Wouldn't it be nice...

Title XI

DodgerBlue, I am glad you brought up the aspect of girls. If a school offers freshman, jv, varsity teams in baseball, they are suppose to offer girls the same chance. They in lies the problem with $$$ and facilities that could make it possible to have all of these teams. When I coached basketball is SC back in the late 70's and early 80's adminstrators balked at the thought of having more than one team for girls. (ie: a Varsity basketball team, when the boys had a freshman, jv, and varsity team, a baseball team and no softball team, etc etc) When fielding all those teams a school has to come up with uniforms, coaching stipends, field or facility use. Unfortunately, someone has to cut practice time, or practice real late at night, and on and on. Is it possible, yes, but is it feasible??, not at most schools.

 

To a degree, I have to take an opposing viewpoint.

First off, let me say that I want these young men to continue playing, but I also want to look at it from the viewpoint of a player who is on the varsity squad at "S****r HS" where they have difficulty fielding a team and 20-25 guys report to tryouts.

If you are a player at S****r HS and have gone through tryouts and made the team, how would you feel if, a week later, 5-7 players from South Meck, Providence and Hopewell showed up to knock you out of your roster spot and take the playing time that you had earned.

If they had a great love of playing for your school, they would have transfered there earlier and not after baseball cuts were over.

The only answer is that there is no good answer. If the traditional baseball schools had freshman teams, playing under a different schedule, that would help. If the huge baseball high schools had freshman, sophomore, JV and Varsity teams, then those 3-4 schools (covering a large area) could beat up on each other every week, and you would have more roster spots due to the higher involvement in the sport in your area.

If you have freshman teams, it has to be an option, depending on the interest level at schools.

Maybe an option would be to have a spring season (not related to any school) that competes on weekends within a geographic area. But, except for the largest schools, I would venture that there would be limited interest by the players. There are too many other options/interests out there that are demanding their time.

 

Option 1:Seems to me that any school over say 2,000 students should have an option to have 2 JV teams. The problem with freshman teams is finding enough other teams to play.
Option2 :In a growing number of colleges they have club baseball for players who want to continue playing, but do not have the talent to play at the collegiate level at the school they attend. These club teams are run by the players with little if any monetary support from the schools. Maybe this could be done at the HS level as well.
Option 3: Start up a some sort of a centrally-located 18u rec league immediately after cuts are made in large population centers.
Cutting a kid in HS should not be the end of the line. I was cut from a high school with 3500 students and never played in HS, but later tried out and made a DIII team. We really don't know the full potential of a player until AFTER HS ! In fact, Jerry Ford with Perfect Game feels the time when the most development occurs in a player is 18-20. It's sad to see kids written off as non-players at 15 or 16 when a lot can change.

 

Well, those are two very different view points and both are good points. It's just a matter of which is more important. An opportunity for a player to continue his passion for playing the game or another player having to compete at his home school for a position. I'm not sure there is a correct answer, but it seems fair to create opportunities between the "Have schools vs the Have-nots". This may be a situation that only occurs in a city the size of Charlotte (12 HS)....I'm not sure. This is a great thread and has brought many great responses.

 

...and 007. I agree 100%

 

As......

earlier stated there is no correct/good answer! I just hate the fact an opportunity to play and participate being taken away from "any" middle or high school player! A former professional player/college coach ACC All American GREAT COACH once told me "the worse thing about coaching is not being able to keep everyone AND play everyone". This was said with the utmost sincereness and regret I had ever heard anyone of such stature and prestige say, and in which I highly respected! His credentials and qualifications were impeccable... On a different anlge most AD's are quality people and highly respected by their coaches! AGAIN, "most" are and I agree with their workload they need to be FULL TIME AD's without teaching responsibilities...IF they are doing their job 100%!?!?!? Many DO NOT! They balk and try and squelch many positive initiatives by aggressive well intended and hard working coaches, period! They DO NOT want any more responsibility nor to put in ANY extra time and require being responsible for more $$$$ taken from their already tight budgets! This is a shame I think! In addition ALOT of AD's nor Principals do not take the necessary required time to have and conduct quality rapport and communication with their AD's and coaches thus having NO sense of the pain and hurt from kids "who do not make the team" whereas coaches obviously have vested interests! On the other hand principals and AD's who WERE former coaches can relate... Ask yourself this from a parents point of view, a coaches, an AD's, a principal's, a system wide AD, etc... What do "I" have to gain or lose? There is your answer! Just the contrary of what a "team" is supposed to be! Comments?