No Respect for Raleigh

Look guys im not trying to complain about not getting attention or anything like that but I and my fellow players in and around the raleigh area dont get any love on this board or any other NC baseball websites can yall help me figure this out my name is Jonathan Redd Im a 6'3" 1B LHP from Broughton high school, idk if people think raleigh baseball is not as good or somthing but i just wanna know.

 

Cap - 7

Broughton
Enloe
Leesville Road
Millbrook
Sanderson
Wake Forest Rolesville
Wakefield

Tri - 8
Apex
Athens Drive
Cary
Fuquay Varina
Green Hope
Lee
Middle Creek
Panther Creek

Greater Neuse River - 8
Clayton
East Wake
Garner
Holly Springs
Knightdale
Smithfield Selma
Southeast Raleigh
West Johnston

I put the Tri-8 in there because some of those schools are actually in the greater Raleigh area.

The problem is no one from these teams seems to ever post information on players. No one from these areas seems to post anything with the exception of one or two people. And the ones that do post do not have alot of information on the players of more than a couple of teams.

I am aware of some very good players on some of these teams. And a couple of these teams should be very good this year. But my point is where are the people from these schools? Why are they not on here telling us about the teams and the players. You dont have to wait for South Caldwell North Davidson Ragsdale Wautauga etc etc to tell you about guys. They are all over it.

I will be glad to report in the near future on some players and teams in these conferences. But the love is not going to come until the people with the information start sharing the love.

 

I agree

I agree with that whole heartidly but I also think that as for as the showcase level there are a lot of good teams with good players from my area that dont get brought up in convorsation i think it has somthing to do with the high school they play at and how there isnt much noise on the boards from us, maybe coach evans has somthing on the topic there were a lot of us Raleigh boys on the copperheads this summer.

 

Well

maybe its time we changed all that?

 

Hey Jonathan: There's good baseball played all over the Old North State. Personally I'm just ignorant about Raleigh! But I'm ready & willing to learn. I read every thread on this Board. Tell us your story.

 

Know nothing

about the players in your area. Agree, share the info. Players, schools and coaches. With a lot of the states pop. in that area. Would expect to hear many great things.

 

We need some knowledgable contributors from the triangle area. At this point in time it APPEARS that this part of the state is lagging a little in terms of the number of top quality high school baseball players per capita. Thinking in terms of the State Games of North Carolina, Region 3, which includes the Triangle, Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Person, and Granville Counties, should be one of the most competitive regions every year. It has not been as strong as one would imagine for a part of the state covering an area with such a large population. I would really like to see that change in the coming years. Maybe my perception is skewed, and someone else could weigh in, but i don't think I'm too far off.

 

In regard to the State Games for Region 3, I think you need to look no further than who the coaches have been the last couple years and how many players that have been chosen from their own schools and other small private schools. Many area coaches are not even nominating their own players due to what many perceive to be a "stacked" deck.

 

Lots of good baseball in the Raleigh area but I don't ever see anyone from that area posting anything. My son played with Michael Zeblo from Broughton. He's a good player and a nice young man, as is his older brother.

TBR seems to have a large Charlotte contingent, followed by some Triad posters, some posters from the Hickory/Boone area and then a group down east. Just not many from the Raleigh area.

 

Raleigh Area Baseball

I'll take a stab at this as I see it. First, like many areas, there is NO interest in baseball by the local media. Unlike most of the other areas in the state, this area is overwhelmed by ACC basketball for coverage during most of the High School season (at least until Duke, State, or UNC get knocked out of the NCAA, which is usually through late March). And, those of you in Charlotte and other areas that think you get little newspaper coverage, it is even worse here.

Also, Coach 27's post hints at another issue, there are a lot of schools in one county here. The Cap 7 and Tri 8 are both in Wake County, and the other conference has several schools from Wake. So, trying to keep up with these all schools is tough, particularly during the season (it can take you an hour with no traffic to get from Fuquay to Wake Forest, whereas the real distances in Mecklenburg are North/South, e.g., Ardrey Kell to North Meck). Plus, with the advent of the summer HS league, many of these players are limited in their summer ball choices as coaches want them playing on these teams and there is only so much baseball one can get in during a week in the summer. This limits their tourney exposure (e.g., PG WWBA summer tourneys).

With all that said, these conferences are basically pretty good; if you look over the Cap 7 and Tri 8 teams, there really isn't a sure win in these leagues. Since the talent is somewhat diluted across these schools (Wake county seems to redistrict every other week), no one team dominates (not a bad thing as conference races tend to be decided in the last week among several teams, so it's great for a fan).

Being raised in Charlotte and having lived in the triangle for nearly 10 years now, the big issue around this area is pitching (as it likely is all over). While there are a few dominant pitchers in Wake county (e.g., the Williamson kid), not every team has at least one, which tends to be the case in many of the Charlotte schools and other successful programs in the state.

All that being said, this league produces some big time hitters. While some of it can be attributed to the pitching, most of these kids can hit the ball and these teams will score runs (even on the stud pitchers). Plus, there are a few good "feeder" programs (summer and junior league teams) in Wake County (Greater Raleigh Baseball, West Raleigh Baseball, Garner, and Fuquay). So there is really decent baseball in the area, but it is tough to follow.

So, all that said, it could be a function of a lot of players at a lot of different schools, which makes it really hard to follow. Again, this is complicated by the fact that there is virtually no coverage of baseball in this area.

While this may be totally off base, it is what I see. Hope to see this conversation continue.