Legion Ball

Andro, I agree with what you said about some college coaches even being involved with certain legion teams. Also one more point that I want to add for anyone wondering whether or not college coaches come to legion games,,,, the college coaches that I've talked with about showcases (and its been numerous) have all said the same thing about why they like showcases, its because of the "convenience" of seeing a lot of players at the same location in one weekend,,,,,, but in EVERY circumstance, guess WHERE I was talking with those same college coaches??? You guess it, they were at a legion game.

The bottomline for players is this,,,,, if your good enough, the college scouts will find you wherever you play...

 

tj21- Your'e exactly right, you see them everywhere. They are going to find you. You didn't answer my question, how good was the Ktown-South Rowan series last year?

 

tj .... it was good hearing from you again.

If you guys are right and the 19 year old rule is going out the window, then that's VERY good news for Legion ball.

One final note about "Showcase" teams ....

A few of them are year around, but some of the better ones are FALL ONLY. Impact only operates in the fall, ditto the NC Cubs and the Anglers. If you can get hooked up with one of the top notch FALL teams, it would be a great situation. I'd be concerned about a rest interval between seasons, but with the new quiet period around Labor Day weekend, the fall season really shouldn't kick off until after that point. Maybe something in late August would be Ok. The college coaches are taking their final looks in the fall and they aren't quite as active as they are in the summer because they are also coaching their own fall practices.

I'm not knocking On Deck (obviously). They place lots of guys and their training program for the players includes Weight Lifting, Pyleometrics and intensive skills sessions. It's more like college practices, which is great preparation. The Diamond Devils isn't as good a situation. They are too spread out geographically, can't practice together, don't provide the indepth training. They do recruit some of the very top players from NC, SC and GA so obviously, they thrive, but it's on the skills that others (maybe someone's "Dad") developed. They are only about exposure with the DD's.

Another Topic (While I have you legion guys attention .. it's good to have someone to talk to, i've been talking to myself on this board lately it seems).

The players hampered (I'm not going to say hurt, 'cause it's not really true) in recruiting right now are the 2-3 sport athletes. The college coaches are watching players in the fall, but Billy is playing football .... They really like Johnny, but the want to make sure he gets through basketball season without a serious injury. These "top" 2 & 3 sport players will mostly be offered in the spring. No knock on them, but until a player has gone through an injury and has shown he has the work ethic to rehab on his own, a recruiting coordinator will be a bit concerned about "other sports".

Since a lot of you Legion guys coach, how do you advise your two-three sports players? How about guys that enjoy multiple sports but look to go on beyond HS in only 1 sport....?????

 

Ktown/South Rowan is always a war in anything. But in baseball, the Ktown/South boys all grew up playing little league with and against each other. Its 2 close communities and they want to beat each other badly. Luckily for us, Ktown has won both playoff series the past 2 years. But just to give South Rowan credit, they hold the distinction of giving us our ONLY losses during the playoffs on our way to the state tournament the past 2 years. The past 2 years, we have swept everyone in the Area III playoffs EXCEPT for South Rowan. They always take us the limit.

A Ktown/South legion game would truly blow someone's mind if they've never seen a baseball game with that kind of atmosphere and tension. I just loved seeing South Rowan's trombone players on top of the dugout last year.

 

NCBALLFAN, good to hear from you too. As you know, I'm a legion supporter but I also know theres a time and place for showcase events. What I would like to see with showcase events SOMEHOW, is that it becomes more "affordable" for the players. Not everyone can afford to shell out $1800 to play in the fall.

Baseball shouldn't be just isolated to the rich. Personally what I would like to see is the college coaches "themselves" take a more active role in offering showcases which are more affordable. The college coaches need to get their showcases advertised better by the high school coaches, and this would obviously take a lot of cooperation from high school coaches. But then the college coaches should make their camps AFFORDABLE. You don't have to charge $200 for a 2-day camp. Thats doing it for the wrong reasons. I just wish some things wasn't all about the money, and these things were designed more FOR THE KIDS.

As for the 2-sport athletes, yes they ultimately must make a choice. And if they continue playing 2-3 sports, it is probably going to hurt them in the long run. There's just too many baseball players playing year round. Not to mention the fact that if "Johnny" is a great baseball player, but he chooses to play basketball, then instead of getting ready for baseball season, he's out shooting free throws.

 

Well, looking up from the dugout it wasn't the greatest thing in the world. I guess it shows you how important it is to the community. For some reason south rowan gives the mighty kannapolis problems. It must be the coaching staff... ha ha.... Anyway, kannapolis should have won the state championship. I watched everyone of those games. I still feel that they were the best team. I just think they ran into a hot pitcher on the wrong day. against Garner.

 

Again, if they are good enough they will get seen. Are you telling me that For example, if Johnny is good and he plays bball and football. Colleges won't know about him. I think we are just being naive in saying that. Coaches love three sport athletes.

just my opinion

 

Andro, thanks for your compliment about Kannapolis being good last summer. I agree that our lineup 1-9 was killing the ball at the end of the Area III playoffs last summer, but we just did not hit the ball at the state tournament, period. We just never got the momentum back. In fact we staggered to win in the early rounds at Shelby. That long layoff we had after sweeping Greensboro and before the state tournament definitely cooled our bats. Not taking anything away from the Primus kid from Garner, he pitched a heck of a game. Caldwell County also had a heck of a team. We were the 3 best teams there. On any given day, any one of us 3 teams could've been state champs. Congrats to Garner for getting it done...

But yes we were disappointed with a 3rd place finish, and that will serve as motivation for 2005 with a lot of our players returning...

 

The problem with legion as far as the talent level in the Eastern part of the state is,its just a continuation of the school teams...Laney has an AAU team,New Hanover has a team,Hoggard has a team and Ashley all have they're own legion team....compare that to Impact Baseball where he's picking kids from all over the state!!Which team will have the best talent??A team like Impact will.

 

I think SR will have all the players eligible to return except for Morgan and Stirewalt.

a really good group of underclassmen from SR and 4 or 5 college players eligible to play if they choose.

Might get interesting this coming summer.

Hey dont forget SR travels with the couch also.