[Spirit100]

Have summer select baseball teams made high school teams obsolete regarding growth, development, and recruiting?

[Colonelstrong20]

I can see where you are coming from, but I feel the actual high school team is still very important. I feel they kind of go hand and hand. Both have to happen for players to be seen

[Stardust]

I can proudly say that I have coached and help put over fifty of the players that I have coached in college and my first player drafted straight from HS. The first call is ALWAYS to their High School head coach! In the player profiles that I developed, college coaches insisted that the High School head coaches contact information and stats is the first thing they review. Players who get spotted in camps and showcases are extremely rare. When you go to a showcase, you will only see 1 or 2 players who coaches oogle over. It's also the 5 tool player who has been to 20 other camps that the coaches all know. College coaches also put zero stock into a players summer statistics. The leagues and tournaments are only important if a player competes at the Elite level in summer, anything else means nothing to recruiting other than the players desire and commitment of baseball.

So, to answer your question, the answer is High School is not only important but crucial to the recruiting process. Now that baseball skills can be taught year round (except dead period) High School coaches now have more time to commit to fundamentals. Before the rule change 2 years ago, coaches got players on February 15 and then had one month to get their teams ready for the first game. That is almost impossible to get three teams (V, JV, F) properly prepared. I see in NKY the quality of the players getting much better because of this change.

As for summer ball, this is where players get the additional game time that they may not have gotten during the season. Even for non-starters, they can go to a summer team and get playing time since there are so many teams at so many levels. Because of that, kids do develop more than what they would have in HS.

They go hand in hand, but HS is IMPORTANT!

[highlands]

Strongly DISAGREE with the above statements! Colleges coaches are too busy playing their schedule to come watch a HS game. Coaches are always touring the Summer AAU circuit to locate/watch high level talent!