You all summed up the low lights and highlights very nicely and you all hit on many key points on travel ball teams and high school coaches (players and parents).

For the record, I don’t think parents should coach their kids after little league. There can be exceptions for real coaches

I should have spoken for travel ball teams that I am more familiar with (I have been very fortunate with the level of coaching provided).

With the elimination of the association rules that now allows high school coaches to coach year round, that should address a great many issues that arose with “travel Daddy ball”.

Many of of the schools, no matter how good they are, have difficulty finding experienced coaches at the Freshman level (most good coaches want to coach at the Varsity and maybe JV level).

The coaches at the high school level, as you point out, deserve the final and ultimate credit (I am sure there are many high school coaches that have had to salvage poor coaching and inflated ego from the previous levels).

At the recent Sophomore Showcase, 40 boys were invited and I believe all if not most of them play travel ball (and most of them were Varsity players as well). So MTO is right that boys need to know how to play before they show up to high school if they expect to have a chance to make the Varsity team before their Jr. year, otherwise if they have talent, the good high school coaches will groom them to play and do well by the time of their Jr or Sr year.

It is very unfortunate that In public schools, there just isn’t enough time or money to teach the fundamentals to incoming freshman.

Go OC baseball!!!!

Parents make the time and financial commitments to help their player become the best he can be. In most cases the parents of the mid to high level players are spending in the neighborhood of $5,000-$15.000 per year in fees and travel expenses to play year round and enroll in camps and showcases.

HS coaches put in countless hours for a very small stipend and I view very few of them are in the category of truly caring how their players advance. The select few that do are in a class by themselves.

Players, parents and then coaches in that order.

It has nothing to do, however, with little league and especially travel ball! Baseball at the little league level is all about having fun for pete’s sake! The real thanks should go out to all the high school coaches out there who give up their time to work for 5 cents an hour (at least in the public school system) year round to help these kids (that now have egos and false self perceptions thanks to travel ball) to develop into quality young men and baseball players as well. These travel dads, and they are not coaches because I have noticed the skill level and baseball smarts of players drop significantly, who take anybodys money and are just in it for a buck, do not deserve the credit for the success of any high school program.

Travel ball is what is wrong with high school baseball today. It is all about these dads (who often have no baseball experience past junior varsity high school ball) making extra money. It doesn’t teach the fundamentals, it def. doesn’t teach sportsmanship or respect for the game, and every player now coming into high school is an all-star or DI talent. What a joke. The high school coaches that really care and develop these kids, to go along with the players that buy into their teachings and do their best, deserve ALL the credit, period. As a former player, dad, and fan, OC baseball has been the best way before this travel crap, and high school coaches now have to work even harder to bring integrity back to high school baseball, which they do. I have the utmost respect for every high school coach out there, they are all doing a great job, in the public school system at least…

Thanks to all the volunteer and professional coaches that have spent time over the last several years to help OC be one of baseball Mecca’s in the US

Keep it up!!!!

With all of the schools/divisions/players/games/playoffs and the limited staff…you were so Right ON about the Register staff doing a Bang Up Job. You were sincere, right?