[baseball1974]

Hard work and talent is enough, but only if you have coaches that have good enough reputations and contacts with college coaches to get players seen. In some cases a coach like that can save you from having to fork out thousands of dollars for travel ball. Those coaches are a "dying breed." What is happening is you have young kids fresh out of college coaching travel teams, and if the parents have a good relationship with that coach, then they'll push to have him hired as the high school. Two things result from that; #1 - that coach is getting paid to keep you happy so you'll keep giving them money. Then they get a dose of reality when that coach isn't playing your kid because your not paying him to anymore. Ha! #2 - what also happens is you get a head coach of high school program that doesn't have any foundation to work from that he would have learned from working his way up to becoming a head coach. Those type of situations is why the "turnover rate" is so unbelievably out of control.