How important is school baseball vs other leagues?

[penst8grad]

It's been a long time, but I've come back here to get some knowledge from those who are a bit further on the journey.

Here's the question/situation. Last year we decided that the academics at my son's school sucked so bad we couldn't take it anymore and enrolled him in a private school. It's not cheap and I hate like hell paying tuition on top of taxes, but the difference for my son has been nothing short of dramatic.

The new school has some sports, but doesn't have 2 of the 3 he plays (baseball, basketball, and football). They do have a participation agreement with the local public school for baseball and football but since we don't reside in that district they are trying to keep him out of football this coming fall. That's not a big deal and he can take/leave football since he likes basketball and baseball much better.

Baseball however is his favorite and best sport. If we keep him in this school and the other school manages to dodge the agreement with his new school, he would only play rec and Legion ball but no school ball. In the grand scheme would that matter as far as baseball only?

The baseball teams (actually all sports) at his home school are and have been dreadful for a long time. One thing he does like about the new school is that they are 100% behind any sport they do offer and have a winning tradition unlike his old school.

[The Coach]

In the grand scheme would that matter as far as baseball only?

I assume that by the grand scheme of things you are referring to the opportunity to play baseball beyond HS. As a general rule HS baseball is just 25 games in the Spring that you play because its the only game in town. College coaches never see HS games because they are working at their own games. So where he plays in the summer AND Fall matters because that is when college coaches get out and look for players. Play with and against the best possible. He will need to attend some showcase events. Also be aware that pro scouts are very important because they share info about prospects with college coaches. Now not playing HS in the Spring will impact his possibility of getting drafted by the pros because the Spring of his Sr year is when the scouts make their assessments of potential draft picks.

[penst8grad]

Thanks coach. Yes, I was referring to playing past HS but not even remotely thinking about Pro ball at all. Your answer was kinda my gut instinct since the school baseball team has never helped place any kids at a college to the best of my knowledge.

I'm not certain that he will be able to play college ball either, but I don't want to slam that door on him before he has an opportunity to see if he can compete at that level. One interesting thing that has come up is that after the school with the agreement informed the private school he would not be able to participate, the administrator of his current school told me they want to start a baseball program. Unfortunately I don't think they have enough kids to get 20-25 on a team to compete and starting any sport usually involves a few years of losing.

The good thing is we have one more year until this decision needs to be made.