Posted on the IHSA website was something very disheartening. Here is a breakdown of what it says about summer baseball...

Some schools have discontinued their spring schedules to concentrate on playing in the summer. This, the IHSA believes, is a "desriable" trend and "encourages" this practice where there are fields and coaches available.

As far as players playing on another travel team if their HS plays in the summer...
Item "F"...you can play on a seperate team only with written permission by the princial.

No sunday games either. If your HS team is in a tournament and makes it to the finals, looks like you have to bow out.

Comments?

sorry...Item "F" should read "principal"

Are you sure that you are looking at the Illinois site? (IHSA)

Sounds like Iowa to me. (IHSA)

no, it is Illinois. www.IHSA.com

go to "baseball" and the "summer baseball on pdf"

TALENTSEEKR,

You freaked me out, the link should be to www.ihsa.ORG. I was confused at first with all the horse riding info. Anyway the direct link to the document is http://www.ihsa.org/forms/2002-03/ba/subasb.pdf

What TALENTSEEKR says is true....I'm glad my son is out of HS baseball now!

thanks for the help bigmw!

I read it.

I don't think any big schools have discontinued or will discontinue their spring programs.

I would suppose that some smaller Class A programs (say less than 200 student high schools) might be affected...the kids might have to be planting crops and milking cows or something in the early springtime!

BeenthereIL,

I guess what is disappointing to me is that it appears the IHSA is advocating moving the HS season knowing it will conflict with travel ball. It may never happen but they're certainly suggesting they would like it to.

if the IHSA moves or even thinks about moving the baseball season to summer...i think you might see the end of HS baseball. i think kids would pick travel over HS if it came down to it. you think about the other states and when their season is. summer is when the best HS players from around the nation play...just look at all the local travel teams that go out of state to find the better competition. we all know that up here in the "north" the kids have to find the best competiion to play and do not get to play year round. i doubt it will happen but if the IHSA moves the season, it would be the worst thing that ever happened to HS baseball in Illinois.

I believe Ihsa Baseball is run by a bunch of people who were cut by their highschool team or were just too scared to play the game, and now they have a chance to ruin it for all the people who were and are good player's!

So when would you play your Sr. Season? Between Jr. and Sr. years or during the summer after you graduate. If they do this will some players lose a season?

Let me try and set the IHSA thing straight. Here goes. The past two years the certain principals has proposed starting the spring season in mid to later April and having the spring tournament in early July. I don't think the IHSA was behind the initial suggestion. It was from some schools down south that tried to get moving on this. Most schools in this area made it well known that this was a bad idea. The issue of travel ball never arised as a reason to kill this movement. Some coaches were sick of playing baseball in 25 degree weather. However, most coaches felt like it would be next to impossible to run the same type of HS program with half a team of graduated seniors. We were all seniors at one time, do you remember what your focus was on in July the summer before college. This gets brought up and shot down year after year.

Have some faith guys! Spring baseball in this area isn't going anywhere.

this will have zero affect, any further discussion on this is useless

The Ballfan and JimD45 are correct about the origin of this plan and that the spring HS season will continue as it has been. HS coaches in our area are not interested in moving their season. There is no need to be concerned about the spring season moving back.
But, high school and junior high players and their parents should be concerned about the expansion of the High School Summer season. A growing number of HS baseball coaches are very interested in expanding their Summer program and are working toward eliminating summer travel baseball programs. You can look around and see quite a few high schools that are now scheduling week-end games and entering tournaments. There are a number of schools that forbid their players from playing for outside teams. Lockport is just the latest to do so. In no way do these coaches have the best interest of the player in mind in these efforts. Some of these coaches are jealous of the impact that summer travel baseball has had in the development and exposure that the players have gained and feel that they need to re-gain control of their players.
I think that Hit400 is incorrect that players will choose their travel teams ahead of high school ball. Most of the players will not be able to risk losing their spring season by choosing to play with a travel team in the summer. Only the absolute top level of HS player will have the clout needed to stand up to his HS coach's demands. The second tier player, that is still a viable college baseball prospect, will not enjoy the luxury of choosing to go against the will of his high school coach. Those players will suffer significantly from the expansion of the HS summer season.
If I were a parent of a high school or future high school player, I would be very concerned about the direction that HS summer baseball is headed.

Rawlings...it is true that top level players will have some clout and will choose to continue playing travel ball. most of the second tier kids do not play summer ball other than their school teams anyway. i am just saying that if the hs season occurs at the same time as travel ball...meaning summer...the top players would choose travel. second tier guys might not really have a choice but to play with their school. now, with that being said, if the best players are actually playing travel instead of hs, does that level the playing field? and how many coaches or scouts will actually come watch a high school game if it is only the second tier players? this can be debated up and down for a long time. question is, when would the IHSA implement this new plan anyway?

i do agree that there might be some jealousy with the hs coaches. perhaps they feel that the kids play with the travel teams because they, the hs coaches are not good enough. or that the players think the coaches are not good enough. in any case, i think we can all agree, even the high school coaches, that travel ball in the summer gives the kids the best possible exposure to top talent around the country. to be the best, you have to not only compete with the best, but beat the best. no doubt. maybe hs coaches are forgetting what is most important here...getting the kids prepared for the next level...if that means allowing them to play travel ball...then so be it.

Hit400, What a message you are sending to the youth of america. If you have the clout, everything will work in your favor. Why do some HS caoches have a problem with travel ball? because of people like you.. I am a HS coach who has no problem with travel ball, but I also don't blame the lockport coach for his stance. I had dinner with 5 scouts last month after a meeting and they told me personally why they like to see a prospect in a HS game. They said it lets them know the coachability of the kid. They want to see him perform in a situation where he has invested most of his time and energy. There is a passion and pride in HS baseball that I think you downplay. Like I said, I think travel ball allows the kids to be seen by some colleges, and have no problem with it. Hard work, passion, talent, dedication, and performance make a kid attractive to the scouts and coaches. quit with all the politics about which offers the kid a better chance and spend your time trying to find new and creative ways to help the kids you are affiliated with.

I believe that if this plan is implemented you are going to have a lot of unhappy ballplayers . The reason I say this is that once some of the hs coaches see that some teams are making their front line players participate in the summer league , you can be sure as heck that they will want to be competitive and make it mandatory for all . This would hurt the development of your younger players and not allow your " elite " players to be seen in tournaments and showcases .

Ballfan,
You mention that you don't blame the Lockport coach for his stance regarding summer ball. I would be intersted to know what his stance is, and would like to get an idea of how that benefits his players. I can readily see how it will help his won/loss record. I don't see how denying players opportunities that may be available helps them.
There should be room for both travel ball and high school sumer baseball to thrive and provide the maximum benefit to all players. Many travel programs enjoy great relationships with the high schools that they deal with and the High School and Travel teams support each other and provide a win-win proposition.
Hit400: When I referred to the second tier player, I was describing a high quality HS baseball player that would be all-conference level for his high school. A top level player would be an absolute stud. Not all high schools even have that stud. Most or all will have the second level guy. That second level guy is the one that will be hurt. These are travel ball players with the potential to be college players.
Top level guys (studs) will always be found and don't need help with exposure. Second level guys can be easily missed if they are not playing in the right places at the right time, in front of the right people.

For the 2003 graduates alone just in players that I know personally, there are 11 young men that are now playing college baseball that had zero opportunity from their high school.