Middle School Baseball

Here in Wake county alot of middle school parents have to form club teams. There are a few school supported teams. My question is why can't we (club) play against these school teams? I have invited several coach's and say they can't. Any idea's? And while we are on this topic, any thoughts about trying to take your 8th grade team and scrimmage the local jv teams on a Saturday morning?
Thanks!

 

Good luck trying to break the mold

Probably 2 issues: insurance coverage and fear of losing!!

 

got insurance covered

so, it probably does have something to do with who wins.

 

Why not just ask the coaches you say you have spoken to as to why? I know here in Pitt County, some of the private schools would like to scrimmage the MS and HS JV, but thats a no go. Heck, schedules are full any way and MS sports schedules have been cut in half because of budget crunch.

And good luck trying to get a JV team outta bed to scrimmage 8th graders on a Saturday morning... heeheehee

 

Probably more with the insurance side.....the school system does not want the exposure or liability. The sad reality is that "Middle School" sports will be phased out if the powers to be in the school system get their way.

 

asked

I have asked numerous times and get a answer of can't the field is being used or principal said no. Yall are right about funding getting cut in middle schools, luckily i have only more year of it.

 

Sad

You would think the High Schools would be interested in helping to develop its future players. I know the middle school team that rebel13 and myself coached sent most if not all of our players to HS and most made the teams there.

 

you are right cougar10

I'm still pestering them to play. It will give the hs jv coach a chance evalute what he has coming. We will always be open to their suggestions on player poistions/developments.

 

A good friend of mine coaches Middle School baseball in Pitt County. His schedule has been cut from 13 to 10 games for monetary reasons. He and I both agree this makes little sense. A gate fee is collected for each game and there are concessions. This should be more than enough to cover the cost of umpires and gas for the bus; especially within the same county. The coaches normally drive the bus too. Coaches don't get paid any less to coach 10 games versus 13. There are no lights involved since the games are during the day. I don't see the cost savings. In my humble opinion there is no cost savings but they can "say" they cut costs by shortening the season. That way athletics is theoretically bearing part of the same cutback burden as academics.

As for why club teams or travel teams don't play school teams; red tape. Lots of it. One issue in Pitt is that another group "manages" all school athletic facilities in the county for outside use. PCCSR manages all facilities. If I wanted to use a school's field for a tournament they (PCCSR) want some money and probably want to also provide / pay a custodian. From what I hear it becomes a big ol mess and not worth the trouble. The respective coaches, parents, and volunteers normally take care of their school's fields but the coaches don't get to manage who can and can not use them. If I wanted to rent a high school field for a tournament I'd much rather the money go to the baseball program than another outside group such as PCCSR. But I am sure there are two sides to this well.

However, there is one point of flexibility. Middle Schools are allowed under their "rules" to schedule 1 or 2 scrimmage games before the regular season gets underway. That might be the one opportunity for a club team to scrimmage a Middle School team.

I hope and pray they do not do away with Middle School sports. Certainly academics is priority #1 but there are huge benefits in having kids participate in school sports. I wish we could expand programs to cover even more sports.

 

great points

carolinathunder, it really helped my two boys as well as many of the others we coached. They (athletes) learned in the 7th/8th grade the importance of time mangement. All of these boys transitioned well into high school because of sports teaching them life lessons, just as high school will serve the same purpose for college.