WIAA ends summer baseball

[paul253]

I’ve read a couple articles on the ending of summer ball. The main reason they seem to suggest was because of travel ball. If that’s the case it’s actually pretty disappointing. I get that a lot of players do the traveling team thing but I’d have to imagine most players don’t. Now the ones that don’t will have to decide between baseball and other sports if they indeed do play other sports. I just think High Schools should do what’s best for everyone, not the few select players who want to play on a non high school team as well.

[3and2Fastball]

It is hard to accurately estimate how big Travel Ball has become. I would say at least half of all Wisconsin High School Division 1 Varsity players play Travel Ball in the summer, and that might be a low estimate. And then there is the increasing amount of players who don't play high school ball at all and only do travel ball & training.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Paul, The times are a changing. I received an email for an invitation last week for my 3rd grade daughter to play on an AAU summer basketball team. I had no idea who the coach was, or there even was a team. The coach watched basketball games, and by her number contacted her coaches for my info. Since the invitation, I've had to research who the coach is and what this team is all about.

 

If your child isn't playing travelling teams they are not going to play much on the high school teams unless your child is an elite athlete. I used to deliver to a director of a youth soccer club about 10 years ago. The director and his brother were both professional outdoor soccer players who played in England born in Ireland. He would tell me how only in the U.S. that high school sports are held in a higher regard than club teams. In Europe the HS was for fun with friends, but the real gem was doing well at the AAU level. I believe from watching friends kids play both boys and girls AAU that this is coming true now slowly in the US.

 

I remember a couple years ago that the WIAA in Wisconsin moved the girls soccer state championships to the same weekend as the AAU championships. Many of the girls were having to make decisions on which league they wanted to play for. I don't know if that situation has been rectified.

 

In my high school years 28 years ago we only had 1 player that did both golf and baseball. I mean, ya, it sucks to have to decide. Athletes in boys football and soccer have had to pick one or the other for the most part for as long as I can remember. Its not that is doesn't happen in other seasons also. Wrestling/Basketball.

 

I firmly believe the school system could get rid of most athletics. In the Political forum you are really pro budget and not putting more money into the school systems. Think of all the money that can be saved by getting rid of athletics.

[paul253]

In the Political forum you are really pro budget and not putting more money into the school systems. Think of all the money that can be saved by getting rid of athletics.

 

Yeah I’m anti wasteful spending but I don’t consider sports wasteful spending. They help kids stay active, make friends, improve self esteem, learn how to deal with failure, etc. I realize all that can be done with AAU and traveling sports as well. If we’re truly at that point where High School sports are irrelevant than absolutely get rid of them. But I don’t think they’ll ever be irrelevant. Heck now local high school sports are even being shown on tv. They’re getting their own websites and sponsorships. It seems like they are ten times more popular then when I was there.

[pacopete4]

How elitist are we to think all kids can play AAU/travel teams? Eliminating high school sports would be terrible. Absolutely terrible.

[3and2Fastball]

How elitist are we to think all kids can play AAU/travel teams? Eliminating high school sports would be terrible. Absolutely terrible.

 

I strongly agree. And I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon.

[MrTPlush]

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.

 

I see teams consistently field teams of 11-13 players. I think my junior year it was like 13 players and we weren’t that bad. This year my high school is fielding a 11 man roster. My high school was pretty darn small...so if you think your school won’t field a spring team then your school must be pretty dang small.

 

We lost a ton of players to track and a few to golf. It was kinda sad because some of those guys were really good before they switched in middle school. That being said I understand summer baseball has a lot of problems and downsides too. Where I lived we would lose players to jobs and farming in the summer.

[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.

 

I see teams consistently field teams of 11-13 players. I think my junior year it was like 13 players and we weren’t that bad. This year my high school is fielding a 11 man roster. My high school was pretty darn small...so if you think your school won’t field a spring team then your school must be pretty dang small.

 

We lost a ton of players to track and a few to golf. It was kinda sad because some of those guys were really good before they switched in middle school. That being said I understand summer baseball has a lot of problems and downsides too. Where I lived we would lose players to jobs and farming in the summer.

Your area sounds a like like mine. I probably should’ve been more clear. We wouldn’t have the three teams we do right now. We would lose quality players like you mentioned above and probably have 12-13 players maybe for a varsity team.

[BrewCrewBlueDevil]

Back the high school spring season up three weeks and play into early July giving players three weeks off before football. If a player chooses travel ball over high school, so be it. Legion baseball is a racket and big time programs only care about themselves. Small school teams that play a JV on the road and a varsity at home can have both teams travel together, cutting costs. Northern schools would be on board but that's not where the money is so nothing will be done by the WIAA.

[BrewCrewBlueDevil]

Back the high school spring season up three weeks and play into early July giving players three weeks off before football. If a player chooses travel ball over high school, so be it. Legion baseball is a racket and big time programs only care about themselves. Small school teams that play a JV on the road and a varsity at home can have both teams travel together, cutting costs. Northern schools would be on board but that's not where the money is so nothing will be done by the WIAA.

[paul253]

I don’t understand why we are letting travel ball dictate when high school ball is played. Let’s play in 35 degree weather half the season so the for-profit travel teams can get better players.

[3and2Fastball]

Back the high school spring season up three weeks and play into early July giving players three weeks off before football. If a player chooses travel ball over high school, so be it

 

Football starts up in July these days. Most of the bigger schools have required weightlifting sessions for Football in June. Every coach says they like "multi sport athletes" but what they don't say is that they like multi sport athletes as long as their sport is the #1 priority.

 

 

 

I don’t understand why we are letting travel ball dictate when high school ball is played. Let’s play in 35 degree weather half the season so the for-profit travel teams can get better players.

 

The people dictated that, with their money and decisions. Increasingly, people were choosing Travel Ball in the summer over High School ball to the point where the WIAA felt like they had to eliminate summer ball. Personally, I don't know if that was a smart decision. I think the focus was too much on the Division 1 schools

[jerichoholicninja]

I don’t understand why we are letting travel ball dictate when high school ball is played. Let’s play in 35 degree weather half the season so the for-profit travel teams can get better players.

 

When schools can't field a team in summer because most of their kids are playing travel ball, you have no choice. And remember, the WIAA didn't just unilaterally make the decision. It was decided at some point in the past that if the number of summer ball schools fell to a certain number, then summer ball would go. The individual high schools made the decision to switch.

[jerichoholicninja]

Went from a foot of snow on the ground to 70 degrees in a week. Nicest May I can remember in awhile. You just never know with spring in Wisconsin.

[Samurai Bucky]

Went from a foot of snow on the ground to 70 degrees in a week. Nicest May I can remember in awhile. You just never know with spring in Wisconsin.

In Southeastern Wisconsin, I should have invested in a canoe or a kayak. Came back from Washington DC on Friday where it was 82 and sunny to 42 and rainy? Then, one stationary front later, we get poured on last night... and probably again tonight? April showers may bring May flowers, but May showers bring June mosquitoes!!!!

 

I guess this should be in the "What's bugging you" thread.

[NeedMoreFans]

From a teacher's perspective, I really don't like spring sports. Between boys/girls track, girls soccer, softball, baseball, golf, and boys tennis, there are a lot more sports in the spring than any other season. My students, especially in my final two classes, miss a copious amount of school to attend sporting events. The weather compounds the problem because there are a lot more weather postponements in the spring than there are in the fall, so we get weeks in May when students are missing the same class 3-4 times in a week. As with other student-athlete organizations, I really wish the WIAA could find more ways to prioritize the student part of student-athlete, and I feel moving away from summer baseball completely focuses more on the athlete part.

[jerichoholicninja]

From a teacher's perspective, I really don't like spring sports. Between boys/girls track, girls soccer, softball, baseball, golf, and boys tennis, there are a lot more sports in the spring than any other season. My students, especially in my final two classes, miss a copious amount of school to attend sporting events. The weather compounds the problem because there are a lot more weather postponements in the spring than there are in the fall, so we get weeks in May when students are missing the same class 3-4 times in a week. As with other student-athlete organizations, I really wish the WIAA could find more ways to prioritize the student part of student-athlete, and I feel moving away from summer baseball completely focuses more on the athlete part.

 

Once again, the schools forced the move, not the WIAA.

 

Ya, I guess it's not ideal to have kids missing the same class over and over again but where I coach it's once or twice a week and rarely is it any more than the last 10 minutes of the day. And I'd say that basketball is even worse. For road games, varsity players aren't getting home until 10:00 or later and that's after they probably left right after school to get to the game. Meaning those kids had basically zero time between school and bed for homework or studying. I know there are teachers at my school that would exempt basketball players from assignments or quizzes the day after a road game because they know the kids had no time to prepare for it. Not that I agree with that. And when I was working at the school I was floored by how often kids were missing class because of school sponsored events like NHS stuff, whatever club event, choir/band trip, forensics, career fair. The tiny bits of a couple classes they were missing for baseball were minuscule compared to the other stuff.