So your kid wants to play High Schools Sports? Which Sport? Which School? Who's the Coach, what does he run? Does his offense/defense match your kid's abilities and skills?
Many questions are asked these days about high school sports. A few years ago the AZ Republic did a story about the budgets of some High Schools athletic departments. It was amazing the dollars that they had. I'm not talking a few thousand. It was all crazy money in the nearly 6 figures for small schools and over $100K for the larger ones. The money was used for capital projects, Coach's bonuses, equipment, uniforms, etc. There was large amounts of money. So I state this just to say that there is no denying that High School Sports are a big business and without them most schools don't survive. And that many kids will have a strong desire to play it. Also every started on your high school teams has dreams of playing at the next level.
So back to your kid.
Let's pretend your boy wants to play baseball in High School. He's played little league and was pretty good. Once the season was over the mitt and the bat went in the closet and weren't thought of again until 9-10 months later. If you are planning on going to a big school, you can forget playing baseball there. Kids that make the teams on competitive big time high schools (remember there can only 20-25 boys per team) never put their gloves away. It's with them where ever they are. They play fall ball, They hit indoors in the summer and they play winter ball all before their "season". The only breaks they may get is during the fall if they play football and then they are still hitting and fielding once a week.
When I was a kid we played football, baseball, and basketball in season. We didn't think about the other ones until it was that season. Now that is not the case in big schools. There may be some exceptional athletes that play multiple sports in the big schools but most are specialized. In the smaller schools (like in my area) there are many multi sports kids. In fact you'll see some kids play three sports in small schools. It's purely because they don't have the numbers. I have a friend at work who has two boys. One is 20 years old and is on a baseball scholarship at a major university, his other one is a freshmen at a large high school. Both have been year around baseball players since they were 10 years old. His younger boy in 2009 played 200 plus baseball games (he turned 12 that year). A typical week in this kid's life is school, baseball (3 nights a week) then 2-5 baseball games on Saturday and Sunday. That's it. He's got to go really cool places like Cooperstown NY for a baseball tournament (baseball hall of fame) and many other places to play ball. His older boy was very similar but in High School wanted to play football. He did and was really good. He was a starter on Varsity as a Junior and Senior. When it came to college though he really had no choice but to play baseball.
Let's see what's the point? hmmm well I guess it's that you better be prepared if you want to play High School baseball or basketball at a large school. Football is still a little more clear because they need many kids and it's too physical to play year around. There are some High schools that frown on multi sport players. A different friend of mine was told his son couldn't start on the baseball team if he played football. That's just silly, but that's what he was told.
Basketball is more ridiculous. There is nothing to compare it to. There are websites that rank 8th graders for recruiting to colleges. If you want to be on that list you better be good, but you also better be on a "club" or "travel" team that is well connected (i.e. funded). They are the ones that get you ranked. The kids that play these "travel" ball teams play in 25 tournaments a year. That's nothing to do with their school team. Most recruiting isn't done at High School basketball games anymore it's all done at these weekend tournaments. The schools that win state at the big school level not only allow these kids to play travel ball many of them embrace it, coach it, fund it and require it. By the time your kids is a freshmen you'll know whether they are gonna play college basketball at a high level or not. There are some rare exceptions where the kid grows or is just really good and no one knows but mostly those kids get overlooked and have no chance really. And it's not because they aren't good enough. It's because they aren't in the system. We've had fun laughing at the high school recuriting that goes on as well. Arizona is a haven for recruiting because of the open enrollment law. A tall athlete in the 8th grade is a target for any high school coach that knows about him. I coached a player like that last year. He's a good player but wasn't even a starter on our team, but he "looked the part" played at a club team and was the popular kid at our tournaments because the host high school's assistant coaches were all over him.
Conclusion: Decide what your kid wants and then be willing to be all in. But if you aren't then don't complain to a coach* that cuts your kid. I hate travel ball, club teams and weekend play. Hate it. I like kids that play three or four sports and are all about their "seasons" but those kids aren't going to make teams at high schools that have 2000+ kids at them or if they do they are lucky (or gifted). It can happen. There is a kid at our high school who is a good football player, basetball player and baseball player. He's a good athlete. However he isn't going to be good enough to play at a large college in any of them. If he wanted to quit two of the three and just focus on one, he may have been able to play. However he loves his High School time and he is my favorite kid at the school because he is all about the school, and not so much about himself (he's also in the band). It's interesting how people look back at things once they've left. I think this kid won't look at wins and losses, but more about the relationships, experiances and time that he spent with his teams. I always say "If your kid is meant to play in the pros some day, he will, no matter how much he plays now."
Hope I've helped. I know it's a tight wire because we all want our kids to do well but at what expense? I've struggled with it forever.
*Next blog subject is Parents vs. Coach
No comments:
Post a Comment