Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:quote=Anonymous]It is really sad what kids sports have become for some people. And your child can enjoy sports in this area without buying into all that. You just have to opt out of the crazy leagues and schools.
This. Parents, this is your responsibility. Lots of pages here blaming coaches who are certainly blameworthy, but it's your responsibility to not give them power over your kids or let them suck the joy out of sports for your kids. Yes, coaches can be instrumental in helping kids play in college, get scholarships, and more, but the good ones do it the right way and it's not hard to tell who the good ones are. Actually it's probably easier to tell who the bad ones are. There are warning signs and the information is out there. Don’t just fall for empty promises and shiny objects.
Here is what happens regularly at SJC baseball:
- Coach contacts parents to say their little Johnny, a rising 7th grader, is a helluva player.
- Coach tells parents SJC is better than anyone at developing baseball players. Just look at all the championship trophies. Tells parents Johnny would make a great Cadet.
- Coach invites Johnny to attend his summer Diamond Skills junior high prospect camp (for a $425 fee).
- Coach invites Johnny to attend his winter DC Cadets camp (for a $350 fee).
- Coach invites Johnny to attend his winter Diamond Skills/Prep Baseball Report winter junior high prospect camp (for a $210 fee). For those counting at home, you've now paid him $985 and Johnny isn't even finished with the 7th grade.
- Johnny is now a rising 8th grader. Coach invites Johnny to attend his summer Diamond Skills junior high prospect camp again (for a $425 fee).
- Coach invites Johnny to schedule a shadow day at St. John's during the Fall of 8th grade.
- Johnny shadows at St. John's and he and his parents are given a tour of St. John's and a sales pitch by Coach. Coach shows them all the great facilities, and talks about all the college and professional players and, of course, the championships.
- Coach invites Johnny to attend his winter DC Cadets camp again (for a $350 fee).
- Coach invites Johnny to attend his winter Diamond Skills/Prep Baseball Report winter junior high prospect camp again (for a $210 fee). For those counting at home, you've now paid him $1,970 and Johnny hasn't even been accepted at St. John's yet.
- Johnny gets his acceptance letter from St. John's (phew).
- Coach invites Johnny to attend his summer Diamond Skills junior high prospect camp again (for a $425 fee). Query, since you've paid your deposit and enrolled Johnny in the school, is Johnny still a prospect? Doesn't matter - he'll take your $425.
- Coach invites Johnny to summer workouts for incoming freshmen and strongly suggests he should attend (for a $100 fee). Johnny's parents have now paid Coach $2,495. Johnny has not yet attended a class at St. John's.
- Johnny goes to summer workouts 3 days a week for 2-3 hours a day, for 8 weeks. Johnny learns how to stretch and run properly, but does not play baseball all summer.
- Johnny shows up for the first day of school. If Coach thinks Johnny was a good enough stretcher and runner, he requires him to participate in offseason after school workouts with 60+ other kids (for about a $600 fee), and requires him to play on a Fall Diamond Skills team (for an approximately $1,200 fee). If Coach doesn't think Johnny was a good enough stretcher or runner, he just stops contacting him (no emails, phone calls or anything to explain why he can't play baseball at St. John's, and Johnny isn't given an opportunity to try out for the school team in the Spring).
- In the fall, Johnny works out with the baseball program every day after school, some days in the morning, and plays in tournaments with Diamond Skills on the weekends. Johnny's Diamond Skills team has around 18 kids on it, and Johnny gets to play about half of every game. Doesn’t matter how the team is doing - Coach decides all playing time ahead of time and doesn’t attend the games/tournaments. If he is a pitcher, Johnny is not allowed to throw more than 30 pitches in a weekend.
- Winter rolls around and Johnny keeps working out with the team 6 or 7 days a week. Come January, he works out at 6 am four school days each week, works out after school for 2-3 hours 5 days each week, and works out on Saturdays and Sundays as well. As part of the weekend workouts, Johnny is required to participate in DC Cadets winter camp (for a fee of $175).
- In February, the baseball program starts ramping up for a defense of the WCAC championship. It's all baseball all the time from now through the end of the WCAC season in mid-May.
- At the end of the high school baseball season, Johnny is told which Diamond Skills weekend travel team he has to play on during the summer (for a fee of approximately $1,400), and which weeknight DC Cadets team he has to play on during the summer (for a fee of $700). He also has to work out Monday-Thursday each week for 4-5 hours each day. Fortunately, this is included in the $700 DC Cadets fee.
- Johnny gets to rinse and repeat each of the next three years.
- Somewhere along the way, Johnny probably loses his love for the game. It may be because at the end of his freshman year, Coach turned him into a "pitcher only" - PO for short. Not just for the high school season, but all year round. There are plenty of other travel teams that would like Johnny to be a full time player in the summer and fall (not just a PO), but that's not allowed -- Johnny has to play for Coach's Diamond Skills program if he wants to play for St. John's.
- At some point in his junior or senior year, Johnny gets an offer to play division 3 baseball (no scholarship) or a preferred walk-on spot at a division 1 school (no scholarship and no guaranteed roster spot). If he’s like many other SJC players he decides to go to a JUCO to chase the dream. Johnny asks himself what happened - did he not put in the time?
- Johnny graduates from St. John's at the end of his senior year. He's bitter about his high school experience, but at least he's done with St. John's baseball.
Costs above are updated to reflect what we understand it costs today, but they’re comparable to when "Johnny" was there.
Our son was Johnny. Johnny will never get those four years back. We’re partly to blame, but there wasn’t as much information out there when we made our decisions. Whether your son's name is Johnny or not, I'd recommend choosing a different path.
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