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Hi!
Any thoughts on koa baseball. My son has been in a different league and is an ok player. Is koa the right place to go for him to gain skills? (He’s 8th grade) |
| Koa has an in house league (BABL) and a travel league (Waves). Both are coached by professional coaches. I think the Waves have two teams at some age levels, 14u being one. No way for DCUM to tell you if it’s a good fit so call and ask to tryout. |
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Hi! Any thoughts on koa baseball. My son has been in a different league and is an ok player. Is koa the right place to go for him to gain skills? (He’s 8th grade) WHy do you want to leave? |
| And what are you looking for? Do you want a lot of tournaments? What kind of coaches? You mention he’s an okay player—can you give more detail about his skill level? Koa’s travel side is focused on helping boys make their HS team vs college recruitment. |
| We've had a very positive experience -- both BABL then travel. We looked at BCC and talked to some parents and decided that wasn't for us. Depends if are looking at travel or not. BABL is a fun step up from rec. Their travel teams can be uneven but it depends what you are looking for -- maybe reach out, the founder is very open to chatting. |
| It’s a good organization. It’s not on the radar of WCAC or IAC coaches. But, your son will get enough reps to have a shot at public high school team. |
Considering options stepping up from our house league. Can you share your thoughts why BCC wasn't the right fit? Contrast with KOA? Thanks! |
My son’s team has played both in tournaments. Bcc was better, but I think has at least 2 and possibly three levels of teams. I honestly don’t know if an okay player would make their teams. IMO the coaches were pretty big jerks. Koa was fine. We played them in the semis of a tournament and they brought in two giant kids to play with them who didn’t even have uniforms. It seemed shady to me, but their coaches seemed good. This is a level. Not sure about b level. |
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Koa Travel (Waves) has paid coaches. Koa House (BABL) also has paid coaches. BCC Travel has paid coaches, BCC House (Select) has dad coaches. Both BCC and Koa Waves have two teams at the 14u level. BCC's "A" team is very strong, and their "B" is fine. Waves' "A" team is somewhere in between BCC's A/B teams and their "B" team is more on the developmental end of the spectrum.
We have been very pleased with the coaches at Waves, but the administrative stuff has been pretty uneven (as is true at most places). Travel teams occasionally will bring a kid up from BABL (house) if they are short on players. I have not heard of bringing in "ringers" from an outside team. It's just not that type of organization. It's also entirely possible that the kids you saw were new to the team and didn't have their uniforms yet (it wouldn't be the first time there was a delay getting uniforms to kids). |
| Koa has amazing development that I would recommend over BCC. Their oldest team (16u) also happens to be their best team and they are getting private showcases with college coaches, competing in elite local tournaments, and also having great coaches and teammates throughout it. Our team has had many people leave from BCC’s travel organization because it isn’t the best overall. Highly recommend sending players to a Koa waves team if they wish to play high academic college baseball. |
You have this backwards. Check out the commitment lists... |
| Koa like many other travel programs in the area is really about the Money. And hard to believe they have many college commits given they don't even field an 18U team, unless you are saying many of their 16U players receive offers. |
| Because of NCAA rules, the kids haven’t been able to recieve offers yet but they’ve been playing in front of college coaches, have a private showcase this summer to meet with more coaches, and have multiple varsity players as sophomores. These players have the capability to play high level baseball and many of them want to go and play at Ivy League schools or other schools with good academics. |
| The founder of Koa took over management of the Waves program this fall and he definitely has his own agenda and feels like he’s more interested in using the Waves as a cash cow. He talks a good game about how Waves teams are all about development, but then doesn’t do what’s needed to actual foster that development: eg very limited number of outdoor practices, some teams only have one coach, coaches have to coach BABL teams and, if there’s a conflict with Waves,the BABL teams get priority, etc. They guy who ran it before wasn’t an administrative genius but he really got to know the boys and their families and it truly felt like he was genuinely invested in their development. |
| Speaking for the older age groups, (2027 and 2028), they have had recent success in some of the most competitive tournaments in the dmv. For example, one of the three 2027 teams has beat the BCC Big Train showcase team 2 times in a row while also having fun. The 2028 team is still developing but have a great roster and coaches. |