Wouldn't it be nice...

I tried to retrieve an excellent thread from a year ago to start some discussion. Every year some very, very good baseball players are cut from the big successful programs (such as North Meck, South Meck, Providence, Hopewell, Independence and Myers Park in the Charlotte area), yet many other schools in the same area struggle to put a competitive team on the field.

Wouldn't it be nice if guys cut from one program could go play at one of the struggling schools -- it would enable them to keep playing a sport they love and it would improve the quality of the experience for all the players and coaches involved at the struggling school. And the student would be able to continue in school with his friends -- not having to transfer away to be able to play. I realize this would be very impracticable and probably couldn't work for a variety of reasons, but it sure would be nice for the kids and those programs.

Another thing that would be nice, suggested by Mike Shildt about three years ago but that got virtually no support from high schol coaches, would be to start freshman programs at the big schools, having a team of just freshmen play on Saturdays so that the coaching staffs would get a whole season to evaluate as many as 15 or 16 freshmen and the freshmen would get a whole season to show what they can do, rather than a week or even less of tryouts at the end of which only 7 or 8 freshmn make the squad. The jv and varsity squads would then include sophs, juniors and seniors -- allowing more players to play in each class. In other areas of the country the large high schools have several additional teams -- the northern Chicago suberbs come to mind, where schools have as many as 5 or 6 baseball teams -- two freshmen teams, one or two sophomore teams and also a jv and varsity.

Anyway, just dreaming on a snowy day thinking about several former little league all stars I know who are great kids, who love the game, but who are out of baseball because of the numbers game... :brokenhea

 

You bet.......

I have had the numbers at three different schools in which I coached at formerly and requested to both Principal and AD do just that in reference to Freshmen teams! Didn t carry enough weight nor the game wasn t "important" to these administrators at the other schools! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ was their excuse mostly! Aren t we in education and coaching "supposed" to be teaching and helping these kids?? Yet no $$$$$ what a sad state of afffairs in America!? Well at least in some parts! The only school in NC that I know of that has a freshman team is Scotland County, and I am sure there are a few more too... It is also ashame the state is getting away from allowing underclassmen in middle school "not" to play up!!?!? Numbers game yes there too! My most recent team(s) consisted of 40 players on the JV and Varsity because we had that "much" talent, and I wanted to bring along and nurture some of the freshman and IF you do this as a coach you will see and weed OUT the would be players after their freshmen year in whcih to use in the future! (or they will weed / cut themselves) You bet they need to be allowed to play elsewhere.......

 

Have no idea about baseball but Alexander Central had a a freshman boys basketball team this year. Played 8 or 10 games some on Saturday

 

Way back in ancient times('69-'71) I attended a high school in Illinois that had a freshman team, sophmore team, jv, and varsity. I know the schools in the larger areas such as Charlotte could pull something like this off. Then again we had 6 basketball teams too.

 

In the east, I'm sure DH Conley and Rose have 9th grade teams. Pretty sure up til a few years ago that So.Wayne had one (not sure if they still do). Unaware of any others for sure.

 

i THINK lee county has/had a freshman team. I know Apex had one recently as well.

 

I remember the thread DB was referring to last year. I agree with all the comments. "O" hit the nail on the head why the administrators won't allow it..$$$. In my opinion, if left up to the administrators, they would only have football and basketball at their schools.

In the Charlotte area, I would like the talented players that were cut from their HS team to have the choice of a (1 day tryout) at a school with a numbers problem. I brought this very question up to Vickie Hamilton (CMS AD) one day....it was avoided.

....another question I brought up to her was about wooden bats. She noted that there are more serious injuries across the nation in baseball than any other sport in HS. I thought that was interesting....she would certainly entertain the thought of wooden bats if the local HS coaches brought it up. I know in Massachusetts, HS baseball only allows wooden bats.

Sorry DB for turning the focus of your thread

 

Think you're selling some admin short by saying they only want Football and Basketball. Careful about such blanket statements. Now there probably are some fb and bb coaches that only want fb and bb . . . but most administrators want to offer a variety of extracurriculars for student-athletes.

Now to the extent at which those opportunities are sometimes made available are sometimes dictated by $$ and decisions (by admin) that limit those opportunities are also based on $$. It's unfortunate, but despite loving baseball we gotta be realistic that to spend big $$, we need to make big $$. That's just (usually) not going to happen with baseball. Just an observation.

Furthermore, if talented kids getting cut is the reason for starting "another" team at a school or to even TRANSFER to play at a "less fortunate school" -- then either some observers of talent need to reevaluate their standards or those overloaded schools need to win some state championships. As far as "cut" players having an opportunity to "try out" at another school -- come on! Not very sound reasoning (IMO). A) Some other kid (that lives in that district) may now suffer b/c little Johnny has just TRANSFERRED in to play ball. and B)What would we be teaching? Hey, if your not good enough to make your on team, we'll just shop around till we find a school where little Johnny can play. I say work hard, make it, and play. If you get cut, guess what, maybe you should've worked harder. Again, just an observation (albeit from the FAR EAST).

 

I hear what you say, Nuff, and I don't completely disagree. But I ask you to focus on a few numbers -- there are more than 2800 students at Independence, more than 2700 at Myers Park, and more than 2400 at all the other schools I mentioned in my first post, yet only 32-35 players get spots on the teams -- that's less than 3% of the males at those schools -- and yes the numbers are just as bad or worse in basketball, guys' s****r and girls" s****r, and probably other sports, too. The fact is there just aren't enough spots for all the good baseball players at those schools, no matter how hard the kids work. Another important fact for you to note -- here in Charlotte last year not only were hoards of players cut from those schools I listed, but at least three schools (West Charlotte, Garinger and Waddell -- and there may have been more) did not even have enough players to field a jv team -- so even the players who made the jv teams at the other schools had 6 fewer games than they would have had, and could have had if players could have moved over to those schools to fill open spots.

Here's another eye-opener personal observation from another sport -- girls' s*****r. My daughter is a freshman this year. She moved from Myers Park to Charlotte Latin at the semester break for a variety of reasons. Only 5 of her former freshman classmates at Myers Park made the jv s****r team -- and at least 6 other players who play year round at the classic level (state-wide top level) were cut. And because I coach three of those players I know it isn't about how hard they work, because they work very hard. It would have been a close call whether my daughter would have even made the jv team at Myers Park, but she made the varsity team at Latin as a freshman. Getting cut would have been about the numbers, not about how hard she worked.

I just believe that students who want to participate in high school athletics should have the opportunity -- it teaches so much about teamwork, pursung common goals, working through adversty -- things we all need as adults. IMHO we just aren't adequately supplying that opportunity in the public schools here in Charlotte. Whether it is about money or priorities or what, it is depriving a lot of students the opportunity to get a complete and full high school education, again IMHO.

 

You are right, let me rephrase this...some administrators. It's not that they don't like the so called minor sports, it's the financial burden of fielding those teams. Nuff, I don't know what the financial situation is on the East side of the state, but in Charlotte, there has been some rumblings of not allowing sports at the Middle school level. The baseball coach at Providence High School, the wealthiest school in Charlotte, received virtually nothing for the upkeep of his field....and was given a few dozen baseballs for the season...and that was it. What DB was referring to was the huge differences between Charlotte schools of players going out for their HS team. We have a few schools that will have between 75-100 turnout for tryouts. Obviously, there will be a number of kids with talent that will be cut. And then you will have a number of schools that are lucky to have 15+ tryout...and that's a total for both Varsity and JV. In the near future, there will be only a few (4-5) local HS teams that will have enough players to form a JV squad.

My question is this. If a player gets cut from one of the schools with a huge turnout for tryouts, why not allow him to tryout at a school that would beg for additional players? It's not a question of taking someone elses opportunity to play...believe me....there is plenty of room for any transfers.

The thing you must keep in mind is this. These kids want to play baseball. Coaches in some of our local HS need players. It seems like a good fit to an unbalanced situation.

I hope The "O" chimes in on this because whether he agrees or not, he knows better than anyone here about HS baseball in Charlotte.