how did your baseball player deal with not playing on the high school team?

[Anonymous]

We are at an incredibly competitive FCPS high school for baseball. My son has played travel for years and is a solid player - fast, good hitter, decent (but not great fielder), big and athletic, good attitude, works hard, etc. But he's not playing at all as a freshman and looking down the road it's just not looking good for much play time.

We knew this was a possibility and have tried all along to make sure we emphasize that baseball should be fun, is about working as a team, developing individual skill, developing confidence and resilience, etc. And our son knew going in that the high school team would be competitive and he might not play much. But it's still really hard for him, especially since the travel team stops while high school baseball is happening. So for the first time in his life, he's sitting the bench instead of playing in May.

I'm sure he's not the only kid this has happened to. Anything that you did as a parent to help, or is it something he just has to figure out for himself?

[Anonymous]

You should work on directing him to other sports.

Interestingly, a number of baseball players turned to Ultimate frisbee and one ended up playing for the DC Breeze pro team while in HS, was recruited to play for a D1 team and is now on the national team. All, just picking up the sport as a HS sophomore.

I know it is difficult…some sports like ultimate and crew are year round, so you could encourage trying in the Fall to see if it is something that sticks.

[Anonymous]

My son is similar. He loves baseball, though, and still feels he gets a lot out of the daily practices even if he doesn't get much playing time. He's one of the better players on his travel team, but is young for his grade so that's hard especially when the redshirted kids in his grade are a year older than him. No real advice, but he just needs to set his expectations. If he doesn't feel like he's getting a lot out of the practices and being a part of the team and if playing time is really important to him, it maybe time to switch sports. In our experience at the HS level, the coach will play his 9 best players (maybe 10 if he uses a DH) and the rest of the kids may pinch hit/run, but won't see any substantial playing time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at an incredibly competitive FCPS high school for baseball. My son has played travel for years and is a solid player - fast, good hitter, decent (but not great fielder), big and athletic, good attitude, works hard, etc. But he's not playing at all as a freshman and looking down the road it's just not looking good for much play time.

We knew this was a possibility and have tried all along to make sure we emphasize that baseball should be fun, is about working as a team, developing individual skill, developing confidence and resilience, etc. And our son knew going in that the high school team would be competitive and he might not play much. But it's still really hard for him, especially since the travel team stops while high school baseball is happening. So for the first time in his life, he's sitting the bench instead of playing in May.

I'm sure he's not the only kid this has happened to. Anything that you did as a parent to help, or is it something he just has to figure out for himself?

Your son is just a freshman. No reason he can’t improve and get more playing time in the future. This might involve a lot of work, but that shouldn’t discourage him.

[Anonymous]

The HS season is soooo short. My kid’s games in March were all rained out, and playoffs are this week. So essentially games are packed into 5 weeks. What I’m getting at is that if he loves baseball, can he see these five weeks as a team spirit exercise where he gets to be a part of baseball, learn and practice with stronger players, and enjoy it? Travel teams start back up in two weeks. He’ll play all summer and fall if he wants!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at an incredibly competitive FCPS high school for baseball. My son has played travel for years and is a solid player - fast, good hitter, decent (but not great fielder), big and athletic, good attitude, works hard, etc. But he's not playing at all as a freshman and looking down the road it's just not looking good for much play time.

We knew this was a possibility and have tried all along to make sure we emphasize that baseball should be fun, is about working as a team, developing individual skill, developing confidence and resilience, etc. And our son knew going in that the high school team would be competitive and he might not play much. But it's still really hard for him, especially since the travel team stops while high school baseball is happening. So for the first time in his life, he's sitting the bench instead of playing in May.

I'm sure he's not the only kid this has happened to. Anything that you did as a parent to help, or is it something he just has to figure out for himself?

if he's fast, big, athletic, with good mechanics, hard worker, a 'savage in the box' as they say, with butter hands and noodle arm --- these are all correctable.

being on the bench as a freshman is NO BIG DEAL.
baseball is a LONG career and path/slog compared to other sports.
Imagine being a number 1 draft pick and then grinding in rookie ball in absolute garbage conditions after being at a top blue chip d1 program where the conditions as 1000x better than the minors.

development isn't nearly as linear in baseball as it is in other sports so stick with it

[Anonymous]

We are in the same situation. High school took 1 kid onto the freshman team from tryouts.
My kid is so disappointed to watch all his friends make their teams and to not have any spring team to play on.
He will stay with his travel team, but next spring will be a long season.
As for doing a different sport- its so hard because other than track, all high school sports are so hard to make the team.

[Anonymous]

It can be awful. Friend's kid picked a school for the sport and then got cut as a freshman. It has soured the whole (expensive) year.

If a sport is really important to you, go where you know you can play. It's better to have four year on varsity, plus captain and MVP and championships from small league school than to never have played at the best school in the state. It's better for your college application, and better for your joy of the sport and your high school life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at an incredibly competitive FCPS high school for baseball. My son has played travel for years and is a solid player - fast, good hitter, decent (but not great fielder), big and athletic, good attitude, works hard, etc. But he's not playing at all as a freshman and looking down the road it's just not looking good for much play time.

We knew this was a possibility and have tried all along to make sure we emphasize that baseball should be fun, is about working as a team, developing individual skill, developing confidence and resilience, etc. And our son knew going in that the high school team would be competitive and he might not play much. But it's still really hard for him, especially since the travel team stops while high school baseball is happening. So for the first time in his life, he's sitting the bench instead of playing in May.

I'm sure he's not the only kid this has happened to. Anything that you did as a parent to help, or is it something he just has to figure out for himself?

He's a freshman? I dare say his expectations for playing time, even on JV, were probably inflated. Temper those and he'll likely get more opportunities as an upperclassman if he sticks with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It can be awful. Friend's kid picked a school for the sport and then got cut as a freshman. It has soured the whole (expensive) year.

If a sport is really important to you, go where you know you can play. It's better to have four year on varsity, plus captain and MVP and championships from small league school than to never have played at the best school in the state. It's better for your college application, and better for your joy of the sport and your high
school life.

Hate to say-this is true. My ds played V as a freshman. He’s played every game. Their team has gotten much better.(low ranked FCPS)

[Anonymous]

Madison? My kid assumed he would get zero playing time if he made the team and didn’t even try out. It’s only going to get worse, OP. He may not even make the varsity team. You need to steer him towards other activities. My kid picked up lacrosse and had a blast.