Baseballinmyblood

So it sounds like no one internally put in for the position?

I'm assuming from his name "LCDAWGS19" that he is from Lawrence County?

I'll be honest with you, I don't keep up with the 15th that often, but I have always been a fan of softball. I have family from Louisa so I always kept up with the baseball and football as well as softball. I am beyond shocked the coach hasn't done more than he has? Two years ago they won 24 games with I don't think any seniors and a bunch of underclassmen. They didn't make it to region but everyone seemed to chalk that up to youth. Then last season a below .500 record and again didn't make it to the region. If they had lost a bunch of seniors I'd understand but there's no excuse for a team to go backwards like that. I had the understanding this was the coach they'd wanted for years and he was suppose to be their savior. Anytime a team gets worse like that its nobody's fault but the coaching staff. I was wondering if you had any insight as to why this happened? I apologize for being so blunt but I am just really confused by it?

The only downfall to that is the risk of a coach with no track record. If he doesn't have experience winning then its always a gamble as to whether or not he will win or build a successful program? St. Henry does have potential to be a school with a dominant baseball program and I was hoping they'd bring somebody in that has experience building a winning atmosphere at at least one school? Its better if you have somebody that has done it at more than one place, but I know that is very hard to find.

That's actually the second person I've heard say Schmidt was on the verge of termination when he left.

That makes sense I guess. So the second interviews are over and we're waiting on announcement?

I'm confused? If the choice has been made then why the charade with the second interview?

Local guy?

Unfortunately the NCAA doesn't allow D3 schools to give athletic scholarships. However, they do allow them to give "awards." Which is basically a substitution for a scholarship. How it differs is a starting pitcher or your starting catcher or whomever it may be can't get anymore of an award than say a chelo player. They allow certain people to hand those out but they're very strict on making things equal when it comes to that. All extracurricular activities are on a level playing field. This does kind of hurt them talent-wise, but they can get money. Personally I think they are on the bottom tier when it comes to competing and idk how I would even rate them? Maybe look something like this just off the top of what I've seen over the years. 1. Division 1 2. JUCO 3. Division 2 4. NAIA 5. Division 3 **I THINK DIVISION 2 AND JUCO ARE VERY CLOSE. IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE PROGRAM. I know many JUCO teams that could beat D1 programs, but I also know many NAIA programs that could beat D1 programs as well and I also know JUCO teams that could get beat by D3 schools. I'm not sure if you could rate it?

One thing about your previous post, D1 schools are allowed to have JV programs unless things have changed in the past few years? Financially it doesn't make sense because the money they have they normally will feed it back into their varsity program. Division 2 is still at 9 with scholarships, which is almost three less than D1. Obviously D3 has no scholarships, but most are very cheap. NAIA schools can give 12 scholarships and then JUCO is basically a free for all with 24. However, that doesn't mean that all of these schools are fully funded? For example, a NAIA program may not be fully funded, so their school only gives them 10 of the 12 scholarships. This happens a lot in the NAIA. Only nine scholarships for D2 is a big reason why competitively there isn't a difference in D2 and NAIA or JUCO. I know several JUCO programs that could play on the D1 level, but you can give every single player money though. Good coaches will always find a way to make 12 scholarships cover the majority of your team. There are lots and lots of money out there and other financial aid programs that coaches can add to a partial scholarship and get most of their school paid for. I think it would be a great experiment if we threw several D1 teams in a tournament with say Faulkner, Lewis-Clark State, and maybe Walters State and made them all switch jerseys out, and see who won? I think it'd be more interesting than people realize.

I agree. Bryce Harper is a pretty crazy story. He quit Las Vegas High School after his sophomore year and got his GED which made him eligible for the 2010 draft. The main reason he chose that JUCO school to play at is because they use wooden bats during their conference games. Wilson Ramos better be glad the Nationals decided to make him an outfielder because he is probably one of the best catchers in the league and Ramos would have been sent down if Harper decided to stay as a catcher. He also pitched a couple games while he was in junior college. He is freakishly good and a pure five tool player. Not many have that label. He plays like his pants are on fire. I never realized Pujols was primarily a shortstop? He played shortstop for one season at a community college after he finished high school in December of his senior. The only difference in the two really is Pujols had enough credits to where he didn't have to get his GED. That is pretty amazing when you're that confident in your skills you can do things like that. JUCO schools are used a lot for major D1 prospects when their grades are not up to snuff. Several universities have relationships with JUCOs in which they use them kind of like a minor league. Just as an example, Potomac State Junior College and WVU have that kind of relationship. 90% of Potomac players attend WVU after their two years is up. Kind of makes you wonder when Bluegrass Technical School is going to start a team? Might as well.

I was under the impression that Graue was a baseball guy? Also, didn't Gish use to coach baseball? You'd think it'd have some sort of focus from them? Hiring people bc their name is known in northern KY doesn't seem to be working. I say its time to widen Graue's horizon with a better hire. There has to be a young experienced successful coach that would want the Saint Henry job?

I used legion as an example. Also, if you go back and reread my posts I was very clear about the importance of kids playing throughout the summer. It is a must in terms of preparing them for a gruelling college season. The only summer teams I am talking about are the ones that charge an ungodly amount of money with no real promise of anything. And if that is like how your team is then I would expect you to disagree with it. There are great summer programs and their are some that have no business being around the sport. The latter is who I am referring to.

Read more carefully before you shoot off. I'm referring to pitch counts. Those kids should only be throwing change ups at that age when it comes to off-speed. I'm talking about high school regarding their rest system for pitchers. Nothing is off-base that I've said. It may be different from your opinion, but its an observation I've spent over 25 years in baseball developing.

Little League got it right by going by pitch count. Idk y some still go by innings? Kid throws 60+ pitches in three innings and has the same rest as a kid that throws 20 pitches in three innings. Not sure where the logic is with that?

Unfortunately now in most situations you'll have to pay something. I even know high school summer teams that want to keep their high school squad playing together will charge them something, which is crazy to me. There are several high school coaches that know of his players playing for other summer teams but will still make them play for their high school summer teams. Then you get into a situation where a kid hypothetically pitches seven innings for his summer team tuesday and then on Wednesday catches seven innings for his high school team, never communicates with his high school coach and ends up pitching again in a couple days for his high school team also. Neither coach knows so the kid ends up pitching twice a week and participates in showcases and events all summer and fall. By the time January comes around his arm is completely dead and now he has to start preparing for another high school season to start. The system is flawed and I wish there was a way to protect the player more. He's a young kid that thinks he's invincible. Majority of kids will not turn down a game they can play in. So the adults need to do a better job policing these situations. If not, its going to go from 1-5 pitchers getting tommy john surgery to 1-3 very quickly.

I completely agree with you. As a former retired recruiter at both the college level and the professional level, I know what they look for. I know when they get a lot of stats it is more of a red flag than anything. Even videos are not looked at as much as people believe unless they are on the D2, NAIA, JUCO, etc. I do disagree with you regarding the events. It is very hard to evaluate a player in a showcase setting. There can be enough there to prompt another look in a game setting but that's it. Several recruiters like to see kids in a practice atmosphere as well. Over the years I have been to a plethora of practices to see how kids interact with their teammates. The media age has changed recruiting. It is a money making avenue and that is the only thing I am preaching against. There are summer teams that don't cost much and can get you a lot of top notch competition to compete against. However, for every one of those there is five more summer programs that will cost you 4k before they even tell you who they will play and where. Those are the programs I'd like to see filtered out. They prey on young insecure kids whose parents will do anything to help them and unfortunately they do not know any better. College and professional recruiters like to see game atmospheres with great competition but the middle of the road player is not able to play in those scenerios. So then they are left with the only choice of mortgaging their homes for their kids to play summer ball. All I am saying is that is not necessary. A lot of times you do not have to wait on your coach to help. You as a player can take that step. Coaches appreciation that more than you know. Coaches also know if they are at a game with two teams full of D1 talent and they are coaching in the NAIA, they may be in the wrong place. Those coaches have to work harder and those coaches will rely on video to initiate a visit. Those are the coaches that will find somebody in the area they trust to go watch a couple of games and practices to see if its worth them coming in to town to see them. More than not players seeking that level will be invited to come workout or go through practices and go from there. I just do not want to see the mid-level player feeling like they have to fork over that much money to get seen. It is not always necessary.

Are you wanting them to be talked about on message boards or recruited? There's a difference and they both do not go hand in hand. They can be recruited at a high level without going to these events. They may not get talked about on here bc there names are not on a list, but that is more for parents and kids' egoes.

I agree with that too. All I'm saying is most would get it regardless of who they played for.

Haha! Touché

Non-members were not added in to the mix? I was under the impression Perfect Game had an unbiased system when it came to rating players and teams? They have membership restrictions??

Anyone have any updates on this coaching position???

I agree with you from the recruiting aspect as to seeing multiple kids at once. However, saying kids do not get recruited from high school is not correct and is not even close. If that has been your experience then the coach at that high school did not do what he was supposed to for his players. If you have talent you will be found. That is not even adding to the fact of what the coach and player can do to help that situation. It is not difficult to contact a coach and ask to come work out for them. D1 talent do not need to do that, but things like that go a lot further with a college coach than what summer program he plays for. I do agree over the years these teams have developed a reputation of having great talent, but that is not the only reason. It may have given that coach an extra game to watch him, but there are a plethora of different ways other than forking out your life savings to play for a summer team. I see your points and they are valid, and all I am saying is I don't believed the summer teams were the only reason. I guess we can just disagree on that.

I'm not saying its bad across the board. However, several kids and parents are fed a fairy tale and end up with nothing to show for it, and 9 times out of 10 they'd get the same exposure if they hadn't played on one of those teams.

So you can honestly say those kids would never have gotten scholarships if they hadn't played for those teams? Unless you can say that there's no proof in anything. The only thing you can prove is they have players committed to colleges, but unless you can say they wouldn't have been recruited without that team, then you're wrong. Good talent will always be found regardless.