New year, new thread.

Oldest is now a 6'2" 215# HS sophomore. Still growing and sitting 82-83 on the bump and touching 85. He got contacts this fall and has been raking since so we'll see how the HS season goes.

He'll be on JV because the guys who play 1B and 3B are seniors who are juco commits (Panola and Wharton JC) that 10 years ago would have D1 offers out of HS. And there are 7 arms in front of him on the bump who sit anywhere between 88 and 94. Oh, and his HS team will still probably finish 3rd in their district behind the defending 6A-DII state champs and 6A-DI state-finalists.

Committed to play this summer for Wildcatters- he played with Banditos this past summer and it wasn't a great situation. They had him on the Scout team that finished the summer nationally ranked but he really didn't get to play much because every tournament they went to they were flying in kids. Then they made a stink about him playing football in the fall. So he played with Twelve in the fall and we liked it but because of their partnership with The Bennett School (look it up) they can hardly find a HS who will rent them fields for practice and we'd have to go from the Atascocita area down to Manvel & Alvin CC for practice. Plus, his coach from Twelve joined Wildcatters so we followed him.

Coming into the home stretch with him. He's busting his ass working to play after HS so hopefully he can get there.

Younger son is now a 5'4" 105# 11-year old playing 11U and his team is trying to jump from AAA to major after a strong fall. We'll see how it goes.

Enjoy!!! I miss this time of year with my kids! What I dont miss is Feb/March. 40 degree
games.

We're supposed to play our first tournament Jan 31. Not looking like it'll happen based on the forecasts.

docb said:

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Banditos flying in kids to play while you are paying for your kid to sit on the bench is absolute trash.

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Even worse is that those kids didn't perform worth a crap either.

I have the little league blues! This will likely be last year of rec ball for my family. According to my 12u kid...last year for him b/c he is ready for school sports.


Playing 12u AA ... he can hit on any level, but even as fast as he is ... just makes dumb mistakes in field ... at AA he gets to pitch and catch. way more fun for him!


9u rec player. first season for kid pitch!

Yep last year for my son to play baseball in high school. It goes by fast so I hope he has a great final season. He could probably play college baseball at a smaller school but I think it's time to focus on school and not baseball. He is not going to make a living playing baseball and he is way too smart to not focus on school from here on out after high school.

3 kids playing Little League this spring, head coach for 2 of the teams. Oldest is also playing Majors in addition to 50/70. Think we are basically going to be living at the ball fields.

And that's a blessing....enjoy it!

Oh I love it. Coaching the kids is something I really enjoy, maybe even a hobby.

One of our 12U rec league teams had a spot open, so we didn't have to hassle with being drafted. They also are going to try a handful of 11U tournaments, and this will be our first foray into that life. I'm interested to see how my son handles it. Every freaking season he tells me he wants to quit, but I keep signing him up for stuff. I know he likes baseball, but it's getting harder for him, and he doesn't like feeling like he's not good at stuff. He can hit and pitch ok, but needs to build up his arm strength. I keep telling him he has to play at least through middle school, but really, I'm hoping as his body matures a little and he gets more reps he'll start really figuring the game out.

The thing that really makes me proud is that he busts his ass off at practice and tries to get better.

Quote:

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The thing that really makes me proud is that he busts his ass off at practice and tries to get better.

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This is the most important thing! I coach both of my girls' softball teams and am constantly preaching the most important things are attitude and effort and those are two things they always control. Mine are not always the best at either of those, but hopefully when they're older, they'll look back on it as a positive experience.

Lots of long toss for arm strength. My oldest son (10) and I do it every day for 10-15 minutes during the season. The amount of velocity he will gain from that alone is impressive. He's by no means big at all either, but develops all the right muscles.

New to this thread but just wanted to add that yall need to soak it in because it can end in a heartbeat.

My son is a freshman at a very high level 6A school. During football season they began fall ball baseball games where the few kids who were doing both would run straight from football practice over to the baseball field and start games. First 2 games went great, he was 2-3 in both and converted every opportunity in the field including throwing a kid out from left field trying to go 2nd to home. Well the 3rd Wednesday night game comes and it was a mess for everyone. The coach calls both teams together and said it's going to slow so from now on if you strike out you lose the ability to bat. My son was the next batter up and of course….struck out. He follows coaches orders and removes himself from the batting lineup the rest of the night(others did not). After the game he is a mess and worried that he is going to get cut but we have a good friend who coaches at a cross town school and who trains him that assured him he's fine. The next day, during football game preparation practice, the baseball coach pulls him aside in front of football players and tells him to not worry about coming back for fall ball and if he wanted to try out in the spring he could but it would be tough. Two kids chose not to play fall ball and they both are getting to play because they didn't cut anyone who moved into the baseball class but cut every football player who played fall ball(5 of them).

That was it……baseball career over in the blink of an eye. Following his former teammates now who only play baseball is tough. They had their last scrimmage yesterday and season starts this week. He hasn't reached the point that he even wants to go watch yet.

Wow that is rough. From my past experience the football guys always had a leg up on the baseball only guys. I guess that isn't the case here.

How many teams are there? SO, JV, & Varsity? Is there more to the story? Seems like a dick move from the coach.

2 JV and a varsity. In the past there has been an extra team but a new high school opened this year and pulled kids. Both of the JV teams sit at 20 kids.

Our friend used to coach at this school before moving crosstown. He was completely shocked as well and said he has never seen that before. My son is 6ft 160 as a 14/15 yr old and runs the 200 in track as well. Extremely fast and his comment to us was "With his frame he is fine because freshman year is all about development".

That sucks. I have an idea of what HS your son is at. What's stopping you from having him transfer to TMHS?

And unfortunately there are lots of HS baseball coaches who hold it against guys who play other sports like football.

I think you're off. I'm not aware of a TMHS. That being said, he could have gone to the new high school when it opened this year but chose to stay at the current one. We are zoned to this one so that was a one time opportunity. He loves the football program at this high school so he's now all in. They work him out 3x a day and he's on a 4k calorie a day plan that the coaches track.

duck79 said:

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I think you're off. I'm not aware of a TMHS. That being said, he could have gone to the new high school when it opened this year but chose to stay at the current one. We are zoned to this one so that was a one time opportunity. He loves the football program at this high school so he's now all in. They work him out 3x a day and he's on a 4k calorie a day plan that the coaches track.

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Yeah, I misread your post about state semi finalist as being 6A finalist.

Anyway, I'm sorry for your boy because that's major BS. That baseball coach is clearly a POS. A lot of coaches get egos over success but the vast majority of the time they're gifted rosters of kids who have played a lot of competitive ball before HS and all they do is fill out the lineup card.

All good. Sorry to derail the thread. Just wanted to say, Don't take these years for granted because they are over before you know it.

duck79 said:

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New to this thread but just wanted to add that yall need to soak it in because it can end in a heartbeat.

My son is a freshman at a very high level 6A school(state semifinalist last year who lost to champs). During football season they began fall ball baseball games where the few kids who were doing both would run straight from football practice over to the baseball field and start games. First 2 games went great, he was 2-3 in both and converted every opportunity in the field including throwing a kid out from left field trying to go 2nd to home. Well the 3rd Wednesday night game comes and it was a mess for everyone. The coach calls both teams together and said it's going to slow so from now on if you strike out you lose the ability to bat. My son was the next batter up and of course….struck out. He follows coaches orders and removes himself from the batting lineup the rest of the night(others did not). After the game he is a mess and worried that he is going to get cut but we have a good friend who coaches at a cross town school and who trains him that assured him he's fine. The next day, during football game preparation practice, the baseball coach pulls him aside in front of football players and tells him to not worry about coming back for fall ball and if he wanted to try out in the spring he could but it would be tough. Two kids chose not to play fall ball and they both are getting to play because they didn't cut anyone who moved into the baseball class but cut every football player who played fall ball(5 of them).

That was it……baseball career over in the blink of an eye. Following his former teammates now who only play baseball is tough. They had their last scrimmage yesterday and season starts this week. He hasn't reached the point that he even wants to go watch yet.

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Sorry to hear about this. Makes me want to move to a smaller town. It's asinine that great athletes get pigeonholed into one sport in HS. I get that 5A and 6A schools have a ton of kids but it's dumb stopping great athletes from playing multiple sports. Sports specialization has ruined sports in general for kids. My boys play baseball, swim team, football, and basketball. I want them to be athletes. My daughter swims, runs, and does cheer. They are young and I just want them to play it all. Most big leaguers in the last 30 years were multiple sport athletes in high school. I really hope people wake up and stop feeding the multibillion dollar select crap going on across America with every sport.

My boys are and have been multi-sport and only this past fall has a select/showcase coach tried to get either boy to drop a sport and focus on baseball. It's always the HS baseball coaches I hear about and see firsthand punishing multi-sport kids.

Never seen or heard a football coach or basketball coach or track coach telling a kid to quit other sports to focus on their sport.

First tournament, today. 3 games, all losses. It was rough. None of the pitchers on the other teams were special, but we just couldn't get solid contact for consecutive ABs. Lots of good reps and situational learning opportunities, lol. We'll see how things improve.