Most of the time teams that really struggle in class A still struggle in 8 man. 8 man is full of 130 lb 9th graders and soon to be 8th graders though, so teams have a better chance in 8 man. Maybe go 2-6 instead of 0-8.
High School Sports Thread
- Thread starter qwerty
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Most of the time teams that really struggle in class A still struggle in 8 man. 8 man is full of 130 lb 9th graders and soon to be 8th graders though, so teams have a better chance in 8 man. Maybe go 2-6 instead of 0-8.
That’s not really an experience I’ve seen from teams that drop down from 8 to A. School my kids go to is a higher end A even though its borderline eight man size so I’ve seen it happen quite a bit with the drop-down that they are quite a bit more successful
Someone tell me if this is normal to be able to play freshman basketball because it wasn’t 20 years ago at Valley.
Starting next week my son has to do weight lifting M-Th every morning through the end of July, camp M-Th every afternoon through the end of July and tournaments every weekend in June as a requirement to play next year.
The hours basically eliminate any chance of having a job over the summer or watching our other kids for short periods of time.
Starting next week my son has to do weight lifting M-Th every morning through the end of July, camp M-Th every afternoon through the end of July and tournaments every weekend in June as a requirement to play next year.
The hours basically eliminate any chance of having a job over the summer or watching our other kids for short periods of time.
I’d say as a requirement to be on the team, no that’s not normal. All the big schools and sports have pretty significant offseason demands, but FB and basketball summer requirements usually would at least be isolated to either morning or afternoon, not both. I suppose technically they can’t require it, but they also cut Im sure, so essentially they can require it.
welcome to the world of large schools HS sports. My son was never able to have a real job because of baseball, but he’s got some folks in the neighborhood that he mows for, scoops snow and does odd jobs for. With his limited availability Fareway and others wouldn’t hire him. Also has done some weekend umpiring for kids tournaments.
They probably can't make it "required" but I am sure it is "wink wink required" to have any real chance to playing. I would also consider that if they are not playing AAU/club during that period from a developmental standpoint they are behind anyway so the chance of being a starter is already low.
I hate to say it, but for programs to be successful, you really have to have the kids involved year round. The days of getting away from it are over. It's one of the major reasons fewer are going out, or specializing in one sport, because to be a good team, you have to get that type of commitment from the players and coaches. That type of commitment is what separates the really good teams from the average and poor teams.
My kids go to Ankeny, there is nothing like that. Lifting in the morning 3 days a week camp 2 days opposite that.
That said, we are still doing club and you’d probably get enough with that and you could probably forego club so in my mind I’d prefer that.
That said, we are still doing club and you’d probably get enough with that and you could probably forego club so in my mind I’d prefer that.
Also Ankeny so we must be opposite ends of town. I did have the amount of days wrong though. Weight lifting is 7:30-8:30 M/T/Th and camp is 3:30-5 T/W/Th with tournaments on the weekends which are Fri/Sat, Fri, Fri/Sat and a Sunday. He doesn't do club but if he did, it's the expectation that school takes priority over club.
I guess I need to get with the times. It's never been a serious endeavor for him but more to experience teams and run. I figured he'd at least get a year or two of high school before getting completely weeded out.
We got a new FB coach while I was in HS, and with him came new "requirements". Summer weightlifting, weightlifting in PE all year, and we had to go out for Track if we weren't in another spring sport.
It might be worth getting an idea of how far they cut down to for the freshman team typically each year. Then he can get an idea of how close he is to making a team or getting cut. Most of these schools probably cut, and they might keep the Fr. squad to 12-15 guys. It seems to me that the weeding out that happens later is kids deciding they don't want to go out because they aren't going to play. If he makes the Fr cut and works reasonably hard, I don't think he'd get cut later.
I will say from the standpoint of boys wanting to be a member of a team but not take it too seriously, basketball is probably the absolute worst sport for that. At the big schools kids that are playing club ball and AAU aren't cracking the rotation on plenty of teams. It's also one of the few sports that cuts, or at least that cuts to such an extent.
Remember it has to be approved by the new state conference committee, if the LHC can't find suitable replacements, they could argue to the committee that CIML doesn't need new teams as much as LHC needs to retain members, move could be blocked.
No cutting freshman year in Ankeny. You might be on C team with 40 guys practicing in the morning but you’ll be on the team. Sophomore year it’s tough.
Basketball and baseball I think are the two toughest.
I'm pretty surprised they don't cut as FR. But I guess I've seen most of the sports they simply have kids that never get on the floor at any level, so they just quit. I remember a coach talking about how they did not want to, or the AD did not want them to be a program that cut. So even in blowouts in JV2/Fr there were a bunch of kids that never got a minute of game action, because the coach wanted them to quit since he thought the huge numbers of kids that weren't very good were making practices ineffective.
I suppose Valley and some of the huge schools actually cut in baseball, but that seems more like the weed out by not playing. But some coaches prefer to keep the rosters smaller and not have kids they don't think are going to ever play taking practice reps. So it can become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I'm an assistant coach at a small school (FB and boys BB) and our school has VB practice MWF with league games on Sunday, boys basketball goes MF with a league on W nights and two other tournaments. Girls bball goes T/Th with league on Sunday (they travel about 70 miles immediately after VB league to play bball), FB goes W. All sports lift MW and have Speed and Agility on T/TH. This is all "optional" but like your situation, the expectation is that they are there. Our girls have a pretty good VB program so they get a lot of participation bc there is competition for playing time, our boys bball usually gets the varsity kids for similar reasons, FB doesn't bc we are desperate for kids and have to take a lot of kids that aren't that serious about it. It's kind of the norm now, we're a 1A/8 man school and have above average programs, not some juggernaut, there are teams doing a lot more than we do. We will only do this through the 4th of July, then they get a break before camp and practice start.
I would not say the coach wanted them to quit, but he is also in charge of teaching these kids the game of basketball and improving their skill set. It's difficult to do that if you have 30 to 40 kids on a team. Would it be better to have try outs and then cut the team down to 20, most likely, but then you catch hell for cutting a kid and the parent showing up telling you that you do not know at that age who can play and who can't. Hint, ya, you really can most of the time. For every Jordan that is cut and works his tail off to get better there are a hundred that never do.
So you weed them out by not playing them, figuring that sooner or later they will take the hint and stop going out. Maybe talk to them about becoming a manager if the get still wants to be involved.
The reality of it, especially at the CIML level is that if you are teaching skills at the 9th grade level, those players likely have no shot at playing. Not 100%, but you really need to know what you are doing by the time you are a freshman to have a legit chance at playing time. There are exceptions, but not many. Problem is that coaches promote multi sport athletes, but that schedule certainly doesn't say "go out for baseball" at all.
