We will see about that tomorrow night. :jump:

 

You can have tomorrow night I want the one next week.

I don't think it should have anything to do with school size, it should be about each team and what's best for that team. Campbell County is a 6A school and I can think of at least 5 single A schools of the top of my head that are as good if not better than Campbell, should Campbell not play those schools?

 

But I agree with your point it is worthless to beat up on teams that just can not compete with you. That doesn't mean you can't play teams that are lesser than you but if you are going to win 20-0 in 3 innings and your pitcher is going to have a no hitter that isn't worth the gas money to go watch.

 

How many times do Ryle and Conner play the bottom 5 to 10 teams in the area. My guess is not that often. Boone County plays one of the tougher schedules in the area every year to try to get them ready for the post season. They haven't got over the hump yet but my guess is it will pay off for them sooner or later.

 

You are correct. I have no problem with a 6a team playing a lesser team IF the lesser team is good. Where my problem is, is when these better teams play these lesser teams for what, to pad stats? That is not helping anyone.

If you are truly serious about playing in college you should be on the best travel team you can be. Also should be taking private instruction. I do not work hitting with my dd except to be an extra pair of eyes to help fine tune her swing. She loves her high school teammates and plays her heart out to help her high school team but she will be seen far more during summer ball.

Meatpuppy, I totally agree with you on the summer ball. I am just talking strictly high school ball. Someone earlier said that they are just kids and its all about wins at the high school level and I disagree. As a coach it's your job to prepare these kids for the next level and life. Same as teachers who are preparing these kids for their futures. What good would it be if a teacher didn't challenge the students and gave them all A's and beat on their chest about how all the students got A's? I don't want a coach or teacher like that for my kids. I want someone who is going to challenge my kids both physically and mentally because life after high school is full of challenges. But I think we are both on the same page

So the ones that are on the high school team that want to play at the college level get left behind so the coach and the school can have a winning record by playing a cup cake schedule? So a kid should take all the easy classes at school and not challenge themselves because they are just kids and that way when they graduate they can say how high their GPA is? I say challenge yourself in everything you do and that will prepare you for real life lessons.

 

 

I never suggested that a high school team shouldn't be challenged. However, please don't take that out of context. Being challenged and being demolished are two totally different things. I have said all along that teams should play other teams that are at THEIR level. Don't play as you say "cupcakes" but don't allow your ego to get in the way of a wise decision by scheduling the #1 team in the state just so you can say "yeah we played the best in the state" even though they beat you 25-0 with their JV team! And yes, I feel the same way about school and classes; challenge yourself BUT if you struggle in pre-algebra, don't take calculus the next semester because you are setting yourself up for failure and why you would ever do that to a kid is beyond me. There is nothing wrong with taking classes or playing teams that are at your level, regardless of whatever level that may be.

 

As far as kids being left behind that want to play college... Well as unfortunate as it may be, my answer would be yes, there are several cases where a high school program does not have the kids, coaching nor the contacts to help a player get onto a college team. That is why travel ball is so important. Get on a high level travel team that will play in the right tournaments and showcases, go to camps and get hooked up with a coach that actually has some contacts. This will allow your daughter to get recruited regardless of how bad her high school team is.

 

I've always said smaller schools are hard to coach at because they have such a limited number of players. The coach is left with having to keep, in some cases, players that have never played the game. So the entire off-season and spring, the coach has to spend his time teaching the absolute basics and teaching the girls to protect themselves rather than getting into advance skill development. It is like if you were a teacher and you had 20 kids in your class, 10 are ready for algebra but you have 10 that can't do simple subtraction yet, as a teacher you have to teach at the pace of the slower group. Now obviously that is why they don't put this broad of spectrum of students in the same class, but coaching at the high school level you sometimes don't have a choice. You do have a broad spectrum of players...so you must make sure your players can, at a minimum, protect themselves.

 

You may disagree with everything I have said but I will stand by my comment that playing the best teams is not necessarily a good thing. You should push your kids, on the field and in the classroom, to be the best they can be but don't make goals so unrealistic that they are guaranteed to fail. Teach them how to win and achieve realistic goals. Setting them up to lose a game 25-0 is demoralizing for the kid and this is done so a coach can boast about how they play the best around...its a joke and the joke is on them.

I never suggested that a high school team shouldn't be challenged. However, please don't take that out of context. Being challenged and being demolished are two totally different things. I have said all along that teams should play other teams that are at THEIR level. Don't play as you say "cupcakes" but don't allow your ego to get in the way of a wise decision by scheduling the #1 team in the state just so you can say "yeah we played the best in the state" even though they beat you 25-0 with their JV team! And yes, I feel the same way about school and classes; challenge yourself BUT if you struggle in pre-algebra, don't take calculus the next semester because you are setting yourself up for failure and why you would ever do that to a kid is beyond me. There is nothing wrong with taking classes or playing teams that are at your level, regardless of whatever level that may be.

 

As far as kids being left behind that want to play college... Well as unfortunate as it may be, my answer would be yes, there are several cases where a high school program does not have the kids, coaching nor the contacts to help a player get onto a college team. That is why travel ball is so important. Get on a high level travel team that will play in the right tournaments and showcases, go to camps and get hooked up with a coach that actually has some contacts. This will allow your daughter to get recruited regardless of how bad her high school team is.

 

I've always said smaller schools are hard to coach at because they have such a limited number of players. The coach is left with having to keep, in some cases, players that have never played the game. So the entire off-season and spring, the coach has to spend his time teaching the absolute basics and teaching the girls to protect themselves rather than getting into advance skill development. It is like if you were a teacher and you had 20 kids in your class, 10 are ready for algebra but you have 10 that can't do simple subtraction yet, as a teacher you have to teach at the pace of the slower group. Now obviously that is why they don't put this broad of spectrum of students in the same class, but coaching at the high school level you sometimes don't have a choice. You do have a broad spectrum of players...so you must make sure your players can, at a minimum, protect themselves.

 

You may disagree with everything I have said but I will stand by my comment that playing the best teams is not necessarily a good thing. You should push your kids, on the field and in the classroom, to be the best they can be but don't make goals so unrealistic that they are guaranteed to fail. Teach them how to win and achieve realistic goals. Setting them up to lose a game 25-0 is demoralizing for the kid and this is done so a coach can boast about how they play the best around...its a joke and the joke is on them.

Gotcha. I thought you were saying to play for wins. I get the summerball thing. Now I'm not saying if you are a lower tier team to go play the best in the state, that would be insane but play lower tier teams and middle of the pack teams. I think memyselfandi was making a point about average or above average teams scheduling lots of lower level teams to bring their record up and stats up I think we agree on it, I misinterpreted what you were trying to say in your 1st post.

I never suggested that a high school team shouldn't be challenged. However, please don't take that out of context. Being challenged and being demolished are two totally different things. I have said all along that teams should play other teams that are at THEIR level. Don't play as you say "cupcakes" but don't allow your ego to get in the way of a wise decision by scheduling the #1 team in the state just so you can say "yeah we played the best in the state" even though they beat you 25-0 with their JV team! And yes, I feel the same way about school and classes; challenge yourself BUT if you struggle in pre-algebra, don't take calculus the next semester because you are setting yourself up for failure and why you would ever do that to a kid is beyond me. There is nothing wrong with taking classes or playing teams that are at your level, regardless of whatever level that may be.

 

As far as kids being left behind that want to play college... Well as unfortunate as it may be, my answer would be yes, there are several cases where a high school program does not have the kids, coaching nor the contacts to help a player get onto a college team. That is why travel ball is so important. Get on a high level travel team that will play in the right tournaments and showcases, go to camps and get hooked up with a coach that actually has some contacts. This will allow your daughter to get recruited regardless of how bad her high school team is.

 

I've always said smaller schools are hard to coach at because they have such a limited number of players. The coach is left with having to keep, in some cases, players that have never played the game. So the entire off-season and spring, the coach has to spend his time teaching the absolute basics and teaching the girls to protect themselves rather than getting into advance skill development. It is like if you were a teacher and you had 20 kids in your class, 10 are ready for algebra but you have 10 that can't do simple subtraction yet, as a teacher you have to teach at the pace of the slower group. Now obviously that is why they don't put this broad of spectrum of students in the same class, but coaching at the high school level you sometimes don't have a choice. You do have a broad spectrum of players...so you must make sure your players can, at a minimum, protect themselves.

 

You may disagree with everything I have said but I will stand by my comment that playing the best teams is not necessarily a good thing. You should push your kids, on the field and in the classroom, to be the best they can be but don't make goals so unrealistic that they are guaranteed to fail. Teach them how to win and achieve realistic goals. Setting them up to lose a game 25-0 is demoralizing for the kid and this is done so a coach can boast about how they play the best around...its a joke and the joke is on them.

 

This is the caes with quite a few teams. Also, you have some coaches that are teachers that are nothing more than "glorified" baby-sitters looking to make some extra cash or have no fastpitch knowledge, and this does a program no favors as well.

Well done, Harry! :thumb: 100% agree.

 

Thanks, Randy. As I mentioned, I know that's probably not a majority opinion (well, not publicly anyway), but it's the truth IMO.