Hey Law1ing2b

You were a great poster on the old board. Obviously, you have been through the whole system...from recruiting to college ball at App St. I assume.

One of the missions of this board is to help any and all HS baseball players who have aspirations to succeed after HS with some good information and advice from experienced players and parents who have gone through the system ( whew..long sentence)

How about sharing some insight with us?

 

wow...what an honor...

I'll tell you this, high school sports are a lot different than when i went through. now, i did not have the most illustrious college carreer, but i will give this a shot. of course, if i had it all to do over there is so much that i would have different.

for example, i was lucky enough to play QB under Tommy Knotts...but i rarely spent the time with him really learning the game. the only film study i did was when he forced me to do it. i learned a lot from him...but i was just scratching the surface.

in baseball, i never learned to hit to the opposite field until i got to college...heck, some would say i never learned then. that was a tough transition for me. i did not take as many ground balls as i should have...i did not work on my arm strength until college.

another thing i struggled with was a different style of baseball was played at ASU than when i was in HS. i resisted it because we were so successful at the lower level. who could argue with a state championship, right? but, different coaches have different philosophies...and players need to be able to make those adjustments. and nowadays, when kids are playing in the same system for 4, 5, or 6 (heck...maybe more) years, it could be tough to play for a coach that does not have the same ideas as his high school coach.

as for recruiting, i would use two words...be careful. especially for those marginal D-1 guys. the scholarship money is so thin, that coaches will use anything to their advantage...even downright lies. that was something that i got caught up in...and it led to decisions that probably were not the best for my baseball carreer. of course, i was not pro ball material but i could have had a much better college carreer had i chosen to go to another school.

like i said, players are learning so much more about the game now than when i was a teenager...and that is to their benefit.

i guess i am getting a little long winded, but i will sum it up with this:

play the game because you love it. play it with passion and play it to win.

is there anything else that you would like me to comment on?

 

Re: wow...what an honor...

The was a great post! HS baseball or should I say preparation has really changed dramatically since you and some of us played.
It has become an all year sport with so many different teams and different coaches that a kid learns very quickly to adapt to different philosophies...or else! That doesn't make it better..just different times.

What do you see as the positives and negatives to all the different select, showcase, aau, aabc, rec and Legion ball teams?...and think about how it affects HS teams.

 

Braves,
Sorry it has taken me so long to reply...i was out of town for a few days.

my take is two fold...both good and bad.

on the good side, the alternative opportunities allows kids to play a lot more games...and many times against top notch competition. for me, American Legion was the only way to go...and i really enjoyed it. National League rules...and in charlotte it was typically a collection of all-star (sort of) teams. but the charlotte teams have never been very successful once the Area Playoffs started. in my opinion, it is because the charlotte kids (at least when i was close to Legion programs) did not take it as serious as the kids in Lenoir, Kernersville, Mocksville, etc. i digress...sometimes it happens. anyway, all you have to do is look down in the Atlanta area at the East Cobb Baseball program. It has turned out several D1 and professional players in recent years. It gives kids the chance to play great baseball from age 8 to 18 with excellent instruction at state of the art facilities. (side note...i hear that a similar complex is in the works in Cornelius...anyone have any scoop?)

on the bad side, you run the risk of burning a kid out. some of these select teams are packed full of pressure that could turn a kid off of the game. even if the kid is not D1 material, that is a bad thing. It also forces many to choose a sport to concentrate on rather than allowing them to play multiple sports just to secure that D1 offer or get themselves drafted. those kids that do not have the chance to play college or pro ball have missed out on many other opportunities. and what if they choose the wrong sport too young? use Ray Durham as a local example. had he been forced to make a choice early on, maybe he chooses baseball and maybe he chooses football. choosing football almost certainly would have meant that he would miss out on the chance to get drafted...and obviously the chance to play in the Big Leagues. and with myself, baseball was the sport that i had more success with early on in my high school carreer...but i would not give up the football memories for anything in the world.

as for how it affects the HS teams...i am not sure. my guess is that many HS coaches are close with the off-season teams...and if so, i would see the impact as negligible (did i spell that right). but like you said, with so many different coaches involved it forces a kid to be more adaptive to different coaching styles.

i was lucky. i came along at a time where my high school had some of the best and most innovative coaches the city has ever had. i was able to have a great deal of success in both sports i played, get some great exposure (this was pre pro sports in charlotte), and go off to college with an opportunity to play D1 baseball.

 

There are a few new complexes up at the north end of the county. Huntersville built a 4 field complex about 5-6 years ago. Cornelius built a two field complex (with adjacent S-o-c-c-e-r fields about 3 years ago and is just finishing a full lighted complex for older competition that should open this spring.

There is a total of about 18 ball fields now up in the north end. It will take a few years for the complex in Cornelius to mature, but it's going to be a nice one.