WIAA ends summer baseball

[PlayerHader]

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...

 

I don’t think the post you quoted was worded perfectly, and I’m pretty sure you took it the wrong way. The WIAA isn’t telling any kids when to play. They are responding to schools who are switching to the spring season because they lose summer players to traveling teams.

[PlayerHader]

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...

 

I don’t think the post you quoted was worded perfectly, and I’m pretty sure you took it the wrong way. The WIAA isn’t telling any kids when to play. They are responding to schools who are switching to the spring season because they lose summer players to traveling teams.

[CrewFanBrewMan69]

My HS had summer baseball, I absolutely loved it and we were a small school (around 240 kids total) there's no way we could've had a baseball team if it was in spring with so many kids that also did track and golf, me and maybe 6 others were the only guys who did strictly baseball. With this news I know my school is going to have to combine with a few others in the area in order to keep a program and be able to do spring ball. Is what it is, especially with travel/legion ball but from just a strictly HS perspective starting in May and ending in late July would seem to be the ideal season.

 

I can't say I pay much attention to HS baseball anymore but I'd have to imagine with how Spring is going most couldn't have played too many games at this point and have to be close to almost canceling seasons.

[3and2Fastball]

High School teams in the Madison area have played 2 games so far. This entire week is likely snowed out but we didn't get nearly as much snow as much of the rest of the state, hopefully there'll be more games on Saturday or certainly next week.

 

Meanwhile the Hitters Spring League (travel team league in the Milwaukee suburbs with the ability to play indoors in inclement weather) has played 26 Games already this spring! Makes for some tough choices moving forwards for kids who are pressured to play for their high school but want to play more Baseball!

[paul253]

Weather like we’ve had the last two days and going forward this week is why I don’t understand why teams are interested in spring ball.

 

Plus, it sucks for kids who have life outside of baseball. My school didn’t seem to really have anyone playing travel ball so had they chosen to move to the spring for that reason pretty much anyone interested in track or tennis would have been SOL. That’s if we would have even had a team as both my junior and senior year my varsity baseball team only had 11 players.

[jerichoholicninja]

There is only spring softball in Wisconsin. It's starts a week earlier than baseball, ends a week earlier than baseball, and there are just as many summer options for girls to play as baseball. Yet there is no controversy there.

[stoutdude04]

There is only spring softball in Wisconsin. It's starts a week earlier than baseball, ends a week earlier than baseball, and there are just as many summer options for girls to play as baseball. Yet there is no controversy there.

 

As a coach, I know part of the reason is because there are so many options for boys in the spring, so there are less boys that go out. I remember when I was in high school I had to choose between tennis and baseball. It was a tough decision and I would have loved for baseball to be in the summer.

[MrTPlush]

This thread is a classic, “This would suck for me, so I don’t like it and it doesn’t make sense.” Big picture everyone....big picture. We will live in a frozen wasteland that makes HS baseball a disaster. It’s just when you would like that disaster to happen. Spring ball makes way more sense as a whole vs. summer baseball.

[paul253]

Spring ball makes way more sense as a whole vs. summer baseball

 

Would you see to elaborate? I don’t understand why playing baseball in between snowstorms makes way more sense but I’m willing to listen.

[stoutdude04]

Spring ball makes way more sense as a whole vs. summer baseball

 

Would you see to elaborate? I don’t understand why playing baseball in between snowstorms makes way more sense but I’m willing to listen.

 

I am curious as well. One part of the post makes it seem like he is advocating for summer ball, but then mentions spring ball at the end.

[trwi7]

The earliest game for summer baseball this year is May 23rd. State is July 20th. Spring baseball has been going on for almost a month with state June 12th-14th. Seems to me that starting in late May makes a lot more sense than having had games go on for 3 weeks already, considering the state is buried under 5-30 inches of snow currently, depending on where you are. And even when that snow melts the fields are going to be unplayable until they dry out.

[pacopete4]

What about a hybrid of sorts? Games begin May 1st (this could give our athletes a much-needed break after a long winter sports season) and the State Tournament is the week/weekend before the 4th of July. That would give two months to play 20-25 games plus playoffs and the whole month for travel teams to get in their tournaments before football kicks up.

[MrTPlush]

Difference is the baseball season currently ends for any team not making sectionals before school is out. If you play in sectionals it’s one week of the summer where you have baseball.

 

The whole snow thing is so vastly overblown. This is one year that is a major problem. People act like this happens every year, not even close. Only games ever canceled at the start of the season for me we’re non conference games. In four years there was never a major problem with snow and I lived near Eau Claire...pretty far north.

 

Where are all these summer baseball teams? Are they mostly located way up north? That is the only area I can imagine snow being a problem on a constant basis when it comes to games.

[pacopete4]

From Superior - The only summer baseball team I knew of while going through was Ashland. And they seemed to switch back and forth between spring and summer depending on the crop of players they had coming in. Otherwise, I'm not super sure on any other team from the north playing summer baseball.

 

Superior now has an all turf field. So they don't lose many games, if any, anymore. In fact, they make money from charging other high schools and the three local colleges in the area to use their field.

[jerichoholicninja]

What about a hybrid of sorts? Games begin May 1st (this could give our athletes a much-needed break after a long winter sports season) and the State Tournament is the week/weekend before the 4th of July. That would give two months to play 20-25 games plus playoffs and the whole month for travel teams to get in their tournaments before football kicks up.

 

I was told by our AD that this has been brought up a few times but has little support. I don't understand why though.

[paul253]

The whole snow thing is so vastly overblown. This is one year that is a major problem. People act like this happens every year, not even close

 

I don’t think it’s really a “snow” thing as much as it is a “weather” thing. We can all agree it rains a lot more in April and May then it does in June and July. We can also agree that the temperature is usually significantly lower in April and May then it is in June and July. Personally I just think it would suck to play when it’s 40 degrees out and windy. I’ve played outdoor volleyball in that weather and it’s just plain miserable. And volleyball has a lot less standing around not doing anything then base does.

 

I get that weather isn’t necessarily an overriding factor. I just am curious then if not weather what the overriding factors are?

 

Where are all these summer baseball teams

 

They were mostly in the Milwaukee area.

[3and2Fastball]

Hybrid season wouldn't work as the best players all play Travel Ball all summer long starting in June

 

This year is worse than usual, but April Baseball in Wisconsin is usually a disaster. Lots of rainouts or games called due to cold. Or you are playing in 45 degree weather. Then in May you have so many make up games that your team rarely practices and pitcher's arms are stretched to the limit with teams playing 5+ games a week. (It is extremely rare to see a high school coach who protects pitcher's arms. They'll have a kid pitch 80+ pitches in a game and then go right back to playing 3B or SS the next day. Completely ridiculous)

 

Over the next several years you will see an increasing amount of high school players not playing for their high school and instead playing in an indoor spring league.

 

A few enterprising businessmen will start building sportsdomes in southern Wisconsin, and teams will get their games in, indoors... But that is 10-15 years away

[pacopete4]

Hybrid season wouldn't work as the best players all play Travel Ball all summer long starting in June

 

Couldn't travel ball teams adjust their schedules to the new format? You would give the opportunity to kids to play high school baseball and still have plenty of summer to get in your tournaments for travel ball.

[3and2Fastball]

Hybrid season wouldn't work as the best players all play Travel Ball all summer long starting in June

 

Couldn't travel ball teams adjust their schedules to the new format? You would give the opportunity to kids to play high school baseball and still have plenty of summer to get in your tournaments for travel ball.

 

They wouldn't do that. Way too much $$$ on the line. And the players want to go to the tournaments that the college scouts attend

 

The bigger joke about youth/high school Baseball in Wisconsin is that in a lot of school districts, if you play football, you really only have the month of June for Baseball. HS football starts up 3x a week practices in July!

 

The high school athlete who is serious about Baseball in Wisconsin is really disadvantaged as compared to much of the rest of the country, and has to make tough choices as a result.

[jerichoholicninja]

Hybrid season wouldn't work as the best players all play Travel Ball all summer long starting in June

 

Couldn't travel ball teams adjust their schedules to the new format? You would give the opportunity to kids to play high school baseball and still have plenty of summer to get in your tournaments for travel ball.

 

They wouldn't do that. Way too much $$$ on the line. And the players want to go to the tournaments that the college scouts attend

 

The bigger joke about youth/high school Baseball in Wisconsin is that in a lot of school districts, if you play football, you really only have the month of June for Baseball. HS football starts up 3x a week practices in July!

 

The high school athlete who is serious about Baseball in Wisconsin is really disadvantaged as compared to much of the rest of the country, and has to make tough choices as a result.

 

Ya, whole other discussion, but football really needs to be reigned in. I think last year it was because of weird scheduling but games were starting the second week of August. Even without that, kids are starting practice in the middle of July. That's ridiculous.

[MrTPlush]

Where are all these summer baseball teams

 

They were mostly in the Milwaukee area.

 

Okay, so why were these schools doing summer baseball? What was even the original motivation for summer baseball? Because right now it seems everyone is dominating the conversation about things really irrelevent to summer baseball. If it was to avoid weather northern teams would figure out how to do it. If these teams are around Milwaukee I am sure travel teams are not helping matters.

[jerichoholicninja]

Where are all these summer baseball teams

 

They were mostly in the Milwaukee area.

 

Okay, so why were these schools doing summer baseball? What was even the original motivation for summer baseball? Because right now it seems everyone is dominating the conversation about things really irrelevent to summer baseball. If it was to avoid weather northern teams would figure out how to do it. If these teams are around Milwaukee I am sure travel teams are not helping matters.

 

I've wondered that too. I didn't even know summer baseball existed in Wisconsin until I played in college and a bunch of guys on the team complained about having the play in spring because they'd never done it before. I'm not sure who the last hangers on were but summer baseball was basically Milwaukee area, north of Milwauke (Sheboygan, Kohler, etc.), and western Wisconsin (Grantsburg, Ladysmith area). Maybe some Milwaukee schools played summer because there weren't enough fields for everyone to play at the same time. But that's just me guessing.

[paul253]

There were quite a few summer teams. A lot of high schools in the area. I know the West Bend schools played summer too. We played games in Kettle Morraine. Slinger. Watertown. Random Lake. Etc. I read that at its peak 110 schools played summer ball. I’m fact, when I played I didn’t know where was a spring season too.

 

But I agree. I’d like to know the reason for the two seasons to begin with. It wasn’t lack of fields because most schools either have their own or they live a community with a field at a nearby park or something. I honestly wonder if some schools didn’t want to play in our crappy spring weather.

[Samurai Bucky]

http://usatodayhss.com/2018/wiaa-announces-it-will-discontinue-summer-baseball-after-2018

 

Interesting blurb from this article:

 

Wisconsin is currently the only state offering both spring and summer seasons in baseball for varsity. Iowa is the only state operating high school baseball exclusively in the summer.

 

There you have it -- Wisconsin is getting with the times. Wisconsin and Iowa were the only states offering some type of summer program.

[pacopete4]

If we had spring baseball here in Iowa, I'm not sure my school would field a team. We would lose so many to track (and possibly golf). It would be quite sad.