressed me.

The best way to see about games is to go to the North Thurston High School website and click on the sports calender.  Since games get rained out constantly and are rescheduled a lot things are pretty fluid.  http://www.nthurston.k12.wa.us/Domain/433

Daniel was a young Freshman last year (June B-Day) so I know how it feels.  Many of the Freshman he knows are actually only a month or so younger than him.  About 2/3 of his fellow sophmore players drive, some are past that 6 month window for driving.  Poor Dan has another 3 months until he can drive without me.  They only run 14 kids on Varsity and JV so there is a fair amount of lateral movement. 

Many travel/select teams don't have actual baseball games during the season.  My son's team does training during the baseball season if the kids want to get some extra training or practice in but they don't play games until May or June.  I know there are teams that probably play with kids that don't play for their HS teams but my son didn't even want to consider that.  One of his proudest moments was putting on that NTHS Rams uniform. 

Thanks, Wklink.

2016 had a chance to play this previous weekend. He got a little hitting and pitching in! This was good for him. As I mentioned above, weather permitting, his HS games start in earnest this week. The kids had fun.  All the kids were “rusty” and it was good for them to finally play together as a team.  They won’t be playing together much (practice occasionally, yes) until HS season is over in May.

Last year he played 70 games between league play and tournaments. He was on a very competitive select team that won a couple of tournaments and traveled end of season out-of-state. This year in anticipation of HSBB we moved him to a competitive select team  that plays fewer tournaments and is unlikely to travel out-of-state for end of season play. He will play the same number of games he played last year (probably) including HS season.  His focus needs to be on HS grades first, HSBB second (because that is a commitment) and enjoy his youth.

NP, hard getting out there between the raindrops.  They have gotten 3 games in so far, the last one today.  I was shocked they played today, yesterday the field looked like it was ready more for a swim meet than a baseball game.

He seems to be doing well on the JV squad so far.  His team is 2-1 which is fine.  He actually is hitting around .420, has driven in four runs in three games (3 of them with two outs), hasn't made an error yet and hasn't given up a hit yet as a pitcher.  It is a little bit of bragging I suppose but he is really enjoying himself out there, likes the kids and it is showing.  My son definately playes as well as the boys he plays with and the whole team seems to be having fun and playing hard. 

I also love it when I tell him how he is playing.  All he says is, 'It is early dad, I have to keep working.'  Best thing he can say.

Wow - I must not be paying close enough attention to the Northwest Forum.  Sorry for being late to the party. 

My son is a 2015 playing Varsity for Ballard High School.  Ballard is very senior-heavy and entered the 4A State Poll (released this week) at #10 in State, though we just lost a 3-2 tough one to Issaquah (#4) yesterday and may drop out.  I expect them to compete hard in KingCo and hopefully take one of the 3 State berths and get hot at the right time.  Just like everybody else. 

I was concerned that my son might not get much opportunity to play, as this team has 17 seniors on it, but as things worked out, some injuries led to opportunity and he is doing well.  He's played almost every inning of every game, has a hit in every game, and is among the top 5-15 in KingCo 4A in BA, SLG, Runs, Hits, HR, and RBI.  Pretty cool...and neither he nor I worry about his playing time anymore.  He's even gotten a decent opportunity to pitch and has done well so far in limited (4.2 IP) opportunity, with a 1.50 ERA, with only 1 hit given up and 7 K.

It's difficult to get a handle on KingCo in the early going.  I think Ballard will be one of the leaders.  Roosevelt is very young, but can hit, and will surprise some teams this year (especially if they can get some pitching to come together).  Despite some strange early-season losses, Issaquah looks good, as does Skyline (Ballard and Skyline play tomorrow).  Eastlake is 3-0 so far but I don't know that much about them...yet.  And there are some teams that have struggled a bit so far (Bothell, Inglemoor, Redmond, Woodinville, Newport) that are traditional powers that I expect to see pull things together and make a decent run.  KingCo 4A looks like there will be a fair bit of parity this year.

As for weather - it has been very strange.  The day we played Newport, for instance, it was sunny but cool at Newport, but there was two inches of snow on the ground in Snohomish County.  The "Olympic Shadow" and convergence zone has played a huge role so far...but (knock on wood) I feel like we've been fortunate with the weather thus far and haven't missed any games.  In fact, we've only had one practice seriously impacted by weather.  Very lucky.

Central Washington has been better than last year.  Some cold wind, but no rain.  Lately it has been mid 70's!  We moved from 3A to 2A (West Valley of Yakima) and we now can actually compete.  The boys have been playng very well but the meat of the CWAC schedule is coming up.  Really love playing in the Communities of the smaller schools - Far more fan support.  It has been a great start to the Season!

After a string of good luck with weather early in the season, our kids suffered a three-week period in which we got in a single and doubleheader.  Rest of the schedule was washed. We've played in snow, hail, rain, and an occasional minute or two of less-than-totally-cloudy weather.

Part of the problem is the home field, the fabled Judkins Park, which boasts a single diamond on which all three teams play AND practice.  If there's a V or JV game, practice moves inside.

Luckily, this week looks good and we have four on the schedule including another non-conference doubleheader this Saturday.  Hope we get 'em all in.

tres_arboles: It's wild how even in the space of maybe 10 miles, the experience with the weather could be so different!  My son plays for Ballard, and we play out at Whitman Middle School in north Ballard / Crown Hill.  It's a notoriously bad weather field, where you can travel for miles through sunshine only to have it raining, windy, and cold there.  But this year, we have had only ONE rainout, and it was at Inglemoor a couple of weeks back (and managed to get the make-up in the next day, Saturday morning in the cold on the day when we got snow in some places, and about 3" of hail at my place).  I can't remember a better spring for baseball, weather-wise.  This week, especially, has been GLORIOUS!

I do think part of your experience may come from the field.  Judkins Park is a dirt infield, no?  Most (if not all; I'd have to think about that) of the KingCo 4A schools have turf infields/grass outfields, and that definitely makes a big difference in getting games in when the weather is iffy.