If you didn’t make the team…..
Last week in IL, high school baseball tryouts took place all across the state.
Coaches had players tryout based on what they valued for their program and their current belief system. Some of those coaches were modern and used a great amount of technology to collect quality data on their prospective players, while others….. did not. Well, most did not….
And whether you are a Division One prospect that was cut, (yes that happened, coaches texting, and calling, great attitude, great student, great player, great human, was cut because of a lack of information and the coaches belief system of what is important in this game) or whether you just didn’t make it, it’s important to realize a few things.
- Coaches use a belief system based on what is important to THEM, if you don’t fit that mold it doesn’t necessarily mean you are a bad player. While it may be frustrating, it is life, which is not always fair and participation trophies are not given out at this level.
You either; A. have to be able to compete and play well using their belief system, which some players can do and some players cannot. B. Be well known enough for putting up good in season numbers that they trust you in their lineup. C. Go full forward ahead in becoming the very best baseball player you can become using data and valuable metrics to track your progress and trust that the right coaches at the right time will value that.
- Coaches DO play favorites based on their belief system (which is actually okay, we all use bias in our everyday lives to some degree), which includes a variety of different levels of importance on hard work, being a good teammate, throwing strikes, throwing hard, defensive ability, offensive ability, what’s important to them at different positions etc. Coaches are human and live life through their experiences. Just because they haven’t experienced or learned certain things doesn’t make them jerks, and they don’t need to be talked poorly about. If they use subjective information to evaluate players, they will form a subjective opinion. You’ll just have to agree to disagree if they don’t value you specifically as a PLAYER enough to keep you on the roster or give you the playing time you feel you deserve. I’m sure we are all guilty of missing the boat on this at some point in time, me 100% included, but it’s wrong and unnecessarily disrespectful.
- You can make it next year, while we consider a Division One prospect being cut a huge loss for the entire JB family of players, coaches, and parents (he’ll still probably go Division One) a huge win for our guys was a player who was cut as a Junior, tried out this year and MADE the Varsity team as a senior after putting in a lot of work in the weight room with his strength coach, and working hard when came to hang out with us. This is 100% credit to him and his tenacity and willingness to try again. We were simply a hired resource.
- Lastly, and I think this is the most important one. Baseball does not define you, you could LOVE baseball, and have played baseball all of your life but failing in baseball does not make you a failure in life. I struggled with this almost every day of my playing career and still do sometimes in my coaching career. You’re a great son, brother, nephew, grandson, and human being. You are loved and important even if nobody has told you recently and it counts the most from the people you take for granted, family is everything and you’ll realize that someday when you’re a husband and father if you don’t already. Baseball is something we play, not who we are. Of course, grieving over the shock of losing or being pushed away from something you love is normal, but don’t let it overrun your everyday life. If you truly love it, you can keep playing, there are so many options out there.
We cannot let circumstances control our destiny, everybody’s road to success is different you have to be able to adapt and overcome.
Smile, work hard, get excited and be happy for other opportunities rather than moping, complaining, blaming, and letting open doors close in the meantime.
We have to remember to be humble if we expect other coaches and humans to humble themselves and learn more about the new technology available and how to train and test baseball players. We once did not know all that we do now, and we certainly don’t know all that we will. It’s a process that is different for everybody and those who seek information will find it, and those who don’t know what they don’t know may never learn and that’s okay. Put your head down and work hard. #Faith #Family #Baseball