CPC Outlook

Got it

 

High School

When you get to the high school level for many kids this is the first time that they are faced with being told they are not good enough to play on the team. At the younger levels if its travel baseball they can just go play for another team if they are not selected. Or they can play on a rec team if they are not selected for a travel team. Or their dad can start his own team.

When you get to the high school level it can be a real reality check for some kids. In programs where numerous kids come out and there are several talented kids you are going to have big rosters especially at the jv level. You have to give these kids time in your program to see who is going to develop and who is not. Who is going to work and get better and who is not. By the time they are ready to help the varsity alot of this will be sorted out and many times it will have nothing to do with baseball ability.

Some will not take care of business in the classroom and not be elgible. Some will decide that the girlfriend and hanging out with the boys is more important to them. Some will want to work and have some money in the pocket. Some will just not want to put the kind of work in its going to take to be a part of the program. It has a way of weeding itself out. In some programs you will have a big group moving up to varsity and there will not be alot of spots to be had. It will come down to who can help the team the most based on what they have done before tryouts start.

We used to have alot of kids tryout. Now we dont. When we started working really hard in the off season many decided that it was not for them. Some still came to tryouts but found they were way behind those that had been working. And the bottom line is if your not willing to work in the off season and invest into the program your probaly not going to want to invest into the program during the season. "Coach I got a birthday party this Saturday I cant come to practice". "Coach I signed up for a ski trip in Feb so I will miss the first couple of practices". "Coach I will not be in town during the Easter break we are going out of town". These are not the kids at workouts during the summer and fall.

It has a way of taking care of itself. The ones that really want to play and really want to work at getting better will be there in the end. The rest will not. I dont like a big roster unless they can all help us win. I dont believe in keeping people just to keep people. Everyone needs to have a role. Guys without clearly defined roles too often become cancers on a team. Upperclassman that feel they graduate into roles on your team are the worse. You earn your role or you dont have a role and therefore you dont have a roster spot. If we dont see a role for a player then we dont keep a player.

Team chemsitry is huge. You need to have competition for playing time. But you need guys that are willing to compete in order to have that.

 

Man you hit that one hard over the fence. That was about as good as church on Sunday morning.