WooHoo Tryouts are finally here in IL

Yep.  Only a few hours away.  Looks like they'll be stuck indoors for awhile.  All kinds of goofy practice times as everybody fights for the same indoor space. 

Good news it that it is supposed to hit 40s and 50s late next week. 

Have 5am tryouts this week.  Which means Im up at 3:55 per kids request to make sure he does not sleep through the 4 alarms he sets.  During the season he's on his own but this week he has requested that I make sure he gets up.

I am so excited to see this season FINALLY start.Unfortunatly the participation rate/show ups at the open gyms make me feel I am in the minority along with the usual suspects that show up for everything.Sure hope I am wrong.

Same boat as well for us with the crazy times.

Oh well hoping for an exciting season whenever we play.

2016 SS..1st year varsity. Should be a very strong team

2018 3B/RHP pretty confident to make team or at least I am.

He's a bit nervous as expected.

Good luck guys

You think we'll get lucky?  First games are two weeks away.  High temps in the mid 50s and lows in the high 30s.  No rain forecast.   

Right now I'm hopeful that things may actually get started on time. The team moved practice onto the football field (turf) today.  

im actually thinking that a little rain this week wouldn't be the worst thing. Wash away the rest of the snow. Then hope for a decently windy week next week. 

I'm not sure what to think.Pitchers just tonite started doing the getting ready to pitch thing.Would think thats something you get going right off the bat no?

I think we are in pretty good shape with this.  Speaking strictly for what I know of my kids team (soph) our top 5 pitchers started getting their arms in shape back in January with their travel teams.  They started throwing light bullpens 2/1 and have been working up since then.  

When it comes to HS tryouts and practices they took the kids that they were 100% confident were going to make the team and had them start practicing rather then tryout.  They split the team in 2 and the shoe-ins "tried out" in the morning with the V team and the others were brought in in the afternoon for a "normal" tryout.  Those who went in the morning were mainly pitchers and started day 1 with the HS's pitcher conditioning program.  They didn't waste time having those kids sit around while others battled for spots.  

This year we have/had the lowest amount of kids come out for the team in my recent memory(@ 5yrs.).We have 13 or 14 kids.Other than mine no other v kid did any baseball stuff over the winter.Not sure if any lower class kids did or not.I would think we will be short on pitching. with the # of kids at 1st day of tryouts, practices started at least with the V.The last 2 yrs. we came out of "spring training" with at least 1 kid with a sore arm not being able to contribute.Year before last 1 of the kids was never really at where he felt good.All these kids were being thought of as heavy contributors before season started.Coming from smaller programs the buckets not always full.Going down and getting another is not always the best option.Keeping what you have healthy would seem to be the way to go.But I'm not the HC. 

My HS will be young this spring as there is a lot of talent at the lower levels. I don't know just how young but some of the upperclassmen will have pressure put on them.  That's good for everyone.  Our gym sustained a lot of damage recently and so, all teams have to go outside if they are practicing.  Today is not bat at 55 degrees but very windy.  I'd guess 20 mph or more.