I have noticed recently that HS summer teams have really taken off. Would it benefit a player to more to play with his HS team in the Summer or go to showcase tournaments? and is it fair for a HS coach to tell his players that they have to play with the school team(I know this is against the rules, but it happens all the time.)?

I personally have always thought it was good for players to play travel ball for the experiences, meeting new teammates, going to new places, growing and learning, playing against better competition, and allowing the coach to see younger/new players play in new situations and learn what he has for next year.

I've seen a coach highly reprimanded for telling a player that he had to play on his summer team. He was lucky he wasn't fired. In Georgia, that could happen if followed through.

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I've seen a coach highly reprimanded for telling a player that he had to play on his summer team. He was lucky he wasn't fired. In Georgia, that could happen if followed through.

It could happen very easily. The GHSA is very strict about their rules regarding "voluntary" time with the team. I think it is selfish of a coach to tell a player he can't go play somewhere else during the Summers. I understand team chemistry and the sort, but if you have a player that has the ability to play at the next level, let him go showcase his skills.

Our HS coach actually wants his players to play travel for the competition.They play for him during the week on Legion and hit the road on the weekend.Travelball has been great for my son.

I believe this is the way that it should be set up. I have noticed that the most successful programs tend to follow this strategy. School Summer ball is good for the guys that are playing HS baseball just as another extra-curricular activity, but if a player is serious about advancing, they need to get out and play against better competition.

I think there are a lot of HS coaches who "strongly encourage" their players to play for them in the summer. Usually the 2 or 3 studs will play for a travel team and the rest play for the HS thinking it will get them a leg up come next spring.

Problem is, HS teams are usually not all that good. Even if they go to the same tournaments that the travel teams go to they will get beat pretty bad. This summer our 15 yr. old team went to some HS Varsity tournamets and faced some HS Varsity teams in a couple of showcase tournaments. We beat almost all of them. Some handily. The other problem is, most of the HS summer teams only go one month during the summer. Most travel teams will start right after the HS regular season and go thu July - 3 months. It is hard to get on a good travel team if you are out for the HS summer team for a month in the middle of the summer season. So you wind up losing two months worth of exposure and play time.

We have a new HS coach this year and he is trying to get as many, if not all the kids to play on the summer team this coming summer. I don't think a whole lot are going to do it. Problem is, there are a number of kids who don't play travel who would play this, so at least they are getting some work. If there is no team for the HS, some of these guys would not do anything till the next HS season.

At my step-son's school there are 6 returning varsity players and only 1 of them played summer ball with the school. The rest played for ECB, 6-4-3 or one of the other good summer ball teams in the area. The quality of competition is so much better with those programs compared to those who play with the HS summer program (I believe this year was the first time varsity coaches could coach with the HS summer ball program here in Georgia).

If the economy doesn't improve, I wonder if there will more of the quality players playing hs summer ball because of expense.

There have been no restrictions on varsity coaches coaching the HS summer team in a very long time. They are not allowed to coach in the fall.

Yes, the competition of HS summer ball is much weaker because, as you stated, the best players play for showcase teams.

I have noticed a trend to this thread. All of the posts, excluding one, are from Georgia residents. Is high school summer ball not as prevalent in other areas of the country?

I would think it depends a lot on the school and the area.
My son pitched against a very strong team from New Orleans back in 2004. It was a all male Catholic school called Jesuit HS. They won the LA state championship that year. They also traveled as a travel team called Refit Oil. 3 of their players played for LSU.

Our events see mostly travel ball programs participating in them but we began seeing a trend over the past 2 years with many "high school" summer teams attending as well. I think the high school summer teams are beginning to operate in the same fashion as travel ball teams when it comes to attending tournaments and showcase events over the course of the summer. Most high school summer teams will lose the #1/#2 pitchers of course but they are beginning to attend many of the same events. What we DO see, which is obvious when looking at the point above, is that the travel teams are winning virtually all of the tournaments/showcase events we host because they simply have the best, and most, pitching available. Sure, many of the select travel teams have the best players but the most noticeable aspect has to come down to the number and quality of arms on a travel team vs what is left on the high school summer ball teams.

HS summer ball is big around here, and many of the coaches do pressure players to play for the HS team. I think it's as much for fundraising as anything else.

We went through a coaching change this year, and if they had hired a new coach, then we might have participated in Fall Ball just to get to know the coach better. But they hired the long time assistant coach. He knows 2B, so we just said we'd see him in January. It's a small school, and the HS team is not that strong, especially in the fall when many of the better athletes are playing football. It's a great time for young players to get onto the field, but 2B's time is better spent with his travel team and at the gym.