AJ Puk
- Thread starter MVCR
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That would be it. I don't see why he wouldn't play this summer.
It would be different if he was drafted in the MLB draft and wanted to play on the Rookie League or Class A team he was assigned to. That's why the IHSAA really needs to change to an earlier season that would allow players who are drafted not to miss their important senior seasons because they overlap the minor league schedules.
i talked to alot of 3A 2A and 1A parents. they are all saying same thing. iowa baseball numbers are decreasing and schools at this levels will need to consollidate in order to fill high school teams.
kids care about AAU basketball and football camps. other have jobs. kids quit on baseball team to play AAU basketball. Must not be good enough or would put high school first instead of personal goals. Teams are better without selfish kids.
state doesn't care about kids just $$$$$$
i will be dead before iowa changes baseball. Hate to see kids succeed
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.This post was edited on 5/2 1:30 PM by yankees19
This post was edited on 5/2 1:34 PM by yankees19
kids care about AAU basketball and football camps. other have jobs. kids quit on baseball team to play AAU basketball. Must not be good enough or would put high school first instead of personal goals. Teams are better without selfish kids.
state doesn't care about kids just $$$$$$
i will be dead before iowa changes baseball. Hate to see kids succeed
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.This post was edited on 5/2 1:30 PM by yankees19
This post was edited on 5/2 1:34 PM by yankees19
Not going to happen. The IAHSAA already sponsors track, soccer, tennis and golf. Where are the 1A and 2A schools going to get the kids to also play baseball?
It might hurt 2-3 kids each year that would miss out on an opportunity to place baseball at the D-I college level....which at best they would get a partial scholarship. Is that really enough to move the whole season up to Spring?
How about all of those Iowa kids that would get drafted in the MLB draft? Yeah all 3-4 of them that don't to college over a 5 year period.
It might hurt 2-3 kids each year that would miss out on an opportunity to place baseball at the D-I college level....which at best they would get a partial scholarship. Is that really enough to move the whole season up to Spring?
How about all of those Iowa kids that would get drafted in the MLB draft? Yeah all 3-4 of them that don't to college over a 5 year period.
Yes, but how would you feel if you played for Hoover or were a big Hoover fan and you've anticipated Jeremy Hellickson's senior season for 4 or 5 years and then all of sudden he gets drafted early in the MLB draft and decides to report to his assigned minor-league team and skips his senior season. If that happens with 3 or 4 of the top Iowa high school players a year then it is 3 or 4 times a year too many.
The arguement against this is why is Iowa one of two (not sure on that one?) states that don't have baseball in the spring? Doesn't Wisconsin and Minnesota have spring baseball? Do the rules and seasons just need to be backwards in everything?
I completely understand the arguments for and against Summer baseball. One thing I want to mention however, I have a good friend who coaches ball in Illinois. His team will be lucky to get 18 games in prior to their Sub State starting. Their conference games were washed out so late that making them up was impossible. Is this something we want to deal with in Iowa?
You mentioned AAU basketball in the Summer, it all comes down to having a coach who is flexible and willing to work with you. You don't need to schedule games on the weekends, the team in my town rarely if ever does this. This allows all the weekend tournaments, and showcases you want to play in.
Off season football workouts is always something that comes up. As long as you are in communication with the football coaches, you're players typically can work that out as well.
Summer baseball limits scholarship opportunities (this is an argument I hear all the time.) This is totally false, you may have to impress a little sooner, but if you have the talent you will get noticed. I recruited for a College program for several years and can tell you that this is the case. Many times if you are a "mid west" pitcher, you'll get more looks over southern pitchers (Even if they are throwing the same speed) One of the reasons for this is "miles on your arm"
Just my two cents
You mentioned AAU basketball in the Summer, it all comes down to having a coach who is flexible and willing to work with you. You don't need to schedule games on the weekends, the team in my town rarely if ever does this. This allows all the weekend tournaments, and showcases you want to play in.
Off season football workouts is always something that comes up. As long as you are in communication with the football coaches, you're players typically can work that out as well.
Summer baseball limits scholarship opportunities (this is an argument I hear all the time.) This is totally false, you may have to impress a little sooner, but if you have the talent you will get noticed. I recruited for a College program for several years and can tell you that this is the case. Many times if you are a "mid west" pitcher, you'll get more looks over southern pitchers (Even if they are throwing the same speed) One of the reasons for this is "miles on your arm"
Just my two cents
In most cases I would agree the state is interested in $$$ only but here I think the case is a bit different. With Spring Soccer, Track, Tennis and Golf there really is no room for Baseball. As someone mentioned your number would really go down if a 2A school needed to fill Golf, Track, Soccer and Baseball all at once.
Also I have seen it mentioned numerous times that Wisconsin plays Spring Baseball which is not totally correct. Most schools do play Spring ball but a majority of large schools in the metro areas play summer baseball. Also in Wisconsin they play Boys Soccer in the fall not the spring so that alleviates some overlap.
If you are good enough to play beyond HS they will find you no matter where or when you play! Also I agree if your coaches are on the same page they will work together to schedule summer workouts around the Baseball team.
Also I have seen it mentioned numerous times that Wisconsin plays Spring Baseball which is not totally correct. Most schools do play Spring ball but a majority of large schools in the metro areas play summer baseball. Also in Wisconsin they play Boys Soccer in the fall not the spring so that alleviates some overlap.
If you are good enough to play beyond HS they will find you no matter where or when you play! Also I agree if your coaches are on the same page they will work together to schedule summer workouts around the Baseball team.
my son plays on travel team and we have 22 games in 5 weeks this spring. we are north of sioux city. we only play on weedends. they must not have try to get them in. that is same amount as our high school plays all summer.
bad example
This post was edited on 5/6 6:33 PM by yankees19
bad example
This post was edited on 5/6 6:33 PM by yankees19
You have to remember with a travel team playing weekends, that's all they are doing. With a high school team you have other conflicts you have to schedule around and can't just play on weekends. You take a church night out which a lot of schools observe and take Sundays out also. Most schools won't let you play Sundays. Then depending on how much snow or rain there is will affect the field. I know around where I am at we wouldn't of been able to play much when the field is under 6" of snow. I was watching a Creighton game on TV and the announcers said they lost 19 games to weather and this is a college team who I'm sure tries to get their games in. Look at how many games Briar Cliff lost because of weather. A college team can just about go out there everyday and play because of how many pitchers they have. High school teams don't have that many pitchers. My son coaches a perfect game team and they even lost weekends. So basically you played 4 games a weekend. Most small schools don't have that type of pitching. No way would a small 1A school in Iowa be able to roll out that many pitchers on a weekend and still play during the week.
bad example
bad example
Not really a good example. This has been a highly unusual spring, with blizzard conditions on May 1 &2 and 106 degree temps less than two weeks later. South Sioux City and other Nebraska teams in their area typically get 20 or more games in. Those same kids can play 50+ more games in a summer legion season. They're simply playing more baseball than their Iowa counterparts. Area college teams usually get 40-50 games in as well. So let's not make Iowa look like some lonely northern outpost near Yellowknife in discussing the viability of hs baseball in the spring.
This post was edited on 5/18 7:17 AM by cruhawk
This post was edited on 5/18 7:17 AM by cruhawk
Every year this subject gets argued on here. No matter how much you argue for either way it just ain't gonna happen in Iowa plain and simple. Baseball is not a priority in Boone. You want the kids to get better, let them be able to work in the off season with their coaches. What's the hardest thing to do in sports? Hit a round ball with a round bat yet these kids can't legally practice hitting in the off season with their coach. Yes, I realize their are hitting facilities out there that they can pay to go to. What about the ones who don't have these facilities near them or do we not care about them? They have passing leagues in the summer for football, basketball all year round. And don't tell me these basketball coaches aren't coaching these kids. Our school plays in a summer league and I know they are getting coached. This is where the improvement will come in. This is where the athletes are made, in the off season. Some kid could go a whole week and not see a good ball to hit but in the off season he could be working on his stroke.
One Poster wrote - "Not going to happen. The IAHSAA already sponsors track, soccer, tennis and golf. Where are the 1A and 2A schools going to get the kids to also play baseball?
It might hurt 2-3 kids each year that would miss out on an opportunity to place baseball at the D-I college level....which at best they would get a partial scholarship. Is that really enough to move the whole season up to Spring?
How about all of those Iowa kids that would get drafted in the MLB draft? Yeah all 3-4 of them that don't to college over a 5 year period."
Another wrote - "In most cases I would agree the state is interested in $$$ only but here I think the case is a bit different. With Spring Soccer, Track, Tennis and Golf there really is no room for Baseball. As someone mentioned your number would really go down if a 2A school needed to fill Golf, Track, Soccer and Baseball all at once.
Also I have seen it mentioned numerous times that Wisconsin plays Spring Baseball which is not totally correct. Most schools do play Spring ball but a majority of large schools in the metro areas play summer baseball. Also in Wisconsin they play Boys Soccer in the fall not the spring so that alleviates some overlap.
If you are good enough to play beyond HS they will find you no matter where or when you play! Also I agree if your coaches are on the same page they will work together to schedule summer workouts around the Baseball team."
I totally agree with both of these. The school in my community has every kid on the baseball on the track team because they all play football and he makes them run track. What do you tell the kids that want to run track, or play golf, or play soccer? Aren't these sports helping build all around athletes?
Why should we make everybody move to spring just for the few that want to get noticed. Not every kid has aspirations of a baseball career. The ones that do can find spring leagues to play in on weekends or if they are good enough then play in perfect game. They could end up with just as many games in the spring as they would if we moved baseball to the spring. If it is moved to the spring where are they playing during the summer? Legion ball isn't very big in Iowa plus they have tryouts. So now again you are limiting who can play. I say leave it in the summer and those that want to get noticed do like Puk, Burkamper, Sole, Lillard, Fricke, Belzer, Field, Keller, and McKinney did and go play Perfect Game. They got noticed and they play high school ball in the summer.
It might hurt 2-3 kids each year that would miss out on an opportunity to place baseball at the D-I college level....which at best they would get a partial scholarship. Is that really enough to move the whole season up to Spring?
How about all of those Iowa kids that would get drafted in the MLB draft? Yeah all 3-4 of them that don't to college over a 5 year period."
Another wrote - "In most cases I would agree the state is interested in $$$ only but here I think the case is a bit different. With Spring Soccer, Track, Tennis and Golf there really is no room for Baseball. As someone mentioned your number would really go down if a 2A school needed to fill Golf, Track, Soccer and Baseball all at once.
Also I have seen it mentioned numerous times that Wisconsin plays Spring Baseball which is not totally correct. Most schools do play Spring ball but a majority of large schools in the metro areas play summer baseball. Also in Wisconsin they play Boys Soccer in the fall not the spring so that alleviates some overlap.
If you are good enough to play beyond HS they will find you no matter where or when you play! Also I agree if your coaches are on the same page they will work together to schedule summer workouts around the Baseball team."
I totally agree with both of these. The school in my community has every kid on the baseball on the track team because they all play football and he makes them run track. What do you tell the kids that want to run track, or play golf, or play soccer? Aren't these sports helping build all around athletes?
Why should we make everybody move to spring just for the few that want to get noticed. Not every kid has aspirations of a baseball career. The ones that do can find spring leagues to play in on weekends or if they are good enough then play in perfect game. They could end up with just as many games in the spring as they would if we moved baseball to the spring. If it is moved to the spring where are they playing during the summer? Legion ball isn't very big in Iowa plus they have tryouts. So now again you are limiting who can play. I say leave it in the summer and those that want to get noticed do like Puk, Burkamper, Sole, Lillard, Fricke, Belzer, Field, Keller, and McKinney did and go play Perfect Game. They got noticed and they play high school ball in the summer.
I am not sure how this turned into a debate on the Iowa high school season but first of all let me say congrats and good luck AJ I have enjoyed watching you through the years from the CR Reds to The Iowa Bandits to perfect game. 2nd AJ has not played much with Wash because he has been playing league ball for years to develop his skills including leaving his high school team to play out of state summer leagues. Does that mean we should change the Iowa high school baseball season to spring, not necessarily. With Iowa's unpredictable spring weather the only way to have enough time to truly develop talent is to either invest money we don't have into indoor facilities (won't happen) or also develop strong summer programs. The problem with baseball in this state probably starts much younger with a broken little league system, lack of parental involvement and sadly lack of excitement about the sport. Don't get me wrong there are areas where strong tradition still drives successful high school programs thus generating participation in little league which in turn feeds the high school programs. Examples Martensdale St Marys and Decorah. Pro baseball on TV lacks the excitement and the ambiance of the stadiums and taking kids to a pro game requires a drive and a hefty financial investment these days. The lack of an exciting college program in the area and cold season games further drive a lack of interest. The sad truth is most of the kids recruited out of Iowa to play baseball have parents who have helped them find programs and coaches to help develop their child's natural skills and love of the game and yes many of these programs have try outs. Case in point the roster for the under 13 usssa team mentioned above the Iowa Bandits reads like a CR area 21012-2013 recruitment list: Austin Stroschein committed to DMACC, Mitch Stickney-Southeastern CC, Tyler Butz-Kirkwood CC, Brennan Hammer Heartland CC, Tyler Mougin ?, Jake Stenberg-Upper Iowa, Mitch Moser-Upper Iowa, Josh Crosby-Minnesota St, and AJ Puk-Florida. Maybe it just says something about the coach's ability to teach fundamentals but until we have more coaches teaching fundamentals at a much lower age, the state of baseball in this state is not likely to change! and the majority of the exciting players to come out of the state are likely also have parents who have invested heavily in their child's potential. Thus if the player elects not to finish his senior season and play minor league ball Good for Them! It is not about the fan that might miss watching them play a few more games because if they are a true fan they will keep cheering whether it is Washington High, Florida Gators or God help me the Chicago Cubs. It is about the sacrifices the player and his family have made for years to get him to that point.
