2018 Schedule

[OnTheBlack]

I'm a baseball coach. If a father came up to me and said I want to take my son to a pro baseball game so that he can see Mike Trout live. I would tell them thank you for doing so and I'll set up some individual practice time with him to work on some skills we did during the practice he missed. Can't replace those memories and what he will learn from going to see something like that.

 

I wish there were more coaches with that attitude. The two head coaches I've coached under take it like a personal offense if a kid misses practice to go to a Brewer game.

 

A lot of it depends on what level of baseball you're coaching/playing. When I was younger(much younger) I played on a traveling team that played about 70 games a year and played in about 8 tournaments around the Mid-West. If you missed a practice or game, you missed an equal amount of practices or games as long as you gave advanced notice. I was also a wrestler, so I usually had to miss a couple weeks for individual Nationals and team Nationals. This was explained before the season started so it was pretty black and white.

 

In HS, if you had to miss a single practice, as long as you gave enough of a warning you were fine. You probably weren't starting, but you would sit a couple innings and then come in.

 

When I coached kids, I just asked for the parents to let me know before the season when they were going to miss time for family vacations. If they told me at the last minute, then they were sitting. It's a commitment.

 

I can say when I coached HS, I definitely wouldn't have been cool with someone missing practice or games to go to a Brewers game. Again, you made a commitment to your team. So I guess it's the level of commitment. If you're paying 1500 dollars to be on a travel team and playing all over, you want to make sure the kids are there. I know it's just a game, but it's a game that 18-20 other kids are counting on you to be there for and you want to show up and perform well. If you're playing Fresh or JV, missing a game isn't that big of a deal. If you're on varsity, it should be your priority over watching your favorite player. And if it is, then I guess you just deal with the consequences.

 

But everyone has their own opinions and sometimes seeing a future HOF'er to go to a game with your dad is worth sitting another(or practice). I definitely wouldn't set up a personal practice with a kid. Good on you for doing so, but it's already a big commitment and a lot of money spent on hotel rooms and driving around. I feel like that would be making me as a coach pay for the kid wanting to miss a game/practice.

[Patrick425]

My son played summer HS baseball (he graduated in 2016). So, he had a lot more conflicts with not being able to make it to Brewer games. We had to exchange and sell several games from our 20 game package. His coach (and most HS coaches that I'm aware of) and teammates would have not been to keen on him missing a HS game to take in a MLB game, and I completely get it. There are many MLB games to choose from, there are only a finite amount of HS games. Also, my son, who is a huge Brewer fan (watches many games on his laptop in college) would have never wanted to miss one of his HS games for a Brewer game.

 

On a side note, my son was an assistant coach for JV at his HS this past summer. He is getting wind that next year will most likely be the last year of summer HS baseball in WI. There have been lots of rumors about this over the years, but this one seems to be on pretty good footing. It's disappointing for my son since he will not be able to do coaching for Spring baseball (as he will be away at college), but at the same time he may be busy with an internship at that point anyways.

[jerichoholicninja]

On a side note, my son was an assistant coach for JV at his HS this past summer. He is getting wind that next year will most likely be the last year of summer HS baseball in WI. There have been lots of rumors about this over the years, but this one seems to be on pretty good footing. It's disappointing for my son since he will not be able to do coaching for Spring baseball (as he will be away at college), but at the same time he may be busy with an internship at that point anyways.

 

Not to derail the thread but this is probably a good thing. The summer schools in our area struggle to field a team. In fact, a couple years ago a school folded its team in the middle of the season because so many kids just stopped showing up. We just had two schools that were always summer ball join our conference where they almost never had a JV team and now have had a JV team every year since switching.

[chuckiehacks]

I loved summer baseball in high school. No worries about weather, you could still play a spring sport, and I think one summer I didn't even get a summer job, so it was pretty much nirvana to a high school kid - baseball & sleeping in, with nights free.

 

It does hurt numbers however, and school and fan support is pretty much non-existent over the summer so a switch to spring is probably inevitable at some point.

[3and2Fastball]

The top players on high school teams that do summer ball don't play for their high school lately (Jarred Kelenic is an example of that. By the way have you guys seen Kelenic play? Holy Wow he is a special talent!)..... Joining the majority of Wisconsin in Spring Ball is probably a good thing.

 

I think next summer we'll try to get to a Cubs game or two at Miller Park

[jerichoholicninja]

The top players on high school teams that do summer ball don't play for their high school lately (Jarred Kelenic is an example of that. By the way have you guys seen Kelenic play? Holy Wow he is a special talent!)..... Joining the majority of Wisconsin in Spring Ball is probably a good thing.

 

I think next summer we'll try to get to a Cubs game or two at Miller Park

 

I hadn't thought about that and it really makes sense for the player to not play high school ball if they're good enough for a D1 scholarship. I think the high school schedule is limited to like 24 games (at least for Spring) while traveling teams in the summer are playing 30 or probably much more. Plus the competition is going to be so much better.