BASEBALL TRYOUTS THIS YEAR

B

BASESWIMPARENT

Well-known member
Before I get into this topic, I need to let everyone know that my son made the team so this thread is more for the opinions of our august, learned and most of all, our experienced readers. This year, my son's high school started baseball tryouts on Monday 2/24/20 and had its first cuts on Monday 2/24/20 (the same day). Final cuts for the varsity and JV were 2/26/20 with the freshman team being finalized on 2/27/20. The baseball program did have lifting workouts in November and December with open gym workouts (supervised but not coached) in January. I might be going out on a limb here, but I think the team rosters were largely established before the tryouts happened. And I have a couple of concerns about that. What about the kids that play winter sports that that the coaches don't know about? By rule, if you are on one varsity team, you can't work out for another during the season. What about the kids that may have materially improved form one season to the other? At the end of the season last year, the head coach solicited the summer schedules of all the ball players. But I have not heard or seen one of our coaches go out last summer and check any games out. I think I know why our coach did this. He means to have a very rigorous practice schedule before the season start in late March, early April. so I have a couple of questions. Is this philosophy common throughout the state and if so what do you ladies and gentlemen think about it?
 
 
BASESWIMPARENT said:
Before I get into this topic, I need to let everyone know that my son made the team so this thread is more for the opinions of our august, learned and most of all, our experienced readers. This year, my son's high school started baseball tryouts on Monday 2/24/20 and had its first cuts on Monday 2/24/20 (the same day). Final cuts for the varsity and JV were 2/26/20 with the freshman team being finalized on 2/27/20. The baseball program did have lifting workouts in November and December with open gym workouts (supervised but not coached) in January. I might be going out on a limb here, but I think the team rosters were largely established before the tryouts happened. And I have a couple of concerns about that. What about the kids that play winter sports that that the coaches don't know about? By rule, if you are on one varsity team, you can't work out for another during the season. What about the kids that may have materially improved form one season to the other? At the end of the season last year, the head coach solicited the summer schedules of all the ball players. But I have not heard or seen one of our coaches go out last summer and check any games out. I think I know why our coach did this. He means to have a very rigorous practice schedule before the season start in late March, early April. so I have a couple of questions. Is this philosophy common throughout the state and if so what do you ladies and gentlemen think about it?
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There is no problem with kids playing another sport during winter workouts. I guarantee the coaches already know about those kids. Now if you're an incoming freshman playing a winter sport and have made zero attempts to let the spring sport coach aware you plan to tryout, we'll that's on you. At some point during the winter, if not multiple times, the spring coach had a meeting for all players and parents even, to go over what is expected for the spring. I'm sure during the winter they also asked for all kids planning to play in the spring to sign up. All of this is done to get an idea of what they will be working with come tryout time.

Will coaching staffs begin to create their rosters before tryouts? Most definitely. They have to have some kind of idea of what they are expecting. But that doesn't mean things can't be changed based on tryout performances. I'm not sure what more you can ask of them. And if they are beginning cuts after the first day that means they had significant numbers that tried out. Kids that don't make the first cuts in large tryouts like that aren't question marks. They were obvious players that weren't on the same level as the rest.
 
I always liked the coaches who were the most transparent. I've seen a few coaches outwardly tell kids that there are X number of spots available to make the team. I think this is an honest approach to the situation because we all know most of the team is picked before tryouts even start. This is pretty much true for any sport.

Coaches that give zero information and are the "sign posters" (coaches who post 9 million signs that "tryouts are CLOSED TO EVERYONE") just put themselves in a situation where people feel they're hiding something and just lends itself to people talking and causes issues. Transparency is always the best way to go in these situations, with parents and students. Just be honest.
 
OldSchoolPanther said:
Coaches that give zero information and are the "sign posters" (coaches who post 9 million signs that "tryouts are CLOSED TO EVERYONE") just put themselves in a situation where people feel they're hiding something and just lends itself to people talking and causes issues. Transparency is always the best way to go in these situations, with parents and students. Just be honest.
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Are you advocating for allowing parents to be present during tryouts or just that Tryouts should be open to all students?
 
We're a small school. We never have tryouts, because we never have to cut anybody. On the plus side, we have enough kids out this year to play some freshman games.
 
CedarBuck92 said:
Are you advocating for allowing parents to be present during tryouts or just that Tryouts should be open to all students?
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It's more of a cultural issue than a hard and fast rule. Transparency leads to more trust.

I get why coaches want tryouts closed. But there's also coaches who make a huge deal out of this, and put everything in lockdown mode so zero eyes can see what's going on. To me, that's a little extreme and just asks for trouble when cuts are made.

Just be transparent and honest upfront, and none of that stuff is really needed. Just a part of a trusting culture.
 
CedarBuck92 said:
Are you advocating for allowing parents to be present during tryouts or just that Tryouts should be open to all students?
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Good Lord, we already see the bellyaching on social media about team selection as it is. Could you imagine what it would be like if it were open for observation?

We already have enough adult males (in age only) whining incessantly on this site alone about how teams are selected. Why can't we just allow our kids to succeed, fail, and be exposed in injustices (you know...... life?) on their own?
 
AllSports12 said:
Good Lord, we already see the bellyaching on social media about team selection as it is. Could you imagine what it would be like if it were open for observation?

We already have enough adult males (in age only) whining incessantly on this site alone about how teams are selected. Why can't we just allow our kids to succeed, fail, and be exposed in injustices (you know...... life?) on their own?
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Frankly, because people in authority and power keep letting us down, in all walks of life.
 
I am unsure what the point of having the public, i.e. parents, attending said tryouts.

We all know the absolute most biased people are the parents so you know what would happen. Player who get cut will have a parent state that his son hit much better in BP and didnt boot one ball in INF drills and should have made it over some other kid.....
 
thavoice said:
I am unsure what the point of having the public, i.e. parents, attending said tryouts.

We all know the absolute most biased people are the parents so you know what would happen. Player who get cut will have a parent state that his son hit much better in BP and didnt boot one ball in INF drills and should have made it over some other kid.....
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Which is exactly what happens on here as we type. Parents won't let their kids fail or succeed on their own and spend their lives griping about it on social media.

Those people are on this site, (in this thread) in every gym, stadium, or ballpark...... ragging on those in charge.... They don;t have the guts to take it face to face with anyone.

And ironically, the kids just move along.......
 
AllSports12 said:
Which is exactly what happens on here as we type. Parents won't let their kids fail or succeed on their own and spend their lives griping about it on social media.

Those people are on this site, (in this thread) in every gym, stadium, or ballpark...... ragging on those in charge.... They don;t have the guts to take it face to face with anyone.

And ironically, the kids just move along.......
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No one is saying all tryouts should be open to parents. That's just stupid. The leaps people make on this board are weird. No one said that.

There's also a sentiment that coaches and administrators are never wrong. That needs to end. There are plenty of situations, and they keep happening, of coaches, administrators, leaders, etc, etc being corrupt and out for a certain agenda. It happens more and more these days, and that's why people are more prone to question.

It's not a testament either way, but if you're paying attention, this idea that coaches and administrators should ALWAYS get the benefit of the doubt is BS.
 
Ignored content Available! That mean OSP or Pboy are posting in this thread. It will be ruined before the Baseball Season actually starts! If OSP is posting he is a Liar and if it’s Pboy/Omar he is a Clown!
 
Thanks everyone for taking the time to write an opinion. My concern about this situation is that decisions get made without a lot of information. First, it is an OHSAA violation to work out with one varsity team while participating on another varsity sport. So, even if you go to the information meeting (and there was one in the fall), one cannot workout in an open gym for one team while playing for another. My kid was caught doing that while he was swimming. Second, we used to have open workouts outside in the fall. I thought that was a good way to see some players while the might be playing for their fall ball teams so the coaches see them in "game" shape. we don't do that anymore. Finally, and I keep harping on this, in SWO, we have good high school tournaments and round robins that high school coaches can come out and often check on multiple players going to their school. I know of two varsity softball coaches that come out in the summer to some local tourneys in Dayton to watch their girls and it makes a world of difference. I don't doubt that you can make cuts after one day in the gym. I am sure they were obvious. But what about the wrestlers and basketball players and even swimmers that may have made state or could go far in their tourneys? Not only are they late to trying out, they also have not really been doing baseball related activities. My point is that one could set the rosters of the JV and varsity after three days of tryouts if one has seen the boys play in the summer or fall, otherwise I find it hard to make these decisions so quick.
 
OldSchoolPanther said:
It's more of a cultural issue than a hard and fast rule. Transparency leads to more trust.

I get why coaches want tryouts closed. But there's also coaches who make a huge deal out of this, and put everything in lockdown mode so zero eyes can see what's going on. To me, that's a little extreme and just asks for trouble when cuts are made.

Just be transparent and honest upfront, and none of that stuff is really needed. Just a part of a trusting culture.
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Nah man, you cant have tryouts open to the public to watch.
 
BASESWIMPARENT....what rule are you referring to in the OHSAA rules that says a player can't work out with two different varsity at the same time? I hate to be nit picky, but I don't believe you are correct on this.

At our school, cuts are made. And if there are wrestlers or basketball players, they get their own tryouts when their sports are finished. Pretty easy to do this.
 
OldSchoolPanther said:
It's more of a cultural issue than a hard and fast rule. Transparency leads to more trust.

I get why coaches want tryouts closed. But there's also coaches who make a huge deal out of this, and put everything in lockdown mode so zero eyes can see what's going on. To me, that's a little extreme and just asks for trouble when cuts are made.

Just be transparent and honest upfront, and none of that stuff is really needed. Just a part of a trusting culture.
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There is certainly a time and place for transparency. I just don't feel that during actual tryouts is that time. When cuts are made I do think coaches should make an attempt to share why they are cutting a kid (IE you need to work on X, Y, and Z and we look forward to seeing you next year) but I see no good coming out of parents observing tryouts.
 
TheTaxMan said:
BASESWIMPARENT....what rule are you referring to in the OHSAA rules that says a player can't work out with two different varsity at the same time? I hate to be nit picky, but I don't believe you are correct on this.

At our school, cuts are made. And if there are wrestlers or basketball players, they get their own tryouts when their sports are finished. Pretty easy to do this.
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Watch the OHSAA videos. They talk about how if you are on the football team, one cannot go to the "non-mandatory" workouts of the basketball team at the same time. What happened with my boy a couple of years ago was that during swim season, he was going to Saturday morning open gyms to hit instead of going to a scheduled high school swim practice. Eventually someone said something and he had to quit doing that. And of course, after basketball and wrestling are over, those guys get the tryouts. But if things are super competitive and the roster is already established, well then how does a basketball player or wrestler get a chance. This often happens at the freshman and sophomore years. By the upperclassman years, things are usually established.
 
BASESWIMPARENT said:
Watch the OHSAA videos. They talk about how if you are on the football team, one cannot go to the "non-mandatory" workouts of the basketball team at the same time. What happened with my boy a couple of years ago was that during swim season, he was going to Saturday morning open gyms to hit instead of going to a scheduled high school swim practice. Eventually someone said something and he had to quit doing that. And of course, after basketball and wrestling are over, those guys get the tryouts. But if things are super competitive and the roster is already established, well then how does a basketball player or wrestler get a chance. This often happens at the freshman and sophomore years. By the upperclassman years, things are usually established.
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Can you post link for this? I think where your son got in trouble is he was missing a practice for swim and going to baseball open gym. I see the issue with that, but not going to an open gym.

If its football season and a football kid goes to basketball open gym, I dont see the issue with this.
 
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I think it is just a slide show now, not a video and I don't recall that rule. I think it's just that you can't play basketball with CYO and on your school team at the same time. I think you're right- when the kid misses his in season practice to attend a future season's open gym, every coach would take issue.
 
You cannot participate (tryout, practice, or game) in a non-interscholastic sport during the sport's season. So if I'm playing HS basketball, I cannot play YMCA basketball. Or if I'm playing baseball, I cannot tryout for a summer team during the HS season.

Well, you could, but if you do so after a certain date (called the "interscholastic date" on the OHSAA website), you would be deemed ineligible for the OHSAA postseason tournament. But like AllSports12 said, when in doubt, always consult your AD.


6077
 
grizzly22 said:
Can you post link for this? I think where your son got in trouble is he was missing a practice for swim and going to baseball open gym. I see the issue with that, but not going to an open gym.

If its football season and a football kid goes to basketball open gym, I dont see the issue with this.
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I will see if I can find it. But he was told by the baseball coach that he could not attend the baseball workouts anymore. Since I need to pay his baseball fees, if I see the AD and I will ask for clarification. But just to expand on this a little. it did cause my son to quit swimming this year so he could attend all workouts and not allow there to be any reason (other than they watched him and he sucked at workouts) to get cut or have his role diminished.
 
Barrell roll said:
Open tryouts, streamed live, with mandatory out brief with parents. Grief counselors on hand.
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I know that you guys are joking and it is a common thing to just say that this generation and their parent are just soft. But I do think that it is very hard for multi-sport athletes to excel at multiple high school sports in this day and age despite what recruiters and scouts like to say. Most of the trouble comes from high school and club coaches and not the college recruiters.
 
BASESWIMPARENT said:
I know that you guys are joking and it is a common thing to just say that this generation and their parent are just soft. But I do think that it is very hard for multi-sport athletes to excel at multiple high school sports in this day and age despite what recruiters and scouts like to say. Most of the trouble comes from high school and club coaches and not the college recruiters.
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I am going to disagree.

You look at stud D1 college athletes, they were multi sport athletes in High School. You are right, college coaches love seeing multisport athletes. But I would argue that so do high school coaches. There is only one sport that effects kids being multisport athletes, and it is NEVER baseball coaches; I think we all know which sport pressures kids to get in the weightroom and quit other sports.
 
Most D1 athletes are multi-sport athletes because they are far and away the most athletic kids in their schools. They're the best at everything because of this athleticism. This isn't surprising.

Making this assumption for everyone else is fool's gold.
 
I'm not saying you are wrong. I actually was referring to the viral videos of Bama WR Henry Ruggs playing high school basketball.

Also... Making the assumption that D2/D3/NAIA athletes aren't the "most athletic" at their school is also fool's gold my friend. I would be curious to see the stats on these college athletes and specializing verse multi sporting


Athletes are athletes. You play a collegiate sport.. you are more than likely an athlete? Right?
 
AnswerZero said:
I am going to disagree.

You look at stud D1 college athletes, they were multi sport athletes in High School. You are right, college coaches love seeing multisport athletes. But I would argue that so do high school coaches. There is only one sport that effects kids being multisport athletes, and it is NEVER baseball coaches; I think we all know which sport pressures kids to get in the weightroom and quit other sports.
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Wrestling is by far the hardest sport to excel in being a multisport athlete. The exception is heavier weights. It's already been said, but most who excel in multiple sports were born that way.
 
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