What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

Weird Feeling (1 Viewer)

Cjw_55106

Cjw_55106

Footballguy
The day has arrived. For the first time in his life, my son is facing getting cut from a sports team. He's a junior and the school has no JV baseball team. Its varsity or bust and the varsity team has 7-8 returning players. That means of the 10th grade team from last year, only 6-8 will make the varsity this year. 2 or 3 kids are decent pitchers, so that almost guarantees a spot. So, from what I can see, there are about 5 spots for a dozen kids. He's a well above average infielder, defensively speaking. His average last year was about .300, which is not good for a high school player IMO. The top kids usually hit around .500. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out as some good players will get cut.  :unsure:

 
Nice to hear there's some schools not handing out participation trophies. Good luck to your son and know if he makes it he belongs on the team. If your son gets cut it is a chance for a valuable life lesson. 

 
best of luck to your son and i hope he leaves it on the diamond and has a great tryout and makes the team bromigo take that to the bank

 
do you have any data on your son's wRC+ or perhaps DRS or UZR/150?  batting average is a pretty antiquated stat nowadays.  i would see about making a fangraphs page for your son and then sending the link to the coach.

 
I'm a little behind you, with my son as a freshman this year.  I'm starting to see these events in his future.  My other is right behind him in 8th grade.  Sports have been their thing since before kindergarten.  It will be a sad day when someone tells them they aren't good enough to play anymore, but it is a stage of life we all go through and it takes them down different paths of life.  Good luck to your son.

 
Dezbelief said:
Nice to hear there's some schools not handing out participation trophies. Good luck to your son and know if he makes it he belongs on the team. If your son gets cut it is a chance for a valuable life lesson. 
Click to expand...
I read it as quite the opposite, to me it's sad that there are not enough players to field a jv team. I guess with kids playing single sports, lacrosse and video games that baseball is a dying high school sport.

 
There is nothing worse than cutting a kid from a sport they want to play. I do not like to post lists. I will speak with each player and explain what they can work on to improve. Good luck to your son

 
SaintsInDome2006 said:
A lot of life lessons here, you can handle it, guide him well, you're a good Dad.
Click to expand...
He'll be fine either way. We've talked about it since last year. As a sports dad, my biggest gift is, I don't lie to myself or my kids. Some parents think their kids are superstars when they aren't and others are overly critical. When people ask me how good he is, I have no issue saying he is an unbelievable defensive player and below average hitter. 

This year in particular, it will come down to what the coach values. The current 10th grade coach (whom Bull Dozier knows) would keep my son on the team without second thought. He knows he can put him anywhere in the field and he sees value in that. Some coaches only care about offense. 10 hours from now, it will be decided. Well, it will be revealed. I have to think the coach already knows who will be on the team. 

 
Well, get them a FBG login account so they will have some place to go where they can brag about being able to beat Ronda Rousey in a fight. 

 
AcerFC said:
There is nothing worse than cutting a kid from a sport they want to play. I do not like to post lists. I will speak with each player and explain what they can work on to improve. Good luck to your son
Click to expand...
Thanks. Yes, the coach will talk to the kids one at a time. Whether they get cut or make the team. 

 
CGRdrJoe said:
I read it as quite the opposite, to me it's sad that there are not enough players to field a jv team. I guess with kids playing single sports, lacrosse and video games that baseball is a dying high school sport.
Click to expand...
I don't know that that is necessarily true. I would look at the avatar, too, and note the region/area.  

 
CGRdrJoe said:
I read it as quite the opposite, to me it's sad that there are not enough players to field a jv team. I guess with kids playing single sports, lacrosse and video games that baseball is a dying high school sport.
Click to expand...
In fairness, lacrosse is a much better sport than baseball so.........

 
CGRdrJoe said:
I read it as quite the opposite, to me it's sad that there are not enough players to field a jv team. I guess with kids playing single sports, lacrosse and video games that baseball is a dying high school sport.
Click to expand...
Well Trump is gonna fix that.  Once he is done banning Muslims and Mexicans, he can start banning all the Puerto Ricans who are taking away all the good paying baseball jobs. 

 
CGRdrJoe said:
I read it as quite the opposite, to me it's sad that there are not enough players to field a jv team. I guess with kids playing single sports, lacrosse and video games that baseball is a dying high school sport.
Click to expand...
Some schools have JV teams. We are a smaller schools so we'd end up having to move kids up a level on every team. Overall, you get more players, sure, but you kind of start developing a losing system when 7th graders are playing on freshman teams. 

And to your point, we are a big hockey school and yes, those kids seem to gravitate to lacrosse. 

 
Bull Dozier said:
I'm a little behind you, with my son as a freshman this year.  I'm starting to see these events in his future.  My other is right behind him in 8th grade.  Sports have been their thing since before kindergarten.  It will be a sad day when someone tells them they aren't good enough to play anymore, but it is a stage of life we all go through and it takes them down different paths of life.  Good luck to your son.
Click to expand...
In reality, high school baseball in MN sucks. You play 25 games and maybe 10 are in good weather. To me, the bigger issue is, these teams lead to the summer teams and kids may not have a place to play in the summer if they dont make the high school team in the spring. 

 
A local high school allegedly had 494 kids show up for basketball tryouts.

There is apparently an "A" team, "B" team, then 25 kids get on JV teams and each team rotates playing halves of games.

Weird.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Key question here...did he do everything possible this offseason to get ready for this?  If so, there's not much more you can do other than be a good Dad...right or wrong (and there is a lot wrong) if you are not all in on a sport these days you will fall behind...my kids do Club Lax and you can easily tell who is putting in the time and from year-to-year...amazing how noticeable it is...it's a totally different world these days...9th Graders are doing more training/non-game stuff these days than when I played college hockey back in the day (yes, we wore helmets)...it really is out-of-control (and generating big money) but right now that is how it is set-up and if they aren't balls out some other kid will be and they will get passed...

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Boston said:
Key question here...did he do everything possible this offseason to get ready for this?  If so, there's not much more you can do other than be a good Dad...right or wrong (and there is a lot wrong) if you are not all in on a sport these days you will fall behind...my kids do Club Lax and you can easily tell who is putting in the time and from year-to-year...amazing how noticeable it is...it's a totally different world these days...9th Graders are doing more training/non-game stuff these days than when I played college hockey back in the day (yes, we wore helmets)...it really is out-of-control (and generating big money) but right now that is how it is set-up and if they aren't balls out some other kid will be...
Click to expand...
Of course not. He plays basketball as well. So, he isnt sitting around, but he isnt taking grounders all winter either. 

 
Cjw_55106 said:
In these parts, most schools have 4 teams. A freshman team, a 10th grade team (referred to as the B squad), a JV and varsity. 
Click to expand...
Really, that is a lot of baseball players for a small school.  I went to a larger school (780 per class) and we had a top baseball program in the state with multiple state titles, and all we had were a JV and Varsity.  JV were 9th and 10th graders who were not good enough for varsity. 

 
Yeah why can't they make JV out of 10th and 11th graders?

Some kids could rotate both :shrug:   But I don't know the exact numbers so just spitballing

Is there any town ball he can play 

 
rockaction said:
I don't know that that is necessarily true. I would look at the avatar, too, and note the region/area.  
Click to expand...
soccer in norcal is now a winter sport, I think it was spring though in So Cal where I'm from. Then again we didn't even have lacrosse back in 93 in So Cal so it didn't compete for field time with soccer.

 
Cjw_55106 said:
Of course not. He plays basketball as well. So, he isnt sitting around, but he isnt taking grounders all winter either. 
Click to expand...
There is such a conflict going on with youth/HS sports right now...everyone preaches playing multi-sports for obvious reasons...yet on the flip-side there are 24/7 12 month a year factories going on with every sport (with football oddly enough being one of the exceptions)...so it's getting to the point where only the big-time athletes can actually get away with playing two sports at a high-level...

 
belljr said:
Yeah why can't they make JV out of 10th and 11th graders?

Some kids could rotate both :shrug:   But I don't know the exact numbers so just spitballing

Is there any town ball he can play 
Click to expand...
The games are all at the same time (have to get them in while its light) and are played on the same days. Kids cant rotate between teams. If you make a JV with 10th and 11th then your 10th grade team will be 9-10th to fill the gaps. The freshman team would then to use 7-8 graders. 

Now, one could argue that its better to have a JV team than it is a 10th grade team if you wanted to eliminate that, but thats a different argument. 

 
belljr said:
Yeah why can't they make JV out of 10th and 11th graders?

Some kids could rotate both :shrug:   But I don't know the exact numbers so just spitballing

Is there any town ball he can play 
Click to expand...
If need be, I'll find out about some of the other options. I've talked to a guy that owns the batting cages where we go a few times and they run some sort of team out of there. His son is a senior at the school my son goes to. 

 
Boston said:
There is such a conflict going on with youth/HS sports right now...everyone preaches playing multi-sports for obvious reasons...yet on the flip-side there are 24/7 12 month a year factories going on with every sport (with football oddly enough being one of the exceptions)...so it's getting to the point where only the big-time athletes can actually get away with playing two sports at a high-level...
Click to expand...
People preach multiple sports to avoid burnout and injury prevention from overuse. If you can avoid those things, of course 12 months of the year can make you a better player. 

 
Boston said:
There is such a conflict going on with youth/HS sports right now...everyone preaches playing multi-sports for obvious reasons...yet on the flip-side there are 24/7 12 month a year factories going on with every sport (with football oddly enough being one of the exceptions)...so it's getting to the point where only the big-time athletes can actually get away with playing two sports at a high-level...
Click to expand...
My son attends one of these here in Florida, on a part time (off season) basis. He's 13, plays little league junior division baseball in fall and spring. Last year, he got straight A's in 6th grade, so his reward was 2 months of membership at an indoor baseball facility. Great stuff, improved his game a lot. For Christmas, I asked him what he wanted, and all he wanted was a month back at the baseball academy. 

it's been worth every dime, for his skills and enjoyment, and I love the coaches there. It's the other baseball dads that drive me nuts sometimes. The academy is $250 a month. Gets you 2:15 of training per day. (45 mins conditioning, 45 mins batting, 45 mins fielding)). So while it's pricey, there is a lot of time spent with the kids. But I see some parents buying the extra packages ( $25 per night for pitching coaching), etc. and I see this for kids who are only 9,10 years old!

It's crazy to think that my kid, who is very passionate and skilled, may not make it to high school baseball because some other kid's dad was willing to shell out $5k per year since the kid was 9. But I guess that's the world we live in now. Luckily my son is pretty down to earth, and loves school. He told me the other day that he wants to be either a pro baseball player, or be an aeronautical engineer. I think he's got a better shot at the latter, but he'll work his tail off to do both.

 
My son got cut from the HS baseball team for the first time this year as a Junior.  Sucks.  But life isn't fair sometimes.  To his credit... he's taking it better than I am.

 
Oh, and good luck to the op's son. I'm sure I'll be in the same situation some day. Keep your kid's spirits up. 

 
MindCrime said:
My son attends one of these here in Florida, on a part time (off season) basis. He's 13, plays little league junior division baseball in fall and spring. Last year, he got straight A's in 6th grade, so his reward was 2 months of membership at an indoor baseball facility. Great stuff, improved his game a lot. For Christmas, I asked him what he wanted, and all he wanted was a month back at the baseball academy. 

it's been worth every dime, for his skills and enjoyment, and I love the coaches there. It's the other baseball dads that drive me nuts sometimes. The academy is $250 a month. Gets you 2:15 of training per day. (45 mins conditioning, 45 mins batting, 45 mins fielding)). So while it's pricey, there is a lot of time spent with the kids. But I see some parents buying the extra packages ( $25 per night for pitching coaching), etc. and I see this for kids who are only 9,10 years old!

It's crazy to think that my kid, who is very passionate and skilled, may not make it to high school baseball because some other kid's dad was willing to shell out $5k per year since the kid was 9. But I guess that's the world we live in now. Luckily my son is pretty down to earth, and loves school. He told me the other day that he wants to be either a pro baseball player, or be an aeronautical engineer. I think he's got a better shot at the latter, but he'll work his tail off to do both.
Click to expand...
This is where I am with hockey. I can not afford to have my kid on the ice 7 days a week (I know, I know, I am a fbg). There are some kids that are. He is only 7. Just by luck, I hooked up with an ECHL player who is home due to injury and he comes over once a week to train my son. It is relatively inexpensive and my son loves it. But at some point, the people who do and can shell out the big money will see a return on the ice. 

My son loves the game and loves playing. I do not care if he is on the A team, B team or C team. As long as he is having fun that is all that counts. Often, the dads who have their kids playing every day can not say the same thing. 

 
CGRdrJoe said:
soccer in norcal is now a winter sport, I think it was spring though in So Cal where I'm from. Then again we didn't even have lacrosse back in 93 in So Cal so it didn't compete for field time with soccer.
Click to expand...
Soccer is a winter sport in SoCal, at least in HS, even back in 93....  Club Soccer is fall.  Lacrosse was more a club then a HS sport so it didnt interfere.  What HS in SoCal where you at?

Back to the OP, good luck.  Surprising that with 7 left over kids from the non varsity you cant get a few more from the 10th grade team to play up...  Or that you have a 10th grade team and not Frosh, JV, Varsity...  As a sports parent you should do what any entitled person would do, apply to coach so your kid is guaranteed to play somewhere!!!

 
Little behind you here in that my son is in Middle School. He went out for his MS Baseball Team this year as a 7th grader(6th graders can not play sports in MS here). There were 30 or so 7th graders and same # of 8th graders going out. My sone is probably 5 foot 1 or 2 and weighs about 95 pounds. He is 12 and his fastball sits in the low 60's. There are a fair number of kids on this team that are 5 foot 10 to 6 feet tall and weigh in around 160 to to 180(not fat but kids with solid muscle mass). My kiddo is a pretty good player and I thought he would struggle to make the team based on what i knew. Tried to set some expectations for him around that. This was the first thing he went out for that he did not make. HE was heart broken but he got over it. He has been working out 3 days a week at a facility with guidance and is working on getting stronger and faster. I still don't think he will get there as an 8th grader but he is working hard to get there. 

I find it silly that there is no JV team for the school. The numbers are there to support it but maybe there is not staff to support it.

 
Cjw_55106 said:
The games are all at the same time (have to get them in while its light) and are played on the same days. Kids cant rotate between teams. If you make a JV with 10th and 11th then your 10th grade team will be 9-10th to fill the gaps. The freshman team would then to use 7-8 graders. 

Now, one could argue that its better to have a JV team than it is a 10th grade team if you wanted to eliminate that, but thats a different argument. 
Click to expand...
Yes.  Sounds like it's time to go freshman, JV, varsity.   

Or

Just JV varsity

 
B Maverick said:
Soccer is a winter sport in SoCal, at least in HS, even back in 93....  Club Soccer is fall.  Lacrosse was more a club then a HS sport so it didnt interfere.  What HS in SoCal where you at?

Back to the OP, good luck.  Surprising that with 7 left over kids from the non varsity you cant get a few more from the 10th grade team to play up...  Or that you have a 10th grade team and not Frosh, JV, Varsity...  As a sports parent you should do what any entitled person would do, apply to coach so your kid is guaranteed to play somewhere!!!
Click to expand...
I thought soccer was in spring, then again I was pretty stoned during my los al days :unsure:

 
belljr said:
Yes.  Sounds like it's time to go freshman, JV, varsity.   

Or

Just JV varsity
Click to expand...
Why would you eliminate the freshman team?

The issue with going jv rather than 10th, every school has freshman, 10th and Varsity. You'd be losing a decent amount of games if you went JV rather than 10th grade. The JV teams dont get in the 25 games because of lack of teams. In other words, it wouldn't be a decision your school could make on its own. You'd have to talk other schools into doing the same thing. I think we all know what the odds of that would be. 

A lesser issue IMO, but lack of fields is also stated as an issue. Currently, our freshman and 10th grade teams play home games about a mile from the school and those parks are too small for 11th grade teams. The varsity team plays home games on campus. Yes, you could probably change the days a jv team would play, but now you are taking away practice days from the varsity team since the field wont be available and asking other schools to change the days they play jv games to accommodate you. 

 
walnutz said:
I find it silly that there is no JV team for the school. The numbers are there to support it but maybe there is not staff to support it.
Click to expand...
GL to your son in the coming years.

Personally, I dont think the numbers are there unless you are willing to weaken the 10th grade and freshman teams by a pretty significant margin. 

As far as staff, coaches are paid at the high school level and I have never heard anything about issues with getting coaches. 

 
Cjw_55106 said:
Why would you eliminate the freshman team?

The issue with going jv rather than 10th, every school has freshman, 10th and Varsity. You'd be losing a decent amount of games if you went JV rather than 10th grade. The JV teams dont get in the 25 games because of lack of teams. In other words, it wouldn't be a decision your school could make on its own. You'd have to talk other schools into doing the same thing. I think we all know what the odds of that would be. 

A lesser issue IMO, but lack of fields is also stated as an issue. Currently, our freshman and 10th grade teams play home games about a mile from the school and those parks are too small for 11th grade teams. The varsity team plays home games on campus. Yes, you could probably change the days a jv team would play, but now you are taking away practice days from the varsity team since the field wont be available and asking other schools to change the days they play jv games to accommodate you. 
Click to expand...
I played in a smaller school. JV and varsity.  That's how the area was setup with some schools having freshman.

Maybe I don't understand but you having kids play up to freshman and 1Oth grade and no JV really is not true freshman.  Just seems like a weird setup

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cjw_55106 said:
In reality, high school baseball in MN sucks. You play 25 games and maybe 10 are in good weather. To me, the bigger issue is, these teams lead to the summer teams and kids may not have a place to play in the summer if they dont make the high school team in the spring. 
Click to expand...
Agreed.  Fortunately baseball isn't either of my boys #1 sport.  School ball is pretty much a warm up for Babe Ruth, legion, or whatever else they play in the summer.

FYI, 8th grader is playing on a joint team at Tranny this year.

 
Cjw_55106 said:
The day has arrived. For the first time in his life, my son is facing getting cut from a sports team. He's a junior and the school has no JV baseball team. Its varsity or bust and the varsity team has 7-8 returning players. That means of the 10th grade team from last year, only 6-8 will make the varsity this year. 2 or 3 kids are decent pitchers, so that almost guarantees a spot. So, from what I can see, there are about 5 spots for a dozen kids. He's a well above average infielder, defensively speaking. His average last year was about .300, which is not good for a high school player IMO. The top kids usually hit around .500. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out as some good players will get cut.  :unsure:
Click to expand...
Just do what one kid's dad did back when I was in HS.   His kid was not going to make the Freshman team so the dad (the owner of a popular and successful restaurant) bought the team something like 10 brand new bats.  

 
Bull Dozier said:
Agreed.  Fortunately baseball isn't either of my boys #1 sport.  School ball is pretty much a warm up for Babe Ruth, legion, or whatever else they play in the summer.

FYI, 8th grader is playing on a joint team at Tranny this year.
Click to expand...
A joint team? Ugg. Too bad its come to that. 

 
Reg Lllama of Brixton said:
Just do what one kid's dad did back when I was in HS.   His kid was not going to make the Freshman team so the dad (the owner of a popular and successful restaurant) bought the team something like 10 brand new bats.  
Click to expand...
In today's game, every kid has their own. No such things as team bats anymore. 

 
Cjw_55106 said:
A joint team? Ugg. Too bad its come to that. 
Click to expand...
Last year both boys played on a team that had kids from four schools, 7th and 8th graders combined.  Won the 8th grade championship.  Felt a little dirty, but did feel good beating STA along the way.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
High School sports- pay to play?
Replies
29
Views
876
Chadstroma
Chadstroma
snellman
Collectively, A thread to celebrate our kids Non-Athletic accomplishments.
Replies
44
Views
913
snellman
snellman
Goldminer1
Teens: Are they worse, or am I old?
2
Replies
87
Views
2K
snellman
snellman

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top