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Highlands Baseball
#1
Jeremy's no Spring Break rule is a mistake. He may be young, enthusiastic, committed to drastically improving the baseball team and a great teacher of fundamentals. But he is inexperienced and too focused on proving to other baseball coaches in the area that he is a very good baseball coach and being accepted into the baseball coaches community.

Which is why he reversed course in re Spring Break and now bans his players from going on Spring Break. The other coaches in the area told him he was silly for allowing it to happen and he listened to them. He is too inexperienced to realize what may work at CovCath, Beechwood etc. does not work at Highlands. They don't understand the Ft. Thomas Spring Break thing because their communities don't have that tradition. They don't realize that come Spring of their senior year, a lot of kids are close to being burnt out on sports. Blame football for it I guess, but that's not going to change. They don't realize that seniors, given one last opportunity to go on vacation with their classmates and families are going to want to do so. They don't realize the huge benefit these kids would receive from a week of down time and how it would benefit them as baseball players when they return from Spring Break.

Frankly, missing one week of baseball is not going to dramatically erode any decent baseball player's skills. It ludicrous to think otherwise. Otherwise no player who misses a week due to an injury could never return to pre-injury form. Furthermore Spring Break occurs very early in the season. Any erosion of skills due to a week off will be regained in short order and certainly before the tournament begins (regular season wins are nice, but it's the tournament that matters). Furthermore, given the weather up here in the Spring, it's unusual to get in more than a game or two anyway.

Senior leadership is critical in all high school team sports. Put Daniel Gold on this year's team and I'm convinced the team does much better. He'd have added talent and perhaps more critically, leadership. Jeremy's Spring Break rule eliminated that possibility from occurring. With Jeremy's Spring Break rule, the baseball team will always be lacking in Senior and Junior leadership. He's betting his career at Highlands that the younger players will stick with baseball over Spring Break when they become Seniors and Juniors. That's a big gamble on his part, and frankly, a completely unnecessary gamble.

Missing a week does not mean that a player is not committed to baseball, which is another stupid idea floated by those supporting Jeremy's rule. Was Brett Hamblin not committed to football when he missed almost all two a days to play summer baseball? Was Drew Simons not committed to football when he missed a week of two a days to play AAU basketball? Were other players not committed to the football team when they missed football practices to go to college camps and combines? Of course not. If a kid bust his butt training and practicing baseball but misses a week to go on Spring Break is he less committed than another kid that half-hineys his baseball skills most of the year but doesn't go on Spring Break? Again, of course not.

And folks are likewise wrong when they say that Dale would never tolerate something like Spring Break during the football season. Dale has never thrown a kid off the football team for any reason that I know of. He may discipline them; he may take away their starting position for a while. But he would never say that a player that misses a week of practice to spend time with family and classmates cannot be on the football team. Furthermore if there was a tradition of Fall Break during the football season that causes a lot of his starters to miss a week of practice and a game, Dale would either schedule a bye for that week or schedule a weaker opponent and use the game to season up some of the younger players not going on Fall Break.

Jeremy wants the baseball players to be as committed to baseball as they are to football. But Jeremy is too inexperienced to realize that the football program didn't just become super successful overnight. It took a long time to build it to where it is. He's missing the fact that you have to walk before you can run. Perhaps in time, after the baseball team has been more successful for a long period of time, he could institute the no Spring Break rule. But baseball isn't at that point yet. Not close.

He already has to "compete" with Spring football and football off season conditioning. Adding the additional disincentive of his no Spring Break rule just raises the hurdle even higher.

But is biggest problem is that he fails to realize that a lot of very good baseball players don't love baseball to the same degree that he does. He thinks that every baseball player must have the same passion for the game that he does in order for that player to be a good baseball player. He's wrong in that thinking. His enthusiasm is actually blinding him on this issue.

Thank you.:Thumbs:
#2
Hmmm, and what other school allows it? We don't and no other coach in NKY allows it either! This is rediculous! This is the same for the schools that have Fall Break. Sorry, there is NO FOOTBALL COACH IN THE COUNTRY that will allow their kids to take off for Fall Break. I coach HS baseball and it is told to the players before they tryout that they are required to participate in 100% of baseball activities during Spring Break. It is the players choice if they want to tryout from that point on. Guess how many kids have chosen Spring Break? ZERO!
#3
We are talking about Highlands we don't care what everybody else doe's we are a football school not Baseball to put a good team on the field you need the best players and that is most of the football players you don't have to love the game of baseball to be good at it a lot of good Baseball players are not playing for that stupid rule he has put in play and when he is gone and the new coach lets the players go on break you will see that at Highlands it doe's work and they will be good again but until then we will be bad a stepping stone for every other school and all the other schools love it.:ChairHit:
#4
mrb5150 Wrote:We are talking about Highlands we don't care what everybody else doe's we are a football school not Baseball to put a good team on the field you need the best players and that is most of the football players you don't have to love the game of baseball to be good at it a lot of good Baseball players are not playing for that stupid rule he has put in play and when he is gone and the new coach lets the players go on break you will see that at Highlands it doe's work and they will be good again but until then we will be bad a stepping stone for every other school and all the other schools love it.:ChairHit:

If Highlands is a football school, and they should change the rules for all the other coaches in the school, then don't even have the sport! Either do it RIGHT or Don't do it at ALL! Baseball players are not playing hunh? Well I know the kids who are playing for HHS. Tell me the GREAT baseball players who are NOT playing because of this stupid rule as you call it!
#5
I said what I had to say I will pick this matter back up 2012 it's Football time for me go Birds If you don't live in the Fort you will never understand I wish you and your team the best of luck Star.:Thumbs:
#6
^ I live close enough to the fort to understand. I've coached football in the Ft. Thomas junior league (White team), so I know not only the kids, but the mentality of the families. I get it.

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