WIAA ends summer baseball

[paul253]

I was wondering if anyone had anyone had any thoughts on this. I believe in 2019 all of the HS teams will be playing spring ball.

 

When I played I played summer baseball. To be honest, I can’t fathom why anyone would think spring baseball in Wisconsin is a good idea. It starts in early April when snow is still a legit possibility and when rain and ridiculously cold weather is still likely. My dad coached a spring team awhile back and I went to the some of the games. It was miserable. Cold. Rainy. Windy. It’s not weather meant for baseball. I also brought my young son to some games at the local HS last summer. I’m wouldn’t do that with games in April in 40 degree weather.

 

Additionally, switching it to spring means conflicts with tennis and track. I played tennis too and had we played spring baseball obviously I couldn’t have done both.

 

I’ve heard some rumblings about how the really good players don’t play in summer because they are with their traveling teams. I hope this isn’t the reasoning because those players are so few and far between the benefit would be extremely minimal.

 

Anyway, anyone have any thoughts of sprig cos summer baseball?

[pacopete4]

Among growing up and playing in Superior, WI (spring ball) I coached up there for six seasons, and now in Iowa (summer ball) for three seasons. I will take summer baseball and it isn't even close. It allows kids here to go out for the track team (football coaches love this), soccer, or golf during their spring and then to focus on baseball in the summer. Can't tell you how much players in Superior we lost to the track team alone that could've made a difference for us. They then go out and play legion baseball in the summer and do pretty well. It was annoying on top of having to deal with the absolutely lousy weather.

 

Now I will say you do have some kids that will use the "well, I want a summer" excuse for not playing but those really aren't the kids you want anyway.

[sveumrules]

We were spring for my freshman year & summer for sophmore through senior. Summer was waaaaay better. More games, better weather.

 

Funny story. One year it was blazing hot for our sectional game. Our coach was so clueless he's reading off the lineup before the game & announces a player that hadn't even showed up.

 

Another good one was the time we asked our coach if any college coaches or scouts ever got in touch with him. (Not an entirely unreasonable question as we had a future MLB player & another five or six that played some sort of college ball.) His response, "Oh yeah, just the other day I got something from UW-Minnesota."

[pacopete4]

That's hilarious. The biggest thing you mentioned is more games. It is great to have the ability to get close to 40 games in during the summer.

[BrewCrew02]

I played both and liked the spring aspect for high school baseball. Yes the weather wasn't always the best but you got to start playing baseball earlier in the year. Then for the summer a majority of us would play for local traveling teams such as a Legion ball club. It essentially added about 15-20 games over the course of the year and kept me playing baseball from March until August. Wish they had a fall ball league back when I played like they do now.

[jerichoholicninja]

As someone who played spring and has coached spring and has spoken with people who played and coached summer I can say spring works better. Believe me, the weather sucks in spring. I'm actually glad the first few games get snowed out because then I don't have to stand around in the 30 degree weather with wind chills in the teens for 3 hours. From what I've been told from those involved in summer baseball, there is very little commitment from the players because it's summer. Kids have jobs and vacations and other things going on that you don't have as much of during spring. If they would just push the spring season back a couple weeks that would fix a lot of the concerns about weather. A few years ago our AD talked with us baseball coaches about possibly switching to summer and we were fully against it.

[pacopete4]

A hybrid spring/summer probably would be in the best interest of the game. Doubtful the WIAA makes the appropriate adjustments though.

[3and2Fastball]

Travel Ball has taken over the summer for Baseball in Wisconsin.

[jerichoholicninja]

Travel Ball has taken over the summer for Baseball in Wisconsin.

 

This is unfortunately true. The best players, that really want to play, play travel ball. If they can afford the monetary and time commitments. Then you have your second tier players or players who just can't commit to 40 games in two months are left to play on crappy rec league/county league teams with kids that just don't give a crap and it does nothing for them.

[3and2Fastball]

Travel Ball has taken over the summer for Baseball in Wisconsin.

 

This is unfortunately true. The best players, that really want to play, play travel ball. If they can afford the monetary and time commitments. Then you have your second tier players or players who just can't commit to 40 games in two months are left to play on crappy rec league/county league teams with kids that just don't give a crap and it does nothing for them.

 

A vast majority of the 2nd Tier players are also playing travel ball all summer, too.

 

On the plus side, this development eliminates the stranglehold that high school coaches have on a players' future & development. There are of course some great high school coaches in Wisconsin, but there's a lot of really poor high school coaches too.

 

Players now have the opportunity to get trained by former pros and former college players, and don't have to rely on only their high school program to get seen and get opportunities to play college Baseball. With travel ball & showcase opportunities, kids have lots of options to get better and advance.

[pacopete4]

Pay to play era. If you have the dough, you can get on just about any team, no matter the sport. It's become a money-maker for a lot of these travel teams, AAA nonsense.

[jerichoholicninja]

Travel Ball has taken over the summer for Baseball in Wisconsin.

 

This is unfortunately true. The best players, that really want to play, play travel ball. If they can afford the monetary and time commitments. Then you have your second tier players or players who just can't commit to 40 games in two months are left to play on crappy rec league/county league teams with kids that just don't give a crap and it does nothing for them.

 

A vast majority of the 2nd Tier players are also playing travel ball all summer, too.

 

Not in my area. Only the absolute best play travel ball. The next level of players most likely won't play anywhere in summer.

[paul253]

I guess I didn’t realize that many Wisconsin high school kids are playing summer ball. Only a few get drafted each year and a fair number play college ball on scholarship, mainly at smaller schools like UWM. I always assumed most of the good players ended up playing at places like Oshkosh and Whitewater. Does travel ball really make that big a difference in terms of their development?

[jerichoholicninja]

I guess I didn’t realize that many Wisconsin high school kids are playing summer ball. Only a few get drafted each year and a fair number play college ball on scholarship, mainly at smaller schools like UWM. I always assumed most of the good players ended up playing at places like Oshkosh and Whitewater. Does travel ball really make that big a difference in terms of their development?

 

It might, it might not. But you're certainly not even going to be considered for a scholarship or spot on a D1 or most D2 schools without playing it.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

The players that are playing travel ball are playing all year long. My girls play travel basketball and that is pretty much all year round with all the different leagues and clinics going on. They have probably 2 full months off a year. Most coaches don’t mind if kids miss some of the practices as long as they are playing others sports. My girls basketball coaches didn’t mind that my girls missed practice to play soccer games. They know my kids are running and staying in shape and will be ready for the season.

 

I have said before that high schools could get rid of most athletics, because if a child isn’t playing in all these things they may make a high school team but probably won’t play.

 

I wouldn’t mind summer baseball if the freshman year for baseball started before they start high school. Have the season end right before football practices start in August. Too many kids in their senior year now would rather work than play baseball before going to college.

[Hammer]

It was touched on earlier but travel leagues do afford the players much better coaching in general. I also disagree with the pay fees and get on any team you want. Those teams still require very, very good baseball players to be on their team. You can't just buy your way on...

[homer]

It'd be nice if there was some indoor facility that teams could share during April at least. Kinda like Petit Center but for baseball. Yes, I realize the ceiling would have to be really tall.

[3and2Fastball]

I guess I didn’t realize that many Wisconsin high school kids are playing summer ball. Only a few get drafted each year and a fair number play college ball on scholarship, mainly at smaller schools like UWM. I always assumed most of the good players ended up playing at places like Oshkosh and Whitewater. Does travel ball really make that big a difference in terms of their development?

 

Yes, because they are competing for spots, even on D3 rosters, with players from other states who are playing high level travel Baseball.

[3and2Fastball]

It was touched on earlier but travel leagues do afford the players much better coaching in general. I also disagree with the pay fees and get on any team you want. Those teams still require very, very good baseball players to be on their team. You can't just buy your way on...

 

Exactly. It is extremely difficult to make one of the best high school age travel teams in the Milwaukee area (Hitters, Stiks, Prospects). The competition for roster spots is fierce.

[pacopete4]

It was touched on earlier but travel leagues do afford the players much better coaching in general. I also disagree with the pay fees and get on any team you want. Those teams still require very, very good baseball players to be on their team. You can't just buy your way on...

 

Exactly. It is extremely difficult to make one of the best high school age travel teams in the Milwaukee area (Hitters, Stiks, Prospects). The competition for roster spots is fierce.

 

Might be hard to make some of the “best” travel teams but that doesn’t stop anyone from finding a travel team to play on.

[3and2Fastball]

I think part of reason that the WIAA ended summer Baseball is an attempt to stop high school players from only playing travel ball. There's been an increasing amount of kids from schools that play spring high school Baseball that don't play for their high school and instead just play in the Hitters Spring League and/or the Perfect Game spring league in Iowa.

[Hammer]

I think part of reason that the WIAA ended summer Baseball is an attempt to stop high school players from only playing travel ball. There's been an increasing amount of kids from schools that play spring high school Baseball that don't play for their high school and instead just play in the Hitters Spring League and/or the Perfect Game spring league in Iowa.

 

When my son gets to high school he will play whatever league we want him to play. The WIAA will not have any say in that...

[sauveb]

Travel ball had nothing to do with the end of WIAA summer ball. There weren't enough schools interested in playing summer baseball to warrant a tournament series. The WIAA has minimums for sports to have a tournament series and summer baseball fell below that number.

[Samurai Bucky]

Travel ball had nothing to do with the end of WIAA summer ball. There weren't enough schools interested in playing summer baseball to warrant a tournament series. The WIAA has minimums for sports to have a tournament series and summer baseball fell below that number.

Well... not directly. Schools like Oak Creek and Greendale moved to spring ball because of the number of kids playing travel ball in the summer. That reduced the number of teams and then forced the hand of the WIAA.

[JohnBriggs12]

Back when I grew up in Fond du Lac, the HS baseball season in the spring was one thing, followed by American Legion in the summer often with nearly identical rosters. The state American Legion tournament was a huge deal, bigger than the summer HS tournament.