High school baseball

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people are frustrated with how the SJC coach runs the team. Word is that he will finally leave in two years when his youngest kid (daughter) graduates from SJC.

He basically only plays the starters and/or his favorites, even if they are beating an opponent by 15 runs.

What's nuts is that he had a junior lefty pitcher committed to play at Tennessee...and he only gave that kid like 5 innings all season because he loved his 2025 star pitchers (three in particular who are also D1...but TN is usually a top 5 college team).

SJC lost a number of rising juniors who will likely be starters at their new schools because of how he runs the team.

The SJC coach very explicitly lays out his rules to incoming players and parents. They know that playing time is not guaranteed, and that if they want to be on the team, the players must take part in the coach’s camps. There is no gray area, and the players know exactly where they stand. A lot of parents simply cannot handle the fact that their kid simply isn’t the next Paul Skenes.

We know parents who sent their kid elsewhere for this school year because he wasn’t playing much, but the real reason is that the parents kept sending their kid to these camps where he was encouraged to put excessive wear on his arm. He kept getting hurt and the coach wouldn’t play him, so he’s with a much lesser high school program this year.

This past season Gibbs made clear that he does not see it as his job to try to develop all of his players. He is only in it for his own self-interest. That’s why he overplayed a top pitcher who now has to get TJ surgery during his freshman year of college while other very capable pitchers got almost no innings. Every HS varsity coach will say that playing time is not guaranteed, but most HS coaches will try to maximize development of all of the players to make the best squad overall and to give all of his players the best opportunity to earn playing time and college opportunities. Gibbs simply does not do that. He could easily have won the same number of games while at the same time opened up playing opportunities for far more players. In my mind that shows how weak of a coach he actually is.

[Anonymous]

Too many parents think high-level high school baseball should have the same rules as Little League, where everyone is guaranteed playing time. These are the parents who leave SJC. Sorry, but he plays his best players. Your kid wasn’t one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many people are frustrated with how the SJC coach runs the team. Word is that he will finally leave in two years when his youngest kid (daughter) graduates from SJC.

He basically only plays the starters and/or his favorites, even if they are beating an opponent by 15 runs.

What's nuts is that he had a junior lefty pitcher committed to play at Tennessee...and he only gave that kid like 5 innings all season because he loved his 2025 star pitchers (three in particular who are also D1...but TN is usually a top 5 college team).

SJC lost a number of rising juniors who will likely be starters at their new schools because of how he runs the team.[/quote]
SJC has lost a number of rising juniors (and Seniors! in other sports) who are going to be starts at their new schools.

The fact that Seniors are transferring says something about the school

[Anonymous]

Unless you want private for other reasons, if it is just for baseball - may as well go public. Results for recruiting are the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you want private for other reasons, if it is just for baseball - may as well go public. Results for recruiting are the same.

Yes - I know a bunch of Jackson Reed players who have had successful college careers.
But for the Hill - not sure that the public would be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are dozens of schools where your child will find a successful path to a good hs education, fulfilling hs career, and a college roster. There is no reason to roll the dice with a controversial coach or years on the bench. Make a list of schools that are an academic fit and not a horrible commute, and meet with those coaches. You’ll find a fit. You don’t need a big baseball program for your kid to play college baseball. Colleges come to watch specific players - if they’re interested in your kid they’ll watch him no matter what team he’s on (and it will rarely be during the hs season anyway)

This is the right answer. SJC, Gonzaga, DJO are great baseball programs in the WCAC, but there are strong programs that consistently send kids to D1 from STA, Landon, Prep, Potomac, Flint Hill. Find the school, figure out if the team will work for your kid, and decide whether you want to join a program that runs all baseball training through the school or if your kid is better off training outside of the school time.

I cannot speak to SJC, which I appreciate could be different, but I know current varsity and recent college players at both D1/D3 levels from: STA, Gonzaga, DJO, and Landon. All of them spent loads and loads of time outside of school with their club teams, at showcases and with individual hitting or pitching coaches. For college recruits, that was pretty much all they did outside school especially starting end of sophomore year. Baseball is highly competence.

I will also say that in my experience you know who the potential D1 recruits were in 8th grade. None of the very good baseball players in 8th became D1 but many of ended up D3. Also, many of those potential D1ers all went D3. It’s not rockets science in college recruiting—if you can’t throw very very high 80s, you aren’t even on D1 radar. Same with exit velocity. Once you reach those levels, there are a lot of additional factors coaches are looking at but there just aren’t that many local kids who can reach those numbers for D1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too many parents think high-level high school baseball should have the same rules as Little League, where everyone is guaranteed playing time. These are the parents who leave SJC. Sorry, but he plays his best players. Your kid wasn’t one of them.

That is simply incorrect based on well-publicized cases. The issues with that coach go beyond playing time complaints from disgruntled parents.

My player didn’t attend SJC so I don’t have a dog in the fight, but I do think parents should be made aware of the potential situation they are walking into. The coach and program have a specific reputation in the DC area baseball community, and it would be a shame for someone to make a decision about their child’s high school years without all of the information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too many parents think high-level high school baseball should have the same rules as Little League, where everyone is guaranteed playing time. These are the parents who leave SJC. Sorry, but he plays his best players. Your kid wasn’t one of them.

The top college baseball teams don’t even operate like SJC. If UNC plays a non-conference Wednesday game against Princeton, they don’t play all their top players, but rather give other players time who they want to develop.

You do know that James Wood who is an MLB all star also left SJC after just one year, right?

[Anonymous]

Baseball parents can be the worst

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many parents think high-level high school baseball should have the same rules as Little League, where everyone is guaranteed playing time. These are the parents who leave SJC. Sorry, but he plays his best players. Your kid wasn’t one of them.

The top college baseball teams don’t even operate like SJC. If UNC plays a non-conference Wednesday game against Princeton, they don’t play all their top players, but rather give other players time who they want to develop.

You do know that James Wood who is an MLB all star also left SJC after just one year, right?

The theme time and again is how SJC coaching is pay to play / not in the long term interests of the players.

This is not a 1 time message but it is supported by real players making the choice to leave the program. Talented players.
I would enroll in a school that does not have this reputation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many parents think high-level high school baseball should have the same rules as Little League, where everyone is guaranteed playing time. These are the parents who leave SJC. Sorry, but he plays his best players. Your kid wasn’t one of them.

The top college baseball teams don’t even operate like SJC. If UNC plays a non-conference Wednesday game against Princeton, they don’t play all their top players, but rather give other players time who they want to develop.

You do know that James Wood who is an MLB all star also left SJC after just one year, right?

I dont believe that is accurate about James Wood- I think he was there for 2 if not 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many parents think high-level high school baseball should have the same rules as Little League, where everyone is guaranteed playing time. These are the parents who leave SJC. Sorry, but he plays his best players. Your kid wasn’t one of them.

The top college baseball teams don’t even operate like SJC. If UNC plays a non-conference Wednesday game against Princeton, they don’t play all their top players, but rather give other players time who they want to develop.

You do know that James Wood who is an MLB all star also left SJC after just one year, right?

I dont believe that is accurate about James Wood- I think he was there for 2 if not 3 years.

James Wood transferred after Sophomore year. Another player, James Triantos who was a 2nd round Chicago Cubs draft pick out of Madison HS, left SJC after freshman year.

Another player, Jack O' Connor, transferred to O'Connell for his junior year, played at UVA and also has been drafted into the MLB.

All this to say, that in fact some of SJC's very best players have left the program, unlike what others have said.

[Anonymous]

Indeed, some players have left.

It seems the machine rolls on though, with the kids who want to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Indeed, some players have left.

It seems the machine rolls on though, with the kids who want to be there.

It was well publicized when these players left and why. It is ridiculous for one of the pps to imply that players leave because they aren’t good enough to play.

Yes, great players keep going there. People are chiming in here so that OP and any others considering where their child should play baseball can go into the consideration process with their eyes open about the polarizing nature of the coach and program.

[Anonymous]

Op hasn’t even returned to say if they want private just for baseball.