Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Since it says tl;dr in the title, you have no one to blame but yourself for being here.
Anyway, for those unfamiliar with my work here, one topic that I feel experienced enough to comment on somewhat authoritatively is youth sports, baseball more specifically, as one of my sons has been at the game since about age 3, when he was able to fill in on his older brother's tee-ball team. I've mentioned him over the years, including opportinities he had to play at Cooperstown Dreams Park and Disney's Wide World of Sports and try to give at least my view as a parent straddling the line between seeing their kid as a superstar and seeing them as they really are among their peers. For the most part, I've tried to remain objective when replying in the various youth sports-related threads that have appeared over the years, but now that my son is in his senior year of HS and we seem to have reached the final chapter, I'm going to let the proud papa in me show through a little more, though my other purpose for this thread is to put this out there for FBGs who have gone down this road themselves as a player and/or father of an athlete who has been blessed enough to have followed a similar path.
Having said that, on to the story.
From an early age, my son demonstrated good hand-eye coordination and the ability to complete actions just as he was instructed to do, but when it came to sports, he also seemed to have an innate understanding of what needed to be done; in soccer, when all the other kids just stood around the ball and kicked at it, he took possession of the ball and headed toward the opponent's goal; and even at 3 years old and technially too young for his brother's tee-ball team, he would not only race to the ball from whatever postion he was in, he also instinctively knew to try to get to first base with it before the batter did. However, he was also hot-headed and easily worked up within the game, traits that would take a future coach years to help him reign in. He dabbled with soccer for a few years and was pretty good at it, but he always came back to baseball. After a horrible experience the first time around with travel ball (he was one of the youngest and the coaches weren't teaching the game), he came back the next year when a new coach took over the team and right away he was part of the core of a pretty solid group. That team mostly stayed together from ages 8-13, which included an unexpected and amazing run at Cooperstown, but as they got closer to high school, their best pitcher (and one of my son's closest friends on that team) left to join a showcase team where the best players on their future HS teammates played. My son had tried out but wasn't chosen, and was also not very sentimental about the team he had been with all those years, so he used that as a reason to leave the team as well. He went to a less talented but also less uptight team that played the Summer between his freshman and sophomore years, but he also left that team when he made a different, more serious showcase team whose advertised focus was preparing them to play in college.
At the time, I took 'play in college' with a grain of salt, because I had already gone through the whole spectrum of thinking my kid was good enough to be a pro to accepting the reality that there are few opportunities for most kids to play ball after high school. But, by then, my son had grown to 'live' for playing the toughest competition he could, so for us, that was the primary reason for him being on that team. As his custom, his hard work and balls-to-the-wall playing style got him in good with the coaches, and just like when he was invited to go to the tournament at Disney, my son was able to take advantage of opportunities that most of his other teammates weren't, like travelling with the older team to Florida (again, for free) and play in a week-long tournament with them. Still, as his junior season came, it seemed like more kids had caught up to him, as he had always been kind of average physically, and like most sports, bigger and faster is better, so the chance playing at 'the next level' seemed to fade even more.
His HS team had a disappointing end to his junior season, his Summer/showcase team was laden with talented kids mostly from several prominent local private schools, the hitting slump that plagued him from midway into the HS season followed him throughout the Summer, and it seemed that he was moving in the wrong direction at precisely the wrong time. Also, even though at this point, it was still a little early for most kids in his grade (what they call 'rising seniors') to be pursued by colleges, there were a few of his teammates and kids he knew that had already heard directly from coaches who had seen them play and seemed on the brink of getting the chance to play ball in college, and it didn't seem like any of the 'connections' the coach had were going to pan out. Then, the most ironic event of my son's life--second only the fact that he's turned out so well even though I'm his father--happened.
It wasn't at a tournament, or a HS game, but rather at a local camp not even sponsored by my son's team (though he went only at his coach's suggestion and offer to cover the cost of the camp), that he was noticed and spoken to by exactly one college coach, from a small D3 school out of state. It was the only school that we visited over the Summer, and even though the 'season' for choosing a college is still just barely underway, my son has applied to go there and was accepted already, so almost as quickly as the actual 'recruiting' process started for us, it ended even quicker. The coach at this school made a point to tell my son that he was the first one he had invited to visit, and even before he was officially accepted to the school, the coach tweeted out that he had 'landed a premier CF defender'. To me, even though it seemed a silly gesture, I appreciated that even though my son had already committed, the coach wanted to celebrate it with his Twitter followers.
So, in the end, even though we did everything we could afford to do to get him to this point, I was still surprised that it actually happened. I can't speak to other sports, but I can attest to the fact that when it comes to baseball, even though the sheer number of kids playing the game drops with each progressing year, there is still a lot of talented ballplayers out there and you become even more grateful that that you/your kid 'survives' to play another year/another game.
I guess the 'takeaways' from me sharing this I would like to be are:
1. If you have a kid playing a travel sport and you or your kid is thinking/dreaming of playing in college, let me share with you the biggest tip I received far too late in the going: If/when your kid is interested in a school, the biggest thing your kid can do is go to the coach's camp. Get your kid on their radar directly. From what I've seen, college recruiting is its own industry but you don't have to be a slave to it. You can either figure it out yourself or know what steps to take on your own and be just as effective, maybe more, as doing it yourself adds a 'personal' touch. I didn't get this memo until last Summer, from one of the other dads from the showcase team, who had gone through this with his older boy. Playing at a high a level of competition doesn't hurt, but there's no reason you can't do a little legwork yourself, and you don't have to sign up with any recruiting service/clearinghouse.
2. I didn't go into any details, but I also want to point out that next to my son's own drive and work ethic, the biggest reason this 'dream' came true is the work done by the coaches he's had over the years, in particular the ones he had from 8-13. That particular head coach, as competitive a person as you'll find, believed even more in developing players than in winning games. As such, he would not hesitate to bench my son whenever he lost his temper, partly as punishment but more as motivation to correct his behavior, and it worked. If nothing else, after being on that team, my son learned to control himself better, on and off the field. So, to that coach, and any coaches here, I hope you realize how much of an influence you are, whether you see it or not, and I thank those of you who have the same priorities as that coach.
3. I would love to hear from you FBGs who were able to play a sport in college as well, how it went for you and what your memories are of that time.
Thanks for reading. As always, most feeback welcome.
Anyway, for those unfamiliar with my work here, one topic that I feel experienced enough to comment on somewhat authoritatively is youth sports, baseball more specifically, as one of my sons has been at the game since about age 3, when he was able to fill in on his older brother's tee-ball team. I've mentioned him over the years, including opportinities he had to play at Cooperstown Dreams Park and Disney's Wide World of Sports and try to give at least my view as a parent straddling the line between seeing their kid as a superstar and seeing them as they really are among their peers. For the most part, I've tried to remain objective when replying in the various youth sports-related threads that have appeared over the years, but now that my son is in his senior year of HS and we seem to have reached the final chapter, I'm going to let the proud papa in me show through a little more, though my other purpose for this thread is to put this out there for FBGs who have gone down this road themselves as a player and/or father of an athlete who has been blessed enough to have followed a similar path.
Having said that, on to the story.
From an early age, my son demonstrated good hand-eye coordination and the ability to complete actions just as he was instructed to do, but when it came to sports, he also seemed to have an innate understanding of what needed to be done; in soccer, when all the other kids just stood around the ball and kicked at it, he took possession of the ball and headed toward the opponent's goal; and even at 3 years old and technially too young for his brother's tee-ball team, he would not only race to the ball from whatever postion he was in, he also instinctively knew to try to get to first base with it before the batter did. However, he was also hot-headed and easily worked up within the game, traits that would take a future coach years to help him reign in. He dabbled with soccer for a few years and was pretty good at it, but he always came back to baseball. After a horrible experience the first time around with travel ball (he was one of the youngest and the coaches weren't teaching the game), he came back the next year when a new coach took over the team and right away he was part of the core of a pretty solid group. That team mostly stayed together from ages 8-13, which included an unexpected and amazing run at Cooperstown, but as they got closer to high school, their best pitcher (and one of my son's closest friends on that team) left to join a showcase team where the best players on their future HS teammates played. My son had tried out but wasn't chosen, and was also not very sentimental about the team he had been with all those years, so he used that as a reason to leave the team as well. He went to a less talented but also less uptight team that played the Summer between his freshman and sophomore years, but he also left that team when he made a different, more serious showcase team whose advertised focus was preparing them to play in college.
At the time, I took 'play in college' with a grain of salt, because I had already gone through the whole spectrum of thinking my kid was good enough to be a pro to accepting the reality that there are few opportunities for most kids to play ball after high school. But, by then, my son had grown to 'live' for playing the toughest competition he could, so for us, that was the primary reason for him being on that team. As his custom, his hard work and balls-to-the-wall playing style got him in good with the coaches, and just like when he was invited to go to the tournament at Disney, my son was able to take advantage of opportunities that most of his other teammates weren't, like travelling with the older team to Florida (again, for free) and play in a week-long tournament with them. Still, as his junior season came, it seemed like more kids had caught up to him, as he had always been kind of average physically, and like most sports, bigger and faster is better, so the chance playing at 'the next level' seemed to fade even more.
His HS team had a disappointing end to his junior season, his Summer/showcase team was laden with talented kids mostly from several prominent local private schools, the hitting slump that plagued him from midway into the HS season followed him throughout the Summer, and it seemed that he was moving in the wrong direction at precisely the wrong time. Also, even though at this point, it was still a little early for most kids in his grade (what they call 'rising seniors') to be pursued by colleges, there were a few of his teammates and kids he knew that had already heard directly from coaches who had seen them play and seemed on the brink of getting the chance to play ball in college, and it didn't seem like any of the 'connections' the coach had were going to pan out. Then, the most ironic event of my son's life--second only the fact that he's turned out so well even though I'm his father--happened.
It wasn't at a tournament, or a HS game, but rather at a local camp not even sponsored by my son's team (though he went only at his coach's suggestion and offer to cover the cost of the camp), that he was noticed and spoken to by exactly one college coach, from a small D3 school out of state. It was the only school that we visited over the Summer, and even though the 'season' for choosing a college is still just barely underway, my son has applied to go there and was accepted already, so almost as quickly as the actual 'recruiting' process started for us, it ended even quicker. The coach at this school made a point to tell my son that he was the first one he had invited to visit, and even before he was officially accepted to the school, the coach tweeted out that he had 'landed a premier CF defender'. To me, even though it seemed a silly gesture, I appreciated that even though my son had already committed, the coach wanted to celebrate it with his Twitter followers.
So, in the end, even though we did everything we could afford to do to get him to this point, I was still surprised that it actually happened. I can't speak to other sports, but I can attest to the fact that when it comes to baseball, even though the sheer number of kids playing the game drops with each progressing year, there is still a lot of talented ballplayers out there and you become even more grateful that that you/your kid 'survives' to play another year/another game.
I guess the 'takeaways' from me sharing this I would like to be are:
1. If you have a kid playing a travel sport and you or your kid is thinking/dreaming of playing in college, let me share with you the biggest tip I received far too late in the going: If/when your kid is interested in a school, the biggest thing your kid can do is go to the coach's camp. Get your kid on their radar directly. From what I've seen, college recruiting is its own industry but you don't have to be a slave to it. You can either figure it out yourself or know what steps to take on your own and be just as effective, maybe more, as doing it yourself adds a 'personal' touch. I didn't get this memo until last Summer, from one of the other dads from the showcase team, who had gone through this with his older boy. Playing at a high a level of competition doesn't hurt, but there's no reason you can't do a little legwork yourself, and you don't have to sign up with any recruiting service/clearinghouse.
2. I didn't go into any details, but I also want to point out that next to my son's own drive and work ethic, the biggest reason this 'dream' came true is the work done by the coaches he's had over the years, in particular the ones he had from 8-13. That particular head coach, as competitive a person as you'll find, believed even more in developing players than in winning games. As such, he would not hesitate to bench my son whenever he lost his temper, partly as punishment but more as motivation to correct his behavior, and it worked. If nothing else, after being on that team, my son learned to control himself better, on and off the field. So, to that coach, and any coaches here, I hope you realize how much of an influence you are, whether you see it or not, and I thank those of you who have the same priorities as that coach.
3. I would love to hear from you FBGs who were able to play a sport in college as well, how it went for you and what your memories are of that time.
Thanks for reading. As always, most feeback welcome.
